When Stars Collide

Meeting The Baanziye(s)

Early the next morning, with eyes as swollen as little eggs, Hibba carefully sat in the front seat of the small truck that her uncle has asked to take her to Abuja.

She put Ummi's diaper bag and her own small handbag beside her, before taking Ummi herself from her aunt as carefully as she could so as not to wake the infant. Her aunt slowly shut the door and the driver cranked on the engine.

Just as she said a traveling Dua that her elder brother taught her when they first left their town to sell millet in Katsina, she began to cry again. She quietly sobbed with her face to the window and the sleeve of her khimaar over face, she had began to miss her brother over and over. 

When she finally got control of herself, she watched the sun rise slowly as they drove into Kano from the Katsina expressway. The Kano metropolis was awake at seven am, everywhere buzzed with several tricycles in a blur of yellow.

"This is why I don't like Kano. These kekes are very unruly." Hibba turned to the driver who was speaking for the first time since he muttered prayers as they drove out of her uncle's compound.

"It's their only source of living. If not several hundred people would be unemployed and out on the streets." The man, her uncle,  her grandmother's last child, called Abba, looked at her with a new look in his eyes.

He could categorically say he didn't really know Hibba, she was one of those people who returned from school during the holidays and stayed indoors till the next time to return back to school. He knew her brother well because he helped transport food to town, so he didn't know she could talk like this, and although she was his niece, she never prompted conversation or put herself in the spotlight.

"Your point is valid, but they're very unruly. They should have some sort of order in their driving." Hibba looked out again at the static traffic and nodded her head. The yellow tricycles wove right in and out of every lane trying to get their passengers to their destination quickly.

Soon, they were out of the traffic and out of the inner Kano metropolis, into a huge highway that would link them to Abuja from several other cities, right at that time, the sleeping Ummi woke up, looked around her and promptly began crying. Hibba laughed at the face Ummi made, all scrunched up and cute fair face, long lashes and a head full of dark hair that was testament to their Fulani heritage.

As Hibba found and filled Ummi's feeding bottle, she cooed at the baby and patted her back to make her feel better. Her cries were so loud that Abba asked if he should stop the truck so Ummi would stop crying. She asked him to keep driving and right when she placed the silicone nipple in Ummi's rosebud lipped mouth she stopped crying, Hibba chuckled at how she'd become attuned to the baby's emotions.

*****

Blares of loud horns woke Hibba from the deep sleep she was in since Ummi fell back asleep herself after getting a diaper change. They'd stopped at a mosque just after lokoja and while Uncle Abba prayed, Hibba changed Ummi's diaper and ate some of the food her aunt packed for her.

She looked around and found a sign that put things in perspective for her, they were now in Gwagwalada. She sighed and fished out the phone she had not touched in days, looked for Mardiyah's phone number and dialed it.

On the second ring, Mardiyah picked up and greeted Hibba with laughter. Hibba squeezed the phone and sighed, she had missed this girl.

"Assalamualaikum Mardi. I'm in Abuja." Mardiyah screeched and Hibba smiled. She had missed Mardiyah's smell, laughter and her smile.

"Walaikum Salam Hibba. I'm waiting for you in your apartment. Come and see the colors I've painted it in. Come come." Hibba smiled but didn't reply, ending the call and telling Abba what routes to ply to get to the apartment.