| My typical Village Girl | ✔

MTVG28¶

I sit down outside, my eyes looking at sadatu. She was crying and people were consoling her.

A part of me, hell, my body is screaming with doubt. She's my friend, she's like a sister to me but killing him?

I can't say.

She stands up and walks to me. "Let's go somewhere." Sadatu says, I stand up before we started walking.

We walked silently be cause I don't know where to start. Am I supposed to apologize?

"Sadatu?"

"Please don't say you're sorry for my loss". She groans, rubbing her eyes. "Did you kill him?" I ask, stopped walking.

"What? You think I killed him?" She asks her eyes widened. "Did you?" I repeat, tilting my head.

"Kind of. We were arguing then he hit me. He tried to force himself on me so I pushed him away--".

"He hit his head?" I gasp, closing my mouth with his hand. "No, I shouted and insulted him. Saying everything I felt when he had a heart attack."

She sits down. "Why didn't you call anyone?"

She shrugs. "I don't know, I think I didn't think of it but at the same time I think I did consider calling people."

I sit beside her, placing my arm on her shoulder. "You killed him indirectly. You didn't call anyone even though he might've survived."

She looks at me. "Are you going to tell them?" I sigh, not knowing what to do.

"I won't tell if you do what you're supposed to do islamically. Let's go back." I stand up as she jumps up, holding my arm.

She smiled widely. "I'm finally free." She opening her arms. "Act like a woman who lost a husband she loved. You know this village."

Sadatu gets back to character, sobbing. I don't know how she does it. She went back and sat in the midst of people.

"Thank you." I take my baby from Lami.

"Whose baby is this?" An old woman asks, pointing at my baby. "He's my baby."

"Why doesn't he have the markings? Or  aren't you from this village?"

"I am from thus village, I grew up here." I furrow my brows. "Why are you in this village with your son if you don't have this marks?"

She shouts people turning to look at us. "She isn't supposed to be here." Another woman adds from behind.

I stand up and leave before this  escalates. "What's wrong?"

I walk into our compound. "There are people who were asking about my marking. They were asking why I and my baby don't have markings?"

I went in and kept the baby. "You still haven't named this child." Mama says as I came out of the hut.

"Well, I need to talk to Ibrahim but I want to name him Kareem. I love the name."

I sit, cutting some vegetables. "You should call him." Mama says picking chaff from rice.

"Yeah, my phone has died ne." Mama glares at me. "Sorry". I continue cutting the vegetables.

"Salamu Alaikum." I hear Ibrahim's voice. He wore a white kaftan and held some bags. "Ibrahim? How are you?"

"Good afternoon." He greets Mama. "Sit down, I'm coming." She went inside her room.

"How are you and the baby?" Ibrahim asks holding my hand. "We're fine, you? You look skinny."