Chapter 68: Chapter 68

They were saying their azkars. They prayed together, and he led the prayer. Ummi couldn't remember the last time she heard this mellifluous voice of his as he recite the holy Qur'an. She sometimes over heard it when he get late for the mosque, but most of the time, she doesn't.

He turned from the qibla and faced her. How she sat on the prayer mat; the pregnant women style made him chuckled softly. He moved close to her and bend over her stomach without even asking for a permission.

"Hey in there! Good morning! It's Abbi this time, you're used to your Ammi right? I'm sorry folk, will be here always now. Please forgive your Abbi." He was fondling her stomach as he talk, as if trying to awaken their growing bundle of joy that lives in her.

"Hey! Stop calling my child a folk! Say, you there princess. Or something cute dai." She nagged, this was the uncountable time she's having this argument with him.

"Get ready champ, this your Ammi can kill!" They were back to normal, even though not as normal as the normal Al-amin and Ummi were, but still, the impression was something soo good to be proud of.

Ummi squirmed on the prayer mat and smirked mischievously. He stared at her, what's with her and smirking at this early morning, and what she said proved his instincts. "Hey Baby, so Abbi is a good chef, what do we want to eat?" And she kept silent as of waiting for a response before she laughed and fondled her stomach.

"Ohh, that's a good idea Baby. Abbi, we want pizza with so much cheese and little chilli. Then, a chicken shawarma, also, a hotdog, and...an ice cream! All in big sizes! Hurry please." She looked normal as if she wasn't saying something even five people couldn't eat at go.

"Arub are..." Before he could complete his sentence, she cut him off.

"Oh please. Say that again. I miss how it rolls off from your mouth. The accent, the words, and everything about it. Okay, continue with what you were saying," She said and smiled brightly at him, as if she didn't just acted like a person that needs a visit to the psychiatric.

"Arub, how can I get all these this early morning? There's no place I set an order." He looked worried, and tensed. He wants to do all it takes to rectify the things he had done for her, but this was a bit too hard. They haven't talked about the 'Hear me' parts, that's what they've tagged them. He seemed not to be interested in anything pertaining that, he loves her_that's all that matters.

"Princess, Daddy is lazy, let's find something decent." He just stare as she converse with their child. How she looks at her stomach with so much love, adoration and proud in her eyes made him swooned and feel guilty at the same time_for she seemed to have a connection with the child even before it's born. Well, she/he grows in her of course.

"Okay, Abbi_we want noodles." Ummi exclaimed and clapped her hands a little.

"What?" She asked, when he kept staring at her with a feign annoyed expression.

"I'm already Abbi right? No more Babyyy, Habibi, Sweetheart? Nothing sort of an endearment."He whined and pouted his lips. He's trying, so hard to sound as normal as they were, but Ummi could sense the pain laced on the layers of his voice.

She smiled, a smile that pierced into his soul and gripped the veins of his heart. "My princess got the chance to live in my womb because you've moulded my heart into something magnificent and sturdy. If not because of you, I would've been long dead, or half alive." And she planted a soft lingering smooch on his cheek, slightly brushing his lips.

He cupped her face into his hands but she shrugged them off slowly with a mischievous smile. "Noo Habibi, don't try changing this topic please. We need noodles, remember?" She informed with a chuckle and stood up.

She folded her hijab and the prayer, kept them in their place and came back to a stiffened Al-amin. Tucking herself up inside his duvet, she peeped her head and smile.

"Don't please. I know you'll ask for my forgiveness, I've forgiven you, Babyyy. I'll sleep for some minutes before you finish the noodles, Princess needs to hear an update about her Abbi. Bye, be safe." She blew him a kiss and he playfully caught it with a shudder.

They stare deeply into each other's eyes and smile. "I love you." They spoke at the same time, followed with a smile.

Al-amin stoop up and walked over her, he planted a kiss on her forehead, fondled her stomach before he blew air on her eyes. She closed her eyes with a smile, and she opened them to an empty room.

The smile still lingering on her lips, she closed her eyes and dance to the tune of words playing at the back of her head.

I sleep with your voice

silently resonating through my ears

It turns to a lullaby to my heart

I sleep with your eyes

Roaming through the layers of my orbs

Your eyes forming a dazzling image in my dreams

I sleep with your scent

Lingering softly around my body

A cloud holding me firm in the sky

I sleep with your lips

Syncing slowly with mine

An Ice cream making me smile like a baby

I sleep with your arms

Holding me firm against my duvet

The wings flying me to the wonderland

Al-amin walked to the kitchen with a foamy liquid constricting his heart. It was love. How could he explain what he's feeling in his heart? He knew he was blessed abundantly the moment he knew of Ummi as his wife. She was a blessing to him, and he couldn't thank Allah enough for the gift of her.

