BFFs: finding love again

24. Memories

"So..." Aqsam drags.

"What should we do for the next one hour we have. You're going back to Nigeria today right?" Fatima nods and Aqsam hums, thinking of what they should do to pass time.

"Why don't we visit your company? Just supervise. Then from there we can say goodbye." Aqsam suggests but Fatima shakes her head.

"Let's just stroll." Aqsam nods and they both stand up and walk out together.

Walking through the quiet open backyards of Ibn Muhammad Rehabilitation Madrasah, Fatima gazes up at Aqsam, trying to carve out every crevice, nook and cranny of his structure. She wants to have it engraved in her head and heart such that she can carve a statue of him without as much as a reminisce.

From his girlish well carved brows that looks like they've been plucked by an expert, to his brown with black flecks irises trapped in pearl white surrounding, to his cute button nose, to his well shaven stubble he weirdly carves right beneath his nose not forgotten, also those well trimmed side burns and the small bush on his chin that leads to a well shaven neck, to his Adam's apple, the broad shoulders and wide chest, the small torso, down to those damn straight legs.

Oh, how could she forget those well shaped m-lips that have a dark mauve-ish color that yaws pink when he takes the lip in his mouth, which is something he does when he's deep in thought. Just like he's doing now. Not to forget the birth mark just right on his cupids bow.

Aqsam turns and their eyes meet. He smiles and she flushes before turning her gaze to her front. Aqsam looks at her, this girl right here is so loving. He has seen her fight for her family. She's spent countless sleepless nights just to ensure that she doesn't make her family feel bad for her and he can attest to that.

The second day that mad man Amir Audu Kalshingi appeared again he couldn't control himself as he saw the man try to hug Fatima who was crying hysterically and pushing him away, she was clearly having a panic attack so hard she fainted.

Aqsam had gotten so angry he beat Amir to a pulp. He beat him so much the poor man almost passed out. He had bruises everywhere when he was half consciously taken to the police who placed a restricting order on him. Aqsam also made sure that Amir was never allowed into the premises by the security guards at the gate. He gave them his two names - Amir Aliyu and Amir Audu Kalshingi - and two not so  different pictures of him - one with the wig and a well treated skin, the other without the wig and a pimples infested skin - so that they can take the necessary measures when they see him even close to the premises. Brutal right? That shows how far Aqsam can go to ensure Fatima's happiness and peace. He has seen her sad and disturbed and damn is it such a suffocating sight.

Just as Fatima can't bear to see him sad, he also can't. That's clearly love, but Aqsam won't admit it to himself even though he knows it's love. So he likes to tag it as 'like' or 'care'. These two words put together, Aqsam convinced himself that he only liked to care for Fatima. Nothing more.

After a long walk in the garden, Fatima has gotten tired of keeping her mouth sealed. And the fact that she's been a chatterbox since she said her first word - which is Allah - is not helping matters at all. She starts to hum to a song - more like a nursery rhyme - she knows by heart, a song she can never erase from her head no matter how much time drew because of the long and unforgettable memories she has attached to it.

They say time wipes all memories, whether good or bad, but what they don't know is that not all memories can be wiped. They can only be made vague, indistinct and a little faint, but can never be wiped away completely. And this particular memory is one of those, which can't be wiped. Heck it can't even be blurred a little.

Fatima is sure that even if she loses her memory, that will be the first thing she remembers. It is her most dearest memory. Even though the person she shares the memory with is long gone, probably decayed underground, he still lives in her memories, dreams, hallucinations and all that.

Aqsam looks over to her surprised, she really is a big baby. Who still watches Doc Mc Stuffings? At this age? Wow! Soon enough, she stops humming the song and starts singing it, her melodious voice making Aqsam halt abruptly - which goes unnoticed by Fatima who is far down memory lane.

"Fadima!" AbdulHalim calls despite knowing exactly where she is.

"Batula." He calls again but she still ignores him. As he goes closer to where she's definitely going to be, he hears sniffs and muffled sobs.

What could've happened to her? He asks himself. He walks to the room and opens the door to see her crouched on an opened sack of tuwo rice. She's shaking so much one would think she's having a panic attack.

"Fadimatu Batula." He calls softly. She raises her head slowly knowing that only one person likes that name enough to call her that. As he looks at her face, his brotherly heart breaks. Snot has covered the space beneath her nose and her eyes are swollen and blodshot. Her mouth is pouted as she tries to go back to her crouched position but he stopped her.

"Hey.
What's going on?
Tell me what's wrong.
I know there's something we can do.
It might not be clear,
But that's why I'm here.
Tell me what's bothering you.
Got something on your mind
Don't you keep it inside
You're gonna be fine.
Hey,
Tell me what's wrong.
What's going on?"  Fatima chuckles.

"You have a very bad singing voice." AbdulHalim laughs lowly, he knows she would crack because of how bad, hoarse and cracky his singing voice is.

"My music teacher said that knowing your voice is bad and still singing with it is an insult to music." Fatima says and AbdulHalim smiles.

Since then, it became their cracking each other anthem. When one of the duo was sad or angry and was keeping it to his or herself, the other would use the song to remind the earlier that they were in it together.

Fatima is snapped out of her reverie by Aqsam.

"I didn't know you had such beautiful voice Mashaa Allah." Aqsam praises and Fatima smiles. They walk back to Aqsam's office as Fatima's flight is in three hours and the trip from the rehabilitation center to the airport is quite a long one.

Going in, Fatima brings out her suitcases and walk to the office to say the last thing she has on her mind. She hopes it wouldn't turn out as bad as she envisioned it to be.