Chapter 32: Chapter 32

Halima’s POV

Teemah didn’t even let me sleep the previous night. She kept ranting about how I’d enjoy the road trip. How I’d love her cousins, Amrah and Shukee. She’d ranted my ears off.

We packed all what Teemah might need for the trip. We went to our house and she helped me pack what I’d need too. I took native clothes and a few English wears.

I couldn’t afford to get insulted. I remembered the day we went to Borno, my state origin, and I was wearing a black rubber straight skirt with a small slit at the back and a blue paplon top with white nets as the paplon and a black turban cap with blue wedge.

Aunty Asma’u, my mummy’s sister insulted me saying I dressed like that to seduce her son, I didn’t even know her son’s name talkless of what he looked like so how could I seduce him for crying out loud!

On our way to Aunty Fareeda’s house Kalt called Teemah and asked where she was that she was thinking they could spend the holiday together away from me and my holiness.

I so wanted to insult her but I kept quiet to allow her say what she wanted to. Teemah then replied, “amma fah ni am traveling to Gombe tomorrow In Shaa Allah. Kuma stop insulting my bestie, you should know that I knew her even before I knew you”.

“abegii, just say you’re scared of her. Nikam nafi karfin ta. I hate her. She’s such a flirt! First it was Ya Amir, now Sa’eed, mtcheeeww”.

I hissed then said, “Kalt wallahi kin shiga uku! Waton am holy and a flirt koh? Kiji Tsoron Allah fah! Hmm”. “Ha… Hal… Halli daman kina wajan ne”, Kalt stammered and hissed, “a’ah ina kabari nane ai kin kashe ni. Mtcheeeww. Ke da Allah. I won’t tell you anything”.

“Anyways Teemah can I come along with you to Gombe, pretty please?”. Teemah looked at me and I shrugged “eeh you can come”.

“yayy, oh bummer. Ya Amir said he’s going to follow me wherever I’m going to spend my holiday at. Can he come too?”

She looked at Ammi and Abba and Abba said, “as long as he’s coming with his car saboda the car won’t contain us”.  She told Kalt what he said and she said that Amir was coming with his car. She told her where to meet us.

We also went shopping and spent the night at her aunt, Aunty Fareeda’s house. She was right when she said that I’d love her cousins. I mean who wouldn’t.

They’re beautiful, fun, amazing friends and oh em gee if you taste the food Amrah made you might forget your ear on the plate.

I know I eat a lot but the way I ate the food Amrah made scared me, I ate two and a half plates! We didn’t sleep the whole night. We were chatting and ranting about our schools, friends and whatnot.

When we got tired of talking we dressed up and took numerous pictures and videos of ourselves. We even did a tiktok challenge.

Once it was 5am we took our baths, dressed up and went down. We met Teemah’s parents, Aunty Fareeda and Amir downstairs eating breakfast while the house maids cleaned the house and take the clothes to the cars.

We saw Afnan and Amal entering the house. They were all dolled up in their princess gowns an turban caps.

We had our breakfast and got in the cars. I followed Aunty Fareeda, Amrah, Shukee and her husband, Ya AbdulHameed.

Kalt, Amir and Teemah in Amir’s car. Then finally Ammi, Abba, Ya Sa’eed, Amal and Afnan in Abba’s car.

We drove off, stopping at various places to pray, eat or powder our noses then finally after nine hours, we arrived at Gombe.

We drove to Teemah’s family house and lodged there. No one even had the energy to take our clothes out so we just parked the cars and we proceeded to greet the family members.

We greeted their grandmother first, Goggo. She was a tough cookie but I had met her before twice so she was nice to me. I hugged her then we knelt down to greet her, “Goggo ina wuni” we all said simultaneously.

“lafiya qalau yan mata da samari ya gajiyan hanya”, Goggo said trying to sound nice. “lafiya qalau”, we chorused. “toh aje aci abinci a huta koh”, she said and we replied”toh shikenan Goggo a kwana lafiya”. And then we stood up to leave.

We proceeded to greet the other elders and after one hour we were at the last person’s door. She’s a widow with five kids. She’s the only daughter of Teemah’s step-grandmum. She was very rude but we tried our best to sound nice.

