The tension in the room was palpable. No one said a word since Aishe had thrown a bunch of rhetorical questions at the latest arrived duo. Yasmeen bit repeatedly on her index fingernail, assuming a quietness she wasn't known for.
Aishe was doing a perfect job containing her anger in order not to draw their guests' attention to them. Yasmeen could see that, especially now that everyone believed Habeeb was back to join his family for his sister's wedding. However, the drama wasn't about to start yet, not when Habeeb and their father weren't in the same room.
" I don't know why you are making this such a big deal out of this! It's not like I escap-...."
" Shut up Habeeb. Not a word from you." Aishe began to dial her husband's number.
Habeeb shrugged as if he did not care; meanwhile, his heart was threatening to leave his chest in apprehension of meeting with his father.
"This is worse than escape, you two. Escaping would have given us the benefit of blaming the facility for their recklessness!" Aunt Ruwaya spat." What if something bad had happened? You two could easily have gotten kidnapped without anyone knowing. The son of a governorship candidate and his cousin who is also the Shehu's daughter." Aunt Ruwaya slapped her thighs with both hands dramatically. "Great fortune. Even for me!"
Yasmeen tried not to laugh at Aunt Ruwaya's statement. She was trying to ease the tension with her joke, but it definitely seemed not to work on Aishe. The glare she was shooting at her sister-in-law was evidence. Standing in the corner, Yasmeen clasped her lips together, preventing herself from laughing. She knew it was a serious matter, but how could she not laugh, with the way aunt Ruwaya just dramatized it. She knew it wasn't an easy thing to let go of, but it was her wedding! They could just get over it and celebrate her brother and cousin's safe arrival. From the way Aishe spoke to her father over the phone, she knew celebration was not on the list.
It seemed Aishe had forgotten it was her only daughter's big day. She had been occupied with finding Habeeb that she forgot to attend to her daughter. Yasmeen contemplated telling her mother about the new development, the Polo game that would be held in their honour. Could she?
Yasmeen would find a way to seek her mother's permission, although she wouldn't get her hopes high,given the short notice. Yasmeen walked herself to the middle of the room where Habeeb stood, ignoring the any bit of tension filling air in the room. Habeeb was her brother, and as long as he was back safe, she wasn't hiding her delight, no matter what her parents thought. She held his hand and smiled. She couldn't hide her joy when he squeezed her hand and pulled her in for a hug.
" Your father will be here soon Habeeb. Then you" Aishe said pointing to the two of them" get to explain to him how you got here."
With that, Aishe left to join the guests outside the room, continuing to pretend that nothing had happened.
" Raihan, your father knows you're in town, so you better get ready to leave because I don't want to answer any more palace summons."
" I am not going anywhere." Raihan wasn't the pouty type. Her face indicated that was her final decision, and that wasn't going to change.
" I am not trying to negotiate with you. You are leaving for the palace, immediately!"
" why? It's not like my father has sent for me."
" He doesn't have to Raihan!" Aunt Ruwaya was final about it. "I am done going to the palace to answer for your stubbornness."
" I did not do anything wrong!"
" You left without telling him!"
" He knew! He gave me the permission to go. He knows i am back."
" He'll answer to me for sending you there without telling me first. Downstairs if five minutes."
Raihan mumbled, rolling her eyes, after the door had slammed shut.
It was now just the three of them in the room. Yasmeen broke the brief silence with a squeal she had been dying to let out from the minute they arrived.
" I am so happy you both are here!" Yasmeen said jumping on the sofa. "I missed you so much."
Yasmeen was going in for a hug when Raihan stopped her. " Hey hey hey!"
"What is it?" Yasmeen pouted.
" I have not forgotten that you weren't worried I won't be present for your wedding"
" Come on honey it's not like I was actually going t-.."
"Obviously you were. I mean you couldn't consult me or even seek my approval or even ask for my blessings?" Raihan asked wearing a serious expression.
A snort came from the chair adjacent. It was Habeeb. Raihan glared dangerously at him, analysing a fitting comeback for what he had done because she knew he was laughing at her. Yasmeen and Sadiq were just aa redo of Raihan and Habeeb. They wouldn't live in peace or away from one another.
" What was that?"
" Why would she seek your approval? She needs my blessings only." Habib knew Raihan was pissed, so he decided to test her patience. " Besides, I would be half-brained before I come to you for any-.." Habeeb wouldn't look .
" Oh so you thought your brain was whole all this while?" Raihan said coolly.
"And yet I knew you aren't fit to give a meaningful recommendation. Worse than I imagined." Habib replied putting his phone away, waiting for her to response.
" I am not going to argue with you now. I will wait till my uncle gets here" Raihan demonstrated the way Aishe did earlier.
" Okay. Are you telling on me? Ya Nana you think everyone is terrified of their own father?"
" Who says I'm scared of my father? I am a good girl, you are the bad boy who would not stop getting into trouble that's why my uncle wanted to get rid of you."
