THE TIMOROUS DUNYA✅

EIGHTEEN

"My dota gave beth to a bouncing baby boi." Mrs Yoruba cheerfully repeated, this time directing her speech to Maryam, completely inconsiderate she had heard her the first time. Maryam smiled requisitely and expressed her own sympathetic joy with a 'congrats'.

"Daris why I'm going to porthacourt." She remarked, smiling widely. Porthacourt. So this is where the train will go, Maryam mused. She'd never heard of the place and she isn't pleased at all to be there. Her instincts told her something bad will happen.

"What is your name?" Maryam dared asking Mrs Yoruba.

"Grace." She answered almost immediately.

Not the name Maryam expected at all. But oh well!..

Did she graced her nose!

*****

The air felt cold on her soft skin, but it didn't stop the beads of sweat from lining on her temple. Her fingers ache from fiddling with them incessantly. She chewed on her nails and fiddled with her fingers some more. She was about to repeat the routine when a hand hovered over hers, she glanced at the owner of the hand. Zeenah placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and squeezed it in a placating way. She gave her a small nod and offered a smile. Maryam felt herself relaxing afterwards.

Porthacourt is beautiful. It is a place you will see in your dreams and wake up with a huge smile. The taxi they hailed after alighting from the train came to a halt infront of a gigantic brown gate. They got down and Hajiya Bilki paid the man, he immediately drove away.

Maryam observed around her, aside from the big house, there's only a few trees and shrugs, and a lone pathway that led to God knows where could be sighted. She heaved a sigh, just great! Back to a forest once again.

Wordlessly, Hajiya Bilki made her way to the house expecting the duo to follow her. Zeenah however stayed glued to her spot with a calculative gaze, Maryam gladly stood by her side.

Hajiya Bilki's hurried footsteps were the only thing heard, the ground grumbled quietly at being matched on fiercely. She narrowed her eyes at them, and let her bag slide to her palms. She didn't say anything, yet the scorching anger that painted her face was enough to set the both of them on their heels.

"Why are you bringing us here?, I thought your taking me to a working area or something." Zeenah butted in, dragging out the 'working area' part. Maryam recalled her saying she had been offered a job by Dawood.

Hajiya Bilki knocked on the giant gate. Ignoring Zeenah's question, she muttered "You'll see."

A few minutes later, the gate was opened by a tall lanky man. He's bald-headed and had a very scary look on his face. He greeted Hajiya Bilki respectively and shot both Zeenah and Maryam a disapproving look. He walked to a long bench and sat beside two other men. The man by his left is paunchy, with a rather permanent frown on his face. The third guy was the youngest, and he looked really familiar to Maryam. She gasped when she remembered him, her widen eyes zeroed on his calm posture. He's the same guy that was at her house in the middle of the other night. Her supposedly body-guard. He shot her a curt nod of acknowledgement, Maryam hissed.

Hajiya Bilki led them to the front door. Maryam was still shocked to look around at the extravagance of the inside. An old and exhausted looking woman opened the door and greeted them all before ushering them in. They were led straight to a large room with a huge table and roughly twenty-something chairs round it. The room was an exact replica of a classroom to Maryam's eyes and she assumed it was one.

It was quite funny and she found herself giggling when they settled in and were served food. Chairs and tables for food?. It was just weird and funny. Who knew there was a better way other than folding your legs on the floor.