"Ah baby please, find your way here. Please it's just seven now and you can shoot from eight till ten or twelve. Please, I won't rest until the poster pictures are totally done." I sigh and add salt to the oatmeal cooking in the pressure pot and ask Teni for the address.
I put my phone down with a sigh and stir the oatmeal even further so that it doesn't curdle. Today seems like a tight, long day for me and I'd have to eventually have to call Zainab inspite of my promise to give her an off day.
I take my phone up again and call Zainab. She enthusiastically replies and my mood lifts after ending the call, I put down my phone again and wear a pair of mittens to take the oatmeal pot off the hot stove.
"So early? What are you cooking?" I chuckle at Ma's face and spoon her a bowl of oatmeal and add some evaporated milk over it, she shakes some sugar unto it after taking it from me and I chuckle again. Ma's sweet tooth has never lessened.
"I have to be somewhere at eight and then come back to dress for a birthday party I promised to attend by twelve latest." She nods and walks to the dining with my plate and hers in her hands. I put the pot under a rain of tap water to aid easy washing later and leave the kitchen.
"When did they say they're retuning?" Ma asks of Abdul and Amal. I shrug without speaking, swallowing my food to think of how easily to put it.
"Ma, Abdul has not called me in three months. I've even forgotten what his voice sounds like." I smile self deprecuatingly and spoon some more oatmeal into my mouth.
"What?" She drops her spoon. "Why?" I shrug again.
"I have no idea. I just know that it might be easier for him to let me go when I ask." She scoffs but doesn't continue eating. "If he refuses, it's because he can't imagine himself looking for another money cow to activate his useless spending. Rubbish." I hide my smile at Ma's anger.
"I'll be fine. That is one thing that is sure. This girl will be just fine." I say with another self depreciating smile, She pats my hand and continues to eat, this time a little faster. I walk back to my room and turn on my small burner and put some halut incense on it. The scent of it is heavenly and just what I need to lift my mood after hearing I might be out the whole day I had planned to lounge in bed.
I take out two abayas. One peach colored with a darker shade scarf and a blackberry colored one with a black scarf and put them against my body. Ma comes in, wiping her hands as she walks so I turn to her with a pout and ask which I should wear.
"The peach one. Stop with all these depressing colors, which one is this deep black with another deeper black scarf. Are you mourning?" I giggle with a playful expression stamped on my fave and drop the offending Abaya unto my bed, find a hook to hang the peach Abaya over the slowly burning Halut.
"Where are you going today?" I ask her when I finish hanging my clothes. She waves her hand and tells me a friend of hers in Abuja asked her to come around when she's in town and she's honoring the invitation. I nod and ask where, she tells me it's in Life camp. I nod again and walk away to the bathroom to take a shower.
"Zainab is here already?" I ask Ma who is wearing her necklace. Apparently, she bathed while I scrolled through my social media apps. She leaned over my vanity mirror and lined her lips before applying lipstick. I laugh at her and ask again if Zainab has arrived. She nods and asks me to be quick since it's seven-forty already.
"Ma, let's take a picture before we leave. You look amazing." She smiles at me and I shake my head in reply. Ma is a rock. I remember an incident that happened when I just moved in with her. My father's family shared all my parents properties and all their clothes. I was left with only my small bag of clothes and shoes that I carried in my hand from Katsina to Kano where my Ma and Kawu lived at the time.
The night I got there, I cradled the only thing I brought that reminded me of my birth mother in my arms and cried myself to sleep. The next morning, I woke up with Ma by my side, dried tear streaks that reminded me that I'd not only lost a mother, this woman lost her only sibling. Since then I vowed within myself to be the best I could be, which I've striven hard to be ever since.
The heat of the burner sings the skin of my index finger pulling me out of the reverie I was in and I see that Ma has pulled out her shoes from her box, leaving me here, undressed. I rush to where I hung the Abaya and pull it on, I pull the towel I removed from my body around my neck before taking my comb to drag through my un-mousturized hair making me wince when I drag the comb through it.
I feel Ma's hand on my shoulders, pushing me unto the seat before taking hold of my moisturizing bottle and spritzing some into my hair. She massaged it for a few seconds before combing and then using a hair tie to pull into into a low bun. She took the scarf from where it hung and looped it around my hair and neck.
"Don't worry about anything too much. Everything will sort itself out." She turned and picked up her bag to leave, putting me in silence and momentary shock. She must have thought I was worrying about dealing with Abdul later. This is what I say about my Ma being a rock. She is an impenetrable rock.
