32

Aisha cried all day and slept all night. She woke up after midnight and was lucky the fever had gone down and she realized she was hungry beyond words could tell. She slowly walked to the kitchen and cooked for herself, after she was done, she took the plate to the balcony and sat down with a heavy heart. She sighed and hugged her body before she ate her food, she was still feeling dizzy and sick. She finished eating and stared blankly into space, not bring herself up to cry or even feel. She knew Abba would punish her for this, she wasn’t the one that kissed him first, for goodness sake.

She fought her tears back and stood up. She still had some money in her bank account, the one Baba sent to her before she got back home. She decided that she would go to the hospital tomorrow morning and then go to school. It was after some hours that she walked back to her room and laid quietly on her bed but sleep had deserted her eyes. She tossed and turned and it was barely some minutes to 4 am that she slept.

She looked around the house and locked the door on her way out. She had to be in school by 2 pm that’s why she left home early. She didn’t know where the hospitals were situated nor the banks. She only knew the school. She hailed a cab and sat down quietly on the back seat. “Please take me to any ATM around and then to any hospital.” She said to the driver and he nodded his head at her.

He did as Aisha said and she got to see the doctor after waiting for some minutes. As she drove to school, Aisha silently looked through the town while she fondled the surface she got her injection done. He dropped her off in front of their school and Aisha paid him before she walked away. When she sat down in the lecture hall, she had never felt this tired and sleepy all her life. But she knew better than to deliberately miss her class. Jaafar thought her something that would forever be engraved in her heart. She was already drained with what was happening in her life than to add more salt to her aching wound.

She took the cab back home and was paying the driver when Abba’s car pulled over. The moment she saw the look on his eyes she knew she was doomed. He approached her and she quickly dismissed the driver and looked at him with her veins bulging out of her throat.

“Where are you from?!” He clamoured and before she composed herself to answer him, he slapped her on both cheeks and repeated his question. “Where the hell is you from, Aisha?!”

Aisha took some dreading steps backwards and she stared wordlessly at him. She shook her head when her tears fell on her cheeks. “I went to school, then I went to the hospital.” She quivered, taking steps backwards as he enigmatically walked towards her.

He gripped her wrist and dragged her to the door after he unlocked the house, Abba flung her inside and she looked up at him with tears dripping down from her eyes while she shook her head at his hands that were undoing his belt. The first stroke of his belt landed on her back and she wailed out in pain. “Where did you went to? Tell me, where are you from, Aisha?!” He thundered and stroke her body more mercilessly.

Aisha cried as she crawled to where her bag was sprawled on and she pulled out the medicines she bought from the hospital. Innocently with painful tears dripping down her cheeks, she looked at him as her tears choked on her words. “Believe me, I’m really from the hospital, I went to school afterwards. Ask someone in my faculty if they’ve seen me. And here, are the medicines I bought from the hospital. Wallahi that’s the only places I’ve been.” She showed him the medicines and instead of Abba to slowed down, he stroke his belt on her body even harder and mercilessly.

“Who was the guy I saw you with?! He was the one that brought these medicines for you so you can fool me? Aisha, don’t even try me.” Despite how he was stroking her with his belt, Aisha didn’t flinch. She stood there motionless as she stared into space with her hands still clutching on the leather that had the medicines in. She wasn’t out with a guy. She wasn’t the one and she was sure he knew, he just took this way to punish her for the crime she didn’t commit. He stole her first kiss, she was the one to get angry not the other way round.

“From today onwards, you’re not allowed to step your feet out of this house unless I know. And for school, whenever I’m free I’ll take you there, on days I’m not. It isn’t an obligation, forget about it.” He threw her away from his way and stomped to his voice.

Shortly after, Abba walked out of his room holding a medium travelling bag. She was sure she wouldn’t see him until next week. He found her in the same position he threw her at and she shuddered in fear and pain when he walked past her and stomped out of the house. Aisha let out a gurgle of tears and laid down on the cold tiles, she curled herself into a fetus position and cried until she couldn’t breathe due to the pain. It was so painful that she wanted and wished nothing but for her pain to go away.

She finally got a hold of herself and scavenged for her phone in her bag. She found it and stared blankly at the phone, unable to make the right decision. She thought about what she wanted to do, but it was the only thing she could do. She hit the numbers and stared at them before she deleted them, she can’t just call Mommy. She was sure if she did, she was going to embark on an even more painful journey of her life. She hugged the phone to her chest and cried until she was minutes away from suffocating.

Aisha crawled back to her room and had a warm bath before she trudged to the kitchen and warmed the food she cooked before she left. She ate her food with tears painfully dripping down her cheeks and walked back to her room. She took her medicines and added with a pain killer before she laid silently on her bed with tears slowly dripping from her eyes. This had been the worst phase of her life, and she couldn’t wait to walk out of it. It was the most painful phase she had ever gone through, not even what Mommy did surpass this. Because in Mommy’s doing, that was her life, she was only in pain because it had enshrouded what she never thought about. But this, this was her life entirely crushed by the man that claimed to love her. Well, that thought got cleared and he told her his real motive behind their marriage. He used her.

Aisha heard her phone ringing and she slowly pulled herself up and picked the call, “Good evening,” she greeted without knowing who the caller was.

“Aisha,” Firdausi uttered when she heard how horror Aisha’s voice sounded.

Aisha didn’t know when she broke to more tears when she heard Firdausi’s voice. “Ya Firdausi, please come and take me away.” She cried, she couldn’t take the pain anymore and conceal it with her smile and fake laugher whenever Mama called. She couldn’t anymore, she had her life slowly strained.

“Aisha, what happened? How are you? What is happening? Why are you crying?” Firdausi asked the question in one breath and stood up from the sofa she was sitting on. She had a bad feeling about Aisha and when Nasir came and asked her to call her to know how she was doing, she did.

