They stood in front of the ironed door and he turned to see the way his friend, if truth be told, only friend, was grinning while he rubbed his palms against each other. He was so happy, he didn't even have to say it out.
"Are you nervous to get in?" He asked, because that would be the only reason they'd be standing here, for what? Almost five minutes now and Anas didn't make any move to get in.
He turned to him with the most beautiful kind of smile and shook his head. "Do you know how long it has been since when I last saw her, Zaid? Five years! I haven't seen her for five freaking years and I don't even know how to act when I do now. Has she changed? Will she think that I've changed?"
He scoffed and that seemed to stop Anas from rambling on and he stopped midway, maybe figuring how he was talking. "Man, didn't you say she was married?" He nodded his head, there was no use speaking his answer. "Then why are you acting as if she's your long lost love?"
"You won't get it, Zaid..."
He nodded and pulled his hands out of his pockets. "I won't get it and I don't know if I'm willing to. Either we get in now or I swear I'm getting on the next bike I'll see and go back to the hotel. I won't be staying while you can't even muster the courage to get in."
It was either Anas knew him enough to know that he could leave him to his own predicament or he too was tired of all that. He watched as he released a shaky breath, rubbed his palms some more and nodded, probably internally giving himself the pep talk and he walked toward the door with confidence.
"Let's knock first, I pray she's the one that'd open the door for us." He spoke to himself while Zaid watched as he knocked on the door with tentative hands.
Few seconds later, they heard the sounds of footsteps as someone walked over to the door and unlocked it. Zaid could swear Anas had held his breath when that happened until they saw the face that opened the door. It was that of a ten year old boy, smiling widely at them.
"Good evening," the boy greeted and Anas smiled, or if he could do justice to the expression that broke on his face, grinned with mist of tears in his eyes.
"You can't be Waleed, right?" He asked with a voice threatening to break and they both watched the boy nodded his head with curiosity dangling from his eyes. Anas outstretched his hand for a shake and chuckled, "you've grown so well, oh my god!"
The boy shook his hand and he slightly pulled him inside. "Ammi has been waiting for your arrival, come in." He said and rushed inside, probably to inform his dearest Ammi about their arrival.
Anas turned to Zaid with a grin, "I'm so happy right now, Zaid. Can you see how grown up Waleed is? Doesn't time fly so fast?" He asked with a tone that spoke of his feelings and all Zaid could do was flash him a grim as he nodded his head, walking further into the house because he had notice there was no intention of doing that from Anas.
They stood by the door of the living room and heard the shuffling sound of someone rushing to come there. Zaid was the one standing by the door and Anas was was behind him, as he fixed his eyes on the door, his entire body getting frozen as he expected to see the face he had longed for five years. He had missed and wanted to see so badly.
A second away from getting his friend suffocated, she opened the door. And Lord Of Creation! instead of Anas, he was the one that got suffocated instead. She stared at him for a second before her eyes wandered to Anas and her entire face broke into a grin as she rushed to him, hugging him entirely while she burst into tears of joy along with a squeal coming out of her mouth. And Zaid stood there, rooted to the ground while he watched them hug each other with tears in their eyes.
"Anas! Oh my Allah!" She cried some more, clinging onto him as Anas rocked them both. He was crying too. And he wondered, which kind of bond these two shared that even though it had taken them five years to see each other, it seemed to still be active and alive?
Zaid couldn't take his eyes off her. She had dressed beautifully, even though from a single look one would certainly see that she was lacking in more ways than one. But of what she had used to create what she looked like today, she looked magnificent and it seemed as though she had done some magic to have him hooked onto her. His eyes never leaving her face and she kept smiling while tears flowed down her cheeks.
They were now finally seated in her living room. Everything about her home spoke loudly of what she lacked but her face? She looked the happiest. Zaid couldn't keep his eyes off her even though for each second that passed, he reprimanded himself for staring at her. Probably staring too much that she had noticed and turned to Anas that was seated beside her on the sofa, this time, leaving a reasonable space between them.
"Anas, is he your friend?" She had asked, with a kind smile and every time she spoke, Zaid couldn't help himself but be enthralled with the way her voice sounded.
Anas turned to him and smiled widely. "Yes, he's Zaid. Remember him? The one I always talk to you about?" She seemed to think for a minute before she quickly nodded her head and her face broke into a grin.
