HEAL

Chapter Twelve

                      CHAPTER TWELVE
“Peace to the member of this house.”

   Two knocks and the polished wooden door opened. Aaisha was in her room skimming through the pages of a novel while humming to one of the wedding songs played at Sister Sarah’s wedding, that particular afro song with a catchy rhyme wouldn’t leave her brains and lips since she heard it yesterday.

   She stopped the song immediately she heard her voice; a voice that had become naturally high from years of singing in the choir.

  She hastily dropped the novel, anticipation and a strange kind of negative excitement making her heart beat faster.

   Aaisha stood up, patted her chest as if to steady her heartbeat and reassured herself; “it went good with Daddy, she is my mother, it should be good too.  No, it would be better.”

   With that positive thought, she folded her praying mat and hid the copy of the Qur’an on it under her pillow; things would be less tense if her mother didn’t see those items.

    She entered the living room and met Samuel and her mother hugging, more like Samuel hugging her while she stood there smiling at him. She stopped walking and took that moment to study her mother; wrinkles were becoming more evident on her forehead but her cheeks are still as rounded and shiny as they always were.

  Her mother raised her head obviously from sensing someone else presence in the room, her face hardened on seeing Aaisha and she said calmly while peeling Samuel away from her, “Are you still betraying your savior?”
    “’Mummy, welcome back” She forced a grin.
“Are you still betraying your savior?” She repeated.
“How was your journey ma, hope it wasn’t stressful?”

   She moved closer to her mother to collect her bag but she yanked her hand off and repeated; this time raising her voice “Are you still betraying your savior?”

    Aaisha was worried her mother would get annoyed if she keeps ignoring her question and since making her angry was what she was desperately trying to avoid; she said, “You mean Allah? I’m trying to as much as I can to seek his pleasure” Her words coming out slow and calculated.

  Her mother called Samuel after some milliseconds of regaining back the shock at her daughter saying the word “Allah” in her presence.

“Put these bags away in the dining room and don’t leave there until I call you.”

“Ok” he said disappointedly, this was obviously not the type of welcome she expected from his mother who has been away for days.

   With every step Samuel took, pressure started mounting up on Aaisha. When did being alone with her mother start to scare her?

  Her mother sat on the sofa, stretched her legs on the table and proceeded to un-tie the brown scarf on her head, slowly, carefully and with determination as if loosening the scarf was everything that matters.

   Aaisha felt almost like she was forgotten as she continued to fiddle with her scarf.

  After what felt like forever, she placed it on her knees and said, bitterness with a sprinkle of blackmail dripping with every word.

“Shakira or whatever you are calling yourself now”
“Aaisha” She whispered, a lone tear finding its way down her face unannounced.

   Her mother was still concentrated on her scarf and continued, “I told you this before but it seems you are getting deaf, as long as you associate yourself with things like Islam, Allah and Muslims, you have no place here. Don’t even call me your mother because I’m no mother to a person ungrateful to Jesus. Period”

   She tied the scarf back on her head, stood up and walked past Aaisha, while still not looking at her and said “why did Baba Samuel even allow you into our house? You should be sleeping in those mosques so that mosquitoes and cold will knock some sense back into you”

   “Why are you doing this?” Aaisha croaked, her glassed eyes filled with tears that were waiting to be spilled.

   She pulled her breast and said “You sucked on these for two years. When others parents were sleeping; I worked two jobs, raised you as a true Christian while others slacking,  sent you to medical school and now when I should sit comfortably and finally enjoy God’s Favor, you are being ungrateful to me and your Lord.
Look at me.” This was the first time she had eye contact with Aaisha since she came in, “You are stubborn and disobedient, I refuse to let those qualities be a part of me”  She clapped and walked passed her which was her way of ending conservations or in this case; retribution.

“Why must everything be about you? When will you allow me to have a say about my lifestyle ehn?”  The tears and she has been trying withhold were now coming freely. “God’s favor must dress this way, God’s favor must speak like this, God’s favor must sit in the front row to be a Doctor.  I’m done with living to your standards. I’m God’s Favor and I won’t be the one to make your unfulfilled dreams come true because I’m Aaisha as well and I have my own dreams.” She said in one breath.

   Until now, Aaisha had never talked back to her mother to her face, the only resistance she gave to her mother when she forces something she doesn’t agree with on her was to muttering in her absence or cry to herself depending on how much she detested that thing. Even though she was still shaking from her outburst today and tears were still running down her face, she felt at ease in an unexplainable way. 

   “I said it and I will repeat it, you have no place with me then” Her mother scorned, she was unfazed by either her tears or her words. Except from a little, hardly noticeable spark that her left her eyes.

“Alright, I’m done finding for something that would never be there,” Aaisha said silently.
She went to her room with the legs of a sprinter, tears clouding her eyes and reason as she clumsily packed her clothes into her travelling bag. The air in Bala might be windy and dusty but it was less demanding.

   She met her dad on her in the hallway and the old man looked at her sympathetically as he saw the bags she strapped to her shoulder.

   “Your mother is back?” His sentence came out as a statement instead of a question.

“Mommy doesn’t want me.”

   Her father shook his head and looked down. She recognized that helpless look immediately; he would take time like he always does. He was always too late in making decisions.

   “Goodbye I will call you when I get to my apartment”

   He reached for his pocket and brought out some notes which he squeezed into her hands. It was his tradition to give her money, no matter how little, every time she is going out.

   Aaisha would have rejected because she was now earning more than him but she accepted it to honor his already bruised ego when it comes to being a father even though they both knew he had failed massively in that part.  There was also a high possibility of missing the last bus, so she dropped the debate on whether to accept the money or not, pocketed the money, re-adjusted her bag and dragged her legs out. Silently hoping he would shake his head again, call her name and tell her it’s her home and she can stay.

   She forgot to say bye to Samuel who sat in the dining room, obediently waiting for his mothers call.

Author's Note

This chapter is dedicated to @Abdulhafeez10 and @Marsul561
Chap 12 is here because of you two❣️

A big thanks to all the readers dropping votes, you guys are the best❣️

❤️To my "non-voting" readers as well

Salam Alaykum 🦋

PS: would you believe me if I said chap 13 will be updated next week?👀