Chapter 75 — The Missing Half

Hayfah and Adyan ran to Mom and lifted her up from the woman's body. She had been crying and shaking her body to wake her up.

"Mom, you need to calm down. What's going on please?" He handed Mysha to Hayfah and lifted Mom up, taking up to the bed.

"Hayfah, sprinkle some water on her; I think there's a problem." He ordered and sat beside Mom, taking her hands in his grasp, squeezing then in an attempt to calm her down.

Hayfah carefully placed Mysha on the bed and took the water bottle Maami just brought to the woman she heard Mom just called as Ruru am. She turned the woman so she could clearly see her face; and that's when her heat skipped a bit and she found sweats forming a long thick line on her forehead. What does this mean?

Nevertheless, she sprinkled the water on the woman and tried dabbing some on her face, to which she heaved a sigh and woke up with a heart wrenching cry. "Innalillahi wa'inna ilaihir raji'un! What have I seen? Have I gone blind? Ya rabbi don't make this a dream also!" She cried, raising up her hand in a praying manner.

Mom slowly, as if an egg broke in her, got down from the bed and sat beside the woman. With a rainfall of tears running down her cheeks, she took her hands in hers and hugged her tightly.

"It wasn't a dream, it's me; your Neema!" Mom cried and hugged her more.

Rakaia slowly broke their hug and looked at her again. She stared deeply at her before a painful smile finally graced her lips, with more tears rolling down in a rush.

"I have you back, I could finally say I have a family too! Alhamdulillah Neema, Only Allah knows how life was without you!" She cried, as if remembering something terrible that happened in her life.

"It was hard living without you too; I thought I lost you how I lost Inna and Baba. How lucky I am to set my eyes on you again. Alhamdulillah Ruru am!" Mom laughed between tears and hugged her sister again, who could've thought they'd see each other before their lives ends? None.

"You've gained a lot of weight, your skin is fresh, and you're more beautiful now, though you look a bit aged. You can be a well grown woman, I'd forever see you as that little sister of mine that always needs my help when Shafa mocks her!" At the mention of Shafa, they both had their expressions unfathomable.

Dismissing the topic, Rakaia looked around them, and the first person she set her eyes on was a silently crying Hayfah, who stiffened when she saw the mysterious face of the woman that halted every working organ in her. She didn't know from where she came, but she had her eyes closed the moment this woman started talking.

She could hear Adyan's voice as he read out Abba's descriptive letter to her. She could picture the image of her Mama in her head, as the statue she moulded began moving slowly in the compound of her read. It was exactly as Abba wrote and the amazing voice of her husband read.

But how could it be true? How could her dead Mama be found alive in a different world she doesn't seem to belong. This woman staring back at her was lavishly dressed, just the complexion of her skin could tell you from the life she lives. All that aside, how could her Mama be the lost sister of Mom? From what she understood in their conversation.

"Neema, who is she?" Rakaia asked without taking her eyes off a crying Hayfah that had her eyes fixed on her face.

"Oh we have a lot to talk about. She's Adyan's wife who gave birth last week. Here's the baby. She was named Rakaia, but we call her Mysha!" Mom spoke excitedly and handed a knee slacked Rakaia a peacefully sleeping Mysha.

"I didn't know I was coming to my granddaughter's naming ceremony. What an irony of life; we just have to say Alhamdulillah." They smiled at each other and Rakaia leaned in to peck a sleeping Mysha, feeling as her love slowly started seeping into her soul. All this long, she has a family but hadn't been given the privilege to see them.

"Oh that's life for you; I little smiling boy I knew is now a father. Adyan you grew up to be a handsome man wallahi. What's the name of the lucky wife?" Rakaia teased, smiling at how Adyan brushed the back of his head.

He walked over to a stiffened Hayfah and guided them to sit on the carpet. He couldn't remember a single memory of this woman that had brought a smile to his mother's face. It was not normal; he could picture undying happiness beneath the skin of her face.

They sat down and Adyan looked at his two mother's that were looking down at them with so much love. "Mom, Kassim, and Dad call her the Queen of Hearts. Baby Mysha would call her Hibbah. And I, myself, call her Rania, my queen. But her real name is Hayfah, beautiful of slender body. Hayfah Talhah Muhammad!" And all hell broke loose, Rakaia didn't know the moment she slumped down to their level and took Hayfah's hand in hers.

She was numb. All she could feel were the beating drums of pain, anxiety, and fear in her heart. She closed her pouring eyes and placed her two palms on Hayfah's face, feeling its curves and subtleties.

She opened her eyes and looked at them, devastated. "Does she have a dimple?" She asked, moving her eyes between Puzzled Mom and Adyan.

"Yes, she has. What's going on Ruru?" Mom answered and slipped down also, after placing Mysha on the bed.

