Sekinat: Muted Voices

Chapter 21: Halima's Dilemma (cont)

So many wealthy people even wealthier with bigger houses than Lady Emory's stately mansion in the story books Aunty Felicia had lent her to read. Just then she thought about Aunty Felicia and how she would miss her when they eventually left this town where she was born.

How would she make new friends in the new school she was being enrolled in she though?

What if they made fun of her tattered uniforms and lack of social exposure?

Would she ever find a teacher who genuinely cared about her and wanted the best for her like Aunty Felicia in this new school?

She made a mental note to inform Aunty Felicia and even seek her advice before they got ready to travel.

She had a whole lot of questions and concerns about their adventure into this unknown and uncharted journey they were making into a new world. Even though she assured herself just like her mother had often remarked that anywhere would be better than where they were, she could not help thinking that new places always harboured new challenges and conundrums, one unique and sectional to what the new inhabitants met on ground. While she acknowledged the social inequality amidst all the issues they faced here, their wants were simple and straight forward. They could predict and plan accordingly and most importantly they had control over both the immediate and future occurrences in their town. Could the same be said of this new place they were relocating to she wondering agonising painfully over the issue as she sat there alone and confused.

Halima had been seated on the wooden stump fastened upon the concrete floor for 15 perhaps 20minutes when she perceived a sudden noise and movement on her far left. Startled she looked up to behold their neighbour pregnant Aishatu. She was a nice and easy going woman who always showered her and Saratu with assorted treats each time she came upon them. She was their mother's only friend both in the compound and on the street and this was her first pregnancy. On days when Sekinat did not go to the farm, they would both sit on a wooden bench outside the communal veranda.

As they watched children playing, pedestrians going on about their business in the street Sekinat would point out tit bits of gossips and also pregnancy tips. Based on her experience as the mother of two and the length of time in the area.

At other times they would chat about the prevailing insecurity and its far reaching impact upon their village and nearby town, including the option of relocation and how this could potentially impact their immediate and long term fortunes. They would often reminisce about the good old days of peace and prosperity in their town and by extension Borno state even of they had never ventured that far out before, although a topic they studiously avoided discussing was neighbourhood gossips. They also avoided any errant topic about the other neighbours, periodic incidents which occurred in the street although she never disclosed reason why.

Aishatu had moved to their town few years' prior with her husband from a neighbourhood town after insurgents had overrun the town and rendered it inhabitable, sacking and burning everything in sight. Their men had been slaughtered while women were raped with children left for dead.

Her husband had been a well to do motor mechanic and in fact was on the verge of completing their own 5-bedroom bungalow also in the same town when they had all been chased out of town. Many had not been as lucky, in addition to losing their properties had also lost loved ones in the most gruesome way at the hands of the terrorists. They had run to hide in the thick forest and mountains surrounding their town and been there for weeks, walking aimlessly until they were lucky enough to meet a good Samaritan who led them to the town where they now decided to settle down until things went back to normal in their own town. Aishatu and her husband had witnessed first hand the depth of violence and evil the insurgents were capable of inflicting hence they were even more frightened at the prospect of them invading this town than the inhabitants of their new abode.

Aishatu and her husband had tried their best to eke out an existence since they relocated to this city and things had gradually looked up for them, no thanks to the town's open minded generosity. And in time things had begun to look up for them especially as her husband had always imbibed a notion of hard work and tenacity which had stood them in good stead.

She had become much closer to Sekinat ever since her husband had found a new job and left town to work with a Lebanese Livestock farmer in the Maiduguri capital of their Borno state. He only came back home briefly once a month for a couple of days before returning back to his work base. Laden with farm produce and some of the livestock which they always shared with Sekinat and her daughters.