Road to Jannah

Chapter Twenty • Explosions

Zuzu had been mine and Maryam's batch mate in the university and we had had a lot of classes together but when all that happened, she transferred to another university in another city and graduated there. I didn't blame her for wanting to run away from reality, for wanting that past of hers to turn nonexistent but now, I blame her for blaming Ahmad. It is selfish but I blame her for making everything fall apart.

Zuzu had ruined my chances of getting married to the love of my life when I was the one that stood up for her and helped her convince her parents when her own chances of marrying the love of her life were dwindling on a thin wire. I had never supported her relationship with him, I had doubted his sincerity but since he had been Ahmad's best friend, I found reason to believe that he was decent enough and I stood by her until they finally got married. I never knew that when it was my turn, Zuzu would turn on me and do the exact opposite.

I was excited to know what she'd do when she found out that the Ahmad I had been talking about all along was Ahmad Sambo, the person that at one time, had been her husband's most closest friend. I never knew why they had parted and why a friendship that seemed so strong had broken off but since I knew Zuzu and her husband had known Ahmad from our university days, I didn't want to inform him of Zuzu just yet, I had wanted their encounter with her and her husband to come as a surprise for him but my plan backfired, it had come as a surprise to me.

I had been dumbfounded for the last week but my faith and trust in Ahmad had never for once broken and tonight, it had finally given me the courage to overcome every fear and find my way to him. I had feared Kulthum Sambo would throw me out of the house after what I did to her son but instead, the kind woman gifted me with a much needed hug and with no questions asked, brought me here to Ahmad.

In the comfort of his soothing words, in the shelter of his deep scent, in the security of this amnion he had created for me in his arms, I didn't even know when I had let go of all these daunting thoughts and haunting events of the last few days and fallen into the most peaceful sleep I've had in over a week. It came as no surprise when the dreams that flooded my conscious were just as pleasant and peaceful but then, something else starts invading and brings with it a dark cloud of chaotic noise.

I awake hurriedly and find myself without Ahmad's presence. When I look around the room and he still was no where to be seen, I get to my feet and as I walk to the door, I hear the voices that drifted into my dreams and interrupted my sleep were real. I recognised the screaming voices to belong to Yasin and Abba and with shaky legs that carried a pounding heart and pulsating mind, I took the first step out the door.

Knowing that Abba and Yasin's voice indicated that a mighty storm was raging, I made an even mightier promise in my heart; try as they might, I wouldn't part from Ahmad a second time. Just as I reached the stairwell, I see Mrs Sambo about to take the first step up and when she gasps out my name making everyone's eyes shoot up to me, I already knew I was done for.

Even if he was the only one who couldn't see me though his eyes were on me, Ahmad's stare is the only one I feel piercing through me. I ran down the remainder of the flight of stairs and though my father and brother where right before me, the first person I go to is him.

Ahmad's hands were clasped behind his back with a look on his face that's totally different from the one I had slept off to. When I look closely, I see it's because of this slight spread of pink on his jaw from beneath his now abundant facial hair and the swollen cut on his lower lip that turned his expression sour. And I need no one to tell me the person responsible for it was the incredibly irate Yasin standing behind me. I walk closer and attempt to place a hand over it but before I could, I feel a forceful restraint from behind me.

I turn back to see Yasin looking at me with fury as well as disgust and disappointment but I couldn't care less and when I tried to brush him off, all he did was hold me with a tighter grasp.