A little note:
Thank you for reading, I'll never get tired of saying that. :)
Life went on for Lami and she had never been happier. She prepared to pay a visit to her grandmother today, it had been a while since she saw that woman and she also missed her father
The morning sun let some of its warmth seep in, through the curtains and Lami exhaled as they placed warm kisses on her face.
She looked away from the window, shifting the curtains to block the sunlight. She'd received enough sun kisses that she felt her face was warm enough to roast corn or thereabout.
Lami tapped Ahmadu who was lying on the bed. He yawned lazily and sat up, propping and arm under his chin, he fixed her with that look that always made it easy for her to get under a daze.
"I want to go see Baaba Jummai today. Would you like to come along with me?"
He did not answer so she took it for a no.
"Of course if you are not willing to, I can go alone and I will back in a while."
"Who said I am not willing to? But first there is something I would like you to give me"
The serious look on his face made her a bit nervous. Even though he had assured her that everything was okay and her past would not be an issue between them, the hammering increase in her heartbeat and the heavy feel that settled in the bottom of her stomach did not stop whenever he mention that they needed to have a talk.
"Anything. If I am able to give it to you, I definitely would"
He walked up and opened his box, the one he brought with him from the city and took a tube and a syringe.
"Sit on the bed, I'm taking some of your blood"
He looked very different and his voice seemed a bit professional as he spoke to her. Instead of sitting, Lami began to wonder if he treated his female patients with such an air of indifference too.
She was shocked at the tweak of jealousy that she felt when she thought him and other females. She shouldn't be
He said he needed her blood but for what? What would he do with her blood and surely, he was not going to stick that sharp looking needle into her skin was he?
Ahmadu looked at her and saw her pale face and frightened eyes fixed on the syringe. He had an urge to laugh but did not. Now, they were not husband and wife, he was a doctor and she, his patient.
"Please sit down, do not waste both our times."
He pulled her hand she sat stiffly.
"What is that?"
She pointed at the syringe and he answered calmly.
"It's a syringe."
He said in English and she repeated after him. However her fear for the needle did not dissipate.
"It is going to hurt won't it?"
"No, if you trust me it will not"
She closed her eyes and he carefully inserted the needle in to her skin.
"Back at the hospital, a woman came to see a doctor and just like you, she was scared of the syringe like you and the doctor told her a story about another woman who was scared of a syringe and a doctor told her a story of another woman like her. That's it, I'm done"
Lami opened her eyes and realised that aside from the sharp pain she felt when the needle pierced her skin, she didn't feel anything else because she had been listening to him.
She raised a brow. What kind of pointless story did she just listen to? He had tricked her didn't he?
Ahmadu smiled at her and returned the tube now carrying a bright red liquid in his bag. When he returned to the city tomorrow, he would run some tests on them.
Together, they went to bade Indo goodbye and made their way to see Baaba Jummai. The old lady was so pleased to see them and bubbled with excitement.
After staying for a while, Ahmadu left the two women alone to give them a private time. He went to the mosque where he met some of his very few friends.
Baaba Jummai stared at her granddaughter as if it had been a year since she last saw her.
"Tell me, how are you? Is your husband treating you well?"
Lami smiled, she knew the question would definitely come up one way or the other.
"He treats me more than well. Look at me grandmother"
She stood up and turned around.
"Do I not look better? Look, touch my cheeks and felt how soft my skin has become. Grandmother I am being treated well and I am very fine really you have no reason to be worried"
Baaba Jummai agreed with Lami as her eyes roamed over the lady's body. Indeed, her skin looked radiant and she looked happy at mind.
Don't they always say, when the heart is at peace then the body shall be well?
Baaba Jummai excused herself and went inside the main house to call her daughter in laws and other women so they could come and see how her skinny granddaughter had now grown fat and almost unrecognisable.
Later that day at noon, Ahmadu returned to escort her back home and Baaba Jummai happily saw them off. Lami's ears were still ringing with her grandmother's words.
"All the men you have come across, this one is the best and I feel happy that I was able to convince for your father to let him wed you at that time.
Let me tell you something Lami, if a woman's husband is good to her, then she has no other worries in life. There is nothing more left for her to do other embrace him wholeheartedly and love him. A man is a woman's backbone and even if she can stand on her own, she needs a man to fall back on"
Lami felt a bit conflicted. Her mother in law had told her sometime ago that a woman did not need a man in her life to survive and that a man was nothing more than a partner to a woman and now, her grandmother said a man was a woman's backbone.
She knew her grandmother had lived longer and was older, but she also knew that Indo had gone through a lot so she kept the two women's counsel at the back of her mind.