****
"My spirit was not settled until you agreed this morning. I just wanted this done before flying up to New York to start the editing process. And I didn't find peace with myself until you finished a few minutes ago." I watched her sigh animatedly and I laughed at the fear and dread that crossed her face as she spoke. I turned to the mirror behind me and saw that the makeup artist had added a dot using black liquid eyeliner to the side of my left eye and the top of my lips.
"At least now that it's done. All that is left is to wait for the premiere, isn't it?" She nodded spiritedly and danced a bit around me. "There's going to be a Lagos and Abuja premiere to give off all the vibes I can. Do as much advertisement as we can, I set apart a chunk of the budget for that. So just get ready to dress up and be a queen." It was my turn to laugh and I laughed hard since it was a little hard to reconcile the very hardened director on set with this smiling, happy human who's dancing like a child around me.
"I'll do just that. Lemme remove my makeup and beg the artist to do me a nude one so I can leave. I'm done right?" I asked her again and she nodded, gesturing to the makeup artist to do whatever I needed.
About twenty minutes later, the makeup artist, called Jamila was massaging Aa'ila liquid pro foundation unto my face when Zainab walked close and showed me something from my phone.
"I have highlighted about twenty questions for you to answer during your IG live session later today." I nodded and watched Jamila mix two types of lipglosses to form a beautiful undefinable pink color.
"Ma Sha Allah." My lips curved into a smile at Zainab's words. Jamila took off the clear polyester protector she had looped around my neck to protect my Abaya from stains.
"Let's go Zainab." She put down her phone and mine, handed me mine and after thanking Jamila profusely with a little loose change in my hands, we walked out of the hot studio. I sighed when we got outside, there's nothing like fresh air.
"Where's this party?" Zainab asks when we get into my car. I look at the message Major Lamido sent me a while ago and answer absent-mindedly, "Tea room. They reserved the whole place." She hummed and turned on the ignition while I scroll through Abdul's page.
I chuckle as I watch his story that I clicked on the moment his page loaded. He and Amal are standing next to a pool smiling, I flip to the next picture and it's just him, smiling at someone beyond the camera, another flip and it's he and her in a selfie. I chuckle sardonically, so he and his wife left my house in shambles to go have a honeymoon. Nice.
"When do you think you'll be done?" Zainab asks as she navigates through afternoon traffic on the way to Wuse two, where the restaurant is located. I nod my head along with the traditional Hausa song she put on and ponder how long I should spend.
"Not more than an hour. I cannot be more festive than the birthday girl." Zainab snorted before laughing. I turned to her with an incredulous look.
"What? You think I'll spend less?" She snorted again, this time putting her hand to her face to hide her laughter. "I know you. You'll stay until the party ends. It's one of the things I like about you, inspite of being in this industry for so long." I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Five years is not a short while. You were nineteen when you acted your first movie ma'am." I didn't bother replying as it was true. "Well, as I was saying. You have not lost your empathy ability and that's the only reason I chose to work for you instead of Basma Adi. And Alhamdulillah, I chose right." I sighed softly.
"Zainab. Thank you." She waves my thanks away and puts the car on park at the car park. "We're here. See the Major oo, seems like he's waiting for you?" I turn the sun visor to my self and seeing nothing out of place, I sigh and calmly get out of the car.
"Assalamualaikum Major." I called when I reached him. He turned to me with surprise and something that looked like relief.
"Walaikum as Salam Ms Sheriff. Let me take you to where the party is holding." I nodded and followed him at a respectable distance, first noticing for the first time in a while his hair. I coughed. Labeebah Sheriff, what are you looking at! You're married for Allah's sake.
I shut my eyes and tried to imagine his soft, silky looking hair away without success and I softly made a forgiveness dua. When I opened my eyes, I saw him watching me weirdly and I hastened my steps to meet him.
"She only invited her eight close circle. I have nod idea what that means. I wonder how a circle can be that large." I laughed, knowing how teenage girls are. Soon, they'll drop friends one after another till they find the ones that fit themselves and then form a clique till they're grown.
"It's fine. I can handle eight teens." He nodded and adjusted his cap so as not to hit the top of the door. I gawked at his height and tried to measure how short I look beside him. A thought occured to me and I chuckled it away, knowing it could never happen. For one, I'm still married to Angel Abdul and two, I don't want to burden my parents with any marriage issues for now.
When we reach the table, no, tables, since the restaurant pushed four tables together to the centre of the room to give the girls room.
"Oh My Allah. Beebah!" The well made up birthday girl promptly burst into tears. I sighed and nearly rolled my eyes to the heavens. Here we go again.
****
Hey guys, we're nearly at the part where you'll be crying and to help our case, I'll update it tonight.
See you in chapter 25😭😭😭