Sitting in the waiting area of Fereprod Hospital are Innayo, Amal and Afnan. Afnan regained consciousness two hours ago before the drive from Kuje to Wuse.
Sa'eed and his wife, Halima rush into the waiting room. Halima quickly squats a bit.
"Ammi, good morning." Innayo who has been absent minded just pats her head in response. Halima hugs a crying Amal and a calm looking Afnan. Amal has been crying since they arrived at the hospital almost an hour ago.
Sa'eed hugs Innayo and keeps rocking them back and forth. After an hour, a fair Indian woman who seems to be in her late forties wearing a dawn blue and fuchsia pink saari coupled with a dawn blue dupatta and fuchsia pink loafers with a white lab coat that reaches her knees comes out with a small smile on her face.
Sa'eed immediately rushes to her. He's mad, psyched-up, pissed off, apoplectic even cheesed-off at his sister, but he can't afford to loose her. She's the closest to him among his three sisters and his human diary. She knows most of his secrets but not all. He can't tell her all.
She holds too much magnitude in his life despite the fact that their parents love Fatima way too much. She's their favorite and they always show it unintentionally. They won't know that they display their over affection for Fatima if no one points it out but who would. Amal and Afnan don't seem to notice talk more of mind.
But Sa'eed minds alot. He minds too much for his own good. His parents might think that he's a man and men don't need too much attention, love, care and affection but they do. It's not only women that need to be shown love, men are also humans with emotions.
"Is she okay? Where is she? What's wrong with her?" He asks all at once. He can't help but be nervous. He has been dying to ask someone the last question but the only people with a correct answer are in no state to give him an answer.
"She's okay but she lost a lot of blood and needs a transfusion. She has sprained her ankle and has two head injuries; one, minor which is a little above her neck at the back of her head and a major one which is right in the middle of her head. We had to cut her hair as it is too bushy to give us enough access to the mid scalp.
"She also twisted her wrist. Those are the injuries. But for now all we need is blood. The blood bank here is under reconstruction and luckily, her blood group is O+ so it should be easy to get. Anyone who is O+ and is healthy enough to transfuse should follow me."The frail looking doctor turns to go but stops on her heels.
"And also, you need to sign some papers for the transfusion." She hands over a small bundle of papers with a blue plastic cover to Sa'eed while Halima follows her to give out her blood.
In the room where Halima's blood has been taken for testing a sharp pain travels from Halima's lower abdomen to her back and then to her stomach up to her chest then neck. She falls to the ground with a thud and a nurse in white knee length dress and cap perched on her head and a white lacy hose rushes over to Halima and helps her up.
"What's wrong madam? Are you okay? Are you sure you want to go on with this transfusion? If you're sick then it's not advisable for you to have your blood transfused." The nurse says to a pained Halima.
"I'm just on my period. Nothing to be disturbed about." Halima replies with a small smile.
"Well madam, it's very risky to transfer blood while on menses. You will loose way too much blood both naturally and artificially and might also need a transfer yourself." The nurse says giving Halima a worried look.
"No need to worry. I am okay it's just that whenever I'm on my menses i become extremely sick. Thanks for caring."
"No problem ma'am. But I suggest you see a gynecologist. We have one here and she's a lady. I'm a gynecologist in training myself but if you don't mind can I ask you some questions?"
"Go ahead."
"How many days does your menses last?"
"Well, it's never constant. Sometimes twelve days, three, five, seven or even fifteen. It mostly lasts two days though." The nurse widens her eyes at Halima's last sentence.
"Two days?"
"Yeah."
"That's extremely weird and rare. But, have you ever seen a doctor about it?"
"No."
"Okay, so the pain lasts throughout the days?"
"Yeah."
"Have you ever taken pills? Like for abortion or family planning?"
"No, I just got married a few days ago."
"Oh. Okay, I suggest you have a blood test because I suspect your problem is genetic."
"You mean inherited?"
"yes. That or pills. I'm not sure which though."
"Okay, thanks." The pain has subsided so Halima stands up as the doctor comes in with the result of the test.
"It says you're healthy so let's get this over with." The doctor says leading Halima to another room.
After the blood has been taken Halima is asked to stay in the room as she might feel dizzy. After a good twenty minutes rest, she stands up and goes out to meet no one except a teenage girl typing furiously in her phone with her face contorted in a frown in the waiting room.
Halima goes over to her and asks if she has seen the family that was seated across her and she points to the room where the doctor came out of almost half an hour ago.
