ENSHROUDED

36

"Alhaji Nasir, you're the only one fah." Nasir nodded his head in understanding and he rushed back to the house. He looked around and the house was exceptionally clean now, evident that whoever was it that stayed in the house had cleaned the house again.

He took halting steps towards the room and unlocked it with hands that shook in fear. He knew he didn't know who was it, or rather; who was her. But he knew it would definitely be a woman and here would be the place Abba spent his weekend or where she stayed whenever she came to town. But how did they manage to do that without the knowledge of Malam Musa?

The view that came to his eyes was that of a beautiful and slender woman seated on her vanity stool as she stared at her reflection through the mirror while she applied lotion to her body. She was humming soft music to herself and she looked neutral. She was neither happy nor sad, it loomed that she was just living. Hiding away from the world and anyone that knew her. Hiding away from the world, that's something only Aisha could do.

"Aisha?!" It wasn't just a question, he was scared to the whole world for her to turn around and only for him to see someone, not her. He didn't mind the towel that was wrapped around her bosom, all that mattered was her face.

And even more frightened than he was, she turned and their eyes met before she screamed. "Inalillahi! How did you get here?" She looked extremely shocked and her body trembled with fear. She knew the end of her life had come, Abba had finally found her hideout.

Nasir stood there mouth agape, he couldn't believe this was Aisha. All the how's where pushed out of his mind and he took tentative steps towards her. He was an inch to touching her face to check if she was the one when he backed his hand away with aplomb. She was married, he warned himself and restrained himself from touching her. He looked at her and the pounding her chest was making. He was sure he heard the lub dub sound her heart was making, she was afraid and he knew it.

"I'm sorry, please. Get yourself ready, I'll be waiting for you in the living room." He said and took off his eyes from her chest. Nasir couldn't feel his legs when he walked out of the room and silently closed the door behind him.

He walked to the living room and sat down on one of the sofas and he palmed his face. He couldn't wrap his hands around all that had been happening lately. He couldn't perfect the puzzle that was laid before him on a cold table. Yesterday when they called Abba together with Firdausi, he said Aisha wasn't feeling too much and she had exams to write, she won't be able to make it. He would be busy to come over for the naming ceremony and he had Nasir took numerous pictures of Farha and he sent it to him.

Aisha froze in her position, she couldn't believe the person she saw with her own two eyes. Hiding away from the world was equally painful and peaceful, but Nasir was the last person she wanted to see. She looked around her room and that's when she saw the towel that was wrapped around her chest. He saw her like this, but that's the least she could care for. She walked towards her wardrobe and pulled out a plain gown and she wore it on herself. She wrapped her head with a veil and put on her hijab over her head before she walked out of the room.

Nasir watched as she moved frankly to the kitchen and that showed him she had been living in this house, alone, for a very long time. She did what he assumed to be turning off the cooking gas before she walked back to the living room and sat on the far at the far end of the room. She ducked her head down and greeted him, "Good morning, Nasir."

This was the first time he saw her after all those years of painfully craving for her beautiful face. But he didn't miss the coldness of his name as it slipped out of her lips. He could remember begging her to be calling him Nasir but she had never conceded but today. And now that she did, it sounded cold and heartbreaking. It meant that she had no more business about him, and he knew that too himself.