The light that gets lost

2: GOING HOME

"Zahra!Zahra!!Zahra!!!” A familiar voice bellow calling her name from a far distance and that makes her to increase her pace, the last thing she wanted is somebody seeing her weakness.

"Zarah danAllah tsaya mana"the voice yell again.

Zarah didn't want the person to see her in these condition but she has to ,with a defeated sigh,she spun around to see her friend running towards her panting heavily.

"A don jam na Hindatu? (How are you hindatu?)"Zahra ask in fulfulde with her coarsed voice holding her bestfriend in place as she breathe heavily due to the running.

"Mi don jam and bofa?(Am fine and you?)" Hinda ask holding her chest,the way she was panting you would think she's run a marathon.

"Jam (Good)”she replied her voice breaking, she is far from good.

Hinda scanned her bestfriend from head to toe "where are you coming from?, You look pale, and also have blood stain on your hijab, Are you Okay?..."Hinda ask brows furrowed in confusion as she stare at her friends gloomy face,Zarah look disoriented what could be wrong.
   
"Am fine"she said her head ducked down,lips wavering into a small smile the last she wanted is to breakdown.

Hinda's eye well up looking at Zarah that's not meeting her gaze, what could have happened to her?, they've searched around the village looking for her but didn't find her and now she came back on her own saying she is fine. Zarah has a thing of bottling up here emotion no matter what you say to her she wouldn't budge.

Welcome to the world of Zarah where everything is Jam, even if a snake is biting her, she is Jam, no matter what is happening to her its Jam. Hinda as her friend is already used to it.

Zarah is a fierce no nonsense girl that always speaks her mind even if it will get her kid, she is very outspoken and won't tolerate any injustice,  but at the end of the day she is a sweetheart,she is known for her chatter and mood lifting spirit,she always spread happiness everywhere she go but why is happiness far from her.  

"You didn't come to school or makarantar Allo today, what happened"Hinda asked taking Zahra off guard.

"Ohhh I totally forgot that school is resuming today"she lied, lying isn't her habit and she felt terrible, their mu'allim will sent her back from Makaranta Allo(islamiyya), she hasn't pay her fees for about six month.

Nobody does anything for free nowadays, charity is completely out of everyone's vocab..

Education is the best legacy, she strongly believes that and is thriving hard to get that knowledge, she loves going to schlol and is striving hard to ensure she gets herself the require western and islamic education.

Zarah,Hindatu and some of the girls whose parents does not think sending their daughters to a school for Western education is not a waste even if they stopped at the primary or secondary level.

They all attend the Government girls secondary school in their village and she was supposed to be in SS2 now,all her mates just stepped into their new class, while she is still roaming about mending her aching wound.

Hinda knew she didn't want her to press the issue further so she kept quite not wanting to pry, her friend hates people looking at her with pity, she remembered Zarah being Ecstatic about going back to school three days back while they're coming back from Tala (Hawking).

"Ama daga ina kike zuwa( But were you coming from).....Ammiey came to our house asking if you come there, she has been looking for you"Hinda voiced out worriedly.