..."Naughty girl." Hauwa shook her head from where she stood.
*
Dressed in a beige gown and wearing a coffee brown backpack was Jasmine. She had a beige veil draped on her shoulders, was wearing a pair of glittery ebony brown peep toe heels. She stuffed her ATM card, some naira notes, keys, lipgloss and phone into her glittery ebony brown purse.
"Here Humayd, hold this for me." She gave Humayd the purse. He was dressed in a navy blue T-shirt a denim jeans and black sneakers. "Keep this cookies in that bag, you'll take cookies to everyone at home." She gave him the box of cookies, referring to the paper bag beside him.
"Why?" He asked her as he did as she said.
"To make them happy and to out smiles on their faces." She smiled at him.
Jasmine carefully picked Aayan up, he was sleeping and she didn't want to wake him up. She held him with one hand and pushed his stroller with the other.
"Let me push it." Humayd offered and she let him.
"You took so long to come out. I've been waiting for you." Muslim stood up from the waiting chair just outside the entrance of the house.
"We didn't talk about you driving me, I'll drive myself." Jasmine said with a small smile. "You don't need to worry about me I'll handle it." She smiled a little wider.
Muslim stared at her blankly. "I promise you I'll handle it. Yes I'll call you if I need any help, yes I'll take care of myself and our baby, and my other baby too, no you can't come with me and no you didn't do anything wrong, you didn't offend me I just want you to rest." She grinned creepily. "See I can read your mind." She boasted, wiggling her brows.
"This color combo looks so good on you, you look so beautiful baby. You look like the most beautiful college girl." Muslim said with the most vibrant smile he could ever muster then gave her a peck on the cheek.
"I'm not a college girl." She punched him lightly on his chest.
Humayd tilted his head to one side, "You say your name is maama, but now your name is baby?" He sounded so confused.
"Right, her name is maama." He collected Aayan from her hold and kept him in his stroller then hugged her waist, forming a barrier between her back and the backpack she had on. She rested her hands on his shoulders, whispering, "what are you doing? Humayd is watching." But he only hugged her tighter.
"Can we please stop being strangers? I miss the old you, isn't it cute how we just are right now?" His voice was so low, very very low that it sent frissons down Jasmine's body.
He pulled away, cupped her face and said "What changed you?" He asked and she gave him an unbelievable look.
"I lost my best friend Muslim. And I'm trying to get used to the change in my home, it's nothing much I'll come around." She said and gently removed his hands from her face.
"Me too." Humayd said, stretching his two tiny arms. Muslim crouched down and picked him up, he tickled him and the little boy laughed as he tried to wiggled out of Muslim's hold.
Keeping him down, he said, "let's go."
"I told you I can drive myself. I want to go survey my shops tomorrow on my way back that's why I need to be with my car." She pushed the stroller and Humayd followed suit.
"I'll come back and pick you up then, we'll stop by at your shops, is that fine?"
"Why are you being so insistent? If you want us to go out, I promise we'll do that tomorrow night. Now let me go." She yanked her arm from his loose hold.
"You can be so adamant you know." He shook his head, letting her go.
"That makes the two of us." She said as she proceeded to her car. She collected her purse from Humayd, brought out her car key and unlocked the car.
"Let me help you with this." Muslim helped take off her backpack and kept it in the trunk while she kept Aayan in his basket which normally keep in her car. She folded the stroller and kept it in the backseat and Humayd sat beside Aayan's basket in the backseat.
"Let me occupy the passenger's seat, ma'am." Muslim bowed dramatically.
"Let it be." Jasmine smiled as she reached for a hug.
"Take care of the boys and yourself. I love you."
"I love you too." She said and pulled away.
"Extend my regards to everyone. Tell Sa'eeda that I say congratulations." He uttered as she entered the car.
"Now this feels familiar more like “us”." Jasmine said with a smile as she drove off, realising how much she missed that and she didn't even know.
Jasmine stood by the door holding her stroller and Aayan's hand. She left her backpack in the car, Humayd forgot his cookies.
"Good evening." The maid was the one that opened the door for Jasmine.
"Evening Halima dear." She patted the girl's head. She recently started working at her parents' and they enrolled her in the school and took her more like a daughter.
"No islamiyya today?" Jasmine asked rhetorically, she knew it was a Friday.
"Today is Friday. There's no islamiya." Halima said as she closed the door behind Jasmine.
"Ridiculous how I'll now have to press the doorbell and wait for someone to come and open up as though I'm a guest. I used to have the keys to the house." Jasmine shook her head, telling no one in particular as she proceeded into the house.
"You're late!" Someone exclaimed from behind Jasmine.
"Oh Aunty Aidah." Jasmine's voice shivered. She knew who it would be even before she turned around and gave her a hug. "So you came huh." She smiled creepily and hugged her elder sister.
"You're the closest of us all yet you came last." Aidah gentle smacked Jasmine's head.
"Ouch, that hurts."
"Stop being kids in front of your children." Nooria said, coming out of the kitchen. The sight she met with melted her heart.
Jasmine looked around to see Zunnurain standing by the three seater couch, leaning on it for support.
