Tears of Zubaida.

•••••TEARS OF ZUBAIDA••••• •••Chapter Fourteen•••

"First papers done!" Mariya exclaimed washing her face with a sachet water.

Zubaida just forced a smile at her and continued walking.

"Zubaida, what's wrong with you?" Mariya placed her hand on her shoulder in a caring manner.

Zubaida shrugged her shoulder and took down Mariya's hand from her shoulder. "You of all people know what's wrong with me, so why are you asking?"

"Its nothing, by the way, have you visited Fatimah?"

"No, I haven't."

"Please try to, she's in a difficult situation and she has missed half of a term." Pitied Mariya.

"I also have my worries, so let me be."

"She's your cousin Zubaida, and trust me, her situation is worst than yours." Mariya defended folding her hands at her midriff.

"Whatever, did I forced her to get married?!"

Mariya just shook her head and kept quiet as that will be the best thing at the moment.

"I'm not heading home, I have somewhere to go. Bye!" Zubaida said as she noticed that Mariya was about to take a turn to their lane.

"Why not?"

"Its none of your business."

"Zubaida, you're not doing the best thing to yourself, just calm down at least finish your exams then you can decide to worry yourself."

"Mariya! Stay away from me, after all its all your fault. If you hadn't made me sneaked out to watch a useless TV series that night, all this wouldn't have happened!" Zubaida pushed Mariya whom walked her way.

She walked towards the main road that leads to the village hospital, whereas Mariya decided to stalk her and see where she was heading to.

Zubaida stopped a motorcyclists and hopped on after telling him her destination.
Mariya gave up and went home as time for zuhr prayers had passed.

"Zubaida Musa." A nurse called telling her its her turn to see the doctor.

She walked towards the door and turned the door nub.

"Good afternoon." She greeted.

"Afternoon miss, please get seated."

Zubaida sat on the chair opposite to the doctor's.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Uhm... I came here last week Friday, and..." She kept deciding over what she's about to do.

"You don't have all day here I guess." The doctor said after some silence.

"I was asked to go for a test, after it was conducted, the results showed that I'm pregnant."

She kept quiet trying to think of how to join the next words she's about to spill.

"I want to abort it." She sighed.

The doctor looked at her thoroughly and said "are you in your sanity at all?"

She was about to talk when he beat her to it.

"You must be stupid to think that we are here to kill souls! I am a doctor and was sent here to save people's lives and not kill, if you don't have anything to say, get out!"

Zubaida wiped a tear that made its way to her cheeks and quietly left the consultant room.

"Yara mara sa tarbiyya masu zuwa dakin samari." She heard the doctor said when she was almost by the door.

She blinked back her tears and hurriedly left the hospital, she checked through her school bag and found the paper Ruqayyah had given her which had her phone number on it. She walked as fast as she could to a kiosk which was painted in different models of phones; indicating that its a gsm store or something related to phone gadgets.

"Good afternoon." She greeted the guy that was seated in the shop.

"Afternoon, do you need airtime?" He asked.

"No, I want to make a call." She requested.

"Sixty naira per minute." He handed over a baby Nokia to her.

She dialled in Ruqayyah's number which wasn't reachable, she tried again and it began ringing but no one picked the call. She tried calling three more times but the call wasn't picked so she gave back the phone to the guy and went away.

"Zainaba, I still don't understand what you mean by Zubaida is pregnant, I let the talk be because I didn't want to judge immediately. Explain further." Malam Musa said after a long silence in the room after he was done eating his lunch.

"Malam, I can't lie to you on such issues, besides I know your temper."

"Apparently, you're telling me that she truly is pregnant? How is that even possible, when did she started menstruating?" He asked.

"Its been long..."

"And why wasn't I told?"

"She pleaded with me not to tell you, she was afraid you could get her married like you did to Ruqayyah." Zainaba boldly spoke knowing fully he hates it when anything that has to do with Ruqayyah is being mentioned. He had regretted his actions, but its too late to cry...

"Ruqayyah and Zubaida are my daughters! I'm their father and I have the right to marry them off to anyone I wish to at any time."

"I'm never letting something like that happen again, now where's Ruqayyah! Not even her corpse was shown to us." Backfired Zainaba albeit she knows the truth about Ruqayyah's whereabouts.

"You know that has been the tradition of my family that a girl child should be married off, since you hindered that from happening, you will wallow the shame of your daughter being pregnant out of wedlock!"

"I won't wallow in any shame, nothing like that will ever happen to me or her in shaa Allah isn't Fatimah an example to you and your whole family that calls that a tradition? Haven't you seen how her marriage is turning into a disaster! All because of your fruitless tradition, you're risking the lives of your female daughters. Woe to such tradition!" Zainaba left the room angrily.

Malam Musa being the man he is felt touched by her words but decided to mask it up. Its either the pregnancy is aborted or she leaves my house. This shame is never happening in my house!

Glossary.

Yara mara sa tarbiyya masu zuwa dakin samari ... Shameless children that follow guys to their rooms.

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