When Stars Collide

Baseball Bats

"Mardiyah!"

Mardiyah smiled and straightened from the leaning position she was in, Hibba wanted to cry, she wanted to laugh, but found out she could not do any of them. She was very well surprised.

"Miss me?" Mardiyah asked and Hibba didn't even wait, she threw caution to the wind and hugged her best friend very tight. She pulled out of the hug and looked Mardiyah over, she had lost lots of weight, her cheeks sunken in, huge dark circles under her eyes, but she looked beautiful regardless. Hibba tucked her tongue in her mouth and told her so.

"Sis, I know now that I've overworked myself. I applied for an Arabic class, school is on full-time. I barely got any sleep, but Alhamdulillah, for everything." Hibba pulled her into the living room and asked her what she'd like to drink.

"That your nice Milo and milk you make that helps me sleep. I could never recreate it in London. It helps me sleep." She answered and Hibba got up, ran to the kitchen to make the drink. Just as she served Mardiyah, Hibba heard Nana knock the door, it was just about time for Hibba to prepare for work and for Nana to arrive. She opened the door for Nana and walked back in to take a shower, she was going to be late if she didn't leave the house soon.

"How's Work?" Hibba widened her eyes and slouched as she fixed the plastic pin that held the ends of her dark green hijab together. She turned to Mardiyah and asked for her opinion, seeing the thumbs up, she picked the heeled sandals she put out to wear and sat beside Mardiyah. She heard sounds of Nana bathing Ummi.

"Work is fine, at least my oga at the top is my biggest client." Mardiyah laughed at the joke. "Work has been nice, I get to work with amazing people, I'm a political analyst and I like the job title and the clear description of my job." Mardiyah nodded and pinched her friend's cheeks, with a smile she asked,

"You know why I've returned ne?" Hibba shook her head, not comprehending what was happening. Mardiyah sighed and looked round, and finally as if having difficulty talking about the subject, "I need your help with a project from school. I need video and photos evidence for school. It's about the political atmosphere right now in Nigeria, as it's election year." Hibba chuckled, she was a little dissatisfied, but when she thought of the fact that Mardiyah was still in school, her disappoinment fizzled out.

"Of course I'll help, call me when you're ready, but if I don't leave right now, I'll be late for work. Bye, Allah Hafiz." She grabbed the bag she'd packed the night before sitting on the bed and ran out of the house. Only stopping when she reached the bus stop and got on the bus, she felt so pained, like a full ache was beginning in her chest and it did not seem to go away, Mardiyah was slipping away from her and she seemed to know it, but nothing could be done.

At work, she met a pile of files on her desk, several things had gone wrong over the night, especially with the candidate in Kano, his wife had misspoke at a campaign rally and they needed to clear up the mess. The statement took about an hour to draft, to edit and then upload, eating into the time she was supposed to use to pray Zuhr.

Her phone rang just after she returned from lunch at two pm. It was Salman, so she found a good seat near the large floor length windows that made up their corridor.

"Assalamualaikum," She greeted tiredly. Salman was alarmed and asked her why she sounded so downcast.

"Nothing is wrong, answer my Salam, first." Salman sighed and replied her. "Is something wrong?" He asked firmly this time.

"I'm just worried about a lot of things, work chose today to be so tasking and stressing and I just remembered I have an order that wants freezed zobos the day after tomorrow which i need to get done this night to leave in the freezer to do it's thing." She complained. Salman sighed and and asked if Nana could help, what could he do? How could he help?

"Haha, so funny, with your job, you need lots of rest. Nana and I will wing it. All you can do is to pray for me, just remember me in your duas, that's all I need. I'll be fine." Salman began a Dua that Hibba's brother used to say to her when she complained of school work and Hibba held unto her emotions until he finished, she ended the call and began to cry.

Duas reminded her of her brother, of how God fearing he was, how he had a Dua for everything. He prayed for her at every single turn and Hibba missed him so much.

******

Salman Baanziye

"Fatima, I'm disappointed in you. What? You'd do that? Oh Allah." He got up and left his sister kneeling on the floor, crying heartbrokenly. Her boyfriend of three years left her to get married to another and she decided to go to his wedding with her friends carrying baseball bats.

"Ya Salman!" His sister called. Salman stopped at the foot of the stairs he wanted to climb but came back to his sister. The wsy she called him was how she called when she was younger and she wanted chocolate chip cookies at all costs, it meant she would let him do anything to buy it.

"Fatima, you know she'll know right? And the very thing you feared is going to happen?" She began to nod, realization dawning on her, tears ran down her cheeks unchecked. Breaking Salman's heart, so he put out his right hand and let her up.

"I just want you to know that I'll do everything in my power to keep you away from this mess when it comes. Just get ready to stay indoors." She nodded and he took out tissues  from the box beside him and wiped her eyes. Just as he finished, his mom came into the room, when Fatima saw Deena Mustaphir, she burst into more tears, making Salman hold his head in exasperation, he didn't understand why she was crying now.

"Mami, I can't even mourn the fact he has been lying to me for nearly two years. I can't believe it Mami." Salman watched his mother wipe Fatima's face with her dupatta, muttering sweet nothings to her as she did so, making Fatima cry more brokenly.

Salman wanted to go see Nasir and beat him to a pulp, grind him to meat and make him into sausage, but his sister had fought her own battles by breaking his wedding vehicle's windshields.

The offended boyfriend had then called the police on his little sister who was then detained for a few hours before he got there to pick her up. She was photographed being arrested and videos of her breaking the vehicles had made it to the internet. Everything to him, was such a mess.

"Fatima, go take a bath, come and eat, then we'll go beg your mom together,she's been crying too." Fatima began to gasp for breath when she heard of her mother and Salman watched his say a Dua over Fatima, forcing her to calm.

"She's not going to kill you, okay?" Fatima's nod had Salman shutting his eyes, this life was too hard on women. He added to the list of things he'd never do when married, jilt someone to marry another. It just didn't seem right to the ear.

Right now, the pressing problem was not their own parents, his step mother would be mad no doubt, but she would understand Fatima. The one who would wield her powers was their paternal grandmother, she had been complaining for far too long that Fatima was coddled, this event would just be a mouse dancing to the cat's tune. Plainly disastrous.

*******

Hello people 👋🏽,
Things are  taking shape slowly are they not?

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