When Stars Collide

Leaving For A While

"Deena."

He watched as his wife turned, removing her dark blue dupatta that brought out her olive skin tone far too well in one fluid movement. She sat on their Queen's bed and crossed her ankles.

"What is it?" She asked, staring at his face and willing him to say sorry. She knew though that it was too much to ask for so she settled in her head for him kissing her forehead in apology, but she was destined not to get any.

"What you did was wrong." He enunciated carefully. He had suppressed his rage from the moment he heard his wife say that her family funded the company. Though he had paid back fifty percent of the loan, he was too embarrassed to explain himself to anyone.

"What did I do? Your mother was degrading my son, stomping me in the mud and I'm not allowed to speak?" She asked, feeling the anger she had tamped down start to bubble like active lava. She felt her face and found three wrinkles near her eyes and frowned, at forty eight, her skin was supposed to be at its best but the Baanziyes would not just let her be. The one in front of her was one of them, she thought.

"You could have done it privately. You didn't have to embarrass my mother in that manner, I mean, you almost said it in front of the children. Heck, Salman now knows that I can't carry the company on my own. How am I supposed to ask him to keep the company going if he doesn't respect me anymore?" He asked her angrily, pointing at the door since Salman's part was in another direction.

"Your problem isn't the fact that your own mother, Muhammad, your own mother has insulted me ever since I exchanged vows with you, ever since I became your wife. Your mother has treated me like vomit since I was conveyed to this house twenty nine years ago, she had degraded my son too but that is not your problem. Your problem is the fact that a boy who hasn't put you in his eyes for almost fourteen years has lost his respect for you.

Muhammad, you're a joke. A huge joke. I've been docile, quiet, been the poster wife for you but your mother won't let me breathe. Notice that I've stopped talking to you about whatever she does to me anymore? Because you're spineless to do a single thing about it, you brought me into this marriage but you let me suffer in the hands of your mother for twenty eight years. What sort of man are you?" While she spoke, tears had poured down her eyes and she put her face in her hands and sobbed brokenly, sounding like a broken record.

She raised her face and watched him clench and unclench his fists, she knew her words had gotten to him. But it was the same as every other time, the words got to him and he did absolutely nothing.

"You know I can't do that. She'll curse me." Deena laughed, with tears running down her face, she stretched out her hands on her bed, leaned her weight on it and laughed very hard, but the laughter was tinged with sadness that could nearly be tasted. It was like those laughing emojis used by broken people, but they were in extreme sadness.

"She'll curse you? Why didn't I curse Salman for saying he has no interest in Baazinye enterprises but your mother will curse you for standing up to her for your own wife. Muhammad, just agree, that you'll forever be stuck in your mother's vicious cycle because you can't stand up for yourself." Her husband stalked to her vanity table and swept away the bottles of khumra, bottles of niacinamide and retinol that were on it angrily.

"Just shut up. You'll never understand." Deena wiped her eyes with the edge of her cotton kurti. She exhaled, feeling the weight of the pain that had held her for so long leave her.

"I'll truly never understand. The reason you threw away the affection and care that Adetutu had for you is due to your spineless self. You know it quite alright that you, you Muhammad Baazinye turned that woman into a cold, frigid person that only smiles among other women. You know it. Makes me wonder though, why you didn't just marry that wailing idiot downstairs, you should have married her, had children with her spared the rest of us from trouble." She got up, walked to the closet with her noiseless slippers. She opened the door and looked back at her husband, shaking her head.

"I'm going to leave. Muhammad. I'm going to go forever and I hope you don't miss me because I won't. I've found out that you cannot do what I want, which is just to give me and my child peace. I'll leave so I get peace." She picked out a few Kurtis and laid them on the bed, then picked three lace boubous, carrying them along side her custom abayas in different colors.

"Deena. You're really leaving? Where are you going?" She rolled her beautiful brown eyes that her son inherited from her at her husband, walking back to collect a few shoes and throwing them into the bed.

"I'll  do as I will. As I wish. If you don't want to give me peace, don't try to know my whereabouts."

**********

"We're done for today. Thank God." Hibba flopped down on the rug that She had bought earlier that week and brought together with Chichi to the new house.

"I didn't think I could do it all today, thanks to you My baby and I can move here on Thursday." Chichi leaned over and sent a kiss to Hibba. Hibba sighed and couldn't muster the energy to say anything in return.

"What are you thinking so intently about?" Hibba pursed her lips, rolled over and leaned on her elbow to watch ChiChi react to her reply.

"I am thinking of Ummi's aunt, Aunty Maryam. She's Ummi's mom's elder sis and the one who taught me how to make the best Zobo I've ever tasted. I tried to reach her after my brother and his wife passed but got nothing and their parents passed even a long time before now." She watched Chichi nod her head, her eyes dimming as understanding dawned on her.

"She's going to turn up for sure. I believe she's looking for you too, you never know." Hibba nodded sadly, mouthing Thanks and laying back on the rug. They both fell silent, each clearly basking in the world they weaved in their heads and minds.

"That reminds me, are you going for Office CNN's wedding?" Hibba couldn't hold the laughter that bubbled right out of her the moment she heard the appellation Chichi had given their colleague who liked to butt into people's lives and offer her own opinions. People would have told her off if she didn't have the latest gist on clients, work mates and where good food was located.

"Yes. She invited me personally. I didn't buy the asoebi though, the money will be used to order a bed for Nana. There's no way she'll sleep on the couch." Chichi smacked her head, suddenly getting up.

"You should have asked. I have this mattress I bought in final year that no one is using. It's just going to go moldy, come and take it and cancel the order abeg." Hibba watched her friend, looking for signs. Signs that she had turned a charity case, or a parasite that lived off the favors of her friends.

"Don't give me that look. It's just a bed. With that money, you can save to have a cash register when you start the busniess. You're not a pest, neither are you a leech.  I am the one who is offering, okay?" Hibba's lips quivered, tears had long pooled in her eyes, as she wondered where and how she found friends who had her back each time. It just didn't add up.

"If you cry that cry wey dey your eye ehn, I fit wound you." Hibba laughed, some of the tears spilling due to her actions. She wiped them before she said with rib racking laughter, "You're too violent."

******

Hellooo😌😌😌😌

How are you all doing? Thank you so much for sending me birthday wishes  yesterday. May God bless you all for making my day special 🙈❤️

So, is Deena really leaving or what? What do you guys think?

Please and please 😌, leave a comment if you haven't and tap on the vote button as you leave. The second update will come when I'm satisfied ,😌😌

See y'all soon.
TheOmoope 💙💛🙃