BFFs: Married To My Sister's Best friend

11. Barren

Sa'eed calls a friend of his who happens to be the crime officer of Wuse II, among others.

"Hello Bello?"

"Sa'eed ah ahn. Long time. Ya amaryar mu?"

"Amaryata bah amaryar ku bah. Anyways we have a situation behind Wuse market. You're still the crime officer right?"

"Yes. What's the situation?"

"Brutal face mutilation, murder a takaice."

"Innalillahi wa inna ilaihir rajiun! Send me the location. Who is it?"

"A driver of mine. But I don't even want to file a complaint. I just need some Muslims to come take him and perform the funeral rites. I'm going to the hospital with my wife yanzu haka."

"Ah ahn. Toh! Should we expect good news?"

"We'll talk later, we're getting late." Sa'eed ends the call. He doesn't want to talk about it.

Halima goes back to the car and the drive to the hospital. They reach Fereprod Hospital and enter, just in time for the appointment.

Halima and Sa'eed enter the consultation room and meet an old woman with a name tag that says Dr. Maryam with gynecologist also written under the name dressed in a black abaya.

"I believe you're Halima Audu Kalshingi, my patient." The doctor states the obvious and Halima nods feeling a bile rise up to her throat. She has always hated hospitals.

"Good. Here's the result of all the tests we did." Dr Maryam says handing a white envelope with Fereprod Hospital, Gynecological ward written boldly.

Halima opens it and looks at it but doesn't understand a thing. Of course she can't. She graduated with a degree in home economics so she has no idea what's written in the paper. If it were Fatima she would've understood since she's a graduate of a medical school in Dubai.

"Sorry doctor, but can you tell us what's written in the paper? We won't be able to understand a thing." Sa'eed says understanding his wife's confusion.

"It says there is a drug which must've been overdosed by her mother. It's prominent in her bloodstream and has become a part of her. This drug is meant to be taken by menstruating females when the period is drawing to an end. It is used to wash out any remnant of blood.

"So now, it has destroyed eighty percent of her ovaries which is why it messes with her period. Also, I'm sorry to say but she might be barren. There is a ten percent chance of her giving birth. We can't really say because her body is quite complicated. She must've been a premature baby." Among all what the doctor rambled only one thing sticks to Halima's head, "she might be barren". It is repeating itself over and over again in her head.

She suddenly stands up and leaves the room. She goes straight to where Sa'eed's car is parked and enters the passenger seat. She plops down and keeps quiet.

Back in the consultation room, Sa'eed is scared for Halima. He knows how much she adores children.

Sa'eed closes the car door and uses the remote on the key to lock it making it beep. Today is the first day he's officially going to see Halima as his betrothed. He feels so giddy and ecstatic.

He salam-s as he enters the parlor downstairs, Hajjo, Halima's mother, whom they call Mummy, answers his Salaam and ushers him in directing him to Halima's room. Whenever he came, he'd find them in the parlor upstairs but today they're in Halima's room spending some time together. By they, she means Halima and her best friend, Fatima.

He tiptoes and hears laughter resonating from the room he was directed to. As he peeps through the slightly ajar door, he sees Halima sitting on a chair in front of her dressing mirror while Fatima stands behind her with a hair stretcher at hand. They're both wearing matching chocolate and red maxi dresses. Fatima's hair is stretched behind her reaching her upper back.

Fatima brings the strecher close to Halima's hair and Halima shrieks.

"Wallahi if you use that thing on my head I'll injure you. Ke! Bakisan halina bah koh?" Halima says pointing at Fatima through the mirror feigning anger.

"Ah ahn! You said to dry your hair. Your dryer is malfunctioning. Bah sai muyi improvising bah?"

"Fatima. Leave my wife for me." Sa'eed says surprising both girls. They were too busy bantering to notice him leaning on the oak door.

Halima scurries and picks a ribbon to tie her hair then picks a red scarf to cover her hair.

Once she's done she turns to follow Sa'eed to the upstairs parlor.

"Don't forget to show him those baby pictures and tell him the names you want to call your kids." When did they talk about that? Fatima won't stop at anything to embarass Halima.

As they enter the parlor Sa'eed takes the three seater while Halima takes the one seater across from him.

"How are you?" Sa'eed breaks the akward silence that was starting to envelope the parlor.

"I'm fine. Alhamdulillah." Halima replies shyly.

"Why are you shy?"

"I'm not shy."

"Okay, since you aren't call me habeeby."

"Lahaula Ya Sa'eed!"

"Not Ya Sa'eed. Habeeby."

"Okay Habeeby."

"yawwa. Good girl. Now show me those baby pics."

"Oh my God let me bring my phone. They're so cute." she ambles to her room and unplugs her iPhone 6 then sashays back to the parlor.

She shows him different baby pictures ranging from dark skinned, to light skinned, chubby to lean, boys to girls and many more all carrying toothless grins.

He looks at her with so much adoration. He surely loves her more than life itself. An idea makes its way to his head and he utters it without thinking it through.

"What if you end up being barren?" Halima looks at him with so much rage written all over her face.

"Ya Sa'eed are praying bad for me? So you're praying for me to be barren? If you're going to be one of those men that don't like kids then I'm sorry to say then I can't stand you." And she walks out of the room.

"I was just joking." Sa'eed says trailing behind her.

"Well, you can take your joke elsewhere."

"Halima listen..." Halima turns abruptly.

"Sa'eed Abba Sulayman please leave me alone. Have a nice day." And she slams the door in his face. It isn't until after two weeks that she finally forgives him.

Now that it has come to play he hopes she wouldn't blame him.