Ever since then Islam promised herself to never say a word to anyone about it. She promised herself to move on with her life and hide what meant to be her father's secret. Not a word about it to anyone, even if that person was Husna!
And just like she promised herself she moved on with her normal life, she used to give Juhaif the cooking classes she promised him. She used to dress normally. Just that she made it upon herself to never touch anything of her father's wealth anymore, she didn't want something that was gotten out of haram - something that was gotten from sacrificing the love of her life! She just hoped her mother had forgiven her father before she left this world! So now she was only wearing weird gowns she got from the market in Bichi, and for the first time in her life she found herself spending the money she earned out of vlogging. Because all this while in her life, she had been spending her father's wealth, and how she regretted doing that!
After what seemed like a success in Juhaif's cooking carrier, Islam decided to graduate him today! At least she kept to her promise of teaching him how to cook, but the main aim of graduating him was for her to get some free time and take care of her mental health. Nowadays her life is about faking she's happy when she's not. She always feels like crying and shouting out how miserable and deadly she feels on the inside but instead she's stuck with hearing Husna rants about everything and nothing, Selena ranting about how she added on 1pound of weight and how she can't keep calm about it and endless rants of how miserable she is after adding on one pound. As for Juhaif, he's the only one she feels a bit calm with while teaching him dishes as regardless of being mean he has this aura of surrounding the people around him with calmness, and he's respecting her so much these days, when she asked him about it, he said because she's his teacher at least for the time being, that he normally treats his teachers with respect. But she can't grasp why she feel calm around him, maybe because he hardly talks and allows her to dwell in her own thoughts, there was a recipe that says 10 minutes but they spent two hours making it as Islam became engulfed in her thoughts, but Juhaif patiently waited for her, though he never asked what she was thinking of.
And on most days she woke up late because she struggles with falling asleep at night, and mostly spend the night in tears, due to that, usually she found herself rushing to kitchen all the time in fear of keeping Juhaif waiting.
However, anytime she guides him to cook something his parents would be complimenting them. Everyone was amazed by the way a Doctor turned to an awesome chef in just few days!
Husna kept saying she wants to learn it too. But then every single day they invite her to come she'll only show up at the time of eating - never once at cooking time. They wonder if eating was her way of learning. Her's is always about tasting and rating. But Islam had no problem with that, because the way she saw it, it was Aunt Kaula that didn't want Husna in the kitchen.
Today Islam entered the kitchen to see Juhaif wearing his apron and busy making breakfast. She was about to greet him when he beats her to it "Morning Islam. May peace be upon you."
"Morning. May peace be upon you too. Quite impressive!" She complimented.
She stood by him and kept watching his every move.
After few minutes of staying and looking at his work, she finally blurted;
"Do you wanna come up on my channel?"
"What? No way!"
"Please wait a bit. Will bring my phone in a bit." She said, Juhaif had to smile and shook his head at that. Like he just said no, but perhaps 'No' meant 'Yes' to Islam's ears.
"Are you cooking?" He heard a voice after few minutes, guess she is back from picking her phone. Once he turned around to her direction, he saw her with phone on flashlight. Of course she'd began taking the video.
"Care to share with us the thing you're making?"
She continued asking questions which Juhaif paid no heed to. He didn't try answering any.
"Okay guys in case you don't know, he doesn't talk. Yeah been sympathizing with him on that, you guys can do that as well."
He sent daggers her way then shook his head. "Okay done!" he announced.
"Okay guys he finally talked. Bye bye. But before that, let me taste the food and rate it."
After tasting it, she waited a bit to finish chewing it up and then turned to her phone and whispered, "10 on a scale of 10." she gave him a thumps up and Juhaif shook his head at that with a smile.
That was how he got certified as chef by the gorgeous chef Islam.
***
Later on, one of Hajia Ladi's daughter came over with hennah on hands, Husna been a huge fan of that. She always prefer the black to the reddish one though. Even though she usually put red henna around her fingers and always black on her nails. But the hennah flower always has to be black.
"I really wants to do this black henna." She told Hajia Ladi's daughter. The woman assured Husna she will take her to the henna place.
Islam said she wanted it too. Ever since she came she'd been wearing nothing but Hausa attire plus the weird gowns she bought in Bichi market. She was putting effort in being a traditional girl. So she told Husna she wanted to put on the henna to finish up her traditional look, because when she asked whether it's a tradition to put on henna, she told her yes. Besides she needed to break free from all her worries, which she can only achieve by doing something productive, at least her mind will dwell upon the artistry to be done on her hands, a bit better than staying alone in a room crying.
And now she couldn't wait to put it on. Husna told her she has to do the red only, because at times black henna pains too much. And in her case since she's very fair, her skin must be sensitive.
But Islam just asked, "has Nora ever done it before? Has it ever pained her?"
"I'm not sure about that."
With that Islam called Nora and asked whether black henna has ever pained her, seeing they were almost same in complexion. Nora told her no.
"Husna she had never encountered any pain." Islam called out grinning.
Husna sighed and tried explaining it to her. "Islam the thing is even if she's fair like you, i'm sorry to say, but your skin must be more sensitive than hers. All her life she'd been African." When she looked at Islam's gloomy face she quickly added "I mean she'd been living in Africa all her life, getting exposed to sun and all, which makes her skin to be really strong." Husna finished and glanced at Islam just to see her feeling sad.
"It's okay Islam. It's just probability, it might not pain you. By God will, it won't." With that Islam's expression lightened up and she nodded hugging husna in process.
Hajia Ladi's daughter was already there.
"Shall we?" She asked them.
"Sure we shall!" They chorused!
And that's how they embarked on the journey to the hennah place!
Sun Apr 26 2020
This chappie is for those who made it to 2020 but couldn't make it to the next year due to the pandemic terminating their souls.
My condolences to all those that lost loved ones to the pandemic.
Condolences to the kano people that lost a loved one to an unknown death- be it from the pandemic without being tested or those that die a natural death.
May Allah grant Muslim ummah jannatul firdaus!!!
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Falling For Grumpy
General Fiction"What's your name?" Came his voice "It's Islam" she said carefully. Why would her voice betray her? That wasn't suppose to sound so anxious, but it did. "Kidding. It must be ruiner!" He spatted and left, leaving her standing. *** As he's the defi...
