UNCOUTHLY ATTACHED

BONUS CHAPTER.

Kano State, Nigeria.

Falak grunted, adjusting the veil wrapped around her head as she cooked in the kitchen. She just came back from the hospital after a long tiring day, and Shaddad wants to eat what she cooks not what the maids cook for the past one week. Work has been hectic for both of them at the hospital, everything is a chaos when an accident happened just few days ago with some kids in their school bus. It was horrendous!

He has been grumpy about not wanting to eat their food which is why she is now in the kitchen trying to cook something for him, it is not easy to do so after work. He didn't ask her to do that but she knows what he wants, why not do it before he says it? Isn't that what good wives do? Yup, she is one too or so she desperately want to be, she is just who she is, Falak.

She's making salmon herpes chimichurri gnocchi with crispy salmon, roasted Brussels (toasted in garlic, coconut oil and coconut Amino's), roasted tomatoes on the vine and gnocchi (tossed in dive or avocado oil and baked in cast iron). Yes, she is trying something new that day like Inayah has taught her some weeks ago. She's been wanting to try those new things but no luck, now she finally has the time and all the needed ingredients in her kitchen.

"Safeer, where are you going to?!" Falak asked her seven year old son who was trying to sneak out of the Chamber while hiding something behind his back. As if he could get out of her sight without her bringing him back like she usually does. He knows that but never stops sneaking, she wonders whether he is seven or ten.

"Nowhere." And he went back into the house not going where he wanted to. She would've allowed him but the guy likes going back whenever she demand where he is heading to.

She is much closer to him than any of her children and that is not questionable. The guy loves her more than he loves his own self from what she could see. He never wants to see her sad, no matter what the situation, he makes her laugh. Either by making her play hide and seek, race or building his games in the backyard where by the way, he likes spending his days in. The guy is troublesome but the way he loves her always melt her heart away and she will forget to scold him. And not to forget how strikingly cute he is with his father's smile and dimple, like his other siblings.

And whenever he sees her frowning, he won't rest until she got that smile back on her face. That is who he is at a very young age of seven, she likes that he loves her a lot. And is it a crime to have much larger space for him in her heart? Because that is what she feels, like she loves him more than she does the other children. Maybe it's because of his open affection for her, he never tried hiding it.

Sabeer also loves her in his own way of being quite and sensing her bad mood. He is good at taking care of his younger ones, he will make a great leader in the future, she could feel it. The guy commands, orders and demand attention in every little thing he does which reminds her of her husband when he is outside the Chamber. But, Sabeer smiles and laughs, he doesn't like people, even Safeer doesn't. It's like they can't have all her genes, they had to pack the bad ones from their father.

He is also a mommy's boy leaving the girls to their daddy. Whenever they place her in the middle, Sabeer, Safeer and Fakhir, she feels her heart blooming with love for those three musketeers. They like cuddling up with her when she comes back home all tired from the hospital while the girls enjoy their dolls or maybe play in the garden with their cousins. They enjoy doing everything girls like doing, she is proud of that though. At least, they won't go around sternly walking like their father.

They make pillow house in the living room all evening so as soon as she comes back, she will drop in the middle of them, Fakhir climbing on her stomach. They will watch the TV for an hour or more, just before their father comes back home. They either watch some prophet stories, some cartoon or even spiderman which she hated at first then started enjoying after awhile. She always remembers her fight with Shaddad when she watches the movie. Sometimes they fall asleep like that all of them.