"Oh my little daddy, you've started walking already, you're such a big boy." She walked to him and picked him up. He started crying immediately.
"What is that supposed to mean? You don't know me?" Jasmine grimaced and kept him down. He pronto stopped crying.
"He doesn't walk yet. He stands." Aidah told Jasmine.
"Come Humayd. Say hi to your grandma here." She pointed to Nooria. Humayd knew her already. "This is aunt Aidah." She pointed to Aidah. They didn't know each other but Aidah heard about Humayd and she was there during Aayan's naming so she knew about his mother's death. "This crybaby is your cousin brother. His name is Zunnurain." She smiled at the little boy. Not sure if he could take in all of that.
Humayd went and gave Nooria a hug. "Grandma will give me so many beautiful foods right?" He said in his poor English which was too good for his age.
"It's not beautiful foods, it's delicious food. And yes I'll give them to you." Nooria smiled at the little boy.
"I'm speaking for Aayan now. Nobody loves me, nobody cares about me." Jasmine feigned a babyish voice.
"Where were you when Halima took him upstairs?" Aidah laughed at her. "She took him to Sa'eeda. She told her to take him to her as soon as you're here." Aidah explained making Jasmine heave a sigh of relief.
"Is Zayn here?" Jasmine asked with a grin.
"I told you everyone is here. You're the one that is late. He's at the terrace, probably with Eira." Aidah dramatically replied.
Taking Aayan's stroller to her previous room upstairs which was sparkling clean, she went to the terrace and found Zayn and Eira. They were oblivious to her presence.
Eira's head was on Zayn's shoulder as he stroked her back gently, slowly rocking back and forth. They were literally hugging but her huge belly created a gap between them. When Eira turned her face to the side, Jasmine saw the way she squeezed her face in pain, her eyes firmly shut. She jumped a little at the thought of how bad those contractions hurt, especially during the last days.
"Hope I'm not interrupting." She proceeded and stayed close to them.
"Hey little sis." Zayn meekly smiled at her.
"What's wrong with my baby mama? The baby girl is hurting?" Jasmine went to Eira's side.
"Oh you're here." Eira managed to smile.
"Oh come on, you're in so much pain. Come with me." Jasmine held Eira to support her and started walking her.
"Where are you taking her?" The confused husband asked.
"I'm going to show her better positions to relieve the pains, silly." With that, she walked with her out of her husband's sight, leaving him perplexed.
"Jasmine." Eira called faintly. "I think its labour." She whispered in Jasmine's ear. "It's getting really unbearable."
"Let's stay outside then, sit here. Or stand here." Eira stood against a pillar, whispering the du'as she could remember at that moment.
Zayn and Jasmine came few seconds later. Zayn helped his wife to the car and drove off while Jasmine went inside.
"Mummy. Zayn just left with Eira to the hospital, she's in labour. Just don't worry Sa'eeda and I will follow them with the baby box and other stuff." Jasmine explained to Nooria and Aidah in the living room. Nooria couldn't help but be proud of how responsible Jasmine sounded.
"You can't go baby you have to stay with your children. Sa'eeda and I will go." Nooria said and no one opposed to that.
"Ask Sa'eeda to get the keys to there house from Eira's handbag. She literally didn't bring anything with her because they were going to leave this night and come back tomorrow." Nooria ordered Jasmine as she fixed her jilbab.
"Sister! You ditched me!" Sa'eeda pretended to be mad.
"Well, mummy is calling you downstairs. Get ready you're going to the hospital, Eira's there." Jasmine explained in one breath.
"What happened to her?" Sa'eeda went to her wardrobe and picked out a cloudy blue for her floral gown that was different shades of blue and off-white.
"Get her keys from her handbag and follow mummy. If you come back, we'll do lot of catching up." Jasmine smiled at her little sister, who fumbled through Eira's bag and brought out the keys.
"Bye sweety." Sa'eeda gave Jasmine a quick hug and left. Jasmine picked her baby from the bed, fed him and took him downstairs with the stroller.
Jasmine turned on the TV for the kids to a Disney channel after everyone had left, called her husband and talked with him for three minutes to keep tell him she had reached home.
"Let's make Alfredo pasta." Jasmine said with a big smile, reminiscing about the first time she and Aidah cooked and the kitchen was the messiest thing you could ever see. The made Alfredo pasta.
"There's penne, or do you want us to use fettuccine?"
"Fettuccine will be better."
"So. Your husband remarried." Aidah started. Jasmine had been avoiding the topic whenever she tried talking about it on phone.
"He did." Jasmine replied, cutting the vegetables just beside the sink as Aidah stood by the sink, backing it.
Aidah hummed. "And that changed me a lot. I'm so cold with the both of them." Jasmine explained.
"But you consented Jasmine." Aidah looked up at her.
"It's not an intentional change, it's natural." Jasmine shrugged.
"You even went ahead with the marriage process. You consented." Aidah insisted.
"Aunty Aidah, consent, no consent, this marriage would take place sooner or later."
"You should've let it take place later. You marriage with him was not up to a year and half."
"Aunty Aidah, listen. Ummulkhayr is the reason I got separated from Sadeeq."