He entered the kitchen and set up to the work, the mini chef he was. He sometimes hums, whistles, and sometimes laughs alone at himself.

Laila entered the kitchen, stifling a yawn as she stretched up herself. She stood midway when her gaze fell on a sanguine Al-amin, humming and smiling at himself. She have lost the track of time, since the last time she saw him as happy as this.

Nonetheless, she sashayed towards him, "Good Morning, Yayah," She greeted with a smile, her sleepy face glowing as the early rays of sun casted beautifully on her tone.

He turned around, a bit startled. A gasp escaped his lips as he saw the flimsy creature before him. She had a faint yellow gown on her body, which hugged her body and curves.

"You haven't prayed your subh salah." That was the first thing that came to his mind, for he knew how she could be an incognito when it comes to anything religious.

She was flabbergasted. The new Al-amin she got married to have never asked her whether she had prayed or not, because he was always after her besieging for his so called right. But this questions hit a place in her, and she was afraid that the old Al-amin is back.

"I'm asking you something, or should I say I've pointed out something you should've made your priority." She heard his voice, and it jolted her out of her trance, away from the monsters trying to dwell her into a forest of affliction.

"I'm...am...umm, I just woke. And was thirsty that's why I came to look for water." She knew lying to him is like filling up a basket and expecting it to hold the water for a second. He knew what encompasses Laila Mukhtar Bugaje, her everything.

"Go and pray." He ordered and fixed back his gaze on his steaming indomie.

Laila looked at him and wanted to ask who he was cooking for, but she knew not to_from the look on his face. She gulped down the fear riling up to her throat and walked out of the kitchen with shoulders slumped in defeat.

Al-amin finished cooking the indomie and poured it into a bowl and walked back to their room. He slowly pushed the door, afraid not to wake up his baby and the baby in her. A smile stretched on his lips as he saw how she cuddled herself up in his duvet, with a pillow hugged to her chest. She had her eyes closed, her eyelashes casting ornately on her cheek bones. Her lips were pursed into a pout, making a row of rainbow.

He walked over and placed the bowl on the bed side drawer. Ummi squirmed in her sleep as she perceived the aroma of the indomie, and it started swivel the veins of her brain.

Her eyes acquiescently opened by themselves, her orbs falling on his honey orbs_and a smile kissed her lips.

"Should I recite you the poem I birth in my head when this aroma smacked my nostril?" She asked, sitting upright with a pillow placed on her stomach.

"My poetess, let's create the words that could make the senses of this husband vanish." They laughed at his attempt of being a poet.

She sat well. Took the bowl and placed it on the pillow on her stomach, she tried scooping a spoonful when he stopped her and fed her himself.

"That's even more romantic. Let's hear it out before it runs away.

You aren't a prince riding a horse,

Taking me to a castle with my pink gown,

You're the man I met in school,

Taking me to your home without me knowing.

I have a child growing in me,

Made of clay and coated with gold,

A baby loved by a heart of diamond

With a kick, pearls roll down in a pool.

You promised to bake me a cake,

A pizza, shawarma, and hotdog,

But an aroma hit my nostril,

It smack my vain and wash away my sleep.

Your indomie is the best I've tasted

Apart from the luscious organ placed below your nose,

It's the most lingering hug I've seeped,

Apart from the gaze scrutinizing me right now.

Habibi, I've once called you,

Babyyy, I've once hugged you,

Honey bunch, I've once kissed you,

Sweetheart, I'll always love you.

Ouch! That was bad, Habibi, I taught it would be good as I've felt the words dancing in my head. This is bad!" She cried, but a spoonful of an indomie in her mouth stopped her from uttering more words.

"It was beautiful, Arub. I haven't read much of your poems, because you made them highly confidential! But I love this so much!" He laughed at how she scrunched up her face. The way her hair sprawled on the bed head, her eyebrows, her sulky eyes, lips, everything about her sweep him off his feet.

"My poems are my life. I don't like anyone reading them, because I'll get criticized, and that means hurting my feelings. But we should write this one on a new book," She said, looking at him with her innocent eyes.

"Yes! Whenever you feel the tune of words in your brain, just casually say them out, I'll record everything and write in a book!" Al-amin spoke with full enthusiasm and walked into his closet, coming out with a new book in hand, together with a pen.

He sat down beside her and she laughed, humorlessly. "You know the most crazy thing, Habibi?"

"No. What is it?" He asked.

"I've forgotten even a single word I've uttered a minute ago. This baby of mine is making me dull."

"Oh that? I have everything recorded here. Just wait until I finish."

She stared and ate her food as he wrote cursively on the book. He finished and brought it up to her face as she read out the contents loud.

"It's beautiful! Let's sleep, Habibi." He took away the bowl from her hand and placed it on the bed side drawer, seeping into the warmness of the duvet, whilst his favorite was the warmth coming out of her body.