Misfortunate (Completed)

Twenty Four: Layla's Birthday with a twist of death

"Ah baby please, find your way here. Please it's just seven now and you can shoot from eight till ten or twelve. Please, I won't rest until the poster pictures are totally done." I sigh and add salt to the oatmeal cooking in the pressure pot and ask Teni for the address.

I put my phone down with a sigh and stir the oatmeal even further so that it doesn't curdle. Today seems like a tight, long day for me and I'd have to eventually have to call Zainab inspite of my promise to give her an off day.

I take my phone up again and call Zainab. She enthusiastically replies and my mood lifts after ending the call, I put down my phone again and wear a pair of mittens to take the oatmeal pot off the hot stove.

"So early? What are you cooking?" I chuckle at Ma's face and spoon her a bowl of oatmeal and add some evaporated milk over it, she shakes some sugar unto it after taking it from me and I chuckle again. Ma's sweet tooth has never lessened.

"I have to be somewhere at eight and then come back to dress for a birthday party I promised to attend by twelve latest." She nods and walks to the dining with my plate and hers in her hands. I put the pot under a rain of tap water to aid easy washing later and leave the kitchen.

"When did they say they're retuning?" Ma asks of Abdul and Amal. I shrug without speaking, swallowing my food to think of how easily to put it.

"Ma, Abdul has not called me in three months. I've even forgotten what his voice sounds like." I smile self deprecuatingly and spoon some more oatmeal into my mouth.

"What?" She drops her spoon. "Why?" I shrug again.

"I have no idea. I just know that it might be easier for him to let me go when I ask." She scoffs but doesn't continue eating. "If he refuses, it's because he can't imagine himself looking for another money cow to activate his useless spending. Rubbish." I hide my smile at Ma's anger.

"I'll be fine. That is one thing that is sure. This girl will be just fine." I say with another self depreciating smile, She pats my hand and continues to eat, this time a little faster. I walk back to my room and turn on my small burner and put some halut incense on it. The scent of it is heavenly and just what I need to lift my mood after hearing I might be out the whole day I had planned to lounge in bed.

I take out two abayas. One peach colored with a darker shade scarf and a blackberry colored one with a black scarf and put them against my body. Ma comes in, wiping her hands as she walks so I turn to her with a pout and ask which I should wear.

"The peach one. Stop with all these depressing colors, which one is this deep black with another deeper black scarf. Are you mourning?" I giggle with a playful expression stamped on my fave and drop the offending Abaya unto my bed, find a hook to hang the peach Abaya over the slowly burning Halut.

"Where are you going today?" I ask her when I finish hanging my clothes. She waves her hand and tells me a friend of hers in Abuja asked her to come around when she's in town and she's honoring the invitation. I nod and ask where, she tells me it's in Life camp. I nod again and walk away to the bathroom to take a shower.

"Zainab is here already?" I ask Ma who is wearing her necklace. Apparently, she bathed while I scrolled through my social media apps. She leaned over my vanity mirror and lined her lips before applying lipstick. I laugh at her and ask again if Zainab has arrived. She nods and asks me to be quick since it's seven-forty already.

"Ma, let's take a picture before we leave. You look amazing." She smiles at me and I shake my head in reply. Ma is a rock. I remember an incident that happened when I just moved in with her. My father's family shared all my parents properties and all their clothes. I was left with only my small bag of clothes and shoes that I carried in my hand from Katsina to Kano where my Ma and Kawu lived at the time.