Tale In The Red Sand

Chapter Thirty - Seven

A firm knock came at Hibaaq's bedroom door. She was sitting on her window ledge, gazing out at nothing in particular, though it was the perfect landscape to get lost in her thoughts to.

"Come in!" She called.

Warsame entered with her response. He stood by her door for a few seconds, hands behind his back and eyes pulled down in pensiveness. Hibaaq got up from the ledge, and sat down on her bedside as she inquisitively watched her father in his deep state of thought.

"Aabo?" She said after a quiet minute had gone by without a word. "Is everything alright?"

Warsame looked up dazedly and nodded his head, coming to sit beside his daughter.

"Yes, everything is fine -" He didn't know where to start, and whether or not he should tell her that her grandmother had disappeared from not only the house but the city also, it didn't take many guesses of where she could have gone off to. Warsame had a brother up east, after all, one he hasn't seen in a long time, but knew of his going ons.

"Ayeeyo isn't here." She remarked. It just had to be about the absence of his mother, and with the way his eyes widened, she knew she was right. "With Abti Ahmed in Borame." She added, grinning when her father looked on amusedly.

"Yes, I think she might be." Warsame kept his fingers interlocked. "I'll call him tomorrow to check, and I'll speak to her." Hibaaq sighed, resting her head on her father's shoulders.

"Aabo, don't worry. I understand the amount of haqq a waalid carries. It's the same haqq you have over me, she is your Hooyo and my Ayeeyo. What she did was wrong, and I pray she realises that." If it was to hush the turmoil that went on in her father's mind Hibaaq would make sure to enunciate those words every day. She needed her father to believe she was going to be alright and that she held no resentment in her heart.

"Gabadey Macaan." Warsame tried hard not to choke on his words as a knot formed in his throat, and his eyes began to prick with impending tears. He embraced her tightly, nodding his head at her comforting words. The pride in his chest swelled, he couldn't have asked for a more perfect daughter. If her mother were alive, she would surely feel as immensely gratified as him. Now he wholeheartedly trusted he was ready to let her go if she wished to leave.

"Hibaaq, there's one more thing." Warsame voiced. Hibaaq sat up, the puzzled look returning to her face as she gazed up at her father.

"What is it, Aabe?"

Warsame was truly lost for words now. He found it almost amusing as he struggled to string together a couple of words, but he'd never thought of this day before. The day he'd come to his daughter and ask her if she wanted to marry the man that had come for her hand. He wasn't the one being called upon, but the concept completely wracked his nerves.

Hibaaq raised an eyebrow at his silence. "Did Hiba run again?" She asked.

"No, uh, how do I say this. Hibaaq, are you ready for marriage?" She nearly had her eyes bulge out with the width she widened them to.

"I-, I'm not sure, Aabo. Why?"

"Because someone has come for you."

Hibaaq audibly gasped, and her eyes scanned her father's face for any jest, but he looked serious.

"What... sorry who?" She muttered as she let ger gaze dart around the marble floor. It couldn't have been Abdihakeem, he got married to the woman he was betrothed to and since the last time she's seen them in town, they looked hopelessly in love. She was genuinely happy that he was with someone that could make him smile like he was above the clouds. Hibaaq never had stages of courtship, and any guy she did encounter, she disliked strongly. This left room for only one other man. The butterflies that laid dormant in her stomach all this time began to burst to life at the realisation.