Aaliyah to the World

28| Rambo

•Hamza

The trip to Kaduna had to be delayed till later in the afternoon. Around 16:00pm to be precise.

Despite the embarrassment my father had caused I couldn't just cancel the trip because I really wanted to make Aaliyah happy.

The search for closure is one that requires sacrifices and this one was for my dearly beloved.

I could tell it was quite weird to have Uncle Hakeem sit beside her in the back sit so I asked Bilal to trade sits with him.

We arrived Kaduna late in the evening so we postponed all activities till the next day. I was too pissed to sleep because of my father's disturbing display so I stayed awake till 03:00am and did some extra nafilah's before sleeping off.

****

It was Saturday! One of my favorite days of the week after Friday.

I woke up early before Bilal, Aaliyah and Uncle Hakeem so I took a bath and did some work on my laptop before they got up.

After they each called to tell me they were ready, we all went to Aaliyah's room.

Like Bilal predicted, she was asleep. Fortunately, she had already taken a bath and was just waiting for us to come and get her.

We had our simple breakfast of ƙosai from the restaurant downstairs and soon we hit the road to Zaria.

The thirty minutes ride was incredibly energy draining and boring. The roads were untarred and bumpy which was detrimental to the bodies of my car tyres. Two out of the three in the car with me were asleep. It was weird to start a conversation with Uncle Hakeem so I decided to be quiet till we arrived at the village.

Uncle Hakeem led the way and we found ourselves in a mini ghetto along the outskirts of the town.

At a point we had to leave the car behind because of the bad roads. Bilal adviced me to remember to raise all the glasses because he heard most of the inhabitants stole care parts and if it was possible, the whole car.

The scorching sun was just too hot today. I was sweating profusely like a Christmas goat, Aaliyah looked like caramel flavoured ice-cream that was melting, Bilal just looked disorientated while Uncle Hakeem just continued walking forward without even stopping or complaining of fatigue. I thanked God for making me wear shorts and a sweat shirt just in case we got ambushed.

I see Aaliyah thought the same as she wore just a pair of black jeans and a dress shirt.

We all left our valuables in the car and walked through a series of corners and skipped gutter filled roads to get to the house of the man, Rambo.

His name was scary but cool.

It reminded me of an action movie I watched with my mum and the hero who was Sylvester Stallone was named Rambo in the movie.

Turns out, Rambo was arrested after he got caught drug trafficking all the way in Kaduna. Rumour has it that he was sent to Kirikiri prison but most said he was in Abuja.

Such a waste of time.

I didn't want to stay in Kaduna any longer so I pleaded with everyone for us to leave today so that I could just go home.

Thank God the day was yet to end.

The drive to Abuja was quiet. I guess everyone was either angry or tired but I, for one, was hungry.

I dropped Aaliyah off at her house and Uncle Hakeem at Father's guest house and lastly Bilal at his house before going home.

I thought my life had siezed surprising me since my mum promised to never travel without informing us but...