Assalamu alaikum, do have a wonderful weekend.
After this, until further notice hihihihi.
Okay, just kidding; but we are talking Wednesday/Thursday-ish. In sha Allah.
****
School started two weeks later, living close to the university was really helpful to Maryam since her classes were in the evenings. During the first few days, Hajiya Kulthum accompanied her to the station and showed her how to get around and back home.
Maryam knew she needed to stay on her feet to ace her studies. Even though she had been trying to write for the past years, this was the first time she was seeing it from a formal perspective. She had gradually eased into her routine. But the onset of Ramadaan along with her evening classes was proving difficult for her. Despite that, she pushed through it because that was what she knew best in life.
She had terribly missed home and wanted to fly back. Even though she had no room to spare for other activities, Maryam tried to keep up with her Qur'an studies with Hajiya Kulthum and Wafiyya.
Most of the evenings they all had their iftaar here at the mansion, Sa'ima and Bilaal joined them too.
After their deal with Mubarak, Maryam had seen less and less of him, he was either working late always or travelling on the days they met, to take Hajiya's suspicious eyes off their scheme, he played along with their plan.
A date had been fixed, the 26th of December. She would have two weeks head start, and they could be back in time for her fresh term. It was all working well.
Despite all their plans and their mindset about where they stood in each other's life, Maryam disregarded her thoughts and used the month of Ramadan to her full advantage, she prayed for Allah's guidance and hoped for the best thing in life.
Hajiya Aisha would call her and seek her opinion on all that needed to be done before she returned home.
Sometimes it felt as if her mother had done nothing except plan her wedding since she was born.
"You have to open your mouth and talk, this thing will happen the moment you touched down, do you think we have time for all your I-don't-knows? I am inviting important people, we can't lose face, this is the first time I am marrying off my daughter, you have seen how other people's weddings have turned out, yours won't be any less."
"Mama, you have very keen eyes for design and I am happy with your choices, I've spoken with Surayya and she will choose my outfits for me, as for the other things, I leave the ball in your court."
"Alright, we shall start then. How are you doing with that Drama you are studying?"
"Mama, it is not just drama, it has everything in it, and I love every bit of it. We get to write about so many things, there are interactive sessions, assessments, field trips. It is fun, even though I haven't gone on one yet. And I think one day I'm going to write about you."
Hajiya Aisha scoffed, "Nonsense, what will you make me in your book? Your horror story?"
Maryam tried to hold her laughter. "Something like that."
"Maryam!"
Maryam burst out laughing, "I'm sorry, I will just make you Baba's beautiful queen in it."
"Don't forget to buy some of the things from the UK." One development Maryam was glad about, was the upgrade from saying 'Europe' to the UK by her mother. After many weeks and months, she had finally relented.
"I'm looking," Maryam said.
"Don't look, buy."
"Mama, that is my allowance, I can't start buying my wedding things with it."
"Toh, who will buy it for you then? There is what is called management, manage well. Get your things, I'm not buying laces for you, I heard they are cheap there, buy it."
"But why should I?"
"Are you going to start wearing their lefe immediately after the wedding? Of course not. You wear what you go with from your father's house."
"So I am now 'my father's house'?" Maryam blurted her thought before she got a chance to filter it when she realized what she had said, it was too late.
"Gidanku, if you like don't buy." The phone went dead. And that was the constant thing Maryam had to deal with as they planned an unwanted wedding from across the continent.
***
"I can't believe after all these years they had to make me do this, can you believe it? Even Umma was pushing it, It isn't even the holidays!" Nafeesah sobbed into the phone.
"Hey, calm down. Ah'an Feenah, please don't be ungrateful, Abubakar has really tried, who would stay engaged to you for two years and remain waiting for your friend to get a suitor before they got married? Is that fair to him? That is outright crazy and you know it, but you were adamant. Yet, he waited, just because he is invested in this. And what are you even talking about? Have you forgotten that the date has been set? Now when you come as the bride's maid you will be coming with two honours, as the chief adviser where you'll talk in that not-too-well-experienced-but-trying-to-be-an-expert way the newlyweds talk to their unwedded friends. And the sister that you are to me."
"But you won't be here when I get sent off. Who will give me my unwedded-friend support and be my go-getter?"
"I will have plenty of time to hassle you from here, don't worry."
"Please, when you will be flying off with your Bugaje husband where will I see or hear from you?"
"I'll tell him to leave me in Katsina, but then I have my school to come back to. I guess my phone will have to do. Now please promise me you are going to call Abubakar after we are through, make things right."
"I will, evil girl."