"Oh my god, Zaid? Good evening!" She greeted him excitedly and hearing his name from her mouth, uttered using that voice, it was hard to shake off the feeling and answer her, but thankfully, he did.
"Good evening," he said and ducked his head down. Because how could he keep on staring at her face when she was staring right back at him? He was all sort of things, but not that shameless, right?
They spent almost two hours in the house. They ate, even though it took a a lot of persuading from both her and Anas before he agreed to eat and when they were about to leave, she walked them to the door.
"Waleed, Uncle Anas is leaving, come and say good bye to him!" She called out. And as though a movie was playing right before his eyes, Zaid watched the boy ran to them and he shook hands with Anas and out of courtesy, shook his hand as well as they bade them goodbye.
They must've probably spoken a lot, said a lot, but he heard nothing. All he did was stared at her face while she looked enormous. Not in the fashion or luxury sense, but in the sense of her being. She looked enormous and he had never been hooked on someone like he was today. He didn't even know what got over him. Like, she was obviously married!
Anas smacked his arm after they had walked a distance away from the house, his face looking so relaxed and collected. "You haven't spoken a word, man!"
He sighed and slightly shook his head to get back into his senses. "I was just in a thought and you know that I'm not usually a talker."
"I'm so glad to see her, Zaid." Ignoring what he had said, Anas spoke of his mind and Zaid nodded his head.
"It has shown all over your face. Which makes me wonder, what are you really feeling towards her? It's so unlike you to act this way around a woman, Anas." He was teasing, which was so unusual and rare, but he was at his best when Anas was around.
Anas turned to him and flashed him a sad smile. "She's my sister. My niece, actually. What do you think I should feel about her? We grew up in the same house, Zaid! Sometimes you have the worse kind of imaginations."
"I'd love to see you admit it someday." That was all he said before they hailed bikes and went immediately to the automobile shop, where they had kept his car after it had gone faulty and Anas wasn't patient enough to wait until it was repaired.
They stayed there until after Isha prayer and it was repaired before they left. They drove around Damaturu for over thirty minutes with no specific location to go. He loved exploring new towns and seeing the way people lived. Even though it was a bother that Anas couldn't stop rambling about how much he had missed her and would love to see her before they leave, when all Zaid wanted was to get her picture off his mind, it was still bearable.
They had come to Damaturu for their NYSC. A few phone calls would've gotten them changed back to Kano or any location of their choice, but Anas was so persistent and practically begged him so they could come, and it was solely because he wanted to see her and he did. And the smile on his friend's face? It was worth every thing they had to endure both on road and in the camp.
They had collected their exit today and had already applied for relocation. "We're leaving tomorrow," he announced out of the blue moon and immediately, Anas turned to him.
"What do you mean? We just got out of camp today and we're leaving already?"
"Anas, what exactly would we be doing in this town? And we have only been in camp for two days before you insisted we leave because you want to visit her. I mean, seeing her is the sole purpose of all this NYSC wahala to Yobe, isn't it? And now that we've achieved that, can't we leave?"
"Can't we at least stay for a week, Zaid? I want to at least visit her twice or thrice before I leave, please?" He wanted to laugh at his expression, but he had understood long ago that whenever it came to her, things were so real for Anas and he wasn't just pretending that expression, it was coming from his heart.
"Umma would throw a fit if I don't go back to Kano on time, Anas. You know it."
"You don't have to tell her that we've exited from the camp..."
"You're acting as if she doesn't know already. I won't budge if she calls me now and tells me where I am, you know all this." He hated thinking of all the things that were going on in his life. It was easier staying on the sideline as he watched his friend be happy and giddy over a love he would never admit to. Or maybe he was the one thinking so hard about it. His love might be pure and innocent, just like his heart was.
Sadness washed over Anas's face as he nodded his head. "I understand. Two more days then. We can visit her once more before we leave, deal?"
"Deal."
∞
They were back in the hotel and Anas had gone to the toilet to take his bathe when his phone began to ring. At first he wasn't willing to take the phone but he knew he had to check who it was first before he could make that decision and when he saw that it was Jawahir, his heart lost a beat. Zaid wasn't mentally ready for the earful he was certain he'd get from her, he really wasn't.
