Chapter 72 — Pottery

She felt numb all over. The cold water seeped into her body and made her heart as cold as an iceberg. Squirming painfully from her curled position and looked at an infuriated Laminde. Amna knew she'd never been hurt like today. What would she act on? The pain trying to lacerate her lower abdomen, or the insults Laminde was ranting at her?

She stood up with aplomb, looked at Laminde in the eye and did the first thing that came to her mind, she slapped her hard across her left cheek! "You're an idiot! You heard me, right? Laminde you're an idiot, an illiterate that couldn't differentiate between a crying child and a mad person. Get out of my room right now before I do something all of us will regret!" She thundered, her eyes emoting nothing but the rage boiling within her, pointing at the door with her index finger.

She's gotten to the point that all she could see was clouds forming in her eyelids and rumpled sounds as the voices around her.

Laminde let out a sarcastic yodel and pushed Amna until her butts kissed the bare cement of the floor. "And who do you think you are to insult my mother and go scot free? Stop being narcissistic just because you came from the city, I, Laminde will beat the hell out of you in this house without anyone able to point a finger at me!" she warned and walked over Amna that was trying to get up with all the might left in her.

"Ohh, now I get the reason for this fight. Look, I'm not ready for this. As you can see, I'm sick and tired of this village you call home. If you could excuse for a moment, you can come back tomorrow for me to know the woman you're talking ab..." Before Amna could finish her sentence, Laminde held her wrist and pushed her out of the room with so much force applied.

"How dare you insult my mother and go scot free? Amna you don't know the person you're dealing with, I can break every moving bone in you!" From that, an angry Laminde started beating Amna without an ounce of mercy in her heart, not considering the situation she met her before everything started, she can take anything from this narcissistic and arrogant bride of her brother, but never an insult towards their mother.

Amna couldn't move a finger. She was too exhausted from the pain and Laminde's beating. She kept mum as Laminde exercise her muscles on her body.

"Laminde!!! What am I seeing? What's the meaning of this? Are you mad???" Jibril clamoured from the door. In a few steps, he was in front of a lifeless Amna, and Laminde had her palm placed on her right cheek.

"Is this what you've been doing to her whenever I'm not around? What kind of nonsense is this, Laminde?" He roared, trying to lift up a fainted Amna from the ground.

He carried her in his arms and walked to their room, agitated, seeing that she isn't moving a finger. He met the room a pool of water, and Laminde's pot was beside their bed, from that he knew who has the courtesy of their wet room, and that's when he realized Amna's clothes were wet.

"You drenched her with water before beating her, Laminde?" He asked, this time in a soft yet dangerous voice.

"Hamma Jibrila, do you know what this arrogant wife of yours did? Inna came to this house to ask for you, you know she's leaving for the city to sell out her weekly cow milk, she needs you to give her the transportation fare. And this stupid wife of yours called her names and insulted her. Inna had been crying since then, I couldn't stand that, that's why I came to avenge."

His body slackened at that, he felt his heart constricting with pain, looking at Amna's lifeless body, he doesn't know what to feel anymore. There was anger clouding his eyes, he doesn't know the one to vent his infuriation to, Laminde for beating his wife, or Amna for insulting his Mother? Both of them are crucial to him.

"It's okay, I'll talk to her when she wakes up. And mind you, if something similar to this happens again, you're not to take action in your hands, always come to me first, okay? And also, I'll call you over to apologize. You can leave." With that, he sat beside Amna and started rubbing her palm to keep her warm.

"But, Hamma Jibrila, this lady over here needs to go and apologize to Inna too. If not, I'm not apologizing to her," Laminde sensed the look of anger he's flashing her, she took her clay pot and ran out of the house with a triumphant expression plastered on her face. At least, she's shown this woman her position.

It took minutes before Amna started coughing laboriously, and Jibril helped her sat upright before he wrapped a duvet around her. "It's okay, Amna. Don't get stressed out please." He hushed, her hands still in his grasp, as he kept massaging them.

She burst into tears, as the heart piercing pain in her lower abdomen hugged her soul, and she felt her joints getting numb by Laminde's beating. "I want to go home!" She cried, slumping on Jibril's chest, hugging him all over.

Jibril got astounded, this was the first time she hugged him! Is he to thank Laminde for provoking her or not? Nonetheless, he hugged her with so much care and love.

"It's okay, where does it pain you?" He asked, carefully scrutinising with his eyes and palms.

"My lower abdomen hurts like never before, and my joints too!" She cried, the first time she's letting her vulnerable side oblivious to Jibril.

Jibril mentally palmed his face. He had noticed her abdominal pain that morning, and he had asked her, but all he got was a yell as an answer. That's why he went out to get her a remedy, but he had forgotten about it when he came back and found her being grinded by Laminde.

