FATE

Chapter 9

Bassam

After being pestered by pretty much everyone at home, I begrudgingly agreed to go see Badriyyah.

Mama, my stepmom was delighted to say the least. "Calm down Mama, I don't even have her number..."

"Shut up!" She cut me off jokingly picking up her phone and dialing a number. After conversing for few minutes, she hung up.

"It's settled, that was Haj. Zainab and I'm sure she's letting Badriyyah know you're paying her a visit tomorrow as we speak."

"Tomorrow? Isn't it too soon, why not the weekends or next week?"

"No, tomorrow. I can't have you postponing and procrastinating."

I sighed, accepting defeat. We talked some more and called it a night.

I rang Zaahir up and told him about my predicament and asked him to accompany me.

"As much as I would give anything just to see you embarrass yourself in front of  a lady, I can't accompany you. I have things to take care of. Besides, this is something you should do yourself. I can't be your wingman forever dude but I can go with you next time, if there's a next time that is." He said laughing.

"Yeah make fun of me all you want. A day will come when Baabaa will get tired of your not so youthful shenanigans and marry you off too like some girl." I said the last part coming off a bit harsh.

"Yeah, whatever man. Keep me updated." He said and hung up on me.

I sighed for the umpteenth time and couldn't help but wondered about my last statement. I'm not some girl who can be married off just like that, even the nowadays girls settle for love and maybe in some cases money.

So I just can't stop the weird thoughts I keep having ever since the announcement of my arranged marriage. Umma said I have a choice to back out but who am I kidding, she knows I can't, hell they don't want me to. After all, this isn't the first arranged marriage in the family.

My family is like that, once you get kind of close to a cousin or distant relative of the opposite sex, Kawu Ibrahim, Zaahir's dad whom we all call Baabaa just like most traditional rulers for he's now the current Turaki, has his eyes and ears everywhere thanks to the people surrounding him would make arrangements and before you know it you're getting hitched.

I think this is why both Zaahir and I keep our distances. We've always had a thing against this inter marriage thing and arranged marriage generally.

The female cousins I'm close to are the Ibrahims, Zaahir's siblings. Munnirah, Ya Sa'ad's wife and Zahira, Zaahir's twin.

Zaahir and Zahira are pretty much close and in a way I fit perfectly among them. We were inseparable as kids and even now we still have that unbreakable bond. Though she is married with kids and live in a different state.

I thought of calling her but I realized it's late even though I know her husband Sadiq wouldn't mind. He's our friend and he met her through us. I remember us giving him a hard time then, pulling the big brothers' card on him. And the irony is that she's two years older than I am and he still uses that against me. Most importantly they will persuade me to go see Badriyyah not like I'm not going anyway.

The night turned into morning pretty quick and I sighed blaming the universe for having a thing against me. Well right now I must say the feeling is mutual. You want something to happen the day goes by slowly and now that you're dreading a particular event or occurrence, time flies.

I woke up, muttering "Alhamdulillah" thanking God for the gift of life. I did my ablution and went outside where I met Baba with a misbaha performing dhikr. The door opposite my room was flung open and out came Farukh disheveled. He was never a morning person and I'm sure his alarm played the role of waking him up because Mustapha is out of town. Our brother, whose room is next to his. And who knocks on his door every morning except now, he's not here.