ENSHROUDED

27

Aisha looked at him with a confused expression and did as he said, she entered the car and put back her seatbelt. Igniting on the car, Abba drove on and looked at her. "Are you done? Or you still need some more time to cry?" He said sarcastically and Aisha looked at him and nodded her head softly.

He cleared his throat and grimaced his face even more, "You cried because of the way I talked to you? Then what will you do if we get to Taraba and see the way I live? Because I'm never going to change the way I live because of you. Are you going to cry every day?"

Hopelessly, Aisha looked at him and she felt tears trying to spill out of her eyes, but she fought them back. "What do you mean? What is the life you live there? Are you a serial killer? A mafia member? Or an armed robber?"

He didn't know when he broke into a pitch of laughter and looked at the way she was innocently looking at him with her eyes filled with pure curiosity. "What? Are you this pointless? How can you think this low of me? God, Aisha!" He laughed even more and Aisha looked at how he laughed. If he was at ease, he looked so much like Nasir and he was handsome as well.

"What? That's the only things I could think of, apart from your throng of girlfriends I mean." She glared at him and looked away.

"You'll see it for yourself, I'm just warning you firsthand." And the look on his face was back, then she knew that her limit had been exceeded. She looked away and pulled back the chair she was seated on. It was time to sleep, she thought. As she closed her eyes, she dreamt of Nasir.

❃

Aisha felt a slight tap on her shoulder, she looked up and his face appeared to her eyes. She silently groaned at him and sat upright, pulling the chair back to its normal position. She looked around, and they were still on the road. She looked stunned, "What? I thought we have arrived. Why do you wake me up?"

"It's approximately an eight hours drive from Bauchi to Taraba, we have to eat and pray." There was a town around and Abba drove in. He spotted a restaurant and parked in front of it.

Abba looked at Aisha and motioned towards the restaurant, "Get out, let's go and eat. You should do fast. Let's meet over there and pray, they don't have a mosque."

She nodded her head softly and they got down together. They sat on the same table and were served their food. Aisha looked at him and pouted her lips, "I don't eat this flour pudding, don't they have anything else?"

"You shouldn't cry because of this, you know? Are you naturally a lachrymose or what? Get a hold of yourself, Aisha, we're in public." He glared at her and called the waiter.

"What more do you have? She doesn't eat this pudding." The waiter listed and Aisha opted for a yam porridge. It was brought to her and she smiled weakly at him before she started eating the food.

They finished and found a tap where they performed their ablution and Aisha walked behind him as they walked towards the clean spot they saw. He walked back to the car and took out the praying mats for them. He handed her the praying mats and Aisha sprayed them the mats and she stood behind him as they prayed. When they were done, she watched as he supplicated with his hands and wished he was Nasir.

They got back to the car and the journey continued with no one saying a word or two. She took the one among the poetry books Nasir gave her and started reading. She was bored, tired and afraid of this man driving beside her. She dreaded the time they would get to Taraba because she knew the pain he had in store for her was too huge for her frail heart. He even warned her, what kind of husband did that?

They arrived late in the evening and as Abba drove into the estate, she admired the peace and calmness of it. He parked in front of a house that had 'Block 6' inscribed. They were two houses fused into one. One on the down floor while the other one is the up floor. He handed her the keys, "Open the one house, it's in the up floor. I'll come in with our bags." She nodded and walked in.