“I thought we're past that. Come on where is my brave young lady? Wipe away your tears.”
“Baba why is Inna sending me away? Why doesn't she love me like before?”
Malam Habu adjusted the squat-chair and faced Uwani.
“Uwani, I know you are a smart and well mannered girl, and I am absolutely sure you know how much your mother feels about you. This place you are going, you will be staying with your siblings Allah has ordained that you have to grow up in a village and have a different life-style from theirs”
Malam Habu made sure he had her attention before he continued “Now, there is a reason that made your mother decided to let you go, I want to assure you that our prayers are always with you. I know, when you get there you will understand the reason Inna wants you to be there. May Allah bless you.”
“I understand, thank you Baba. You are the best father in the world”
“That's like my girl, now come and get going before it is late. I don't want traveling at night.”
Uwani took her iron box, struggling to lift it over her head, but Malam Habu took it from her. “Go and meet her she is in her room”.
Uwani smiled at him and left her room. She went to Inna's room reluctantly. Inna was busy folding clothes here and there, when she heard Uwani's voice she couldn't even turn to look at her afraid she might break down.
Uwani was observing her mother, the room was very neat, because sometimes her mother's neatness was far beyond her, but today she knew her mother was not busy tidying her room, she was avoiding her gaze.
Uwani wondered if she doesn't want me to go why make me? Alright enough with the questions, this might be the last time she might be seeing her mother in a long time, she would not use it in questioning her.
She ran to her mother and hugged her tightly from behind. “I know you will miss me, I will also miss you Muhammad, Amina and Suhail. I will miss you all, please Inna take your drugs on time and make sure Amina and Muhammad study hard because I want them to study further, let them not follow this Tukur boy around. I want them to complete their education and they should never ever stop mid way like I did…”
She suddenly stopped, barricading the most heart wrecking memory from her mind, that was another part of her life that she would give anything not to ever remember.
Inna turned to meet Uwani's gaze holding up her chin, she wiped away her tears. “I want you to be self righteous, city life is a life entirely different from the one here, know your limit and always fear Allah. Have a safe journey.” and she left the room, Uwani slid to the floor and wept right in front of Inna's wardrobe.
Muhammad and Amina came in running and hugged their sister. They all went to see her off after much persuasion from Malam Habu.
The driver was waiting for her outside, Inna had served him with village delicacies till he was filled to the brim.
The driver collected her iron box from Malam Habu and placed it in the trunk of the sleek honda Accord he came to pick her with. Uwani had never seen a car so beautiful or so new in her entire life. The only car she knew was the toyota pick up commonly known as 'a kori kura' in her village, which they used for both people and goods.
All their neighbors had gathered to see her off, she waved them so hard her hand almost ached, she sat glued to the car's window. From behind all the crowd she saw Inna's face peeking from the house.
Right then and there Uwani decided that whatever it is that was waiting for her in the city she was ready to face it. Because she wasn't leaving all these people behind for nothing.
She thought of Malam Habu's words when she entered the car “Don't worry about Inna I am here to take care of her and your siblings, study well and pray hard, when we get the chance we will pay you a visit in Sha Allah” Uwani just sobbed because she knew he was just saying it to comfort her.
Why would any one of them go to the house of the man whose name was even forbidden to be mentioned in their house and family?
She was deep in her thoughts when she heard the driver said “young lady, you should stop crying now so that you don't come down with something, you will get used to it eventually”. She slowly raised her head to look at him with swollen eyes. “My name is Malam Sule” he said.
“My name is Aneesa but everybody calls me Uwani”.
Malam Sule smiled and said “aah, you have a big name. Big people are known to be brave and not weak. I assure you, you are going to like it in the city.” Uwani smiled to the driver's ignorant remark had he known the kind of bond she shared with her mother he wouldn't have said so.
She didn't know for how long they'd been on the road, because she was deep in thoughts, sometimes she dozed off to sleep, when she opened her eyes she would see that they have moved to another town.
The last time she opened her eyes, was because of some loud screech she heard; the sound of metal against metal. She sat up abruptly, blinking her eyes to recover from the shock.
“Relax,” said Malam sule “it's just the gate, we're finally here”.
She looked around meekly as if something would come up behind her and eat her up. Uwani brought her face gently to the window looking out to a huge palace. The palace was decorated with beautiful plants of different colors. By the north east corner of the palace were some huge cars that stood as if they were going to breath.
And in the middle of the road they followed after passing the huge metal door was a fountain. The only thing that confused Uwani was she couldn't see any mountain from which the water sprung out from.
Malam Sule had to open the door for her, because he had been calling her name but she was too absorbed in her surroundings to hear him. She snapped out of her reverie when he called her name again. “what are you thinking about? Saratu will guide you into the house, and your luggage will be sent in shortly.”
Uwani stumbled out of the car almost falling to the ground, quickly grabbing the opened door to support her. A woman in her late fifties approached her, she guessed she must be Baba Saratu, so, she quickly bend down and greeted her as a sign of respect to the elder woman “good afternoon”. Baba Saratu quickly said “Afternoon, my dear how was your journey?” Uwani said “f..fine”.
"Please get up, you need not bend down while greeting me, understand?” Uwani nodded “good, now let's get you inside and rested shall we?”. From then on, Uwani knew that she might get along well with Baba saratu.
She kept tripping on her self the rest of the way into the big mansion looking at strange things that she didn't know what they were or what they were used for, all she knew was the mansion was so beautiful and huge nothing like she had ever seen in her entire life before. The mansion, which she now realized was no palace but the place she was staying for... what how long? She had no idea.
Baba Saratu walked them through a pathway which opened to a huge space by the side of the house. Uwani saw some beautiful singing birds caged along the way, she immediately took to their liking.
Uwani was mesmerized with everything about the mansion. So that was what her friend Delu meant when she told her that the city was scary. Her hand began trembling and her mouth quivered, how was she going to get used to all these things? Malam Sule said she would get used to it but she was beginning to doubt his judgement.
Her whole body began to shake when she stepped unto the soft ticklish thing beneath her feet. She stood by the door and hugged it so dearly, her eyes shut, as if holding on to dear life. Saratu turned to see Uwani clung to the door.
“Uwani, is everything okay? Have you seen something?” but Uwani was so scared to even open her eyes talk more of speaking. Saratu stepped towards her “tell me, what is it?”
Uwani gathered all the courage she could muster and said “They are following me, they will eat m..my leg remove them, r...remove them” she started mumbling incoherently. Saratu touched her and said “open your eyes, and relax there is nothing, you see it's just the floor covering, it is just ticklish. You see it has no harm” she rubbed her feet on the carpet and told uwani to try it too. When she calmed down Baba Saratu held her hand and led her in.
****** ***** *****
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