The caring that shine in her eyes seems genuine. It really did. That amazed her too, because she don't see that more often in a woman's eyes for her. Not even in her mother's. She'd looked for something like that, but couldn't find any as such. And the next she knew, she was hugging that woman tightly. That warmth and tenderness.
Even abbah was surprised, Noor has never been like that with anyone, not even when she fell in love with Hadiza, she walked in a baby step to reached there. But that instantly! That's the first, and it's beautiful!
Three weeks has passed by since the news of her aunt reached her. Noor have been overly excited and she doesn't know the reason why her aunt arrival was making her so jubilant like a child on eid day. Although, since she learned about her aunt's story, she's been connected to her aunt even before their meeting.
Abbah had told her that her aunt had to wrap somethings in South Africa where she resides with her family. That's why it took too long. Noorur-rahman has never wait and plan for anything like she have done and awaits that meeting, maybe since she became a teen, she hasn't been excited over anything like that. And she really do want to believe it's everything to do with Isma'il spiritual therapy, no doubt about it she have been feeling good about herself lately. Her mind is slowly getting a focus and choosing direction.
Isma'il had told her the night after their first reading session of Riyadh-us-Saliheen in the living room, that there's no bigger therapy for a soul than the holy Quran. Indeed, Noor had felt guilty, she can't remember the last time she get hold of the holy book. Perhaps, since she ditched going to ta'alim almost three years ago.
Incorporating, the holy quran into her schedules since that day have been good and a bit challenging, for she sometimes she gets lazy. So now she memorize few surah after every fajr prayer, something she have witness her abbah doing since she knew him. Well, she had started doing that along with him a long times ago, but she stopped somewhere along the way. One of her recent achievement these days is doing her salah on time, the consistency is amazing. And life have been good since then. Isma'il has told that no soul is ever too rotten to pray, 'Noorie, don't even think for a second that you're rotten, okay?' He'd said. She wonder how much faith he has in her. For the longest time that's what she felt in her.
"Masha Allah, Noor. You're so beautiful!" The aunt said getting out of the hug with her niece. And for the very first time Noor feels welcome in a stranger's embrace. That brought about a feeling so strange, yet all the rightness was there. Her face has already turned red from excitement, so is her eyes. She can't believe it, it's love at first sight!
So she hugs her aunt again, tightly, "well, Noor really loves, Rabi'a!" Abbah announced giggling, that's really so very rare.
"She's a sweetheart, Yaya!" Rabi'a said as Noor released her from her clutches. And abbah wonder on the last time someone called him yaya. Perhaps, she went missing.
Noor was mesmerized, not only by her aunt beauty, but also her gentleness. She seems quiet but interesting. "And you look just like abbah, more beautiful than the pictures of you I saw. I can't believe my eyes."
"Oh I'm sorry, dear." The aunt said adorably caressing Noor's chin. It's a sight to see, and they got audience, whom are really happy with their instant connection and they'll allow them to have their moment.
"What are you sorry for?" Noor asked a bit confused.
"That I'm only getting to know you now, I mean I missed on being your auntie all those years."
"If you're sorry, then you should do your auntie job in double to make up for the past years. It's better too late than never!"
"Oh that's not a problem," they all laugh including their audience and she invited her aunt in.
"I hardly ever cook, but today I participated in cooking some delicious meal just for you."
"I'm lucky then."
"Yes, you really are! I have never seen Noor like that," Isma'il intervened. He's dying to introduce himself, for Rabia was a story each member of their extended family learned while growing up. It's like one of those fairy tales that you grow up being curious of. And as time when by, you just believe that it's only a folktale. But there she's in flesh, in all her glory. And he wonder how his Inna will react to such news.
"And you are?" Rabia asked curiously, on her meeting with her brother, he'd told her he only have a daughter.
"Isma'il!" He says, smiling as always.
"He's Inna Yalwa's grandson, Saratu's second son." Abbah said, and realization dawned on her. Indeed, she remembers Inna Yalma, her mother's strict elder sister. Nevertheless, Inna has always love them like one of her own. Was there ever a time she discriminate between them? No, Rabia couldn't remember any, being the only daughter of her mother, Inna Yalwa will always bought her clothes with the rest of her daughters. And every eid, she awaits her presents.
A warm smile spread across her face all over again, she remembered the baby him. Why will she not? She'd to beg Hajiya Atiku for days before she let her traveled to Kaduna to see him "Oh my Allah, see how big you became. Your mother is one of my favorite cousin, is she still a fashionista?" Rabi'a is becoming excited, Oh Allah, all those memories. She really had veiled some of her memories, a lot of which hurt to remember. And Inna Yalwa was one of them. How could she have done that?
