BRAVE

Chapter Five

She was so small, he noticed. One of his hand could encircle her entire waist. Slowly, he fell asleep in the rhythm he'd set for her.

After praying, the sky was gradually getting brighter and Lami pushed open the door slowly, as she got off the bed.

She had removed the sheets as Ahmadu was long gone, to the mosque she suspected. She fell asleep as soon as he turned his back earlier, too tired and anxious to sleep at night when she had the chance to.

She stared at the ruffled sheets that were evidence of the passion they engulfed in and the sweat they shed last night. She sighed remembering a time when similar sheets were stained and it had been paraded around within her first husband's female relatives.

It had been a source of pride to her, the sign that she gave to show them their son was the first to plant seeds in that land, her land. She hesitated leaving the room. She had nothing to show them.

Replacing them with some colourful ones which he had bought from the city perhaps as most of the sheets used in Kurmi were mostly plain coloured ones hand sewn by the women themselves. She sighed again as the thoughts came back to her.

She was now a married woman, no longer the bazaura who could stay in bed all day. She was now responsible to someone and she now had someone who would bear her responsibilities. The thought alone pacified her racing heart and her troublesome thoughts.

She rolled the sheets into a bundle and tucked them under her armpit. She poked her head a little to scan the compound. To her surprise, it was swept clean already. The trails of broomsticks were only faintly visible which meant that the house had been swept for a while now.

She stepped out and looked around at the house. Like every other house in Kurmi, it was also a red mud house however with corrugated roofing sheets. The apartment she was placed in was painted, with a brown color unlike the rest of the house which was bare.

The thought  that the apartment had been painted to welcome her warmed her heart and tears sprang to her eyes. Never had she seen a woman who had once been married treated with this much respect.

She counted three other rooms as she walked and agreed with herself that the house was big indeed. She had walked further when she spotted a figure in the far corner of the house washing pots, the plates piled up neatly beside her.
She walked towards the figure and cleared her throat,

"Uhm, salamalaikum."

She greeted and the lady stopped washing, rinsing her hand in clean water.
The lady turned and she saw a slight resemblance to Indo, though none to Ahmadu. A wide grin which turned into a wider smile appeared on the girl's face.

"Ina kwana matan yaya"

Lami replied with a low good morning back and felt slightly different as the girl called her, her big brother's wife. It had been a while she was addressed as someone's wife. The title itself felt a bit strange to her.

Laila, as girl introduced herself was her sister in law and refused every offer Lami made to help her with the dishes. According to her, she would be struck by lightning if she let her elder brother's wife work a morning after the wedding. It was like asking her mother to work a day after her birth.

Lami laughed and soon, they were talking freely with laila. She admired the girl's free spirit and her carefree imaginations of a beautiful future with a happy ever after. She'd once been like that but now, that innocence was long gone, never to return again.

Lami didn't want to crush her spirits by telling her that life wasn't all about happiness, that they were some sad parts too and the choices a person made, coupled with fate and destiny would determine if he would have the desired happy ever after.