HE IS MY CHAUFFEUR ✅

ONE

Kano, Nigeria.
2015.

___________

She knew the rest of the deets. After the bottom line that-Mallam Iro, the chauffeur has resigned-, she didn't thear any yword afterwards. Anger was surging through every cell that made her up. She felt the urge to be loud—to wail out the maddening feeling on her heart.

It meant she would have to take the public transport to school or beg Ya Abdul to take her to school until a new chauffeur's found. She won't even dare beg Ya Ammar because she knew it would go in vain. He would rather go out with that his dark skinned girlfriend. The girl laughed too much and there was something about her that Adeelah didn't like. Perhaps her set of teeth or her jawline that's too long or whatever.

Clearly, she didn't like her.

Adeelah didn't like his girlfriend at all. The girl liked her though, she was almost her age but the way she respected her made her so annoyed. The girl sometimes used to bake and send the goodies to Adeelah. All in bid to woo her and get her approval. Even at school when they crossed paths, she showed Adeelah to her friends and called her, her sister in-law.

If only she knew Adeelah had a crossed finger on her, she would have given up. Adeelah pursed her lips at the thought.

She wanted to shout. If it were someone else, she would have shouted.

But this was Abba. For all her life, she knew he didn't tolerate nonsense. Sure, he loved his children and would do anything for them but once they try any nonsense of any sort, he would deal with them accordingly. Not even with the kids alone, he was harsh to his wives when they misbehaved except one. When she was alive.

Ayaat. She was the older wife, a Yemeni Hausa- Her mother was a full blooded Yemen lady whilst her father was a rich Hausa man.

Ayaat was the mother to three of his children, Adeelah inclusive. She left their world so cold a year after Adeelah's tenth birthday. She was a very fair woman with sharp and alluring brown eyes that melted ice to water, cooled hot to cold. Her smile had the power to tame everything and everyone around her when she was bustling in her youthful days, those years of exuberance. Till her demise, she possessed the ability to turn Abba- Alhaji Rabi'u Abubakar Danbatta.

She was quiet and patient. When Alhaji Rabi'u married his second wife Hajiya Sadiya, she raised no alarm. She welcomed Sadiya with opened arms. Adeelah could remember her mother washing Sadiya's clothes, she could remember when her mother would finish cooking and put some for Hajiya Sadiya. No one pushed her to do that. It was all on her will.

Hajiya Sadiya was calm too but she was selfish. She put herself first before anyone else. She was also a very jealous woman, despite being the second wife she wished Ayaat would leave the house for her alone. Upon Ayaat's death, she felt as if a blanket had been a shield on her and Ayaat's death yawed it away. Her co-wife's death exposed her to a different marital atmosphere and then she realised she had always been a moon- a reflector, not a light of her own. Ayaat had been the sun, the light and illuminator. She realised she was nothing and she knew nothing.

Troubles came unveiling, throwing her into pit of fights with Alhaji Rabi'u. She was fast to mend her ways but was late to Alhaji, as he had already planned to marry Hafsatu. Hafsatu was the seal to his wives as he said. There's still one slot.

That made Hafsatu felt proud, authoritative and pompous. She wasn't kind to anyone in the house except in the eyes of Alhaji but even so, he saw her dislike for his kids, Adeelah and her siblings. Thus he allowed the kids to choose whom to stay with.

Through all these, Sadiya acted wise and drew the kids close to her. Adeelah and her siblings liked her and they always stay with her. That earned her a medal of respect and honour from Alhaji.