44

The world was a cold place, but when Abba got out the prison; he looked around and felt warm from within. He had never imagined that he will be out of this prison until Aisha made it possible for him. He looked ahead, and he saw Aisha leaning on her car as she smiled warmly at him. She was full of surprises, and he walked towards her with a beautiful smile on his lips. She had done something to him more than what he did to her for the period they spent as a married couple. Even though he could feel her love diving into everything flesh of his heart, he knew they had no chance together. He had divorced her with three talaqs and there was no way they could get back together.

He met her and smiled warmly, “Thank you, Ais…Humaira,” he said, and she smiled even more warmly.

It turned out that Dawoud texted Rafiq with an anonymous number and acted as if he was Humaira, he asked him to meet him in his house. Thinking it was Humaira, Rafiq got there and they got into a fight with Dawoud. His aim wasn’t to kill Rafiq but to kidnap him and have Humaira pay the ransom while he told the police she was the one that kidnapped Rafiq, but along their fight; he killed him. Humaira had never felt as painfully as she did when Dawoud was telling them how he killed Rafiq. She cried painfully and all Abba could do was to stare at her face.

“You’re welcome, Psycho. Get in, I have to take you back home.” She got in the car and Abba looked at her and entered the car.

“Do you know where you’re taking me to?” He looked at her from his peripheral view, and Humaira smiled softly as she drove silently.

They got to A & H, Abba stared at her with mouth agape. “What are we doing here? Humaira I regained back my freedom just now and you’re bringing me to A & H? This isn’t the place I missed the most please,” He said and laughed, she looked at him for a split second and honked at the gatemen.

Upon seeing her car, they rushed and opened it. She stopped before she entered and called the attention of the guards, “Look here, you should let him in directly whenever he comes, from today.” Rules set by Humaira could only be broken by Humaira, they nodded their heads and she drove inside.

She took Abba to the lobby and asked for an immediate gathering of the staffs when they came; Humaira looked at them and pointed at Abba. “Treat him like a VIP whenever he comes, from today onwards.” They nodded their heads because no one dared to say a word against Humaira’s words.

When they drove out of the hotel Abba looked at her and pinched the bridge between his eyes, “Why are you doing this, Humaira? Did you forgive me?” He asked, fixing her with an intent gaze.

Humaira turned and flashed him a brisk look before she took her attention back to the road, “What have you ever done to me that you’re so persistent about me forgiving you?” She asked looking squarely at him, while she swerved the steering wheel. She asked him the area he lived and he told her before he answered her question.

“Humaira, do you mean it when you say you don’t know me? We’ve been married for more than a year and I’ve never been good for you, not even once. And I gave you the most painful beating of your life while you rolled down the staircase and I divorced you there while you’re in the mess of your blood. Do you still not remember?” It hurt saying this out loud by himself, but he had no choice because right now he wanted nothing but to drive back to Bauchi along with Aisha.

She threw her head back in laughter and looked at him when she sobered up, “You’re a Psycho, Abba. I told you, I’ve never been married or met with an accident that made me amnesiac, stop saying this nonsense. But if what you said is true, the girl must've surely walked through the most painful phase of her life. I’m glad you divorced her and she could find her freedom again. But’s you’re an antagonist, a merciless on for that. I’m sorry to say, but Psycho you deserve what you got. Being locked up in the prison for the murder you didn’t commit I mean.”

Abba solemnly nodded his head and heaved a sigh, “I know I deserve what I got. But please, even if you’re going to keep denying this; I love you, Aisha. You might not believe it, but I truly mean it.”

This time, chortle escaped Humaira’s lips, she didn’t mind about the fact that he had called her Aisha. “You’re not serious. Let’s say I was the one you got married to, how can you say you love after you divorced me with three talaqs? We can’t be married again you know? But I’m glad I wasn’t the one, please stop mistaking me for that Aisha. My name is Humaira.”

He shook his head and his heart saddened even more seeing how she found hilarity in the words he uttered with so much aplomb. It took all the might in him to tell her he loved her, but it seemed she wasn’t going to buy that. She parked in front of their block and just then Hajar and her husband was out. They rushed to the car and seeing how Hajar was smiling widely; Humaira had to come out of the car.

“Aisha, you’re back? You didn’t leave even a phone number I would’ve called you. But I thought he divorced you with three talaqs? How’s that possible for you two to be back?” Her voice was low when she asked that question and Humaira laughed as she broke their hug.

Abba shook hands with Uthman and they conversed freely, he was asking him about what happened for months that he was no longer seeing him in the house. And all Abba could say was he went back to Bauchi and took care of some things.

“I’m not the one you’re talking about, my name is Humaira. I’m…” She wanted to know the right words to use when she introduced herself. “Well, he mistook me for the Aisha you’ve been talking about.”

Hajar laughed and shook her head, “Come on, Aisha. Stop being ridiculous, tell me the truth and I won’t tell him if you want him to pay for what he did. You’re the same, only that your skin is more lustrous now, and you seemed to be happy not like your old melancholic self. I’m glad you’re back.”

Humaira smiled modestly and shook her head, “I’m not Aisha, my name is Humaira.” She thought Abba was the only Psychotic person, but it seemed there were a lot of the psychopaths living around him.

Hajar hugged her again and smiled. “Even your warmth feels the same, the aura around you has changed and you’re quite charismatic now, but you can’t change the fact that you’re Aisha.”

Humaira got tired of denying she was Aisha until Uthman dragged Hajar away from them, who was still persistent Humaira was Aisha and she was, to all of them except her. She turned and found Abba’s teasing eyes playing on her body. “It turns out you’re not the only psychopath living here. What kind of woman does that? I wanted to cry, she was persistent.”