"Now tell me what all you'll need, I have some killer lingerie, by the way. Sa'ima took me to a Lingerie store."
"Corrupted girl. Send me their pictures let me see."
"Nope, I won't, hypocrite. What was that about corrupted minds?"
"I will cut your hair, go away."
Maryam laughed, remembering how they used to joke about that years ago. After all the bullies at school had had their field game with her, Maryam would hide in the toilet and cry and Nafeesah would escort her home, following Maryam's car if the driver came to pick them, or on foot via the shortcut when the driver was travelling with her father.
There, in Maryam's room, Nafeesah would say, "Let them all say what they want if we want we can just cut off all this long hair and they can call you Musa or Munkaila, is it their body? It is yours to do with as you please."
"And you'll steal Uncle J's Kaftan for me."
"They would die of envy." Nafeesah would say and they would both laugh.
Now she sighed, as she swallowed some of the bitter memories. "My regards to Umma, let me see the asoebi before you start dispatching it."
"What? Heck no, I won't have your colour blindness affect my asoebi."
"No lingerie for you, girl."
Nafeesah laughed, "You know I love you. I'm waiting for a bagful of those. And this is my begging voice in case you haven't heard it well. I'm on my knees. Say hello to the King."
"Goodbye, Feenah blackmailer."
Maryam held her phone to her chest lying in her bed, she couldn't believe after all these years, Nafeesah's wedding would come a month before hers. But that was for the best. And they both knew it.
Hajiya Aisha wouldn't relent on her insistence of Maryam coming home early. But she had to brush it off, she wouldn't miss school. She had work and assignment target to reach before she started thinking of the chaos her life was about to be.
***
KATSINA, NIGERIA.
DECEMBER, 2007
It may be one of those days for Maryam, where all she wanted to do was to lie in and not move a muscle, she was that tired, after her flight from London to Abuja, Najma and her husband Mu'azzam had picked her up from the airport, where she had stayed with them for a day and they started out to Katsina where all the preparations for the wedding had started.
Hajiya Kulthum and Wafiyya would come in five days. Mubarak and the brothers would come the week of the wedding, that was what he told her a day before she took off. Sa'ima was heavy, and Hajiya Kulthum suggested she stayed back, with her Uncle's house and the Siddiquis she would be fine before Bilaal returned after the wedding.
The wedding!
Maryam jolted on her bed. It was odd, it seemed like ages since she lived here and rose from this very bed every morning of her growing up years. She knew where it creaked, she also knew when making her bed where not to stick the bedsheet too deep, to avoid the wood that poked beneath.
"Subhanallah!" She said, Nafeesah would kill her. She had totally forgotten about her visit. It was well past eleven in the morning and she wasn't even up. She was surprised the girls hadn't woken her up. Her phone informed her how much trouble she had gotten in with Nafeesah.
"Get your behind out of there, before I come over, I'm so not taking half a day's visit."
"Answer your phone sleepy head."
"Do you wish to make him a pre-widower?"
Maryam laughed at that, they were about five messages all outbursts from Nafeesah. Maryam was about to drop her phone and head to the bathroom when she saw the last message, which meant it came earlier than Nafeesah's.
"I hope you had a safe trip. Send my regards. M.Bugaje."
Maryam stared at the message blankly, she couldn't believe her eyes, this was the first time he was texting her, it came almost twenty-four hours after she had landed. Which meant he actually got her number after so much contemplation on his part. Did he have a battle of will before he sent the message? Did he regret it after sending? What happened to their no-contact rule? Was this an exception? So many questions, she found only one right thing to do.
"Alhamdulillah, thank you. Maryam Maigoro."
***
Nafeesah's squeal when she opened the door almost threw Maryam off, but that was before she realized she was shrilling too.
"Okay, we both need to calm down before the whole area come to check out the new lunatics on the block."
"Hey allow me to shrill. Look at you Maa sha Allah." Nafeesah gasped, "Ya Rabbi Maryam! You wore yellow! Like you are in a buttercup yellow dress, with embroidery and studs, and the right size too."
"Okay announce to everyone that I've been a baggy-clothes-wearer before you let me see the house. And by the way, I hope Abubakar isn't home this one that you've made us gone wild?"
"Welcome, Hajiya Maryam." A male voice said from one of the sofas in the living room. And Maryam felt a strong urge to just vanish. "Don't mind her, just come in. She has kept you at the door."
"Yallabai ango, good afternoon."
"Visitors from the Queen's land, how was your trip?"
Maryam finally got the strength to move her legs. And she sat on one of the brown single sofas in the living room. "Alhamdulillah, sorry I missed your wedding. I pray Allah showers you with blessings and unite you two with loads of glad tidings. Congratulations."