Tears filled up her eyes, as she remembers the event of her first marriage. A lots of people were and few were as sad as she was. That's the last time she met with a lots of her relatives. She's sure a lots have forgotten about her. Her ruination all begun with that marriage. Or maybe it begun from the very day her mother took her last breathe.
Rabi'a dabbed her eyes with the edge of her veil, when she recall that there are people there, still excited with her presence. You zoned out again! "Oh I'm sorry for being a cry baby!" She laughs in between her tears, only Allah knows how she had endure to be standing there with them.
"It's okay, we expect that much. You haven't been here in a long time. But you just came, take everything slow!" Aunt Jamila finally made her presence known.
"You're surrounded by beautiful women here, Yaya. I'm sorry for keeping you all standing, let be seated and we will all get to know each later."
.......
Auntie Rabi'a was a starry night enthusiast. The sky in particular have been her consolation, back then when she used to be a hostage in that tiny room, the stars have kept her company. She even went as far as to count them from the only window in the room. Even after all that, the sky have remains her absolute good friend, because no matter where her family are in this tremendous world, they all share the same sky. The air, the food and anything else might be different, but the same sky is in china, Nigeria and wherever.
A light knock on the door soon caught her from her train of thought, she permitted the intruder to come in. It's long after dinner, everyone has already turned to bed and Noor didn't know why she have the confidence that her aunt is still awake. But her instincts boost the idea.
"Hope I'm not disturbing." Noor said poking her head in the room, it remember of a certain someone. Perhaps, that's how Naana felt with too. Oh she missed the girl more than she thought she would.
"Not at all, I just finished a phone call with Sadiq and his dad, come in."
"You miss them already!"
"They love me a lot, I have no choice." They both laugh at that and got seated on the bed. Rabi'a is currently using the room opposite to Noor's gym room. That room have pretty much never been used by anyone. Their guest room is located downstairs, and all the guests that have ever visited them stays there. Inna Yalwa was once offered to stay there, but because of the stairs, she obliged. Though, Hajiya Atika have always wanted to stay in one the room upstairs, but Noor never allowed it.
"Wow, so Hajiya's choice was after all a prince. You married a prince, who ended up taking you to a wonderland from Zaria!" Rabi'a eyes widen at first, she wonder if that's the idea everyone has of her marriage.
"No dear, he's actually a frog and a big fraud too." Her niece seems sensible, so perhaps, it's okay to said that.
"Really, but you said he loves you!"
"I have not been married to him in a very long time now, Noor! Hajiya does nothing good for anyone other than herself." Rabi'a smiled, patting her chest a bit to soften the sudden knots in her chest.
"Finally!" Noorur-rahman sighed as if she have been holding her breathe for a long time.
"What's that?"
"I said out loud?"
"Yes, you did, dear!"
"It's Hajiya, she has done and is still doing bad things to people. She manipulate everyone into doing what she want. Yet, no one ever saying anything!"
"She's still the same, isn't she?" And suddenly, the whole conversation start to make her Auntie Rabi'a sick.
"Yes, she is!"
"That's too bad then!" She smiled, murmuring 'la ilaha illal- lahu Al-'Azim, al- Halim, la ilaha illal-lahu Rabbu-s-samawati wal-ard wa Rabbu- l-arsh il-azim', to calm herself.
"Auntie, will you ever go back to Zaria again?" Noor asked, scrutinizing her aunt face who just took a deep breathe. She have asked herself the same question for a while now.
The thought of going back to Zaria suddenly makes her nostalgic. Before all that, Zaria was home and there's no place as such. That's where she spent her childhood, the memory of her parents all came from there. When she thought of that place, her mother's room came in to mind. The old iron four poster bed with a canopy curtains during the cold season, and when it's no longer cold, her mother will replaced the canopy with a light mosquito net.
Not to forget the smell of the almira where her clothes and her mother used to be kept. Oh that reminds her of the somewhat sweet scent of her mother's ultimate pomade, mai gurguwa (stella pomade). One day due to her clumsiness she had broken a jar of it, that's collected on credit. Her ever so patient mother had ignored her all day that her elder brother Muntari had to intervened the next day.
Being the only female child of her mother's, she'd been pampered no doubt about that. Her mother will let her lay around all day long if she wanted to. But school had always been a must, her mother always wanted her to be educated so as not to end up like her. She can never forget the late night gist she used have with her mother before they sleep. "Rabi'atu!" Her mother will always say her full name, "you must always remember to make du'a, always ask Allah for sabr(patience)". She's only a girl then, of course she'd prayed as her mother asked of her, but never so deep as her mother had wished. She'd only realized what her mother meant when she's six feet under.
