*Afrah would make a good mother. Everyone said so. None more than Adnan, who keep looking at her with a moist expression of warmth in his eyes each time he saw her. He'd changed since she told him about the pregnancy. He was more attentive than ever before, which came as a surprise seeing as how she couldn't imagine him paying any more attention to her than he usually did. He became more quiet, walking almost in tiptoes so he wouldn't disturb her. "What do we name her?" he asked one day while massaging her feet. Afrah's hand was resting on her slightly protruding belly, a distant look in her eyes until Adnan had spoken. "How are you so sure it'll be a girl?" Her smile came easily, as it always did whenever she discussed the baby. "I know it's a girl, Afrah," he said. "I just do.""Well then, if it's a girl, I want to name her Hafsah," she said. "And if it's a boy, we name him Aliyu.""You've given this much thought, haven't you?" he asked with a chuckle. "It's all I've done these
*Sandra would surely lose her job that night due to her negligence. "How could you let some random stranger up to see a patient without asking for an ID or even calling the room to confirm first?" Dr Hussein thundered when the news was brought to his knowledge. "It was an honest mistake," she begged, sobbing on her knees. "I didn't know.""What if something had happened to her?" he asked. "What would you say then? That you're sorry?""I sent the security guards after him as soon as he went up." It was her only redeeming action, and the only reason why she didn't lose her job afterwards. Adnan was sitting quietly in the chair of the head security officer, watching the footage over and over again. The rage was slowly rising in his blood, bubbling just beneath the surface. Yusuf had been here; in the same building as him, and yet he'd slipped right through their fingers. If something had happened to Afrah...He looked leaner than Adnan remembered since the last time he saw him. It w
*The naming ceremony was held at Afrah's parent's home. Adnan didn't want the security of his house to be compromised during the event, so he agreed to have it at her parent's. The night before the ceremony however, he stayed with her until midnight. They took a walk in the backyard, circling the perimeter several times. Hafsah was sleeping soundly in Halima's room upstairs, barely a few minutes after Afrah finished feeding her. Soon she would be waking up when her diaper got full. They'd just endured over three hours of her crying when her grandmother decided to pierce her ears that day. The wind was cold and harsh. When Adnan noticed Afrah shivering, he drew her close and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "You smell nice," she said with a sigh, wrapping her arm around his torso. "Did I not smell nice before?" he asked with a slight chuckle. "You always smell nice," Afrah said. "And you smell amazing," he said, kissing her forehead. "You look beautiful too."On their sevente
*Hafsah grew rapidly. It was almost as if one day she went to sleep a baby, and woke up the next day with a vocabulary of over five hundred words. Her growth spurt happened right around the time that Afrah and Adnan moved to Kano. Amina called it their migration, while everyone else called it a relocation. Like birds which migrated south for the winter, Amina told everyone who listened that they'd migrated north for The Long Winter, one which would stretch on for years if care was not taken. Adnan was much too happy to move. Knowing they were leaving the danger of Abuja behind was the only thing which finally made him able to sleep. That, and the knowledge that Zainab was serving a life sentence. The charges leveled against her would have easily amounted to culpable homicide punishable with death, but an unknown party was said to have bribed the judge and reduced the charges to culpable homicide not punishable with death. Adnan had been ready to appeal, but Afrah assured him that
*Some say terror brings an overwhelming sense of confusion, so sharp and painful that the person isn't able to decipher his left from his right. It robs the mind of its tact, and ensnares the person in its claws. For Afrah, terror brought an overwhelming sense of calm. In the seconds after Adnan spoke to her on the phone, her senses heightened, and something inside of her seemed to snap. She was neither aware of walking out of the hospital, nor was she aware of hopping into her car and driving off. Her heart was racing, and the wailing of a thousand exhausted cars desperately trying to maneuver around each other was lost to her. All she heard was silence, so pure and complete that even her breathing was faint, almost nonexistent. And then she screamed.No one heard her, of course. No one heard the anguish in her voice, or the desperation in her every breath. The pain came from within her, seeping out of her pores and wrapping her in a dreadful blanket. Remarkable however, was the f
*Adnan couldn't bring himself to do it. All through the flight to Kano, he kept staring at his mother in-law's phone number, debating whether he should do it or not. He couldn't. What exactly would he say?'Hello, yes I was just wondering if you have a hand in kidnapping my daughter and I was just wondering if you knew where she was so I can get her back?'Stupid. He couldn't tell Afrah either. Not when it involved her mother. She would be heart broken if she found out. But then Zainab might be lying. She was a pathological liar after all. Why wouldn't she lie to him? It didn't make any sense. Surely she must have just said that to throw him off their scent. And stupid as he was, he'd left the state knowing that she'd been pardoned by the governor. Now she was free; free to wreak her havoc over them once again. He was trapped between a rock and a hard place. When they landed in Kano, Adnan's first stop was the police station. The sergeant was eager to help, and very soon all t
*"I remember it like it was yesterday," Halima said. "And I know how cliché that sounds, but it really does feel like yesterday even though it was almost thirty years ago."Adnan tilted his head to the side, trying to detect a hint of deception in her words. "I was a little girl, so foolish and ignorant. I guess I've always been like that. But we can say that my ignorance and foolishness were somewhat exaggerated at that point in my life. Before I tell you how it happened however, I think you should understand the beginning of it all. I believe I was on my way to my uncle's house that day. I'm sure your father told you all about the village we grew up in.""Bakura," he replied indifferently. "Yes," Halima replied, twisting her hands. "It's a small settlement, and we grew up so close that everyone knew the name of everyone else. It was so small that it was impossible to leave home without everyone being able to give a detailed account of where you went. Your paternal grandfather and
*Every movement caused Afrah to jump; every second his eyes spent watching her made her skin crawl. She didn't sit. Instead she remained where she was standing, her arms folded in front of her. Yusuf meanwhile had leaned back into the seat, sighing comfortably. "What would you like to have?" he asked nonchalantly. "Some water, perhaps? I have some orange juice which still happens to be fresh. Or would you prefer a coke? I have some wine as well, but then knowing how close you and Adnan are, I'm sure he's taught you to stray away from fine wine. So, which would you prefer to have?""I would like to have my daughter back," Afrah replied. Yusuf studied her for a few seconds before he chuckled. "Of course," he said. "It's why you're here, is it not? As for me, I'd like a Bloody Mary."He stood up then, stretched with a slight groan before he left the room. Afrah remained where she was, awkwardly staring at the stained walls with nothing but a single wall clock hanging on them. She tho