"Adyan, does she have heart-shaped mark just below her heart?" She asked, her heart rapidly beating beneath its enclosure.

Adyan slightly nodded. His hard and his drained voice answered, "Yes, Aunty Ruru, she has."

She looked at Hayfah that wasn't moving, not wanting to believe what her hand is trying to form. Not wanting to trust the information her brain is trying to give, for it can never be real.

"Would you please laugh at me? Umm, Baby Haffyyy, smileeee, mama's girl." Rakaia smiled painfully between tears, stretching Hayfah's cheeks widely. That's how she used to make her laugh whenever Amna, Tahir or Umma beats her.

Hayfah couldn't remember this, but she's certain she's known this feeling long ago. Without realizing it, her lips slowly began stretching. They started out as a pout, then became a smile, and finally they emitted voice-cracking laughter. "Mama!" She slurred and broke into tears, and they engulfed each other into a bone crushing.

Adyan need not to be told, he ran to their room and scavenged for the letter where Abba described Mama for Hayfah, he took her hijab and slippers before running back to the room, where he met all the three women entangled into a hug, and they were all shedding tears of joy!

He sat beside them and coughed a little, getting all their attentions on him. Mama sighted the hijab and slippers on his hands, and that made her cried harder.

"She's the one. May daughter is alive, she wasn't dead! Allah reunited me with Hayfah before I die; I couldn't thank Allah enough. I had these on me the last day I saw you; Hayfah, you were 3 then. What a life." Mama spoke softly and took the hijab and slippers from Adyan's hands, caressing them slowly; she doesn't like the feeling crossing in her heart at the sight of them.

Hayfah just held her hands and kept staring at them. She couldn't believe this were the hands that fed her with every kind of love in the world. She couldn't believe these were the hands she wished to be hugged with; when she has no one to cry to. She couldn't believe these were the hands she wished to point at her and tell her she isn't a piece to be humiliated or sabotaged because of her voice. She couldn't believe these were the hands she wished so much to hold and drop a drip of tear on them.

"Mama, please are you really the one? Abba told me you died, that a car crashed on you the night he chased you out of our house. He gave me this hijab and slippers on his death bed. I don't want to be heartbroken again, please are you Rakaia Muntari? The daughter of Baba and Inna? A sister to Neema who lives in Galadimawa village but who got married to Talhah and moved to Gwargwaje?

Are you the one whose cousin Shafa made sure she married your husband and maltreated you until you were finally out of the house? You're the Rakaia that hasn't seen anything left in a melancholic life? The Rakaia that lives to love her husband, but he hasn't reciprocated?

You're the woman that gave birth to me? The woman that loved me and wouldn't have shown a difference between me and Addah Amna? You're the woman I have a soft spot in your heart? A woman that wouldn't accuse me of being pregnant when I'm clearly not. The woman that wouldn't beat me and have me sleeping on the bare floor of my courtyard?

Mama, tell me you're the Rakaia that gave birth to a certain Hayfah Talhah Muhammad in the darkness of her room after being locked away by her cousin. Tell me you're the Rukayya that hugs and placates me whenever Addah Amna or Hamma Tahir beats me. Tell me you're that silent mother of a little girl that always cried herself to sleep but would make sure to smile at her daughter to make her feel loved.

I would love it if you're the one that loved me from the day you knew of my existence in your womb. I would love it if you were the woman that had suffered every malicious act in her husband's house just to live with me. Tell me you're the woman that held my hand in tears as my Abba was chasing you out of our house. I'd trade my life, if you're the woman I cried and had my first words to be your name 'Mama!' In my three years of life. Please, say you're my mother!"

Hayfah felt her shaking and profusely crying self being hugged tightly that she felt she could be suffocated to death. She let her tears fall freely on the back of the shoulders she lived all the years of her life wishing to have.

"I am, Hayfah. I'm all that you mentioned. It's me, your Abba's Rakaia. My sister is Ruru am, and my daughter is Hayfah. I am, I'm your real biological mother that would take your love to my grave." This brought tears to the eyes of Mom, Adyan and Maami that entered the room when Hayfah started talking.

Mom slowly leaned in and joined their group of hug, and Maami followed afterwards. Adyan couldn't voice out the happiness in his heart, how could he start assimilating the gallons of happiness needs to be poured into the stream of joy in the company of his heart? He just had to say Alhamdulillah.

Hayfah felt as the women hug her, they were all crying and so was she. She has two feelings crying for, her dead Abba and found Mama. Is she to feel happy or sad? When her Abba died with the longing of seeing his Rakaia, and here; she is sure her Mama has that yearning feeling of seeing Talhah in her life. How she wished Abba was still alive, he could've been the happiest man to ever live on earth.

What would Umma feel? "The baby is crying, here; give her some food." She heard as Mama's voice blocked her train of thoughts.