“Ya Firdausi. I can’t hold it anymore, it’s getting too painful, I don’t know what to do. I have scars all over my body, my heart is in turmoil, I’m slowly giving up on that. Will you please come and get me out of here? It’s killing me.” Aisha was crying so hard that she didn’t know when she fell from the bed and rested her head on the bed.

“He beats you?! Aisha? Where is he now and…just tell me in details!!!” Firdausi demanded and before she made her next move, Nasir collected the phone from her hand and spoke in an agitated tone.

“Aisha, what’s happening? Where are you now?!” His voice was straight and sharp, and for a split second, he sounded much more like Abba than himself.

“Dr…” She slurred and let her words trailed off, she wasn’t even crying anymore. It had gotten to the point that Nasir’s voice sounded alien to her ears. Her tears now were cascading down as peacefully as they can, with no sound.

“Aisha, you need to calm down and tell me where you are, and where is Abba?” He asked again, and she closed her eyes tightly.

“I’m at home, he has left almost two hours ago.” She answered and she heard the shufflings Nasir made before he gave the phone to Firdausi and he uttered. “Just calm yourself down, Aisha. I’ll be on my way now.”

They all bulged their eyes out and Firdausi took a hold of his wrist. “Where do you think you’re going, Nasir? It’s a 14 hours drive from Katsina to Taraba. How can you set out to Taraba from while it’s getting to 6 pm?!”

He shrugged Firdausi’s hand and looked at her. “She’s in pain, didn’t you hear her? He beats her, Nana. How can I let him stay with her while with every passing second I’m dying to e with her? Doesn’t he the treasure he has in hold?!” He didn’t know when he broke into tears and Aisha ended the call before a new set of sizzling tears made their ways to her cheeks. She was painfully in love and brutally married to a monster.

Firdausi looked at Nasir and smiled calmly at him, “Do you want the world to know that you’re in love with your brother’s wife, Nasir? What do you think Baba would say? How would Mama feel? Let’s not talk about the society because whatever you do they’re bound to talk.” She guided him back on the sofa and smiled at her furious little brother. She had to conceal her pain and panic to get him set and free.

“What does this have to do with love, Nana?” He asked and palmed his face using both hands. All this was taking a toll on him. He woke up every day with the dreading feeling that he lost Aisha, and every night he went to bed with the painful feeling of the possibility of Aisha being cocooned in Abba’s arms. It had drained him all.

“Yes, there is. From the way you out, and I’m certain you’re not going to take it easy when you set your eyes on Aisha and see what she had become. Take it lightly on yourself, Nasir. This isn’t the end of this world, and you’re not in the right place to act upon this. I’ll call Mama and let her know.”

Before any of them acted, a text message came through Firdausi’s phone and she read before she silently handed the phone to Nasir. He read the text, ‘Ya Firdausi, I beg you in the name of Allah don’t tell Mama. If she talks to him about this, he’s going to end my life. I’ll be fine. Tell Dr not to come, it will only worsen it for me. Please Ya Firdausi don’t, it happens only today, I’m sure he won’t repeat it. But if he does, I’ll call you first before anyone. Being angry doesn’t suit you, it makes you sound just like him. Be your cheerful self, Dr. I’ll be fine, I promise.’

Firdausi didn’t know she was crying until she felt Nasir’s hands on her cheeks as he cleared away her tears. His eyes had turned to bloodshot and he stared at her, “You can’t tell Mama, Nana.”

This was the most heartbreaking text message she had ever read in her life, and it came from the soul she took as a family. She had loved Aisha equally as she loved Nasir. She had no references. “She begged, won’t you do this for Aisha?”

Nasir pinched the bridge between his eyes and sighed. He was trying to act all strong but it was slowly breaking his walls. “But Nana…”

She cut him off, “She seemed to be terrified, can’t we provide her with the peace of mind that she did nothing wrong for him again? She said you shouldn’t be angry, do this for Aisha.” Nasir closed his eyes shut and clenched his fist. It was more unbearable than he had thought.

❃

It had been more than five months. Nuriyya spent less time n their house but she made sure she took along with her, Abba. And that was the only thing Aisha was grateful to her about. It was only during the semester exams that Abba didn’t fail to take her to school, but a usual coming back home was the most painful part. She took solace in writing, reading and sleeping, and so far they had been good companions. From the day he beat her, he had never used the belt on her again, but the face slaps were there, he threw objects on her as well and his verbal abuse had gone to an extent.

Nana made sure she checked up on Aisha almost every day, and Aisha could never be even more grateful. When their holiday finished, Aisha spoke to Firdausi about it. She told her that she can go to school on her own, she spoke to him and found her ways with him until he agreed. And that was the happiest new she heard in a very long time. Aisha got set to school and hailed a cab. The last time she saw him was three weeks ago, and that’s the happiest Aisha could be.

She paid the cab driver his money and was walking towards their lecture hall when she felt a hand gripped her wrist and she was pushed into a car. A feeling of deja vu struck her heart and she struggled until she was able to get out of the car and before she was able to run away, the guy that was meant to be her kidnapper walked from behind and hugged her to his chest.

“Please let me go.” She cried in panic, fear and pain were circulating all over her body. She knew she was bound to pay for the crimes Mommy had committed, but not now, please. She wasn’t ready for more of that pain. She was satisfied as it is now.

Out of nowhere, a car parked and Abba came out of it, “Let go of her.”

“Who are you to tell me that? She’s my girlfriend and we had a fight that’s why she seemed to be fighting me off. Get lost.” The guy thundered and even though Aisha felt relieved upon the sight of Abba, she knew she was bound to have the most painful night ever.