Bound ✅

BackStory 2

"Go and get your hijab, I'm waiting." Halima quipped at Jariyah who bounded up the stairs into the room she shared with Lubna.

It was Zuhr time and Halima under the instructions of Jamal's mother was going to start teaching Jariyah how to pray. And it was evident from the six-year-old's excitement that she was ready.

"I'm back." Jariyah shouted with a smile, she'd pulled the hijab over her head and the cornrows Halima had just made for her.

"Let's go then."

They began by performing ablution, Halima watching carefully as Jariyah performed hers, she'd schooled her on the art before and now she watched as the little girl took it on.

They padded carefully into the prayer room, painted in light brown and various verses of the Quran written in Calligraphy hung in it.

"Let's begin. You mustn't do *Shri Shri shri* like I hear you do during recitations ehn. Carefully listen and follow." Jariyah nodded eagerly at Halima's words making Halima smile.

Halima started the prayers and ten minutes later, she was done with the mandatory four rakats that followed the Zuhr prayer. She looked to her left and watched as Jariyah performed her prayers with such seriousness that she really didn't exhibit in normal life. She nearly burst out laughing at Jariyah

While Halima offered personal prayers, the doorbell rang, and Jariyah who was so serious seconds ago bonded out of the room, dropping her hijab in the doorway.  Halima quickly concluded her prayers and rushed after her. At the door could be anyone.

When she reached ghe door she heard voices, Jariyah's voice rang with excitement and another voice, a throaty one was sedate although excited.

"Jary," Halima began when she reached the door. "Haven't I warned you not yo open the door to strangers?" Only then did she look at the person at the door holding Jariyah upside down.

It was a woman with the spitting image of Jamal's mother. She looked exactly like what Jamal's mother would have looked like in the eighties.

"I'm her father's younger sister. You must be Halima." Halima cocked her head but didn't reply. She quietly lifted her cellphone out if her pocket and dialed Jamal's mother.

"Ma, there's someone here who says she's your daughter?" The lady chuckled at the same time Jamal's mother did.

"That's my second child Summayah. Is she tall, willowy, dark skinned with full eyebrows?" Halima looked Summayah over before replying in affirmative.

"Please let her in. She's such a troublemaker." Halima opened the door wider and Summayah pulled her suitcase in while holding Jariyah against her other hip.

"I'm sorry I scared you. I'm Summayah Abubakar, you must be Halima." Halima nodded and shook the hand she was offering.

"Jary dear, please go and pick your hijab you abandoned in front of the prayer room and take it to your room immediately." Jariyah climbed down from her aunt's hip and rushed up the stairs in response to the message.

"Welcome. How was your travel?" That question sparked a whole lot more answers and while they left the briefcase in the centre of the living room, they sat in the kitchen and talked their hearts out. Inadvertently meeting kindred spirits.

*****

"So, you don't have any friends?" Summayah raised her hands up in apology. "I didn't mean to pry, I just haven't heard your phone ring apart from my mom or brother calling."

Halima smiled and waved at her carefully sipping her coffee, Lubna had a fever the previous night, making it hard for her to sleep early and she had to wake early to dress Jariyah for school.

"I used to have friends. Now, I have gotten so used to being alone that it just seems far-fetched that i was the same person who used to do everything to make my friends happy." Summayah nodded thoughtfully, biting into a brownie ans chewing while in thought.

"Mom says you are a hairstylist. How did that happen?" Halima itched the back of her ear before replying.

"I'd always been good at hair, infact if I do say so myself, I wss nearly perfect at it. I had a knack for styles that just makes a woman's face prominent, so I stuck to it. Besides, many companies don't take Muslim women whose husbands are sick and own only a Ordinary Diploma degree." She finished with a pang of regret.

"What did you study and where?" Halima casually mentioned her degree in Business administration and the Federal polytechnic, Bida.

"That's a good school and definitely, you'd be an asset to any company." Halima scoffed in reply to Summayah's words. 'she must be patronizing me' she thought.

"I got married a few months after my exams and my husband was really sick. He used to be on the line for a heart donor at the national hospital, Abuja." Summayah nodded and clasped her hands around Halima's left one.

"Then I just stopped thinking about school and thought more about making ends meet." Summayah nodded again.

"You're strong and wise." Halima laughed and pointed out to Halima with her chin to the doorway.

"You that is saying someone is strong, won't you marry? You're almost twenty-five. You have an amazing career, you have all you want, just get married." Summayah pulled out her hands gently from Halima's and scrunched up her lips before nodding at her mother.

"One of the reasons I came home, with plenty of regard to daddy, wad because I wanted to tell you, I've met some one. He says he wants to see Daddy, but with Daddy sick I have been putting it off. So, since you ask. I finally feel like I'm ready."

Her mother looked at her and smiled a wide smile that just pulled at Halima's heartstrings.

Once she left, Summayah leaned back on the kitchen chair, it was just the both of them in the kitchen.

"You know for most African parents, no matter how successful you are, they don't consider it success until they send you off to a man's house." Halima watched her carefully, disguising her own thoughts.

She had been bonded off to Salisu's house with no other thought than to cover the Aliyu's shame. No one wanted a daughter who brought shame to the family, even if it was mistakenly.

"Even Ya Jamal wasn't left in peace until he married Jariyah's mother. His was even worse, they even made him marry his best friend. The both of them were not ready to be married, yet they pressured them." She sipped some of her coffee and didn't reply, wanting her to talk more about Jariyah's mother. The only thing she knew was that she was half shuwa and half Lebanese, hence the hair and skin complexion.

"And for me, marriage isn't an institution we  must enter for trying sake, trying means i." Summayah printed her index finger to herself. "I don't love you enough to forgive many of the faults that you have. Now what is marriage without faults?" Halima stared pointedly at her, itched her ear and said;

"What if those faults are those that can kill you overtime?"

Summayah smiled cheekily and chuckled afyer thinking for a while. "I simply make you into a statue. You see, Halima, I have a degree in ignoring people. You simply find out over time that I cannot be toyed with. Simple."

The both burst into laughter after she finished talking so seriously.

******

Hi guys,

How are you all? Fine i hope?

This chapter is for all my sweet commenters in the last chapter y'all are the real MVPS. God bless you all.

Please leave a comment on this chapter. Please oo.

See y'all soon.

TheOmoope♥️