CHAPTER SIX

"SHUT UP" I heard Umma whisper-yelled, her face was covered with tears as she spoke in between sobs

"Is that why you prefer to runaway from home, do you have any idea how we will feel when we learned that you ran away, do you even care what kind of humiliation we will face, or do you think we will ever live in peace knowing that you are not with us anymore?"

"Umma please allow me to do this, i have to do this Umma I really need to do this please Umma try to understand" I pleaded letting my tears fall freely on my cheeks, she looked at me intensely and then spoke

"I know this day will surely come, I know you will try to run away from home, I know how persistent you are, am your mother after all, I know everything about you" she said giving me a look that I couldn't explain, she hold both my hands in hers before she continued

"I also know that you haven't thought of where you are going and also the consequences, am I right? " She asked widening the tips of her lips into a tight smile leaving me totally confused, why will she smile in this kind of situation. She nodded her head gesturing for me to answer her question.

"Yes Umma you are right, I don't know where I will be heading to and neither do I know the consequences of my actions. I just know that I have to do this , and so everything became just too complicated for me".

"Thinking too much is not good for you my dear, wait here I will be right back". She wiped away her tears and quickly went back into the house and came back with an old folded sheet of paper in her hands.

"Take this" she uttered handing me the piece of paper.

"what is this" I said collecting the paper from her hands

"Do you remember my Uncle's daughter that is living in the city?"

"Do you mean Inna Asiya?" I said after much thought

"Yes you're right, lambar wayantane wannan"

"where did you get it from Umma and what I'm I going to do with it?"

"Where I got it doesn't matter now, I want you to go to the bus station straight from here and take a bus that is going to Kaduna, Immediately you reach there find someone with phone and beg him to call her for you, I know she will be glad to see you"

"But Umma do you think she will take me in? " I asked

"Asiya is very kind and considerate, I'm sure if you explain everything to her she will understand and accept you wholeheartedly" she answered blinking back the tears that were threaten to fall from her eyes.

I leaned In and hugged her very tightly, I don't want to leave my Umma, she's my life, my everything but I have to leave, I have to be successful and show the people of this village the true worth of girls/women, I have to prove to Abba that western education is not as bad as he thinks it is.

Umma detached her body from mine and said

"You should get going Khairee, before your father comes back".

"Umma"

"shhh khairee you don't have to say anything my dear just go and make sure you make me proud. I will be waiting for you right here in this house inshaAllah " Umma said trying as much as possible not to break down.

"InshaAllah I will make you proud and I will surely come back to you 'God willing'". I was about to step out of the house when Umma called me

"Khairee"

"yes Umma " I answered turning my face towards

"Don't forget to be the good girl you are, fear Allah and pray for guidance from your lord in what ever step you are going to take, pray khairee pray" she said lastly.

"Sure Umma I won't ever forget your words" And with that I gave her a quick hug again and stumble out of the house with a heavy and longing heart.

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3 hours later

The sound of horns coming from the large vehicles together with the breeze coming through the window of the Old yellow coloured bus I'm seated is all that kept disturbing my peace right now. This is the first time am riding a bus and unfortunately for me I have to ride it alone without any family to depend on. Indeed life is such a funny thing, I used to be the apple of my family's eyes but look where I am now, all alone in a bus filled with strangers.

It took me fifteen to twenty minutes to convince the driver that I can travel to Kaduna alone, I had showed him the phone number that Umma gave me and he wrote it down on a book, which I had no idea why he wrote it down.

I was seated tightly next to the window, I couldn't even move my body properly because of the fat lady sitting next to me. Being my first time of travelling, I decided to keep mum even though the bus was filled with noises and cries(of babies) and in no time I was overcome by my trail of thoughts.

Khairee did you make the right choice by leaving home?

Do you know what kind of situation your Umma will be when your Abba find out what happened?

What if Inna Asiya refused to accept you?

