My Niqabee (COMPLETED)

Cancerous Love 2

I asked Abdul about 4, he just laughed and audibly said "i wonder if Mary Ann knows anything like waiting". He then told me about it all. That 4 was about the four of us going out on the 4th of April, to four places of our choice and it will be a four hour outing. I swore to myself it would be Mary's thinking because Abdul always found it difficult to think. I told him it was a brilliant idea and i think My Niqabee would love it. But we have just one meeting with her and i hoped 4 will be worth it. I called Maryam back and told her to tell her sister about 4 and that i am fixing our meeting on it. She said OK and went off.

The Fourth of April came but it was a weekday. We left for town around 2pm when classes were over. We arrived at Abdul's house some minutes past 3pm and freshened up. I realized When he started dressing up that i didn't pick any mufti wear from the hostel. Luckily i had a black shirt which had a small shiny cross bone depicted on the chest with "I DIED ONCE" largely printed on the front too. I didn't take it to school because myself and the other family members were stopped from using or doing anything that could spark our cultism allegation. I had the fine T-shirt but no trousers. Abdul's trousers wouldn't size me because i was taller than him and bigger as well. He brought out a Camouflage short which belonged to his brother and asked if it will do. I told him it was what i intended putting on. I had kept a plain black T-shirt with an American camouflage trouser and black boots for the outing. This one though was a Nigerian camouflage and could get me into trouble.

Abdul's car had been washed and kept in good shape before we arrived. We drove out and went to My Niqabee's frontage, They came out and for the first time... I saw her without her face veil. Maybe i will write another story entirely about how she looked. They entered the car and the ambience changed immediately. The car smelled like the heart of Arabia. I looked at them through the mirror and they caught me. I didn't feel ashamed, i kept on looking till My Niqabee told me to face my front. I told her it wasn't necessary since i someone else was driving and she said we'll i was making her uncomfortable. Abdul cut in that we were the once to complain about not being comfortable and it seemed he was going to ask me to take the wheels because he was finding it hard to concentrate. The ride was quiet afterwards till we got to our first  location. It was a new eatery and had a variety of dishes and pastries. We went into the VIP section, it was an open space with throw pillows, very cozy, lit candles, nice smell, slow music and a tray of appetizers before we placed our order. I wasn't used to such so i had to be extra careful not to do something gross. My Niqabee pulled closer and whispered into my ears that i had no shame. I was confused and thought maybe it was cos i dipped into the tray of appetizers and was eating the munchies with joy. She noticed that i didn't pick any snack again and came closer once more. She said she liked the way i was eating that she meant my dressing. The length of my trouser made it look like an underwear and i shouldn't even wear it to roam about in the house not to talk of to an outing. She also said my shirt made me look like a Badass Crank. I asked her what Crank meant and she said similar to a Badass. But you said "a Badass crank" and she said yes she knew what she said, that i looked like a Badass-Badass that was why she said Badass Crank. I apologized but she said no its okay, that she liked the look and will prefer if she gets to see me that way alone. I smiled and grabbed another munchies, gave it a hard bite and she burst into laughter. Abdul and Mary Ann who were also having their talk turned to us and must have felt we were the ones enjoying the outing. Our food came and we ate. It was already 2 hours since we went out and we had to be back home by 8pm. We still had three places to visit. We zoomed off to the next place which was a popular Killishi joint. The girls said they wont drop and Abdul was insisting he will only go in company of Maryam. I told them i will go and get us the Killishi with soft drinks. When i got back to the car, they were all laughing and i asked what was funny. Maryann told me it was My Niqabee's comment about my outfit that got them laughing. That she said i looked like an Igbo guy who was new in town and absent minded about how the locals take casual dressing as not modest. She then added that i actually didn't care at all. I said yeah she already talked to me about it but what they didn't know was that she liked it. I stepped out and turned around "dontchya lyk watyu see baybie?" Her reply shocked even her sister. "ah don just lyk wah ah see, ah love wah ah see boy". Maryann looked at her sister and asked "was that you?" she replied "yeah babe" and looked away. Her sister asked again "babe?" and this time around she didn't reply. As we left for our third location we were mostly quiet. It seemed something was going on in My Niqabee's mind and she needed time to spit it out.

We got to our third place it was the store Abdul and Mary went to. It was the biggest store in Sokoto. It was supposed to be a window shopping. We all chose one place each and this very store was My Niqabee's choice. It was really awesome for me i rarely got to visit such supermarkets back in Kaduna even though they were more of their kind and even bigger ones there. When my Dad was in town and wanted to get us goodies he took us to such places and that only happened when he comes home to meet excellent school results from us. When we were set to leave for the last place My Niqabee asked us to give her a minute and she went back in, she came out almost immediately.

The fourth and Last location was my choice, the University City Campus. It housed mostly the medical students and was sort of boring. I specifically chose there because my ambition was to become a medical doctor and i was planning on studying at the Usman Danfodiyo University. I told them how i hoped to find myself studying in that environment in the nearest future and My Niqabee broke the silence. She told her sister "I just realised there are times when you need to loosen up and be free, so long you don't cross your moral boundaries". Her sister asked her why she was that serious and she said everything just felt okay with the outing and with me around. She also learned from how i was dressed and realized it didn't really matter what people say but what you feel and think.

We left the university premises and headed back home. It was almost 8pm and surprisingly it was Maryam who was worried. My Niqabee said she was happy and whatever they will be told at home won't change a thing. As we reached their house. My Niqabee told us to wait for them to go in and come out again. Abdul then said he will go and park the car at home so i said i will just wait on them. As i was alone i though how our love have in a way infected Abdul and Maryam, how unusually the love have been growing like cancer in health; how loyal and emotionally deep we are getting like Cancer in astrology. Summarily i said to myself our love was Cancerous.

Abdul returned, we waited for a while and the girls came out. We talked and laughed, cracked jokes, mocked each other even played little games till around 9:30pm. I told my Niqabee that we were going back to the school that night and she asked us to leave immediately. We then walked up the street and got a bike to take us both to school. It took us an hour and a half to get to the school, the bike man was terribly slow and annoyingly noisy. He kept cutting into our conversation with Abdul so much that we agreed to remain mute till we get to the hostel. We dropped and paid him his money and he went off. We walked into the school and went straight to our room. We brought down our mattresses to the floor and kept them side by side with the hope of chatting about 4. It was fun and all but we were exhausted and slept off.

Three days passed and we didn't hear from our girls. We couldn't reach them through Maryann's phone and they hadn't contacted us too, we got worried and Abdul said he was going to town to find out what was happening.

           <<<to be continued >>>