ENSHROUDED

35

The chilly wind of Taraba woke her up and she felt like the pain, the ache and heartbreak through her soul in full force. She couldn't live a finger and she sat there unmoving as she watched the sky getting clearer with each passing minute. She was only crying, not that she felt the pain in her heart but because she figured it was only natural for her to cry over this. One of the residents came walking around when he spotted Aisha and he seemed to be terrified. He spoke to her but there were only tears from her eyes, and that made him realized she couldn't speak. He rushed to the house down their floor and called his wife.

They rushed back together to where Aisha was laid, his wife assisted him and they rushed Aisha into his car. She was taken to the hospital by them and the Doctors didn't want to accept her until the man told them she was sick and came out looking for someone to help her when she rolled down the stairs. Aisha got treated and she was sedated before sleep took over her chaotic mind. The man and wife went back to their house and the wife made breakfast for Aisha before they drove back into the hospital.

It was until hours that Aisha woke up and she kept looking around the room, flustered. It took her sometime before she recalled what happened to her, but what appealed her more was her freedom that she finally got back. It was now that she got hold of the words he had uttered while she was painfully rolling down the staircases. "You're an ungrateful bitch, and if you're not a prostitute; don't go back to my family. Go and find your own family too. They're just like you too, ingrateful and a bunch of fools. Go back to your family and see the kind of life you'll live. A miserable and penniless life!"

The wife rushed towards Aisha and she helped her sat upright, "How are you feeling now? Much better? May you recover soon." She patted her shoulder but all Aisha could do was stare at her beautiful face.

The woman came closer and took hold of Aisha's hand, "Please don't be scared. My name is Hajar, my husband found you lying unconscious in the down flow floor. We live on the same block. Should I call the doctors for you?" She asked, yet again. Aisha shook her head and kept looking at the door, afraid that Abba,might appear out of nowhere and go away with her.

"You shouldn't be afraid, you're safe now. What do you want to eat?" Aisha only stared at Hajar as she served to her whatever she wanted and fed her herself. It was afraid the doctors had come and gone back to their office that Hajar's husband came into the room.

Aisha could only mumble her lips as a way of greeting for him when he looked her way. They seemed to have heard it all, maybe not just yesterday but everyday Abba decided to unleash his beast on it. The sympathetic glances they were flashing Aisha were too much that she felt as though she was going to strain herself down the bed and disappear from the world. She didn't speak until Hajar's husband said, "I think you need to give us your husband's phone number so we tell him the condition you're in. That way he shouldn't be agitated while looking for you."

She shook her head vehemently and spoke, "You shouldn't...please. He's going...to end my life here." They flashed her confused glances but the matter took off after that because he nodded his head in an understanding manner.

Aisha stayed at the hospital until after four days and she was discharged. Hajar had been taking care of her and her husband was behind the bills and everything. She can never be even more grateful to them, they owed her a lot. They took her to their house and Aisha felt a pang of fear when she saw her own house in view. His house. She corrected herself.

She was still not feeling anything, all that she had been monotoning in her mind was Abba had divorced her and asked her to park out of his house and she shouldn't go back to his family if she were proud of who she was. The next day Hajar sat down beside her and smiled, "Aisha, I get it maybe you guys had a misunderstanding or something, but you can't stay away from your matrimonial home for too long. You have to go back, please?"