BISMILAHIR RAHMANIR RAHIM
ABUJA, NIGERIA
It was that time of the year in Abuja when people preferred to stay indoors in the comfort of their room because of the hot scorching sun but, it was not the same for the young lady who had literally ran away from home and from the comfort of her room, which she had always preferred and wanted nothing to take her away from her room especially in this time of the year when the sun was threatening to burn your head and crack it open, but what could she do? She had no choice but to run away, her two elder brothers Hassan and Hussein were home together with their wives and kids, so leaving the house was literally the best option, because she felt uncomfortable and suffocated in their presence. It's wasn't because Hassan and Hussein weren't nice, no they were the best brothers in the whole world and their wives were also the best and they were really nice to her because they have come to realize the soft spot she has in their husbands heart being the only female and the last child.
She loved them all but she felt uncomfortable in their presence because all attention was on her and they were all trying to shower her with love being the only female child, even Hassan's five year old child was a boy named Aryan and Hussein's two year old child was also a boy named Bilal. Yes Hassan's son was older because the twins didn't get married on the same day because Hussein felt he was not ready for marriage when Hassan had wanted to get married, even though it was a childhood dream to get married on the same day and to get married to sisters. Funny right? They wanted to marry women who are sisters because they don't want to separate them from each other, because they cannot also imagine getting separated from each other or from any of their siblings especially their baby sister and the only female child in the family. But some dreams are meant to stay as a dream and never turn into reality, and so was the dream Hassan and Hussein had because they never got married at the same day and their wife's were not sisters. Having both grandchildren to be male, made maha the only female child and she was always adored by all, especially her father who had always wanted all his children to be females but he got three men, but when he had least expected it and had lost hoped, he got a beautiful baby girl with beautiful dark green eyes, and because of her eyes he decided to name her maha, which meant half moon or beautiful eyes. The Arabian oryx antelope which is identified with the word maha in some source- it has been traditionally celebrated in Arabic poetry for the beauty of it eyes; the beauty of her eyes when she was a baby had earned her the name maha! Those beautiful dark green eyes which could unnerve any soul and if one was not careful, one would be lost in those beautiful dark green eyes. Her thought now was how she was going to face her two brothers because she didn't know what to say to them and it was all because of her phobia- anthropophobia, which she got after a very bad and heart shattering childhood experience. After what happened during her childhood it has caused her a lot of phobias that she had lost count of but all she knew was that after that incident she was never able to mingle freely but only with her father and her immediate elder brother, zayn whom she feels very comfortable with and can tell almost everything but her father? she can tell him everything. With all those thoughts in her mind and her mind far away from her current environment her iPhone 14 pro max began to ring and that was what brought her back to reality. she got the best of everything and she never used her money to get the best, it was always her father's money or her mother's money or one of her brothers money, they always made sure she got the best! She slide the accept button and placed the phone on her right ear.
"Assalamu alaikum akhi."
"Ayn anti?; Where are you?" Came zayn's worried voice.
"Ana bikhayr, Ana fi gwarimpa?; I am fine, I am in gwarimpa."
"Ala taelam an akhwatik eadwa?; don't you know your brothers are back?" Zayn did not bother to ask her what she was doing in gwarimpa because he knew she had ran away from Hassan and Hussein and he was not the type to meddle in other people's affair, though he loved his younger sister a lot he never bothered her to tell him everything, but whenever she wanted to tell him something, he was always ready to listen and give a helping hand if needed. He only bothered her to tell him things when he notice that she is not okay, but it is only on few occasions that she is not okay because maha had always been a free spirited person who doesn't take things personally, but what people like about her the most is the fact that she is so down to earth, even with her parents status in Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, the only way she could come back home was if he pretended Hassan and Hussein had not told him they had met her and he decided to use that trick on her and she fell right into the trap; how naive she could be at times!
"Sa'aeud baed 30 daqiqatan; I will be back in 30 minutes."
"Arak qariban; see you soon."
"Alwadae; bye." It was only after she had said this that she realized zayn had already hung up, he was never one who liked formalities at the beginning of calls so he just went straight to the point and at the end of a call he never said goodbye, he just hung up when he was done talking. Because of this attitude some people labeled him as arrogant but that was just how he was. She knew zayn and the rest of the family members would be waiting for her so she left the restaurant, and drove away in her Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV, which Hassan had given her as a birthday gift on her 21th birthday last year, so you see she always got the best without ever using her money. Just as she had told zayn she was home within 30 minutes.
"Matches! The love of my life, the only footballer in my heart." Maha said as soon as she entered the house and saw zayn, the name 'matches' was his nickname. Zayn was a successful football player and he used the name 'matches Al-harith' as his football name. During his 8 years in the career he had won a lot of prizes and had won the 2022 World Cup for his club, he was extremely handsome and had a well built body therefore his looks had earned him a lot of admirers even before he became popular as a footballer.
"What do you want? Don't touch me." Zayn said as he made to leave the couch he was sitting on, it was the little game they played everyday were he always pretended he hated her and didn't like her.
"What? you don't love me?" Maha asked as she slightly pouted her well shaped pink lips. To say she was beautiful would be a huge understatement, she had the face of an angel and and was extremely gorgeous and could make heads turn wherever she passed. Her skin is a gorgeous pale skin colour but not too pale and her long oval shaped face which made her look more stunning. She had large almond-shaped eyes which were bewitching, Eden green eyes, she had a slender and delicate nose that was so perfectly placed on her face, it was as if she was the one who created herself; Masha Allah! She was an epitome of beauty, her beauty was out of this world! It was safe to say that she was the most beautiful in the entire Al-Harith household!
