Dried Ink

52

Karima smiled as Khalifa groaned. He hated traveling by road more than anything else in contrast to Karima who loved road trips.

He had no idea how she managed to convince him to travel from Lagos all the way to Katsina by road.
He looked at their entwined hands and smiled. The driver faced the task at hand while Karima kept looking out the windows with her phone in hand ready to snap any thing that caught her attention.

They were to be on the road for almost 13 hours. Khalifa has  never traveled that long by road but Karima was ecstatic.

Khalifa slept off after thirty minutes of pressing his phone and listening to Karima ramble on about a new korean series she was currently watching.

Karima tapped him a little and when he didn't wake up, she decided to try and sleep too.
Only to hear Khalifa's ringtone.

Ummitah appeared on the screen and she quickly put off the ringer. She slid her finger across the screen and put the phone on her left ear.

"Hi. This is Khalifa's wife, how may I help you?" She spoke coldly.

"Oh Hi, Mrs Jiro. I actually wanted to speak with you. I've been asking him for your phone number but he doesn't even reply my texts or answer my calls" she conveyed.

Karima wondered why she wanted to talk to her and why Khalifa hasn't blocked her phone number yet.

"Can you make this fast? I'm a little bit busy" Karima lied.

"Oh yeah. Of course. Look, I'm really sorry about what happened, what I did. I shouldn't have done that to him, to anyone. I was already pregnant when I met him and I immediately fell for him. I'm so sorry but the father of my child denied the pregnancy and my baby needs a father"

"So you decided to dump it on him? To destroy someone else's home? Do you know what you put us through? Do you know the pain both Khalifa and I faced?"

"I'm so sorry. I should not have done that"

"No you shouldn't" Karima cut her off.
At this point, Khalifa started stirring up.

"I was desperate" Ummitah said exasperatedly

"Am I supposed to understand you? Or pity you?" Karima asked.

Khalifa sat up and faced her. "Who?" He mouthed.

'Your girlfriend' she hissed .

"No. I just wanted to apologize. I'm so sorry for everything. I want to give birth to my child in peace and bring him up with love and respect for other people. That's why I called. And for what's worth, Your husband loves you so much,  he kept calling me Karima and asking me if I was sure even when he was intoxicated. I'm so sorry to you and Khalifa. Please forgive me" she narrated.

"Please just don't call my husband or act like you know him when you see him. Please just leave us alone!"

"I promise. Thank you so much. You're as amazing as Khalifa said. I'm sorry for everything."

"Have a safe birth"

"Thank you"

"Why the hell are you nice to her" Khalifa asked immediately She dropped the call.

"Because she seemed harmless"  she replied and all he could do was stare at her in awe.

Out of all her siblings, she took all of both Baba and Mama's good traits. Maybe that was why he loved her that much.

Khalifa pulled her to him and hugged her. When she inched backwards with a questioning look, he placed his lips on hers and kissed her hard.

Karima's eyes went wide and her senses failed her as she let her eyes flutter close and pulled her husband closer to her.