Abba laughed and turned to his heels, “She was so persistent because you are Aisha. Can you come in? I know I’ll have a lot of cleaning to do, I won’t mind if you volunteer to help.”

She followed him and while taking the stairs, she imagined the Aisha he said rolling down those stairs while he beat her, Abba was truly a monster and well, a psycho. She entered the house and it was a complete mess. They manoeuvred inside and Humaira instantly walked to the balcony and stood, feeling as the scorching sun shone on her body.

“This place is truly beautiful,” she mused and wished she had something like this in her room.

“You loved it when you were Aisha, and this means you’re still my Aisha. I’m sorry I couldn’t let you use it back then, you can have it now.” She heard his voice beside her, and a few wrong turn to her left, Humaira will have her body clasped with his.

She steadied herself and took a few steps backwards before she looked at his smiling face, “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that I’m not that Aisha. For Allah’s sake, my name is Humaira.”

She walked out of the balcony and was walking carefully around the house not to dust her clothes, all her movements were done with his eyes on her. She could feel his eyes threatening to burn her skin to ashes. She didn’t like the feeling he ignited upon her with just his eyes. No man had ever unnerved her as Abba did, and it was no good.

She turned and glared at him before she uttered what was in her mind, “I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never for once cleaned even the room I sleep in, not to talk about a whole house. I don’t know how to do it, you’ll just be disappointed.” She shrugged off her shoulders and acted as if the scrutinizing gaze he was flashing her wasn’t unnerving her and get deep to the flimsiest corners of her soul. She looked away.

“You can say that for a thousand times but I won’t believe you. Anyways, I asked you to help, not to do it. Can you?” Reluctantly, Humaira nodded her head and they were set to work in not less than five minutes. It was fun doing the house chores she always had a throng of maids doing for her.

“How can I dust this off?” She yelled from where she stood, holding a duster in her hand as she cluelessly stared at the fridge and burglars she was meant to dust off.

Abba strode to where she was standing and took the duster from her hand, their hands brushed and Humaira quickly jerked her hand away from the touch. She looked at him and flashed him a hot glare but Abba only chuckled as he set to work. “This is how you should do it, make sure they’re sparkly clean, Humaaira.”

He knew she would yell at him for throwing orders at her, and she did. “Hey, you can’t be throwing orders at me as if you hired me. If you want to do that get a maid, I’m not your Aisha that you can be violating anyhow.” Even though ut stung his heart, he chuckled and went back to his work.

They finished with the living room and kitchen before Abba asked her to enter Aisha’s room and clean it while he cleaned his. “I can’t wash the toilet,” she protested, she didn’t know why she hadn’t taken her bag and left the house hours ago.

“You’ll have to learn, Humaira. But call me whenever you don’t know what to do, I’ll be in the room by the opposite. Be a good Heiress and help this Psycho get his house back to its original state.” He pinched her both cheeks and winked before he left. Humaira was rooted to her spot before she looked at the place he disappeared into and sighed before she entered the room. Nothing was there that belonged to Aisha, but she had sensed pain and melancholy in the ambience of the room. It was as though the walls wanted to tell her whatever that Aisha got into. She felt a soul connection with whoever it is that resided in the room.

❃

They were seated in the balcony, eating the food Abba had cooked for them while all Humaira did was walking around the kitchen asking the uses of the utensils she saw there. She couldn’t remember the last time she went to the kitchen in their house, she was mostly served in her room unless Daddy was there and she had to come out to eat with them.

“Humaira, when do you think we should go back home?” He asked, looking at how flustered she looked.

“Home? I’m going back in not less than thirty minutes. Daddy knows that I went to the court but he said I shouldn’t stay long.” She answered and ducked her head into her plate once again.

“Not this home you have in Taraba, home; Bauchi.” She almost choked on her food.

“I have only one home and it’s in Taraba. Not for once have I ever been to Bauchi. Please, don’t start with your Aisha talking, I’m already tired of them,” She groaned and gulped down the juice he made for them. She stood up and slung her bag on her collar bone before she looked at him. “I get it maybe you’re going back home, right? I wish you a safe journey, but please you should stop referring to me as Aisha. I’m not.”

Before Abba was able to get a hold of her, Humaira had already strode down the stairs and before he got to the down floor, she was already into her car and she drove off in a very high speed. Abba stood there motionless and watched as the specks of dust she rose to life were falling in slow motion. He had never been this clueless all his life. He thought it was the right time for him to go back home now and tell his family whatever had happened and he was sure Mama would come back with him and helped him in pursuing Aisha back to him. Even though not to him, but back to his life. Their life.

He walked back into the house and her scent lingered in everywhere in the house. He slumped on the sofa and dialled Mama’s number, it was time to go back home. “Mama,” he called, and surprisingly he felt a knot being tied in his heart. He had never taken this long without seeing Mama or even having a phone call with her. He knew he paid the price for what he did to Aisha with everything he had in his life.

“Please tell me it’s not Abba, oh my Allah!” Mama exclaimed, and despite how she prepared herself for the day that Abba would call her, how she was going to vent on him; she found herself crying.

“Please forgive me, Mama. I’ll be home tomorrow.” She couldn’t speak, and he heard the way her tears were intensifying in a slow yet painful wave.

And he got to his room and started packing his clothes, he was not to report back to work until the first day of next month. He had quite a time to fix the damage he had done. He sat down on his bed and thought about Nuriyya, even though he wasn’t in love with her anymore, what she did still hurt him.