The Second Path

Chapter 34

She sighed and moved closer before touching my shoulders, "I am going back to my village."

I stared at her in surprise. Zainab has not gone back to her hometown in ages. To be honest, she didn't really have an actual family waiting for her back home, that was why she stayed with mama Halimat's family.

The only person she had was her mother. She never met her father. Her mother has 3 children from 3 different men, 2 of which were married to other women. Her mother was treated as a disgrace to the society and because she didn't want her children to experience it too, she sent all 3 of them to 3 different relative's houses in different states. Sadly, one of Zainab's step brothers died few years ago.

"I think it's time for me to take care of mama." Zainab added.

I held her hand down from my shoulders, "Are you sure? You know how tough it is over there."

"What's the difference between here and there? I'm already being treated like my mother. I thought about it for a while and I came to a conclusion that it's best I go back home." She said and looked away, "It has been six years since I last communicated with mama. And I wish I had done so a long time ago. She is all alone in that small house, fending for herself without the help of a husband or relations. And if she is to die, who will bury her? Nobody. And can the dead bury themselves?"

I stared at her sadly and moved closer and wrapped my arms around her shoulders to hug her.

"I'm going to miss you." I whined, "This is not fair."

"Don't worry, you still have one week with me. If you want to enjoy it, better get well."

"Okay. But on two conditions."

She moved away and looked at me, "What's that?"

"Don't forget to make my dan wake."

She hissed and folded her arms, "And what's the second one?"

I thought for a while what I've always wanted to learn from her. Despite it was a bit late now, I thought it was worth the wait to still try.

"I need you to teach me something."

****

The one week I spent with Zainab was everything I needed. It distracted me from everything, especially Hamid. My sickness even cured like it never existed.

We did everything we could possibly do to make it fun. She succeeded in meeting my two conditions. We were able to get out all of her belongings in mama Halimat's house and we never bothered to stop and tell mama or baba Halimat that zainab was leaving. We went to the market often, mostly to buy new wrappers for Zainab's mother from the money she has been saving for years.

It was all fun until I escorted her to the market for the last time this morning, to return some things, when suddenly, we bumped into Hamid and Junior Junior. We were standing in front of a wrapper shop when Zainab spotted them from a distance and she quickly told me to hide. And I did.

They came closer when they saw her and she talked to them for a while. I hid behind one of the shelves in the shop and watched them all through. My heart, that was once healing, started to ache as I stared at Hamid. He wasn't in his uniform this time and his eyes looked a bit exhausted, but he was still able to smile when Junior Junior looked for Zainab's trouble and she slapped him on the head.