"Hey, beautiful." He called out, placing the phone on his left ear as he adjusted his position. He knew the phone call would take a lot of his time and he had to be active in all of it so long as he wanted peace to reign.
"You know you can't call me that when you've practically forgotten about me, right, Zaid?" She whined, and he could imagine her pouting her lips already.
He smiled. She was the only person that brought out the soft side of him. The side no one had ever seen and even he himself didn't know he had until he met her. And up to date, she was the only one who knew of this Zaid no one was familiar with, not even Anas.
He chuckled as he began to shake his head. "You know you're beautiful, and there's no doubt about that, right? And I'm so sorry for not calling you back when I promised I would and it has been how many days now?"
"Two days, Zaid! Two days and you didn't even remember that you have a girlfriend on the other side of the world..."
He cut her off midway, this line had always worked and he sincerely prayed that it would work this time too. "I don't have a girlfriend, I have a pending wife studying in the other part of the world and she'd soon join me so we could say 'I do' and live together for the rest of our lives."
It did work! She giggled and he felt as though his heart had been filled with something. He loved Jawahir. He had first met her when he went to Umrah with Ummah when he was in level two and she had just finished secondary school then. They had lodged at the same hotel with her family and that was how their little hotel lobby smiles turned into this, the kind of love he'd forever be grateful being able to experience.
They spoke lovingly on the phone, as she told him of how stressed out school had been for her and how she couldn't wait to finish it all and come back home. They spoke about how camp had been for the two days he had been in it and while they were deep into their conversation, almost fifteen minutes after Anas had motioned to him that he would go out and get something for them, he was hungry, despite having ate only two hours ago, Anas's phone started to ring.
He kept thinking who in the world left his phone in this era while it kept ringing and when he got tired of it and Anas was no where to be found. He took the phone to turn it to silence when the name that repeatedly kept calling caught his attention.
'Beeha.' With a soft red heart to show his emotions and he had heard about her for eternity to not know who she was.
He thought maybe she was going to ask how they had gone back. But when she called for the fifth time, Zaid excused himself from Jawahir and picked the call. "I'm sorry but..." His entire body jolted into a hiatus when he heard the way she was crying. Something so strong struck at his heart and shattered it in a way he had never known was left of his already battered heart.
"Anas, please help me..." She begged with a voice so solemn and hurting. "He has taken Waleed away. I can't move my limbs. Please save my son, Anas, will you?" Each word she had uttered came out choked with so much pain and it seemed to have taken a toll on her before she did.
His heart shook and break with every word of hers. Something so strong overtook his entire being. The unquenchable thirst to make sure she was fine and never to cry this way again. He didn't know how, but from the first look of her face Zaid was sure he had seen something familiar, and that was her sadness, her pain. Maybe it was because he knew that too much to the point that he could recognize it anywhere, but he did.
She kept whimpering in so much pain, and Zaid knew that enough to know it was physical pain. He gulped down a lump in his throat and nodded his head, clearing all the hazy thoughts in his mind.
"What happened?" He managed to ask and he sensed when her breath hitched.
"This isn't Anas. Is it Zaid?" Her crying voice uttered and he nodded his head, already on his way to the door after he had taken his car key.
"Yes, and would you please tell me what happened? We'll be there right now."
"I'm so sorry, but can you please give Anas the phone?"
"About to do that..." He didn't even close his mouth when Anas opened the door with two nylons in his hands and when he saw him, he raised an eyebrow.
"Where are you going? I thought you're going to be all lovey dovey for the rest of the night..." He asked with a teasing grin on his face as he walked deeper into the room.
"She wants to talk to you, it seems urgent." That's all he said as he handed him the phone and upon seeing the caller ID, Anas didn't hesitate to place it on his ear.
In less than a minute, they were already out and driving as fast as they could to her house. And when they arrived, they didn't even wait until she opened the door for them, they met it open and barged inside. But the sight in front of them wasn't of the woman that had just bade them goodbye some hours ago.
She was crumpled on the floor, her clothes-the same one that had enthralled Zaid and made her look so beautiful-were thorn apart and she had her skin tattered with whatever it was she was beaten with. She was whimpering and breathing painfully when she looked up at them with tears rolling down her cheeks.
"He has taken Waleed away." She whimpered painfully, and that's the most heartbreaking voice Zaid had ever heard. And he vowed that whoever it was that made her this way, would pay for it, dearly.