" Oh is that so?" Habeeb laughed loudly." So good girl, your father wanted to do what with you when he sent you thousand miles to go and study?"
Yasmeen knew it was the breaking point. She wasn't laughing, at least not until the blankness disappeared from Raihan's face. First the name he called her, Ya Nana, she hated that name. Second, Raihan would joke about anything but the circumstances upon which she was sent abroad to study medicine. Habeeb knew too but it was known to all how badly they hurt each other before they reconciled.
Habeeb and Raihan were only months apart at birth, Habeeb being older. Raihan spent most of her childhood with Yasmeen's in England, while her parents traveled the world. Before Yasmeen was born, they were the only children around. That made their bond stronger.
" Okay guys that's enough" Yasmeen tried to stop the argument before it got out of hand. " Let's go do something fun. The playroom is open. We can play a game, us three."
" I'll leave with my mother. It's going to be a long evening."
__________________
It was past midnight and everyone had fallen asleep after long hours of playing videogames. Yasmeen had earlier managed to get her brother and cousin to abandon their bickering and got Habeeb and Sadiq to play against her team with Amir. The room was freezing from the air-conditioning. Yasmeen pulled her cap to cover her ears . She looked at Amir, who was peacefully cuddled beside her on the couch, fast asleep. Yasmeen dipped her fingers in his lush hair, smiling. She would miss being with her family, like this in the house. She had never thought leaving her family would stir up her mind this much. Yasmeen felt a tear roll down her cheek. Just as she was about to sniffle the warm fluid that filled her nose, the door pushed open. It was Aishe. Yasmeen could see in the dim light how her mother's hair was done into zairo shim falla. The scarf she had on revealed most of the hair at the back that was packed into a messy bun. She looked beautiful.
" Did I wake you up?" Aishe asked calmly.
" No." Yasmeen sniffled, wiping her tears.
" Have you not slept?"
" No mommy, I could not sleep."
Aishe's eyes glistened in the dark room as she smiled. She couldn't utter a word at that moment because she knew she would break in tears if she did. She swallowed the lump in her throat, broadening her smile to keep herself from weeping.
" Come here"
There was room on the couch where Yasmeen and Amir laid, Aishe joined them. Yasmeen didn't know she needed her mother's hug until she was in her arms. She held Aishe tight, inhaling the ever comforting scent of hers. Unlike her father, Aishe didn't have a signature scent, but Yasmeen could tell when she was around.
" You should sleep Yasmeen, there's a long day ahead of you."
" I know but I can't sleep mom, is that how it is? I can't get it off my mind that I will be leaving this house and you."
" No one is ever ready to leave their family. It is the same with every girl when the time comes. You are strong Yasmeen. I started crying a fortnight to my wedding."
"What?"
" Yes. Most of the beauty treatment was a waste. I had a puffy face all along."
" Really mommy? Well you have a valid reason, Hajju is a sweet woman."
Aishe gave Yasmeen a glare, she wished she could take what she said, back.
" Oh no mommy I think you are sweet too, and I will definitely miss you."
Aishe couldn't help smiling. She had raised Yasmeen to be a fine young girl who knew her limits. She wasn't crossing any when she made that joke. Aishe knew she wasn't the most lenient when it came down to her children especially Yasmeen. She was her only daughter. With the long history of only daughters becoming wayward and insolent, she couldn't allow hers to be one of them.
" You are a good girl my dear. I know I have not been the best mother you would wish for, but I do not regret raising you the way I did."
Aishe pulled back from the hug and looked Yasmeen straight in the eyes.
" Even so, you could have resisted. You would have chosen what you wanted regardless, but you kept being obedient the whole time."
Yasmeen could not blink. With what was happening before her eyes, she couldn't afford missing an ounce of it, not even to meet such natural necessity as blinking. It was Aishe saying all the things she would have loved to hear all her life!
" I didn't realize it was this moment I was preparing you for. I thought I was just raising my daughter so she could be a good woman in the family and somehow I wished to protect you from Fato kura's( Yasmeen's paternal family) relentless finger pointing. "
Aishe sighed and looked in the distance. " I am grateful to God I can say I did this well. And you made it all easy for me. I cannot be happier having you Yasmeen. Now that you are getting married, I feel like the purpose of my life is being fulfilled and there's nothing else to do. I -..."
Aishe's voice broke. Yasmeen was not familiar with this part of her mother. She felt her nose sting and her eyes water, not knowing how to react to the situation. She was torn between comforting her mother and crying, herself.
" Mummy I am all that I've always wanted to be. YOU made it easy for me. I love you mama."
They were both now crying uncontrollably, not minding a bit about the people sleeping in the room. It was the reality that it was time they parted, hopefully never to be thesame again. She would be leaving the comfort of her mother's arms into a new home. A chapter of her life she was yet to uncover.