Bound ✅

Gbas Gbos

"Come in."

Halima nodded and took off her fancy rubber slippers at the door. She looked around and remembered that Jamal was still in Lagos, then she deftly pulled the neck of her hijab to form a scarf around her head. The heat was making her dizzy.

"I'm sorry. Assalamualaikum." Halima smiled, she didn't mind. She knew the older woman had a lot on her mind and going on for her.

"Walaikum Salam ma. How are you?" She nodded with a wry smile as reply and stepped around Lubna's black Barbie toys.

"I hope they didn't give you much trouble?" Halima adjusted the improvised scarf on her head before replying.

"No. They were angels, they're really well raised so my work was easy." Halima watched her nod again. She didn't seem like herself, but no one would seem like themselves if they had a husband in another country receiving treatments for a massive stroke.

"They had to do a bypass." She said as she sat on one of the sofas. She shook her head sadly, she went silent in contemplation as though she didn't want to relieve those moments.

"A bypass surgery for such an old man is a big risk but I signed him off for it, knowing he'd been sneakily taking drugs for months. Probably contributed to his stroke. But, Alhamdulillahi for everything Allah has done." Halima wiped sweat of her jaw and muttered an Alhamdulillahi.

"I called you here." She stopped what she was about to say at the footsteps coming from the stairs. Halima quickly dropped her hijab over her face to avoid stories that touch until she saw it was a female in a skirt, she pulled the material back up and watched as the legs brought forward a dark skinned lady that looked exactly like Jamal's mother.

Probably her sister.

"Ah Farida. They're asleep now." The lady nodded in reply and walked to hug her mother from behind the chair. She waved hello again Halima who smiled shyly, hating being at the centre of attention.

"Mummy. Is she the one?" Jamal's mother nodded and pulled her around the chair to sit next to her.

"So, Halima. I called you here to please hear me out first with an open mind, two, to please think and pray over my request and In Sha Allah, grant it." Halima braced herself, breathing in and exhaling hot air.

"For the two years that Jamal's father will be in rehabilitation. I'll need help. This girl is returning to Edinburgh to medical school, I can't - I'm only human myself- take care of Jariyah and Lubna's needs by myself." She leaned back, took a glass of chilled water and sipped out if it.

"I need you to come help me. Help with raising Jariyah and Lubna. I completely understand if you don't agree, I'll understand. But, please know, you're probably the only person I trust with them. We'll discuss monetary compensation when you're ready. But please think about it. You'll have the hours when they're in school to yourself, you'll have an apartment to yourself. I promise your privacy." Halima nodded and clasped her hands around her raised knee.

"Can I have sometime to think it over?" The older woman responded with a regal nod of someone who thought she didn't have a lot of chance.

"Let me add that I know you have a good job, but think of this as opportunity to step out, to stay in the loop abroad. You could take a shift at a salon there while the kids are in school. I promise you're only there to help me raise my grandchildren." Halima inclined her head to gesture that she had heard and picked her bag. She'd taken some hours off work to come see her.

"I'll call you soon with my decision." Jamal's mother signified her assent and tried to get up to follow Halima but the lady Halima finally identified as Farida pressed her mother down and followed Halima to the door.

"Miss." Halima turned with a smile.

"Please think it over and I hope you know we're not trying to demean you. We just cannot trust a lot of people in this trying time." Halima tucked her lower lip into her mouth in contemplation and raised her bag unto her left shoulder.

"I'll call soon In Sha Allah. Thank you for clarifying things. I'm grateful." With that, she walked away to the car that brought her.

Farida walked back into the house, with her shoulders slumped.

"Mummy. What will we do? Ya Jamal is suffering." Her mother sniffed deeply into a tissue.

"He'll be fine. He is my son. I know him."

*********

"They said that?"

Halima didn't bother replying her mother's question, instead she leaned back on the pillows she mounted behind her, and looked around the room from her vantage point.

"I think it's a good idea. You'll be earning money in foreign currency, you'll be outside the country in a place I can trust. You're not a child so you know when to come home. Toh. Nothing else should matter." Halima's sister, Jannah, arched one brow questioningly at their mother, bringing what Halima called her usual pepper.

"Ya Allah Mum. You should not be like this, what if they're kidnappers? How will Halima know? You're there slapping your hands over your laps in finality as if it's the best job offer in the world. When it's a glorified nanny job." Halima's mother bent her head but her small lips were pinched shut and her eyes were already in the state that Halima dubbed 'About to lecture sign' but Jannah wasn't seeing it. She kept on talking.

"Like you're doing a better job yourself? You're a glorified nanny aren't you? Second teacher oo, second teacher in a kindergarten class. You're here running your mouth like a duck in water."  Halima's mouth dropped open in surprise. Her mother wasn't usually this wicked.

"Wayyo Allah." Her mother got up and got in Jannah's face. "You're not allowed to make decisions for your sister." Jannah burst into tears promptly. Even Halima got seriously surprised.

"Why would you call me a common teacher?" Her mother sat down back and shook her body in condescension.

"I warned you, beg your father not to let you get married. Go to school, you refused, trying to please your father. See where it has gotten you? As a mere kindergarten teacher! A mere one! How much do you get? Ten thousand naira." She raised her ten fingers before pulling it back down to continue talking.

"You went and got married. And now what? You're here telling your sister how to run her life? Please go back to your husband's house and run it there with your love!" Halima's mother hissed again and turned to Halima.

"You! Pray Isthikara and In Sha Allah it will work out." She got up and dusted her body with her veil.

Jannah cleared her throat, picked flint off her atampha skirt and said "Thank God I got married and listened to daddy, what has listening to you brought Halima? That incident and a widow to a worthless sickly husband. Shows how much it worked out for you."

Halima from where she was perched shook her head and allowed her mouth to finally say the words. "Jannah, that was a low blow. A really low blow for you."

*****

Phew,

Definitely gbas gbos style. Who wants to know the incident? Well, we'll keep calling it The incident.

And to go or not to go?
Please state your choices.

So, guys, my girl LeemaLiyu started a book. It's called Flawed Souls. It's not your average book. Guyy, shey you want to read something that will make you wanna be a character? Goan read it (I know y'all like books like that) so please go cop your new fave💁🏽‍♀️

See y'all later.

TheOmoope.