"I have the remedy for the abdominal pain, stand up and change into something warm. Eat your breakfast, or do you need anything? Then you'll take the medicine." To say he was baffled would be an understatement, because she slowly nodded her head and grasped his hand while standing up from the bed.

***

They're together in the working room as they named it. They had clay smudged all over their faces, hands, and legs. Hayfah had an uncompleted vase before her. She kept trying hard to make its opening, as she was trying out a new design and didn't want Adyan to help her out.

Adyan had had an intense love for pottery since childhood. He used to make lots of vases, pots, and ornaments in his childhood days. He told Hayfah of his love for pottery, and to his surprise, she has a taste in pottery, and so they gave out a room for it in their house. Orders the clay from a village in Kaduna, and they've made up to thirty vases of same size, they've been working on them since the day they were told of the pregnancy. 'Souvenir' was what they named the vases, saying they'll gift them out to whoever come to congratulate them on the naming ceremony.

"Here's is the vase we made with so much love, cherish it please." They've practiced how they'll be saying when giving it out.

"Rania, it's past time for lunch, I don't want your legs to swell," Adyan spoke from the hand washing basin, looking at her with so much adoration adorning his eyes, seeing how dedicative she seemed on making that vase.

"Hayatee, will you just go and make something edible for us? I want to make this vase, and the design is so hard, wallah!" She finished with a tired sigh. She'd seen the design of the vase in one of the movies they'd watched and had a picture of it in her phone.

"Wait, let me help out." She smacked his hand before he could even place his hand on the vase.

"I told you I want it to be my first real one. The ones we made were not only mine; you helped in one way or another." She pouted her lips at him, her tired eyes fluttering at the picture she stared intensely.

"Rania, you're tired. You need to rest, okay? Get some rest and watch more videos on YouTube for the procedure." He didn't wait for her to reply, when he lifted her up into his arms, bridal style.

A warm smile graced her lips, she stared deeply at his face and rested her head on his chest, savouring in the taste of his love that has been sweetening her taste buds.

"We're home!" Softly, he dropped her on bed, because the room was at the guest's chalet of their house.

"I'm famished! Let's eat something before bathing, Hayateeeeee," she drawled with a decisive tone, smiling widely at him, for she knew he would never agree.

"That's never going to happen. Hey Baby, Momma wasn't a dirty girl until you came along, but we're gonna be classy girls, okay? Let's take a shower." He leaned in and planted a kiss at the tip of her stomach, below her navel, because Hayfah once told him the baby resides more at the place.

"I'm going to sleep, I don't feel like taking a bathe today, Hayatee." Have you ever woken up one day and felt like all the motivation left in you to bathe has vanished? You might even get to the extent of entering the toilet but couldn't have that vibe to bathe? That's exactly what Hayfah is feeling today.

"Ohhh, let's sleep then." He winked, trying to make them lay flat on the bed, but Hayfah was fast. She grasped his hands, and they sat upright.

"I'm not sleepy again, let's take our bathe and eat!" Adyan chuckled and pinched her nose. He helped her get out of her gown and they get to the bathroom together, with Hayfah's nagging voice resonating through the walls of the room.

They bathed, ate their lunch, and sprawled out in the living room, watching the movie they left with sleepy eyes yesterday. Hayfah has her face cocooned on Adyan's chest as he sniffed on the scent of her hair. His favourite.

"Hayatee," she called out, lifting up her eyes and their gazes met. She held his gaze, feeling how it's slowly igniting the fire long smothered in her.

"Rania, do you need something? I noticed you looked a bit down today." He has all his attention on her, his hands cupped her face and he intensely stare at her misty orbs.

"I had a dream. I dreamt about Abba, he was doing okay, but there was a longing feeling in his eyes. He didn't talk to me, only smiled, and I could swear that smile meant something!" She burst into tears at this point. She loved it when she dreamt of Abba, but it always uncovered the wounds she made a great effort to bury.

Adyan hugged her without a word, he still didn't know how it feel to lose a parent, but he could only imagine, and even the imagination hurts like hell.

"It's okay, Rania. Whenever you dream of someone that has died, there's a need to increase your prayer towards that person. In this case, we should fast tomorrow Insha Allah, and later in the evening today, we're going to hospital and foundations to give out charity on their behalf. You need not to cry, okay? Let's just pray for them."

Hayfah tightened her hold on Adyan, she hugged him as if her life depends on him. She sniffed and looked up at him "I don't know what my life would look like without you in it, I so much love you that it sometimes scares me, Hayatee. Just keep being you, for me." He opened his mouth to reply, but it got sealed with Hayfah's forever luscious lips that sync with the love flaring within her.