Bound ✅

Parte after Parte

"How are you? Really."

Halima stopped folding Jariyah's clothes and stretched out her feet in the room that Jariyah shared with Lubna.

"I'm good. I miss being in Nigeria, laughable all things considered. I am away from a street that reminds me of the issues that reminds me of the very thing that interrupted my entire life, I'm happy. I'm overpaid for the two children I care for, I'm fine. I will be fine Ya Amal." Halima heard shuffling over the phone and eventually heard her sister sit.

"Haleey. I miss you. Allah knows best, just take the past few years as a result of your iman's test." Halima considered her sister much more stronger in her Iman than herself.

"My life for the past five years has been such a roller coaster, it has been a bumpy ride. I don't know what I did to deserve this sort of fate, this sort of thing." She wiped the tear that had crawled down her face and sniffed, blowing her nose on her night gown.

"I'm sorry I dredged it up again. I won't anymore." Halima waved her hands and kissed her teeth in non-chalance.

"It's nothing. It's nothing. I'll feel better soon. Ya Amal?" Her sister hummed in reply, Amal let tears run down her face silently. Life had indeed shown her baby sister pepper. It had rolled her up and thrown her down in pain. Life has never been easy for her.

"I need to bathe so i can pick my charges from preschool, they'll be done soon." Amal on the other end nodded and wiped her face quietly. She didn't want her sister to notice she'd been crying, Halima would come undone.

"Assalamualaikum Alaykum." Halima replied and cut the call. Then hurriedly packed Jariyah's clothes into her pink drawer and rushed out of the room into hers, taking off her clothes on the bed.

The moment she stepped under the hot shower, she burst into tears, letting all the tears she'd held in for many years come out. She howled like a wounded lion, the water masking her noise.

****

"So, what did you do today?" Halima asked Jariyah as she tightened the rope of her parka around her neck.

"I got a star for spelling well. I spelled Ambulate." Halima's face lit up and she bent down to give Jariyah a kiss on the face. Jariyah's face bore the lipgloss mark from where she'd kissed her.

"That's my girl. Let's go pick Lubby." Jariyah put her little hand into hers and happily skipped along in the cold afternoon.

They picked Lubby and lugged themselves along Davies street in Mayfair, taking the quiet pedestrian walkway. They encountered people only once a minute, Unlike the main city that was cramped and full of people.

"Hullo." Jariyah greeted someone who passed them in a suit and briefcase, making the man smile. He stopped his call for a second to smile wider making Jariyah wave harder at him.

A split second later, Halima looked up and saw a familiar face. She rubbed her eyes and for a moment she forgot about Jariyah and Lubna. She looked again and saw that it was the same person. She lost all sense of feelings and touch, her mind whirled, her eyes darted to the said person over and over until they walked into David Dews avenue, and she couldn't see them anymore.

"Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un, Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un, Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un,Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un. Ya Allah. Ya Allah." She gathered her wits about her and carried Lubna who had walked further down the pedestrian walkway.

Once they got into the house five minutes later, Halima knew she couldn't do a thing so when Mummy grabbed Lubna out of her hands, she didn't object, she made an excuse and ran into her room falling onto her bed. She fisted her wet towel, stuffing her hijab into her mouth before screaming out loud. She screamed louder, because words could not ever contain her emotions. They could never hold the brevity of the emotions she felt.

She rolled back and forth and then held unto her headboard. She couldn't even think that she'd ever have to face the incident again. It had been so long since she last had to face it.

*****

"How are you now?"

Halima smiled shyly, trying to throw Jamal's mother off the trail she'd sunk her teeth into.

"Did you have menstrual cramps?" She asked as she cut into a pack that was labeled as 'fragile'. Halima shook her head in reply and walked further into the kitchen.

"Get a plate that a pizza can fit into and come with me." Halima did as she asked and walked behind her to the living room. It was just past Magrib time and Jariyah and Lubna were asleep.

In the past week, for Jamal's mother, it had been a flurry of trips from rehabilitation center to the house and back. She had very little rest time making her look ragged.

"If you didn't bhave cramps, what then made you so distraught, I saw your face, you are fair quite alright but you looked like you'd lost all color. I was quiet scared for you until I saw you praying and left you?" Halima dropped the plate unto the Persian rug that faced the television slowly. She knew she couldn't lie and get found out, she hated disappointing people.

"I got some bad news from home." Jamal's mother tilted her head questioningly. Making Halima squirm undee her gaze.

"Really ma. I did." She sighed and finished cutting the fragile pack and out came a well wrapped Gurasa.

"Oh Ya Allah." Halima could only palm her mouth in excitement. Jamal's mother smiled slyly at her in response.

"What do you say to fruit juice and Gurasa? This is probably the best connection to Nigeria we'll bget in a while, so let's savour it while it lasts.

******

Hi guys,

How are you all doing? Fine? Thank God.

Okay first, HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR GURASA? 😂😂😂😂Some annoying People like Maymunatu_bukar Will say with palm oil amd something some thing. How do you like it, tell me.

Second, 'the incident' is nicely coming along isn't it?😋😆. I feel like how Chimamnda Ngozi Adichie felt when she never let us find kainene in Half of a yellow sun. I'm on cloud nine😋😋

See y'all when I see you, since I've become a sweet girl that updates nearly everyday🤧🤧

TheOmoope.