Hibba was rummaging in the storeroom, looking for an old book of hers when she opened a drawer she was not supposed to. Inside were a stack of old papers and photographs. She was going through the photos when she stumbled upon a picture that made her freeze.
It's a picture of two adults standing, the man who had her smile was holding a girl, who looked like an older version of her. Holding her tight as if his life depended on her.
The man who had her smile, her long face, her height and her quite demeanor while the woman had her eyes, her nose, her mouth and even her eyebrows.
Her heart pounded.
She whispered to the silence who are they? .
But no one was there to answer her.
Why had she never seen this photo before?
She felt unsettled by the picture so she took it back where she saw it and made her way out. Immediately she reached the door and stood there for a second thinking. She hesitated and opened the door but then she turned quickly working toward the drawer and took the picture again. As she stared at the photo, something clicked. The woman, she looked just like the just like the one who used to visit her dreams. Always smiling, always holding her hands. She slipped it onto her pocket and walked out closing the door careful not to make a sound.
That night, she lay on bed with the picture under her pillow after staring at it for only God knows how long. She fell asleep with the weight of a thousand thoughts and a flood of questions pressing down her chest.
~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning she looked quite, different, not like her usual self. She got dressed in her uniform and came to the kitchen for breakfast and sat at her usual corner. she sits to wait for her siblings since she's always the first one to get ready.
Mummy walked passed, glanced at her then frowned at her.
Miyene kike ta kallo na ne kam? Kina da magana ne? Hibba looked up a hankali tace mummy,
Na'am in zakiyi magana kiyi. Mummy said.
Bude bakin ta tayi a hankali cikin nustuwa tace uhm daman so nake na tambaye ki. Did I ever look like my mummy when I was small?
Mummy froze for a second.
Then she frowned.
What sort of question is this Hibba? She snapped.
Wani maganan banza ne wanan hibba? So kike ki tuna min bani na haifeki ba ko so kike ki fadawa duniya? Me ma kike nufi? Hibba bana son raini fah. Ki kiyayeni wallahi karkisa na doke ki da farar safiyan nan.
Mummy kiyi hakuri she said faintly.
Mutuniyar banza kawai. Toh ce ma duniya muzanta miki nake kawai. Mummy muttered . She hissed gave Hibba one last look, then walked away.
Hibba sat still. Her chest heavy and her heart louder than
thought.
Why does mummy look so tense? She already knows there's definitely something.
She was sure of one thing that the woman looks exactly like the one she use to see in her dreams. She use to dream of three people often, Faced blurred by time, but one always stayed clear.
At School, Hibba was strangely quiet, unusually.
So. Ameera noticed.
“Hey, you good?” Ameera asked.
Hibba gave a small smile. Yeahh just hormones acting up.
Amyy smiled, rolled her eyes and nudged her playfully. “I got you, girl.”
YOU ARE READING
Fragment Of You. (ONGOING)
RomanceA girl going through emotional breakdown signs up for a controversial new therapy that implants carefully selected nappy memories to help people heal. But then, what begins as solace becomes obsession. The memory she received was never meant to fe...
