Bound ✅

On Becoming Halima Aliyu

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"Anty."

Halima put down her phone and raised her head to look at the door. She knew instinctively that it was Safeenah. From the slouch to the feet playing.

"Come in." She walked into the room with a bag of combs in her hands, she had her arms wrapped around it like a baby. When she reached the bed, she went down on her knees and began to bawl. Halima chuckled.

"You better stop those tears." Halima ordered and when she raised her head, she watched Safeenah blink at her and then stop crying as if she wasn't the one crying her heart out just seconds ago.

"I'm sorry." She apologized and pushed her lips out in a pout. Halima chuckled again. Safeenah sure knew what buttons to press.

"Its fine. Get up." Safeenah got up and took off her hijab, leaving Halima astonished at the amount of hair on her head.

"How did you care for this hair?" Safeenah pushed the  locks of her hair back non-chalantly.

"Draw that ottoman closer." Safeenah complied and pulled the ottoman with her foot. Then she plopped down on it while Halima sat on the bed with her foot on the ground around the ottoman.

"Anty, did you hear that woman whom they beat came to Mama. She shouted at her and put her finger in Mama's face." Halima eyes widened and the hand that combed Safeenah's hair stopped.

"When?" Safeenah thought carefully before replying in Hausa. "This morning. When you went to your shop." Halima's mouth dropped open as she wondered how Salisu's mother found out it was her mother. Even she had known it was her mother who sent someone to slap Salisu's mother but whom she sent, she didn't know.

"What else did she say?" She asked Safeenah when she resumed the combing. "I didn't hear what else she said because Mama sent me to bring cold water from the fridge. She poured it on her." Halima snorted in hopes of keeping her laughter in, but snorting was not enough because she soon burst into a full blown laughter because she imagine clearly how Salisu's mother's face would be like. Unspeakable.

When her laughter died down, she raised her head to see Safeenah smiling at her. She raised herself up slowly till she got up.

"Sorry." She apologized and snorted again to keep her laughter in, she just knew that she had not laughed like that in a long while, not since Lubna bathed herself in a bag of flour when they stayed in London.

"Get up." She commanded. Safeenah got up and padded after her, collecting the folded hair towel that Halima handed to her, and carrying the shampoo and conditioner, Halima turned in the direction of the bathroom.

"Do you like the man you're marrying?" Halima stopped in the motions of wetting Safeenah's hair and raised her head up, not caring whether her clothes would get wet or not.

"Why do you ask?" Safeenah sighed and looked everywhere except Halima. Seeing that, Halima held her chin and forced her to look at her.

"Well, I heard mama saying on the phone that she hoped you both fell in love after marriage and loved each other forever because she knew you didn't love Salisu at all. Who is Salisu?" Halima left Safeenah's chin with those words and asked her to bend down instead. She would talk to her mother about her worries.

******

  When Friday the first of June came, Halima sensed it was going to be a worse for wear day. In spite of that, she dressed in white camisole, blue jeans and wore a dark blue Abaya with silver hand-knit sleeves over it. She wore a pair of heeled sandals and wrapped a white hijab around her head.

When she looked at the mirror, she told herself she didn't care if the colors didn't match, all that she wanted was to pray Jummah prayers and come back home to sleep after seeing the planner.

When she screamed goodbye at her mother and Feenah, she sighed at the tiredness that overcame her whole body afterwards. All she wanted to do was sleep, she had been on the phone with Jamal who was in the United Arab Emirates and would return that morning, they had talked while he waited for his plane to be refueled and readied for flying. That took over two hours thirty minutes. Now, her body was telling on her.

When she swung the gate closed and looked outside, the harsh sun nearly went through her eyes so she quickly shaded it with her hands. She saw a cab dropping off a neighbor so she stopped it and walked to it, she had dreaded the walk down the street especially knowing the fight between her mother and Salisu's mother the previous day.

After arguing prices with the driver, she finally got in and sat down, she picked out a handkerchief from her bag and shaded her eyes with it. But as she did so, her anxiety levels spiked, so she calmly took out her phone and turned on the sound recorder. She knew from experience what a single recording could do.

The drive became completely uneventful until they reched Wuse 2 and the driver offered to divert to another street to escape street traffic. Halima nodded and sat down back, but as she did, she looked at the driver again. He was a buff, nearly six feet tall man who looked too good to be driving a small taxi as that.

Halima sat back down again and thought it over and over. It was there, deep in thought, that she felt the car roll to a stop and park.

"Madam. The car just stopped. I'll add some fuel and we'll move soon." Halima wanted to nod, but she saw that she was in a street directly behind her shop so she opened the door to get out of the rickety vehicle, but the driver jumped to her side and pulled out a gun from the waistband of his black jeans.

"If you move, this baby" He rubbed his gun lovingly. "May misfire, so sit there quietly and wait for my oga to come."

*****

First, nobody should come for me. Did they kidnap her? no. So please chew on your food as you await za next chapter.

Also, guys, 42k! Ah! Thank you so much. I could never have planned it this well if I did. I'm so thankful that many of you just nominate me for awards, you offer to recommend my books everywhere. God bless you richly.

Also, girls and boys, how's this 'houseperson' work going? Tired already? Sigh.

See y'all when my long list of chores end.

TheOmoope 💙