Except for Kalt who kept on scoffing and rolling her eyes despite the fact that Teemah kept nudging her back. “meye wannan kike sake dashi?  Fatima wannan kawayen naki basu da kunya kaman ki. Daman ance {what is this you’re wearing? Fatima this friends of yours are shameless like you. After all it was said that} birds of the same feathers flock together. Mtcheeeww. Nikam ku tashi ku barmin kofar daki {abeg stand up and leave my doorstep} “.

We stood up and left and once we were out of her sight on our way to the guest rooms where we’ll be staying I stood and gave all the girls a once over. Teemah was wearing green a boubou gown with brown leaves design and a brown beaded viel.

I was wearing a black high-waist skirt with white pop dots and a white long sleeved top with a black viel. Amrah was wearing a crimson pink  A  shaped gown and a baby pink viel.

Shukhra was wearing a grey abaya and a black viel. Amal was wearing a Cinderella gown while Afnan a barbie gown. Kalt was wearing a dark blue crazy jean and a black top with a grey kimono and a small black veil.

She must’ve gotten us the remark we got from Teemah’s aunt. I rolled my eyes and continued to walk with them. We reached an ancient looking building. We entered and reached a corridor with doors on both sides.

The painting there was faded. We were all shown our rooms: kalt, Amrah and Shukee in a room. Ya Sa’eed and Amir in a room. Me, Teemah, Afnan and Amal in a room. Then lastly the couples, Ammi and Abba in a room while Adda Fareeda and Ya AbdulHameed in a room.

I entered the room I was going to share with Teemah, Afnan and Amal. All I could say was wow! It had a black love seat by the wall on the left. A large black and white mirror was facing me with drawers beside it. Opposite the mirror was a king size bed with black and white bed covers and duvets.

The room was large and painted black and white. The tiles were white. There was a black and white mirror wardrobe by the wall on the right with a door which I thought led to the bathroom.

I entered the door and there was a washing machine by my left and a laundry basket by my right. There was also a dryer and a door facing me.

I opened the door and there was the bathroom. Everything you could ever need was there. Gosh. It was the perfect definition of Don’t judge a book by its cover.

We had dinner prayed Isha and retired to bed.

The next day I woke up with a small headache but after all the greeting and everything it became a huge problem. I could hardly open my eyes well.

We were asked to go to the guest room because the elders were having a family meeting. The daughter of the woman who insulted us yesterday, Ameela, came and introduced herself.

She’s a nice girl and a great friend, unlike her mother. We chatted for sometime and then she dragged Teemah along with her to another room.

Weird!, I thought.

Fatima’s POV

Ameela, Aunty Nana’s daughter, dragged me to Adda Huda’s room before she died and said, “keh, kinsan meyesa ake meeting? {hey, do you know why there’s a meeting?}”.

I shook my head in the negative and she said, “hmm, kinga Aneesah, Addan Afrah, tayi cikin shege! {hmm, well you see Aneesah, Afrah’s elser sister has gotten pregnant with an illegitimate child}”.

I shook my head, amused “kekam baxaki chanza bah. Shegen gulma {you won’t change. Always poke nosing}”. She continued, ignoring my remark “kekam wannan abokin Ya Arfat din, ehmm meye ma sunanshi, yawwa Salisu, shine uban dan. Yanxu haka da uwarshi da ubanahi suna ciki ana maganan auren ta. Amma babansu yace toh tunda Afrah na bin Aneesah sau da kafa, ta fito da mijin aure. Toh yanzu wai daman ita da Arfat suna soyayya shine yace zai aureta. Yanxu haka wai ana shirye shiryen auren nanda sati daya za’ayi {ehen so the father of the child is that Ya Arfat’s friend, whats his name again, ehenn, Salisu. Right now his parents are in there talking about their marriage. But their dad now said since Afrah follows Aneesah’s footsteps she’ll have to get married too. So she and Arfat have been dating so he said he’ll marry her. Now they’re in there setting the marriage for the next one week}”.

All I could say was a wow, so they were getting married the next week. Well I guessed we were having a marriage then.