Rabi'a have always knew Hajiya Atika was vile, but when her mother was alive, her twelve year old self could barely paid attention to her ill stepmother's doing. Her mother will never let Hajiya get to her.
As for her father, he's the people's man. So generous and kind, he used to play with her. Being among one of the youngest children around. Her father even helped her made a doll out of the top edge of sugarcane. He used to own a huge sugarcane farm back then. Now she can only wonder what happened with it after his demise. So much had indeed happened in her absent. Twenty five long years has past by. And a lot has been taken away from her.
Though, when she's married up to her monstrous ex-husband, he didn't say a thing. However, she remembered one day before she left Zaria, Alhaji Ilu had taken a trip to their house. He didn't said much. Only that she should take care of herself and let go when it's right to do so.
Therefore, going back to Zaria again might not be suitable for her, psychologically. "Maybe someday, I will. Beside there's nothing to go back to. I'm sure the house must have went through a lot of renovation. I might just be disappointed."
"My grandmother's room is still the way it's. It's only opened when there's weddings. But no one used it in a long time now."
"I guess, everybody in the house is married now."
"Yeah, pretty much everyone."
"Do you like it there? I heard you used to live there." Auntie Rabi'a asked with keen eyes on her niece, of course she didn't missed how her expression changed since she brought up the topic of Zaria herself.
"Not really, I'm the most hated granddaughter there. All your sisters doesn't like me, they said I'm a spoiled brat." Noor said smiling.
"They treated you badly?" By then her aunt's eyes are already fill up with tears. She knew what it's to be hated by Hajiya and her daughters, the dead will be better up than you. Noor only muster a smile to hide the over flooding emotions that are threatening to break loose again. A tear roll down her left eye, and that's because no one had ever asked her how badly she was treated by them. For according to abbah, he don't know they done it, and it's still there imprinted her heart and soul.
"Oh dear, I'm really sorry that happened to you."
"It had been a while since I was mistreated, auntie." Noor said wiping off her tears. "I'm not the most hated niece and granddaughter for nothing." Noor laughed it off, dying for the topic of discussion to be change.
"Ok now, let talk about something happy. Tell me about your mom."
"I'm afraid she's also a worst news!" Her aunt stared at her a bit dumbfounded.
"How is that so?" Her brows knitted, questioningly.
"Well, I recently met her. Just a few weeks ago and she didn't like me. She and abbah got separated when I was two months old. She left me and we never met until few weeks ago."
"Oh dear, you got caught up in adult stuffs."
"I guess, I did!" Noor smiled, there's more to tell her aunt, but she's afraid her aunt will be too sorry for her. "If you want to hear something happy, then we should talk of how too good your brother is. Abbah is the nicest person alive."
"Oh my brothers have always been too good, especially your abbah. I used to think he's too naive." They both chuckles.
"I can't really remember much about Baba Muntari, but abbah always speak so highly of him. You know, sometimes I feel like he's bragging about having siblings while I don't." Aunt Rabi'a laugh at her niece innocent accusation,
"Why did you think so?"
"If I thought about it, I will definitely not be saying so, because I feel that my abbah is so broken too. I mean, he lost all his love ones, all those that he truly love end up leaving him. One thing though, is for certain, he loves his father so much that he willed to put up with Hajiya and her shenanigans, despite all she have done to you all. I'm really glad you're doing alright and abbah is able to meet you again, else he will have continue to blame himself for rest of his life. I'm so sorry all that happened to you, auntie. I'm also sorry that abbah wasn't able to do anything to save you then."
Rabi'a could do nothing other than engulfing her niece into a tied embrace. She don't know what they had done with Noor, but she's sure as hell they did something bad to her. "Oh Noor, I thought you're a kid. But look at you saying all this things and making me cry. I swear by Allah, your abbah isn't at fault, I don't blame him, Noorie. We all know what Hajiya is like, her ways are malicious, dear. And who said this is how to talk happy things." They both chuckle wiping their tears.
"Well, tell me about my cousins then." Noor later learned that her aunt have three children, two boys and a girl who is the middle one. Both her three new cousin though, are younger than her. Due to the that fact her first marriage was complete diaster.
After years of searching, Noor finally found someone who have survived the pain inflicted by Hajiya. Perhaps, that pain was her their first instant connection. No doubt about it, pain do really connect people together.
.......
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