What if someone kidnap you? all these questions are what my subconscious kept asking me. Before I could think of any suitable answer, my whole body started shaking and then I turned to the lady sitting next to me and she was also shaking and then I realised it wasn't my body that was shaking, it Was the whole bus and as if in cue people started wailing

"innalillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un "

"laa'ilaha illallahu muhammadur rasulullahi sallallahu alaihi was all and

"Oh my God"

"mun Shiga uku (we are doomed)"

"driver lafiya?(is everything okay?)"

"me ke faruwa ne? (What is happening) "

All this things are what the occupant of the bus are saying and that was when I realised that we are engaging in an accident 'Authubillah' in no time everything started to turn dark and that was how I blacked out in a bus full of unknown people in an unknown city.

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I woke up to the fainted voice of people which sounds like they are trying to negotiate over something which I couldn't hear exactly what.

Every single part of my body is heavy and weak, I couldn't even lift my eyelids talk less of moving my body. I gathered the whole strength of my body that I can and lifted my eyelids and there it is a middle sized room, with blue painted walls and a white fan hanging beneath the white ceiling. It looks more like a living room with four set of couch in which I was laying on one, a TV set, and a fridge.

After I finished scrutinizing the room,

I got up from the laying position and sat down.

Where am I I thought. The last time I checked I was supposed to be in a bus to Kaduna but how comes am here, I started to recall what happened and just the mere thought of it send shivers down my spine. I recalled exactly how I blacked out in the bus, so am I dead? Oh no this can't be heaven, heaven is a way too out of it league and it's way too spacious to call it the grave and it's not home either.

So where exactly am I?

May be you've been kidnapped a voice my head said

Oh shut up how can they kidnap me and leave my hands and legs untied think of something logical please.

"You're awake?" an unfamiliar voice asked bringing me back from my trail of thoughts.

"uhm" I simply answered unable to speak. I looked up to see a middle aged lady who was chocolate in complexion, a little chubby and a not so smiley and not so frowny face. She was dressed in the traditional ankara sewed into a wrapper and blouse.

I adjust into a sitting position and looked at her again and spoke

"Where is this place" I asked

"It's my house of course" she answered sitting down on one of the couch.

"But how comes I'm in your house, the last thing I could remember is that I blacked out in a bus on my way to kaduna"

"Yeah you guys engage in an accident and luckily for you before the bus fell into a large hole you were rescued through the window".

"SubhanAllah so what happened to the rest of the people?"I asked curiously hoping no one died

"I don't know". She answered nonchalantly

"So are you the one that brought me here? "

"No am not, someone else brought you here almost 8hours ago" she answered, I looked at her intensely waiting for a further explanation but she kept quiet.

"You should stand up and pray, you missed 4 Salat in que ( zuhr, asr, magrib and ishai) ". She said " let me show you the toilet " she added standing up from where she was sitting. I followed her through a corridor where she halt and pointed at a door

"This is the toilet" she said and I nodded. I pushed the door and entered, it was a water closet the type I used to see in my primary school readers

'oh how much I missed school' I thought

I found a plastic kettle in the toilet and performed ablution and came back into the room I was earlier and found a praying mat and a hijab. I put on the hijab which covers my body down to my legs and begin to pray.

After I was done praying I continued to sit on the praying mat, I heard a salam from the door and before I could answer a fair looking girl which look almost my age came in with a plate of food in her hands.

"Here is your food " she said dropping the food in front of me.

"Thank you" I uttered

"So what is your name" she asked smiling

"My name is Ummulkhairee" I answered smiling back

"Wow you have a very sweet name" I smiled

"wait" she said clapping her hands together " I also have a friend whose name is also Ummulkhairee but we call her ummu"

"Oh that's nice" I simply answered

"So will you also be my friend So that I will have two friends with the same name?" she asked batting her lashes 'oh what a drama queen she is'

"Yes but what is your name?" I asked her

"Yasmeen come here and allow that girl to eat" we heard from outside

"well I guessed mama just answered your question" she grinned and left the room

Yasmeen I whispered to myself before digging in to my food.