"Ameen Ya Rabbi. You have the best prayers. We can't thank you enough. Everyone represented you here quite well. You should also thank Baba."
Maryam smiled, Nafeesah had called her on the wedding day sobbing into the phone, saying Baba had bought a lot of foodstuff for her as her gara.
Nafeesah's father had passed away about eight years ago. Their mother had worked and fended for all five of them, including Abba's brother, Ja'afar, who was called Uncle J. Umma had raised him like her son, despite him being her husband's stepbrother. When her husband had taken him in to stay with them, she didn't use her husband's demise to send him packing. He stayed until he finished his education as a medical doctor.
Now him and Nafeesah's older brother Haroon had taken up most of their responsibilities. Even though Umma worked hard and they were still well off, Baba's gesture meant a lot to them.
"I'll just see Inna and come, feel at home Maryam." Abubakar said, perching his grey cap on his head.
"Ah, Man Abu I wouldn't send you away from my first visit, this isn't done. You don't have to leave on my account."
"No problem, I actually wanted to leave earlier, but she was about to cry, saying you were not here yet I won't go and leave her alone."
Maryam didn't miss the soft look that passed between the newlyweds.
"Okay, then. You will be seeing a lot of me, and she will be going over there a lot, so I apologize in advance."
Abubakar laughed, and Maryam knew Nafeesah had gotten just the man she always wanted because the glow on her face increased as she watched her man laugh. So this was how the couple who were in love felt? Their reaction to each other was apparent even to people sitting next to them.
Something clenched in Maryam's core when she realized she would never get to witness this type of connection.
It didn't stop there, Nafeesah moved to him and escorted him to the door, talking with a voice Maryam had immediately captioned as a factory reset voice. This man was done for, he would be useless in a few short weeks if her friend went on at this pace.
Maryam could barely wait for the door to close before she slapped Nafeesah on her arm.
"Corruption at its peak. Kin bonu. So this is how you will do and finish him right? Wait, was that even your voice or did you use some sort of device to tone it down. I can't wait for the day your real voice will pop, poor Malam Abu will be shocked to his wits."
"Evil girl, he has just heard me speaking to you, he knows both voices, the only difference is that he knows the other voice is only meant for him."
"Heyy I trust you. So, congratulations. Maa sha Allah you are already glowing."
"Thank you. Now enough about me, tell me what all you've set going?"
"Uh... What do I have to do? I have done nothing. Mama is on top of everything, Surayya also said she has all my outfits covered. What's there again?"
Nafeesah smacked Maryam's thigh. " I swear man Abu won't recognize you when he comes back, stop hitting me." Maryam scratched her thigh.
"Aren't you inviting anyone?"
"What are you talking about? I am not doing anything, the family is enough. Let's just get this over with."
"What! Not under my watch, which is why I didn't wait for you, I have sent some invitations to all your friends. At least we will sit with you for moral support."
Maryam gulped, still feeling guilty that she didn't share the conditioned-marriage issue with her best friend.
"Keep it simple, what would I do without you? Thank you."
"Okay, out with it. Where is my bag?"
"Look at you, you have not even brought water for me, stingy bride. I am not giving you any bag."
"I will lock you here until your king comes to your rescue, speaking of which, how is he? When is he coming?"
"Uh... next week? I don't know, he didn't have a specific date. But Hajiya is coming soon for the preparations and what not."
"Maxy! So he wants to surprise you, me likey." Nafeesha wiggled her brows at Maryam.
"What surprise." Maryam laughed.
"Okay, come and have a look." And Nafeesah took her around the house for a tour, as they went through the decent two bedroom house with two sitting areas and a kitchen, Maryam admired the tastefully decorated home, she felt genuinely happy for her friend. They stopped at the kitchen where they both ate and continued planning all the things that needed to be done.
"I brought my henna."
"Okay, I'll just speak with the lady who did my wedding design."
"Oh my God, it's really happening."
"Yes, it is. We've made it."
Maryam held her trembling lips between her teeth, nodding her head.
"Yes, we have."
***
At night over a tray of tuwo and okra soup, Maryam felt fulfilled, just sitting there with her sisters after all these months.
"I missed this," Maryam said. "I missed you all."
"We missed you too. Yaya Mimie, tell us about London." Fatima said.
"Timtim I've been telling you about it on the phone and since I got here."
"I want to watch you while you tell us."
They all laughed at Fatima, she was still awestruck that her sister had been to places she'd only heard about. Maryam indulged her. They finished the first tray of food and started on another. Every time they sat like this eating together, Maryam was always taken to some memories that still haunted her.
