Saving Abba

Chapter 28

Mrs Balogun and I seemed to establish an understanding, she came, did her job, and left. We kept our interaction to the barest minimum and I was quite fine with that. The last thing I wanted was to talk to  someone who would think so low of me.

"Abba na." Yasmin cried out waving her hands at me. I smiled, waving back. We were at their school and they were having a fair.

Mrs Balogun was somewhere but I could feel her hawk eyes on me. Najma who looked much better than she had the previous week was also in attendance, she was at the cotton candy stand with the sugar crazed man child she called a husband.

I could see the frustration in her expression and the cheeky smile on his face as he ate more of the cotton candy. I shook my head amused before turning to Yasmin as the ride came to an end. The man unbuckled her and she leapt out, skipping over to me. I lifted her into my arms, spinning her around, eliciting laughter from her.

She wrapped her arms around my neck, giggling.

"Are you having fun?" I asked. She nodded just as Khalifa and Najma joined us. She immediately reached for the cotton candy.

"Woah!!!" I cried out moving her away from it. "That's too much sugar. Let's go get our face painted instead."

The thought of face painting had her cheering and they followed us to the face painting stand. We waited in line for our turn, I gently swaying Yasmin to the music.

"Social worker at 3 o'clock" Khalifa whispered. I turned in the direction to see Mrs Balogun, seated, watching us.

"Does she ever smile?" Najma asked glancing at her. I shrugged turning my attention to Yasmin, bopping her nose gently.

"Who knows."

It was finally our turn, I settled Yasmin on my thigh and watched as the artist painted a butterfly on Yasmin's face.

"Abba" I turned to see Najma holding her phone up, I smiled at her as she took the picture.

"Send me that please."

She nodded, taking a close up of Yasmin. After the artist was done with Yasmin, Khalifa convinced Najma to have her face painted. I left them there and together with Yasmin we walked around the fair.

We stopped at a corndog stall, "Two please." I requested about to pay. "Actually make that three." I paid and collected them with the dips.

"Come on Yas." I called, holding out my hand, she grabbed my fingers and we walked towards the seats.

"Here you go." I said offering Mrs Balogun one. She seemed shocked and cleared her throat before taking it.

"Thank you." She whispered, I shrugged and took a seat, settling Yasmin on the chair next to mine. I unwrapped the corndog and helped her open the lid of the dip container.

"Careful." I whispered handing her the corndog, smiling at how her eyes lit up at the snack, she took a bite, humming before digging in.

I watched her for a bit just to make sure she had a hang of it before concentrating on mine. I could feel Mrs Balogun's eyes on me but I ignored her gaze.

Najma and Khalifa joined us a while later before Mrs Balogun decided to leave. Out of courtesy I found myself walking beside her to her car.

"Good day Abubakar." She said. I nodded about to leave. "About the other day, it was wrong of me to assume. I... I apologize."

I almost choked on my spit as I gawked at her, I did not expect her to ever apologize... especially to me.

Oh wow