When Stars Collide

Ummi

"Please take care with her, wash your hands before putting anything in her mouth. Also, wash whatever you're putting in her mouth. Can I count on you ladies?" The little girls nodded very solemnly and Hibba exhaled some of her fears away and nodded back satisfactorily. The two girls left the room, the older one carrying Ummi on her left hip, the younger sister was holding the Peppa pig sling bag that contained Ummi's snacks.

They'd gone to EId prayers so early, her uncle was one of those people who forced the whole house to put a pause on everything they were doing to go for Eid prayers. They returned and work had piled up to be done, Hibba decided to settle Ummi before going to help her cousins and aunts to cook.

Upon reaching the backyard, Everyone seemed to remember her loss again as they brought forth one memory or the other of her parents and brother. Yeby talked about how generous her father was, he would send foodstuffs to members of the family at every festival, he would send unsewn clothes too, making sure everyone was fine. Hibba scoffed when she saw an older cousin of hers talking very sadly about her father, this cousin of hers lived in their house rent free and had instigated the elders to take away the house Hibba had grown in. If it had not been for manners, Hibba might have told her to keep her sympathies to herself.

"Hibba, you're not growing any younger and that child needs the attention of a man. We told you to marry one of your cousins but you adamantly refused, reporting us to Baffah. I hope you know you can't stay single for long or people will ask questions. You know how our people are?" Hibba stopped using the portable mortar to loosen the beans she was asked to wash. She washed her hands as she thought of a suitable, firm answer to reply with.

"Aunty Hauwa." She started, though she secretly rolled her eyes as she spoke. Hauwa was her cousin, not her aunt but she would be deemed disrespectful had she called her cousin. "I'm not ready to be married. Marriage is a union of people, that both have something to bring to the table. I need to be at least stable so I'm not a liability to anyone, because people, just like you said will talk. I hope you understand." Hauwa pursed her lips, not replying Hibba. Hibba knew, she knew Hauwa was the people, was the one saying things about her everywhere since she refused to marry Hauwa's brother the promiscuous cattle rearer.

"So, you're going to carry that little girl around without a father? Children of nowadays are not even scared at all." Hibba didn't even grace her words with an answer, seeing as all the older women seated didn't talk. There was no need to continue bickering.

"Hauwa, that's enough." All the muttering that Hauwa had been doing in the face of Hibba's silence hushed immediately. The older woman who had spoken was Hibba's father's elder sister, her direct aunt. Hibba looked up and thankfully smiled at her aunt, the woman smiled slyly at Hibba.

"Hibba, how's the business?" Hibba smiled at her aunt, this was a question she liked to answer. "Fine. I'm taking it one day at a time, I'm enjoying myself as well." Her aunt nodded her head but continued to peel seasoning cubes from their wrappers. They were cooking Jollof rice first, any other food would come after the meat had been cooked and fried.

One of the girls who Hibba had asked to watch Ummi for her carefully walked around the outdoor  cooking utensils placed everywhere around the backyard to reach Hibba.

"Aunty Hibba. Ummi is crying. She won't stop no matter what we do." Hibba sighed, washed her hands and followed the girl. She noticed the girl wringing her hands as they walked, so she asked, "How did she start crying?" Because Ummi had been well enough to be woken early to bathe, dress, stand still for Eid pictures in her first atampa maxi gown and headband before falling asleep later.

"She didn't just want to lick the chocolate cube we gave her. She wanted the awara we were eating, Liyah refused to give her and the tears came big time." Hibba nodded but hastened her steps, she was not angry, she was a little happy, dealing with Ummi meant she didn't have to sit there to help cook or listen to inferred insults from relatives who knew very little about her.

When she reached where Ummi was, she found her in tears, snot and all running down her nose staining the blue top she was wearing. Hibba shook her head and picked her up, but frowned as she did so, Ummi's body temperature wasn't right.

She took the bag she had given the girls and walked back to the room she occupied, intending to give Ummi a bathe with Ummi leaned forward, retched and threw up all she had eaten.

*****

"I didn't know one year old babies could have ear infections. I thought, since she's grown older, no more infections, I was shocked earlier. She went from bubbly to vomiting. One of my relatives has a friend who is a paediatrician who came to the house. He put her on a saline intravenous drip." Salman's horrified gasp reached Hibba's ear and she exhaled. She was exhausted, she'd watched over her baby girl all day, mopping sweat with a washcloth and eventually finding out Ummi's temperature had dropped.

"How's she now?" Salman asked kindly, she nodded before answering. "She's better now. Finally breathing fine. She isn't putting her hand to her ear anymore, everyone berated me saying I should have noticed her ear was hurting." Salman made a sound of tutting dissent, he asked her to calm down.

"You had no idea. She can't speak yet so you really have no way to know, and she was fine until this morning wasn't she?" Hibba answered him tiredly making Salman ask if she had eaten anything.

"Nothing. But there will be food. Once this bottle of drip finishes, I'll sleep too. I'm watching her so I can tell the doctor. Away from my depressing day, how is Borno? How was today? Where are my pictures?" Hibba asked with a smile. It was Salman's turn to sigh, he even added a loud hiss.

"The day was rubbish. We went to Eid prayers quite alright, but everything went downhill from there. My mom and I are returning to Abuja tomorrow morning, we  can no longer stay here." Hibba didn't reply, only pondering what could have gone wrong at the Baanziye house, she wanted to ask, but the words to do so didn't come.

"Would you believe? My grandmother poured food all over my mom. Best believe, my mom did nothing.  I can not condone rubbish so we'll be leaving the rest of the family in Maiduguri and we'll go home." Hibba shook her head slowly, words were robbed out of her mouth. This further cemented her thoughts of Salman's family and their trouble, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with it all.

******
Hello special people 💃🏽👋
How una dey? Who missed our babies 🙈😀

I just want to tell you all that this is the proverbial calm before the storm. There's troubke coming and 🤧🤧

See y'all, God bless you all.

TheOmoope 💙💛🙃