Would it be different if she were here? She hated to think about it, about her. But her mother's attitude towards her was not helping matters.
Hajiya Aisha had not sat with Maryam for more than an hour since her return, she was always out in the market or at some vendor's house or a friend's, putting things together, sometimes Maryam felt as if her mother was celebrating the wedding more than she was happy for her. Because she had not even sat with her and really hear her out. Hear her talk about the man she was about to release her daughter to, have some final moments with her.
A little voice in Maryam's head even wondered if her mother was happy she was finally getting rid of the black sheep of the family. The daughter who went off to study drama and literature as she told her friends with not so much thrill as she announced her going to study Economics. She doubted if some even heard about a change of course. Maryam watched her mother as she went on with the motion.
Seven days before the wedding, Hajiya Kulthum sent her in-laws and her siblings with the lefe and the kayan na gani inaso to be delivered to Maryam's house.
The clothes, cosmetics, and accessories that were given from the groom's family to indicate their son's interest in the daughter of the house, which had been delayed because Hajiya Kulthum had to come with the other things to place in the set of boxes.
The lefe was brought in a real designer trolley set to Hajiya Aisha's delight, Maryam sent a silent prayer hoping her mother had not made a call making a special request on the type of packaging the gifts were to be brought in.
She wouldn't be surprised if that had happened.
Because her mother was hell-bent on impressing everyone attending the wedding. Surayya had informed her that she had invited most of the politicians' wives and their former neighbours too. Now she was telling everyone that her daughter was getting married into the Bugaje family, they shouldn't miss it.
No one would miss it, some wouldn't just to witness what the pomp was all about.
"Mama, take it easy, everything will go as planned in sha Allah," Maryam told her.
Hajiya Aisha sat in a heap on her bed, she had just come home from the market for some last minute shopping.
"I hope so, Bibatu will be here tomorrow, at least she will relieve me of some of the things. She had bought other things from Lagos and will come down with them."
Maryam could now see all the stress beneath her mother's perfectly serene face. She was just good at masking it, just like she was good at ironing things to perfection. This must be really tasking on her, Maryam didn't even stop to think how pulling off a wedding alone without even the help of the bride must have burdened her mother. Granted, some friends would help but her mother was exhausted. Her eyes softened when she went to sit next to her mother on the bed.
"Thank you, Mama, may Allah reward you abundantly."
"Ameen, have you checked out the storeroom?"
"The storeroom?"
"Yes, your furniture arrived last week."
"Mama, what furniture?" Maryam's forehead creased.
"Silly, you are the one getting married, you don't even know a thing about your shopping, I should have left everything for you. You have not even shown me the things you've bought from London."
Maryam swallowed hard. "I left them there, I have so many luggage, I couldn't come with them and go back with them again, so I left most there. And Mama why did you buy furniture? You could have used the money for something else."
"And make your father's relatives insult us that we have not done anything for you? We have bought everything and you are taking them to your Katsina house. Some you take them to Abuja. I don't care how you do it but I am not sending you there with anything short of their standards. You've been there and you've seen what those people are capable of."
"Mama, I know you want to save face and all, but have you considered Baba's situation? After the dip, I think all these will be too much..."
"Why are you stuck on your father's words and supposed finances? You are the accountant you tell me. That man has money, let him stop fooling you. He has got so many donations and gifts for this wedding. If not, why would he start buying pickup-load of foodstuff and taking it to other people's house on their wedding days? If he can spend on some stranger's house, what would stop him from spending on his own daughter's wedding?"
"Mama! Abba was Baba's friend, besides, Nafeesah is also like a daughter to you. What is the harm in giving a helping hand?"
"Stop talking about those people, they have completely brain-washed you, you don't know anything, you are still too naive." Hajiya Aisha held the small tip of her ear. "Let me tell you something, you continue this naivety and you won't last in people's company, you better wise up to the real world."
Maryam knew it was time she dropped this conversation. Discussing Nafeesah's family had always been a sour topic for her and her mother. Her mother believed had her father still had his way, (Which meant he still earned well), nothing would stop him from marrying Umma, Nafeesah's mother, because according to her, he was showing too much kindness to that family since his friend's demise. It was hypocritical. Though she had never openly cut ties with Ummah, she was not a fan of her.
And Umma guarded her dignity by not trying to salvage their old friendship.
It seemed her mother had it bad on the week of Nafeesah's wedding.
Now Maryam had to bear the brunt.
****
Yeah, it is a short one.
We are here and the wedding is underway.
Are you ready for some drama?
Leggo...
Umm Yasmeen 💞