ENSHROUDED

15

Aisha had never thought she would cry this hard until she felt her lung threatening to suffocate her whole body. She had never imagined she would miss Mama until she found herself slowly walking towards the car, and that's when she knew she couldn't do it anymore. Mama mattered more to her than this change of environment she was having all in the name of a school. She cried almost all their way to Katsina, and Nasir had consoled her until he couldn't anymore.

She had her face sulked and glum until they drove into Rafin dadi, the area Firdausi lived. Nasir turned to look at her with a small smile on his lips. "Aisha, for Allah's sake, the crying is way too much. You aren't getting married to someone you hate. It's just school."

She turned to look at him and pouted her lips. "You don't know how I feel, Dr." For the first time since they left Bauchi, she had finally spoken, and it gladdened Nasir. He had been trying to make a decent conversation with her, but whenever he forced a word out of her mouth, it came out together with tears.

"I'm sorry, but you should stop crying, Aisha. I can't drive you into Nana's house while you're crying like this. She will feel bad about it."

Aishe turned to look at him with a look that spoke her annoyance. he laughed at the school and looked at her with eyes that were meant to charm, softness, exquisiteness and masculinity; Aisha nearly shuddered. "But, Aisha, I thought you were going to miss only me. How did that change?"

This time, Aisha let out a groan. Nasir had never annoyed her as he did today. She watched as they drove to the house, and her heart pounded as though she were a girl that was taken to a boarding school by her family. "Do I have to live here, Dr?" she asked innocently, her eyelashes were still misty with her tears. Even though the situation she was in ha saddened Nasir, he couldn't help but admired how she looked.

He looked at her intensely until she got tired of his burning eyes on her face and looked away. "Can you take me back to Mama? I need to see her for one last time." This time, Nasir laughed with a loud timbre that forced a shrill out of Aisha's lips.

"Are you sure of what you're saying? We just arrived from the six hours journey we had. We didn't even enter the house and you're talking about going back?" He raised his hands in surrender at the look she sent his way. "Only if you can drive us back," he added, and she nodded her head.

Chuckling a little, Nasir honked at the gateman in Firdausi's house and the gate was wide open. He greeted them and Nasir answered back before he drove into the driveway and parked. Turning to look at her, Nasir smiled, "We're here, Aisha. But please will you promise not to cry in front of Nana? She'll feel bad about asking you to come here."

She nodded her head at him, and he smiled at her. They hopped out of the car together and Nasir pulled out her trolley from the trunk. Just in time, Firdausi walked out of the house with Sudais carefully cradled into he arms. "Nasiruuu!" She squealed and hugged him when Aisha took a smiling Sudais in her hands.

Nasir groaned and broke they're, he hated it when Nana called him Nasiru, just like their grandfather did. "Aishaaa!" She squealed and hugged Aisha, as Nasir collected Sudais from her hands.

"Let's get inside, it's hot. Katsina has the hottest sun in Nigeria I think." They trailed behind her as they entered the living room and found Khalid just coming out of his room.

They exchanged pleasantries with Nasir and Aisha greeted him. "How was your trip, Aisha?" He asked, his eyes fixed on her face that was slightly red from all her tears.

Nasir chirped in before Aisha could talk. "She had been crying from Bauchi down to Katsina. It was so hard passing all those police outposts with a crying teenager seated beside me. You need to see the looks they were giving me, Khalid."