My New Home

Chapter Thirty

Final Chapter

"You haven't heard anything about it. Have you? Hajia asked.

Of course I haven't. I thought mentally but didn't reply her since they didn't think it was necessary to say anything to me prior to this time and my informant, Ameera is yet to divulge the information. My phone chose that moment to ring out and I excused my self to pick it up.

I went to my room and saw kabeera name flashed on the screen, I picked up immediately and apologised for missing her calls.

"I've tried to call you back earlier, but you didn't pick up. None of you did, so I planned to call back..." I paused when I heard a sound like a sob. "Are you crying kabeera? I asked sympathetically. What's the problem?"

"Sulaiman has gone back to his creator. He finally left us". She sobbed.

My ears rang out very loudly when I heard that and I wobbled on my leg hearing a faint hello from my phone, before loosing consciousness, I felt someone grab me from behind before I reached the ground.

Sometime later, I regained consciousness and the fact slammed into me immediately. Sulaiman is dead. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raajiun. The treatment probably hasn't worked for him or something else had happened to him and he's no longer a part of us till the day of resurrection, he's lost to us forever.

I was surrounded by my new family with each of them whispering different words of condolences that I couldn't and didn't care to process.

Nothing they say would bring him back. I wish they could just keep quiet since their talks won't bring about any changes.

"We need to leave now if we are going to meet anything at all. Alhaji said quietly. He will be buried after zuhr and they're waiting for us as well. If we leave now we should be able to reach there before the time. You know the corpse can no longer be buried after Asr".

The corpse; that's the new name he bears now. All the years of schooling, socialising, and living together as a person with an identity has been forgotten within the span of few hours.

His records had been closed and everything is over for him and soon he'll begin a new life, a life of solitary where he would only have his deeds as his companions.

"Fateemah, I'm really sorry about what happened but we have to leave now please". Jamal said sympathetically.

I stood up and changed into a jalabia. My grief successfully thwarted my fashion sense. I, who couldn't ever be caught without matching my attire couldn't care less about the kind of dress I put on today. I would leave in anything as long as my nudity is covered.

Soon, we left for my home town. The ride was very fast but to me, it's too slow. I felt like disappearing from my present location and reappearing immediately at my destination but it doesn't happen that way and I had to excercise the patience I was not feeling.

Four and a half hours later, the car was packed in front of my house. I remembered the last time I was here, it was to give support to my family and I left in joy but this time, I'm here to mourn with my family for the loss of a person I spoke to few days ago.

I ran in to the house to meet my parents and met them in a totally despairing situation. Everyone's eyes were red rimmed from shedding tears and immediately mum saw me, a fresh round of tears fell from her eyes.

"He's gone for ever o. Mum sobbed. He's finally done what he wanted to do. When he knew he would leave eventually, why did he come to my home in the first place? Why did he give me the joy of being my first son? He should have left me with my girls and let's live just like we've been doing". Mum continued to wail while saying different things.