Shadows To Star [Wattys2019]

Prologue

Ahmad came back home tired and hungry. The little kid told his mother that he would not go to school again because he was very tired.

"Mama, I am not going to school tomorrow. I don't want to go again. I will tell Baba too," Ahmad reassured his mother.

"If you don't go to school, what will you do, hmm?" his mother asked.

"I will be a tailor just like you," he said, giggling.

"Hey, even I went to school, okay? And you are not going to be a tailor. You should either be a doctor or an engineer. And if you want to be a tailor, study first. Then you can become the president's tailor, and I won't mind," she told him, placing the plate of jollof rice and beans in front of him on the mat laid on the veranda.

"But I don't want to go to school tomorrow," Ahmad said with a sad face.

"I promise I will add one biscuit to your lunch box if you agree." Hearing that, Ahmad's face lit up with excitement, and he agreed with his mother.

"Now eat up and take a nap. I will wake you up when it's time for your Islamiyya (Islamic school)."

Ahmad, the first child of Mr. and Mrs. Lawal, is a five-year-old who is too intelligent and a fast learner, and his parents couldn't be any happier. Asma'u, as a mother, has high hopes for her child's future, while Lawal loves to brag about his son all the time. He often tells his wife that their son takes after him, which is why Ahmad is smart. You could say they are proud parents of Ahmad and his two-week-old baby brother.

Everything was going well for the happy family until one day Ahmad went to school and never returned. Ahmad attended a nearby school for both his studies, Islamic and nursery school, and his father dropped him off every morning. Since the nursery school wasn't far from his home, their neighbor's daughter always picked him up on her way back from her school and took him home to his mother. But on that fateful day, Zaliha looked for him everywhere but couldn't find him. She concluded that Ahmad hadn't gone to school that day and rushed back home.

"Assalamu alaikum!" the twelve-year-old Zaliha said as she entered the Lawal's house.

"Wa Alaikum salam, Zaliha," Asma'u greeted her, ready to welcome her son home but didn't see him with the girl.

"Maman Ahmad, why didn't he go to school today? I was searching for him all over his school, but I couldn't find him. Is he sick or anything? I just came to inject him for making me worry about him," due to her jovial nature and tendency to play around, Asma'u thought it was one of Zaliha's jokes.

"Tell Ahmad to stop hiding behind the door and come inside," Asma'u said, assuming he was playing hide and seek as he sometimes did. She continued sewing the clothes she was working on.

"So he skipped school just to play hide and seek with you? If I had known, I wouldn't have wasted my time looking for him at his school. I'll just come home then. I'll come and watch that American film with him, as you promised," said Zaliha as she started walking towards the exit of the small house.

"Where is Ahmad?"

"You said he is hiding behind the door, but I didn't see him here even when I came in."

"Maybe when you came in with him, he went out again. Check outside."

"I didn't see Ahmad throughout today. He is not outside. Where is Ahmad?" asked Zaliha as she came back to the house after looking for the boy.

"I should ask you since you picked him up from school," only then did the realization hit Asma'u. She now understood that Zaliha had been genuinely looking for Ahmad since she arrived.

"You mean to say you didn't see my son at his school?" she asked, horrified by Zaliha's answer of 'No.' She hastily pulled her hijab from the door and said they should go back to the school again because her son was taken to school by his father in the morning. How could he not be there?

They searched high and low for Ahmad but couldn't find him, even after three weeks of his disappearance. Despite filing a police report and seeking help from the radio and television, all their efforts were in vain. The question remained the same even after eighteen years: "Where is Ahmad?" Where could he be?

..........

                        Author's note...

This book is fiction, anything closely related is purely coincidental. It's all about things that we overlooked, people killing people as some means for money ritual or gaining power for their selfish interest. It's more about cultism,  well it happens in my country, you know every country has its skeleton in its closet, but I can say things are getting better now, at least where I live, back in 2007 it was the worst era to send your child out, not just children any age group. A similar thing happened to my little cousin, he was missing for a week and his body was found in a public well, with his eyeballs missing. And many people were missing forever. The mafia here is a different story.

To all the families that lose their dear ones in this tragic way. And to all the mothers that have hopes that their child will come back home sooner or later, I dedicate this book to them and to those unfortunate souls, who only Allah will be their judge and their avenger.

If you guys like these, vote and comment for updates. You know what they say "Curiosity kills the cat." Salam and thank you for your time.