Halima thanks her and goes to the room. She finds Fatima smiling weakly with tears in her eyes. Her hair has been cut extremely short that it would be a hard job to plait but it makes her slim long face more prominent. She looks frail but okay.
Halima goes over and sits beside Fatima while Sa'eed glares at Fatima just waiting for them to get out of the hospital so that he can scream at her all he wants.
The doctor comes in and says they can leave but Fatima has to be coming for dressing and check up for two weeks to ensure she's okay. Sa'eed has already gotten the prescribed medications so they leave immediately after Fatima changes into a blue flay gown that belongs to Halima. Halima is a little bit fatter than Fatima but the latter is taller so the gown looks a too big but short on Fatima.
Once out they meet two cars awaiting them. One is Innayo's car and the other is Sa'eed's car. Innayo's driver will drive Innayo's car while Sa'eed, his car.
Innayo, Amal and Fatima sit in Innayo's Mercedes Benz while Halima, Sa'eed and Afnan sit in Sa'eed's G-wagon. The ride back home is quiet in both cars as everyone awaits and dreads what Sa'eed will do to Fatima.
His anger can be felt from miles. Once they pull up in the parking space of the Abba Sulayman's two storey building, Sa'eed storms out and enters the main parlor. The house is designed just like Sa'eed and Halima's, with two parlors, one biggger than the other and six rooms. The only difference is the colors, this is painted in purple and dark brown with touches of white.
Instead of shouting at Fatima immediately she enters the parlor like everyone expects Sa'eed to, he motions her to sit on the ground close to him. He looks at her and clenches his jaw.
"Fatima do you have a brain?" Everyone is surprised at his question including Fatima but she answers with a nod.
"Fatima don't test my patience, answer the damn question!" Innayo gives him a disapproving look for his choice of words but he doesn't seem to care.
"y...y...yes, i do." Fatima stutters already on the verge of tears. Sa'eed hardly gets angry but when he does, everyone including his parents dread for the person his anger is directed at.
"Then are you jealous of your sister?"
"I'm not. I just lost control and I've already apologized." Fatima snaps making Sa'eed and everyone else widen their eyes at her new found confidence. One minute ago she was stuttering an answer and now she's snapping at him? She must have hit her head real hard to have forgotten her manners.
"Fatima are you talking to me like that?"
"Yeah, so? Look Ya Sa'eed I'm having a serious headache right now so it would be better if you save your breath for later. Excuse me." She turns to go but Sa'eed slaps her making her stagger back as her eyes fill with tears.
"Now you, Fatima Abba Sulayman are going to sit here and listen to me. One word and I'll forget about your head injury and beat the living daylight out of your body. Idan aljanun ne ma yake koya miki iskancin nan zan ci ubanku gabadaya." Sa'eed says and Fatima silently obliges. She knows he can do worse than what he just said.
"Good. Now care to tell me why you locked yourself up in your room?"
Fatima tells Sa'eed what happened in the room and his eyes soften. She apologizes to everyone and calls her father who has been oblivious to all the happenings in his house. She apologizes to him too.
All this while everyone else has been quiet while Halima has been silently whimpering in pain as tears flow down her cheeks. The menstrual pain is becoming unbearable and she feels like she is going to pass out anytime soon.
She finally lets out a sob after noticing that she has been biting her lip too hard making her lip bleed. Everyone yaws their gaze to her and Sa'eed rushes over to her, he carries her bridal style to one of the two extra rooms upstairs and lays her down.
As if called, Hajjo says a salam and enters the house all clad in a blue and yellow atamfa sewn into a gown with a yellow veil and matching blue Gucci flats and bag. Once told of her daughter's condition, she rushes over to her.
"Leema baby, are you okay?" Hajjo asks as she sits on the edge of the bed on which Halima is laying on.
"Yes mummy, I'm okay. It's just cramps. Did they call you?"
"No, I was coming here anyway."
"Okay. Mummy, I want to go back home."
"Jimin yarinya. Which home kuma? Go back to your husband's house dai." Hajjo says chuckling.
"Mummy." Halima whines and Hajjo laughs. It has just been a few days but she misses her daughter.
Innayo comes in and they exchange pleasantries with Hajjo before she turns to Halima.
"Since you weren't able to finish your two weeks honeymoon, you should go home and start deciding on where to go next. But get well for now. Sa'eed is waiting for you downstairs. Go and rest so that you can be well again, okay? Make sure you take lots of fruits and vegetables so that you can regain your blood." Halima nods and takes her hand bag and veil before slipping on her flats. She goes downstairs and she together with Hajjo and Sa'eed drive to their house.