"Don't mind him he loves you, he just doesn't want to say it out loud." Her father said.
"Yes Abu, i know." She said with a bright smile that exposed her dimples, even when she didn't smile and was only talking her dimples still showed. They had formed the habit of speaking English in their house instead of their language; Arabic, they only spoke Arabic with relatives from Saudi. Sometimes they spoke a bit of Hausa even though they were not very good at it, her father was extremely good in Hausa, because his mother Khadijah was a Hausa lady from Kano state, Nigeria and his father is from Saudi Arabia. His wife, Mariam who is a complete Saudi could only speak Hausa in bits and often preferred to speak English. As for their three sons they were very good in Hausa and no one knew who taught them, because sufyan had never taught any of them Hausa, as for maha she was extremely bad in speaking Hausa and she never pronounced the words correctly and her brothers always laughed at her so she had also stopped speaking Hausa, zayn and maha however, enjoyed speaking Arabic when they were alone or when they wanted to talk about someone in his presence and the person couldn't speak nor hear Arabic.
"Maha, why did you run away?" Hussein suddenly asked, he had always been a straight forward person, and he didn't sit well with the fact that maha was always trying to run away from them. He believed that he,Hassan and their umm were not the cause of what had happened to her during her childhood, so she has no reason to always avoid them.
"Oh! I didn't run away."
"Whatever." He said as he rolled his eyes but the anger and frustration was as clear as daylight in his voice.
"I am really sorry Abu Bilal." The minute she could him 'father of Bilal' which is Abu Bilal in Arabic all his anger varnished, because of the immense love he has for his two year old son. He always told his wife Aya, who also happens to maha's bestfriend about how much he loved his son and little sister and he would always tell her that he was ready to sacrifice his life for them, and if he had to choose between them, he would choose his sister. That always pierced his wife's heart because she wondered why he would pick his sister over his son but she never voiced this opinion out. Even though it hurt her whenever Hussein talked about choosing his sister over their only son, she never allowed that to come between her relationship with her bestfriend, because maha, was not someone who could easily let go of special bond and you would never be able to hate her no matter how hard you try, because of how kind and lovable she is.
"Lan 'usamihak hataa tasnae li alkabisa; I won't forgive you until you make Kabsa for me." Hussein said playfully in their native language. To say maha was a good chef was an understatement, she was an extraordinary chef! Some say their is magic in her hands, her food tastes like heaven and he had missed the way she made Kabsa. But the great chef who had taught her how to cook was none other than their father, sheikh sufyan Al-harith the great scholar, the leader of the scholars in Saudi Arabia and a successful business man, the man has so much money that he doesn't even know what to do with it but thankfully Islam has cleared everything and he does sadaqatul jaria and performs different kinds of charity. Behind being this personalities in public, he is just a care free man who is really playful and has immense love for his children especially his only daughter, maha.
"Aya don't you prepare Kabsa for your husband?" She asked Aya, who was so engrossed in a conversation with zayn, but maha is sure if no one interferes that peaceful conversation will get into a fight. No one ever starts a conversation with zayn without getting into a fight with him because zayn likes to look for people's trouble, and he has always managed to get under Aya's skin, though she is their cousin she is still not aware that zayn does things just to get under her skin. As for Hassan's wife, Nadia, she understands him a lot and she knows he usually does things just to get under her skin, so when ever he troubles her she also troubles him instead of fighting him; just like he wants. Maha had decided to speak in English knowing fully well that Nadia is a Nigerian woman, from adamawa state, so she only understand a little bit of Arabic, which she had only started to learn when she had married Hassan, and maha did not want her to feel like an outcast because of the bond they have grown over her 7 years of marriage to her brother, Hassan. Though Nadia is way older than maha, she often confides in her when she is lost, knowing fully well Aya is a crazy lady and would only give her crazy advice.
"Don't mind him, he just wants to make my best friend suffer."
"I'm serious if you don't make my Kabsa then I won't talk to you again!"
"Kibar min fadlik, ladayk abn yablugh min aleumur eamayn!; grow up please, you have a two year old son!" That was Hassan speaking. Even though Hassan and Hussein are twins, Hassan was more matured Hy and even though their age gap was just between 10 minutes to 30 minutes, Hassan still assumed the role of the elder brother in the family and cared for everyone. Hussein was very playful and would talk for hours without ever getting tired while Hassan didn't like to talk, in fact he was just like maha because she also didn't like to talk, maha only spoke freely when she was extremely comfortable with someone. If she was comfortable with someone then she would blabber so much to the person that the person would get tired and start running away from her, she was only comfortable with very few people in her life and even though she wants a quiet and simple life with few people who are close to her, the opposite happens to her life because being a social media influencer everyone wants to be her friend, some because of her parents status and some because of her beauty; especially the opposite gender.
"So you won't eat the Kabsa when she makes it?" Hussein asked Hassan.
"Bialtabe sawf 'ukalah!; of course I will eat it!" Hassan said in a hurry and it made all of them laugh, they all liked to eat the food prepared by maha not only them but everyone who knew how good she was at cooking liked to eat her food, and everyone knew that Hassan would never miss any opportunity to eat any food prepared by maha especially Kabsa, because Kabsa is his favorite food and maha prepares it just the way he wants it.
"Okay don't worry guys, I will make the Kabsa." Maha said laughing, and she entered the kitchen.