"How?" Her brows furrowed.
"He thought she died—" Aidah interrupted Jasmine.
"How comes she's even alive all of a sudden?"
"Aunty Aidah please, let me talk." Jasmine said and Aidah's hands went up in defence.
"He was under the impression that she died and he was responsible, he changed completely and only talked when extremely necessary. The parents knew it was costing him his health and that it was the dream of Uncle Omar to have a family with daddy—"
"As though they were not one strong family." Aidah rolled her eyes.
"It was supposed to be Zayn and Aisha but Zayn left because of that and the next option was me and Muslim and because he had lost his girlfriend—Ummulkhayr. Absurd how they knew about all of that but didn't tell me, they watched and even partook in the process of my marriage with Sadeeq knowing what they were planning. The second reason for my marriage with Muslim is because they did not want to lose him." Jasmine inhaled and exhaled deeply
Aidah wanted to say she was aware of all of that but decided against that when she thought Jasmine might have waited so long to vent this out to someone.
"I left Sadeeq forcefully because they wanted his peace more than mine. I did a lot of things for him to divorce me, I even wanted to file for a divorce at some point." Jasmine smiled weakly at her elder sister, she waited for her to ask how she could do that, scold her and leave with a flounce but none came from her. She was the only one that wanted to understand her and that made her confide in her more.
"I even...I even aborted a baby." She stared down at her fidgeting fingers. She knew Aidah had questioning eyes but she was more than grateful that she allowed her vent.
"Turned out they were twins and one left so Aayan is the other twin. That miscarriage mummy told you about, I did it intentionally. But then, later on, I realised I need to let go of the fantasy that Muslim will set me free and I'll end up with Sadeeq. You know, I seriously thought everything would happen like it does in books and movies. That Muslim would be a villain, he wouldn't treat me right, he'll divorce me and my parents would realise their mistake, I'd make up with Sadeeq and get married, end in the part where we're playing with our kids and I take a second or two to stand back and watch them in awe as I think of my past, my ‘traumatising’ past with Muslim. I realised that was all...delusional, you know." Jasmine's voice shook, she took few seconds to breathe, swallow the lumps in her throat and blink away the tears in her eyes. When they kept forming, she was left with no choice than to let them flow, at least, someone was there to tell her ‘all is well’.
"I decided to give Muslim and I a chance, not that I knew I was in love with him, until after I gave him chance that I saw our home, relationship and bond blooming. Well, it didn't take a long time, it all happened in a short time when everything crumbled due to the weight of the words, ‘Ummulkhayr is alive’ I swear I felt my world crumble, I felt some strings in my heart cut, I felt my chest paining me, I felt my heart broke. I literally heard the sound of it shattering as though a glass just fell. I however pretended all was well it is all I've seen my mother do by the way, she stands strong not matter what." She wiped her tears, evading eye contact with Aidah.
"He said we should go check on her in hospital when she was in coma. We traveled, nobody knew that. If you saw the affection in his eyes aunty Aidah, it was unmistakable, he was long gone, right then I knew the kind of love he had for her. We came back and processed the marriage, they got married. The night I gave birth, that very night he had went to see her and came back before dawn, he thinks I do not know." Jasmine sniffed.
"My Hafsat left me, making my heart break again but nobody knew how broken I was, how broken I am. I'm really trying to mask it you know." She chuckled bitterly.
"Zayn opened a farm for me where i rear cows for dairy and meat, layer and broiler chicken, fishes and take them to my shops to sell them there, just for me to keep myself busy and to depend on myself also but it's doing nothing to be sincere."
"That's a lot to take in baby girl. Why didn't you tell me all of this since? Come here." Aidah extended for a hug, she stroked her younger sister's back, who let warm painful tears stream down her face.
"Cry as much as you want, I'll swallow all of it, I'm here." Aidah reassured her for the umpteenth time since she knew her.
"You're my safe haven." She managed to form, her voice shaking.
"I know, I know my love." She quickly wiped the lone tear the escaped, she wanted to save that all for later when she would be alone.
Although Aidah was the only one that had a close-to-perfect marriage–no marriage is perfect of course; not even Nooria and Usman's marriage is as beautiful as Aidah's and Tahir's.
"Sometimes—" Jasmine pulled away after wiping her tears. "I wonder if all of this is because I delayed my marriage with Sadeeq for no reason, depending on my studies as a reason which was not. I knew it is islamically wrong to delay marriage just like that but I did it nonetheless. Had I not do that, had my parents not agree to that, had Sadeeq became a little more persistent, I would've been with him." Jasmine completed with an abysmal smile making Aidah to look at her with deep sadness.
"I promise you, everything will be okay my love. You'll smile genuinely. Nothing lasts forever, not even pain, nor happiness. All of it will come and go. Just keep praying." Aidah advised like the second mother she had always been to her three younger siblings.
"Thank you for listening. I have waited to long to receive this after venting."
"You're welcome and I'll always be here when you need me."
"Let's make Alfredo pasta." Jasmine said, indicating that the topic was over. Although she didn't say it, Aidah knew better than not to keep that conversation a secret.
__________________
Please keep the comments flooding.