The same day after their visit to Lami's grandmother, Ahmadu went back to the city and Lami felt even lonelier than she did the first time.
Maybe it was because they had grown significantly closer during this time but one thing was for sure, she really missed him.
Her loneliness was short lived for Ahmadu returned come weekend, just as he'd promised. He had a friend run some tests at the lab and the result made him feel happier than he had ever felt in years.
Lami was happy he returned but even sad that he brought back unwanted presents for her, Drugs, very bitter drugs.
She stared at the pills in her hand with a horrified expression. Ever since, anytime Ahmadu left and returned again, he brought back a lot of packets of drugs instead of the usual sweets and other city eateries he brought back.
Not to mention he had taken some more of her blood to run more tests. Indo had been assigned to watch her and make sure she really did take the pills on time.
They were bitter and large so she would break them into many tiny pieces before swallowing yet it still did not make things better.
Today was no different from the others. She spent time breaking the pills into very tiny pieces after Ahmadu gave the dose to her and told her that she needed to finish it before he returned home.
A man from the other house had come running to him. His son had fainted and had not regained consciousness despite the water that had been splashed on him and the medicinal smoke he inhaled.
A little while, he entered the room and shook his head smiling. She still had the pills in her hands and she did not even notice him entering.
Honestly when he heard about her problems he was shocked. After a bit more of probing and personally checking her which really made her embarrassed to look him in the face for days, he took some notes and gave to a friend who was a gynecologist to diagnose her.
They found out the green colored stain in her blood that first night was closely linked to blood that had rot and glued inside her and was also responsible for the dark color urine sample he asked her to take for him.
Due to the herbs and all sorts of concotions she drank, took and applied inside her, her tubes were getting blocked and so the sperms would not be able to gain passage talk more of flowing to fertilize.
She also had a bit of infection which was growing worse and would have resulted in permanent infertility if he had not taking a step towards finding a cure for her.
He got his friend, the female gynecologist to prescribe some drugs that would clear the tubes and make her even healthier. She might be able to get pregnant though her womb still needed more nourishment.
But he didn't want to tell her that just yet, wanting to surprise her if the drugs really worked.
"Do not just stare at them. The time you were staring with, they would have disappeared into your stomach already"
He let out a small laugh and walked inside, sitting on the floor beside her. Raising those brown eyes, she fixed a look on him and his heart melted. He knew she was trying to trick him into letting her skip the medicine.
"Do not give me that look. Open your mouth"
Dutifully she smiled and opened her small mouth. He placed pill after pill and she swallowed, scrunching her face in bitterness. She closed her eyes feeling sleepy.
Lately she has not been getting enough sleep due to the drugs she takes, she needed to visit the toilet more frequently to either vomit or urinate.
Her urine would end up being coloured and sometimes even with a bit of odor, and she passed out gas that even her would nearly suffocate due to its smell.
When she told her husband about it, he told her not to worry and that all the drugs which she had taken inside her systems in the past were coming out and it was for the best.
Gradually, she was finding her heart harbouring some feelings for him but she did not know if he felt the same about her. She didn't even know when the feelings appeared.
When she made a vow to herself that she would stick to him, it was because she felt that no other man would accept her and also, their imperfections made them perfect for each other but now, she knew it wasn't just that and she was afraid.
She was afraid if he was treating her this way simply out of goodwill and obedience to his mother even though he had confided in her, she didn't feel he felt the same just yet.
The feelings in heart were storming but outside, she was as calm as the deep blue ocean. She would reign her emotions and keep them in check while she tried to figure out if he loved her or if he was simply sympathised with her. Either way, it would all be well.
Looking at the person who had fallen asleep on his shoulder, his heart ached for her. He pitied what she she must have gone through and thought if he could help any other woman from being like her. A noise outside distracted him and he went to have a look.
His mother was standing in front of a man who had his back to him. He could not see the man's face but knew whoever he was, he must have a serious relationship with his mother due to to the look in her eyes.
Relief, anger, hurt, love, excitement. All of them were merged into Indo's mind as she stared at the man standing before her but above all, fury excelled.
She stared at Umar.
Years ago, their history goes way back into time and never did she expect that some time they would meet again.
Definitely when they had seperated, he clearly made sure to remind her where she belonged and the differences between them.
Who was it who said never to meet again?
Who was it who said to cross each other like strangers even if they meet in the next life?
Now this person has come, standing before her asking for a listening ear.
"Mama who is this man and what does he wants?"
She looked at Ahmadu and her heart ached for him. 23 years without even a name of the man he had always longed for yet he kept his feelings aside for her peace of mind.
Bracing up she replied him with an answer that shocked him from his feet to the brain.
"Your father"