My New Home

Chapter Thirteen

Mama held her chest while gasping for breath.

"Subhanallah! She's having a heart attack, go get my car key". Alhaji shouted and moved towards her.

Although I don't know where he kept his keys and I thought he went out with his car in the first place so I don't know where to start looking for the keys. I ran to Farias' room and entered without knocking.

"What's the problem?" She immediately stood up when she saw the panic on my face.

"Mamaishavingaheartattackandalhajisaidishouldgerhiscarkeys", I jumbled while swaying my arms wildly.

Faria moved towards me and patted my shoulder. Calm down and tell me what the problem is".

"Mama is having a heart attack and Alhaji said I should get his car keys". I repeated a bit calmly.

"Audhubillaah" (I seek refuge from Allah). She said and rushed to the room to bring out the key, she shouted Qoriahs' name and she quickly joined up probably sensing the urgency in her voice.

When we got to Mama's room, she was calm but unconscious.

"I performed a first aid on her. Alhaji answered our unspoken question. But we should get her to the hospital now because she's still in danger".

Alhaji, faria and Qoriah quickly lifted mama as if they've been doing this before. I felt useless so I quickly moved out of their way and helped them unlock the door. I turned to lock it back and follow them to the hospital but Alhaji asked me to stay behind and look after the house.

Reluctantly, I stepped back in the house and paced back and forth. When I realised that I won't calm down easily, I went to the next flat to inform them but their door was locked and after series of knocking, I gave up and went back in to resume my pacing while biting my nails; a nervous habit I developed whenever I'm nervous.

I called Kabeeras' number again but this time around it went through. I asked for her reason for calling me earlier and she told me that mum has finally gotten out of her hiding place.

"Alhamdullilah". I said automatically.

"Don't thank God yet. She said. I meant thank God all the time, she corrected, but I'm not done with my information. Sulaiman has relapsed, while mum went undercover with her pastor, Sulaiman took it as an opportunity to steal some money and when he is alone, he sneak out to buy drugs and get his fix, he had a seizure and they were forced to take him to the hospital where the doctor revived him and flushed the drugs out of his system.

Sulaiman is now in rehab, while dad is threatening to divorce mum immediately Sulaiman recovers. It's real issue that we've been battling for days now. You need to come back home sis, i can't handle this. She sobbed.

I tried to calm her down with a promise to see what I can do, I don'twant to burden her with my family's problem since she had enough on her plate. So many things is happening at once, ya Allah, if this is a test from you please I can't handle it. I mentally prayed.

I remembered I've not said my Asr prayer and went to the bathroom to perform my ablution with absolute care and stayed long in my Salah. It's very true true that you take your salah seriously when you have a problem. After my salah, I prayed for almost thirty minutes and others were still not back from work today of all days. They've not been going to work for days and decided to go today only to spend all day at work when the house is in turmoil.

The only woman that supported my idea of travelling home even though she hasn't said another word about it since then is on a sick bed and now is a bad time to start presenting my problem to the family that is dealing with theirs. I'm at a cross road.