My New Home

Epilogue

“Mama, the meat is still tough. What should we do about it because it can’t be served that way”.

“The semo has lumps too. How do we serve this to the guest?”

“The rice is half done, I told you to give the caterers the chance to do their job. How do we meet up with the time now if we prepared another round?”

The voices were going on and on downstairs directly by my window and it was getting me agitated. They can’t seem to do anything right and I pray that at the end of their rubbish cooking, I won’t have to serve my guest bread and tea because it seems those that volunteered to cook are bad at it and there were too many bosses.

Today is my babys' Aqeeqah (naming ceremony)  and that had been the cause of the commotion that’s going on downstairs.

Allah has blessed me with with triplets after three years in marriage. It’s was if he compensated me for each year that I stayed in marriage trying to conceive and praying fervently to him. I also feel special and I made sure I showed it to everyone.

They might have had several twins in the family but they never had a triplet. I’m the first woman to birth three at once both in their family and mine as well. All my siblings are present here including my parents though mum has been here since the following day after I gave birth.

She had been willing to come over and get her feel of gossip about my family but she haven’t had the chance to do that because there haven’t been any legitimate reason to stay behind and she doesn’t want to overstay her welcome. So, when I gave birth she was overjoyed that God finally answered her prayers and she’s also been given the opportunity to kill two birds with a stone.

“It’s almost time for Asr and you know the Imam will arrive immediately after. You need to change your dress and wear a different set of jewellery”. Mum admonished.

That would be the fourth cloth I would be wearing that day, courtesy of mum and kabeera. Mama had also outdone herself by supplying me with lots of clothes and jewelleries from her wares. She said she gave me thrice as much as she normally would have since I received my blessings in three forms.

Although I’m really happy but I can’t wait for the day to be over. Since I woke up, they've been pricking and prodding me, applying and reapplying make up, setting down clothes with matching jewelleries, shoes and bags. I didn’t even step out of the house but it hasn’t stopped them from setting everything up completely. I’ve never hated matching my outfit till today. It doesn’t help that the shuku hairstyle I plaited which was woven with thread, is very tight and have been giving me headache. I would pull my head forward to stop the pain of it dragging me at the back only to receive the same pain in the front because the hair dresser made sure to weave all the edges leaving no room for the hair to breath and I also had to keep my head upright because I can’t bend the head at all, if I need to look at a little thing on my right or left, I would need to turn my whole body as well because moving the head alone was too painful and I dared not loose it under the guise of my mum and sister.

I peeped through my curtain to see the progress of what they’ve been cooking only to see one of the so called well wishers making away with a bag filled with meat and others, sharing the remaining cooking items amidst each other without asking me.

The worst part was that they were not even done with the cooking and we’re yet to serve a single guest. Mum saw me watching too and when she noticed me boiling in anger, she offered to resolve it and I let her do it because it’s her forte. If anyone is going to make them drop all they are hiding, it’s my mum.

The Imam arrived after asr with other Jamaahs', they began their program and Abubakr did the Quran recitation. He’s been begging to do it for two days and despite me assuring him that no one else will do it except him, he still wouldn’t believe till he collected the microphone and recited it.