Fallible

thirteen

The last time Mubeen had witnessed so much crowd in their mansion was some five years ago when Suhail was getting married. Oh! The number of people flocking in and out of the compound was overwhelming. He wondered how many people will attend the Nikah when these people at his house alone are enough to fill up an average hall size. His mother’s relatives from the North and his father’s from Epe have been arriving a week ago and will not stop arriving till the wedding day. Unlike Suhail who resembles Alhaji Ismail, Mubeen takes after his mum and his mum’s relatives joked about how this wedding was more of their call than baba’s relatives since he was their son in all appearance.

Although Alhaji ismail would have loved that the meals since the arrival of guests be contracted to food vendors, to save family members most especially his wife the stress of cooking, washing and cleaning, but the women in the family insisted on cooking themselves which they believe will be more tasty and cost effective. The right wing of the compound was used for cooking and the tap area for washing of coolers and dishes. The unity among both families was a thing worth emulating. For every mealtime, two kinds of food were prepared, Yoruba dishes and Hausa dishes, and each tasted from both except in cases where it had too much of seasonings for the Yorubas or too much of pepper for the Hausas.

It was two days to the Nikah, Thursday precisely, Mubeen, Ahmad and Farhan had gone to Salmah’s house to get her bags. The agreement between the two was that Salmah would stay together with Mubeen at his father’s residence till Mubeen goes back to the UK. So they had to come pick her bags before the wedding.

The day went by very fast or rather appeared to end faster than other days, well, in the minds of those awaiting their memorable day. Zahrah, Maymah and Salmah all slept in Salmah’s room while Sakeenah and her friends slept in her room. Sakeenah had taken the social life traits fron their mom, unlike Salmah.

The following morning after Subh, Salmah’s mum had called Salmah into her room and gave her the marriage lecture. She advised sabr upon sabr, and submissiveness and respect of not only the husband but the family too. It took well over an hour for the talk to end which apparently ended in tears as the emotions were high. Her mom had showered her with streams of prayers, typical Yoruba woman. She went back to her room to meet her friends asleep already. She couldn’t blame them, they slept in late last night gisting and teasing about the wedding night.

Mummy Lateef, Mummy Saalim’s younger sister brought a tray of food for the three later in the morning. After eating, they had their bath one after the other and got dressed. Salmah wore an olive green pencil trouser and a tank top. She drapped her jilbaab over it and observed salatud-duha, afterwards, recited suratul kahf. She was used to reciting it after Asr, but by the time other friends from school came over, she may not be opportuned to read it then.

She took off the jilbaab and sat on the bed, unlocking her phone. She and Mubeen had decided not to talk excessively, since the date was fixed four months ago; this was to avoid any inappropriate talks or thoughts before it becomes halal.Any other urgent message was passed through Saalim or Maymah, and some other times, on the group chat of six of them on WhatsApp. She wrote her final paper for four hundred level first semester, a week ago, he had, then on, been sending her one message per day. She didn’t get to read yesterday’s message cause of the henna on her hands. She opened the message and it read:

“If I had told the sea what I felt for you, it would have left its shores, its shells, its fishes and followed me. Two days Dunni, two days to go”

She blushed, biting her lower lip. She hasn’t replied any of the messages. She’ll just read, smile and blush, that has been the routine. She looked forward to today’s message. Sakeenah knocked and entered the room with the Nikah gown. It had just been delivered by the fashion designer, it was solely Mubeen’s choice. Salmah and others looked up at the gown and their mouth went slack when Sakeenah unzipped it. Salmah had always wanted something simple and had emphasized it to Mubeen. It was a sea blue umbrella shaped gown, with stone details and embroidery at the neck, hands and tail, it came with a big veil of same colour. The embroideries alone screamed expensive let alone the pins and shoulder drape to be tied across the chest. Though she wasn’t a fan of stones and embroidery on clothes to be worn outside the house, this was Mubeen’s choice and she loved it. She knew he must have spent above normal to get the dress.