25/10/2023
FORGIVE ME SALMAH
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
So long ….
Twenty years later;
She smiled as she glanced as the number displayed on her phone, She turned to the person beside her, a young man probably of the same age as she is and showed him the number and he smiled,
she smiled the more as she picked up the call,
“Mama and Baba Ibeji.. missing your beloved daughter already?” She asked half teasing.
“I am not.” She heard her mother’s voice and she laughed.
“You always say that and yet you call me every two days.” She challenged her mother.
“Don’t mind your mother, she hardly sleep these days.” She heard her father’s voice from the other end.
“Of course, Prof, I know, all what she says are things she doesn't mean. How are you doing dad?” She asked him.
“Alihmadulilah… how are your brothers? I called Rushdi, he didn’t pick up, and Abdur Rahman phone was not even available. And I don’t know if it will be the same for the other two.” Her father said to her.
“You know how those kids are now … they don’t want anyone to know I am their sister and so I had to help them hide it, I will let them know you did call tonight Ina Sha Allah, if the time is not too late at the other side, I will try to call you.” She said to her father.
“Is that necessary? As long as they are all fine… Alihamdulilah.” Her father said to her.
“Alright Dad, I had to run off now, I will call you as soon as I am free ins Sha Allah.” She said to him.
“Alright Princess, take good care of yourself and always remember, Dad loves you so much.” He said and hung up and she broke into smiles and her partner grinned beside her.
“You and your Dad are always a drama to behold.” He teased her and she smiled.
“I told you that he is my best friend.” She said to him and he nodded.
“Dads and their first daughters had these type of bond no one understands, my Dad and my sister are so close that Mum do get jealous all the time.” He said to her and she laughed.
“Really? Same thing with my mum but who cares?” She said.
“But you are the only daughter as well, I think that makes you Precious to your Dad and your brothers.” He said and she laughed.
“Abdullah, you talk as if you don’t know those boys? Does it look like the four of them want me around? I am sure if they had their way, I will be out of it, and to say, I am older than them by at least six years, ehn , but anyways, who cares, in a year or two, I will be out of here.” She said to him and he smiled as they got to his car.
“You didn’t come with your car?” He asked her and she nodded.
“Why did you think I had to wait for you?” She asked as she settled down in his car.
“But you should have told me, I didn’t know you were waiting for me.” He said to him.
“I don’t want you to rush up with your work. I know how selfless you are… sometimes you made me think a lot about dad each time you act like that.” She teased him and he laughed.
“I remember when we met when you were eighteen… crying telling everyone in class how much you miss your Dad.” He said and he kick-start the car and she laughed..
“Stop that now… that is defamation of character.” She said to him.
“Of whose character?” He asked and she turned to the other side of the car and watched houses move fast as they drive past them, she love doing that all the time when she is not driving.
“Hey Sabriyyah, Imran and your friend Mustapha will be coming to my house tomorrow.” He said to her and she nodded.
“And what am I suppose to do with that?* She asked him.
“Mustapha had always wanted to come over to your house …” He said and she cut in.
“You know I don’t really like male visitors in my house.” She said.
“And why is your friend wanting to come to my house… can’t you find a way to stop it? Why are you my friend if you can’t tell them No.” She said to him and he swallowed hard.
“But you caused all these, I warned you then , didn’t I?” He asked and she turned to look at him with surprise on her face.
“Yes, you were so close to him when you met him the first time, you sent the wrong signal, I tried to warn you but you would not listen? You do things as you pleases.” He said to her.
“What are you talking about? We both know Mustapha needed help, he know just a little about his Deen and I helped him …. “ She said to him.
“Oh, I can see that, and now that he want to start coming to your house, you don’t want that.” He said half teasing.
“You could have helped him as well but you and Imran didn’t , you know he was a Muslim and won’t care, If he didn’t follow you to the Masjid. You don’t care that he didn’t do any of Islamic rites and you call him your friend.” She retorted back.
“And now that you have done all that and he is trying, let him visit you in your house.” Abdullah said.
“If that is it, let him come if he want to … “ She said to him.
“And besides, you both look so much alike, you know I always tell you that.” Abdullah said.
“Perhaps we share same ancestors, he said his Dad is from Nigeria.” She said teasingly and the car stoped, she took her bag and got out of the car and flashed him a smile.
“Jazakallahu khayr for the ride.” She said and walked towards her building while he waited for her to disappear into the building before he drove away.
He smiled at him and tried to concentrate on his driving and at the same time think about their friendship and how they met.
It was their third week at the University and he was trying so hard to blend in, it was the first time, he would be several miles away from home despite the fact that he went to a boarding school, but that one was different, It was a different country and he was all alone.
He missed home terribly but it was something they had prepare him for right from when he was ten, his grandfather had wanted him to acquire knowledge abroad to help with the family business which had always been farming right from the very beginning.
“My father is a farmer and the one before him and the one before him, and it has always been more like a family business, the business had been the regular traditional way of farming until his father introduced a mechanized method of farming and since then, his grandfather had always wanted him to travel out to have the knowledge of advanced method of farming and take the family business to the next level.
And so he found himself in the country, as a first year student of agriculture.
It was something he love so, it was easy.
He was in school a week before resumption, he could remember how eager his grandfather had been that he followed him all the way to the airport,
He want him to get to school early.
And so he did, he got to school earlier than most of his fellow course mates, the class got filled up by the third week and that was when he met Sabriyyah. She was the only Hijabi in the class and he need no introduction to let him know that she is a muslimah.
She seem the youngest in the class and it baffles him to see someone that fragile in the department.
As soon as their lecture ended, he walked up to her.
“As salamualykum…” He greeted and she responded, wondering why he had come to speak with her.
“We’re you forced?” He asked her.
“Forced?” She asked him trying to understand what he was trying to say.
“I mean, how come you want to study agriculture?” He asked.
“What course would have been the best for me?” She asked him
“Medcine, Pharmacy…” He said and she smiled
“My mum is a Pharmacist, she has a PhD and my Dad is a professor… at the same department… I want something different.” She said to him and he looked at her with surprise.
“Ma Sha Allah, you must have come from a family of academicians.” He said.
“They are both lecturers I presume?” He asked her.
“No, only my Dad is.” She said to him and without warning, tears fell down from her eyes and she finally broke into tears to his surprise.
“Subuana llah.” He said looking round as people walk past them and some people gave him a face as if he was the one behind the cry.
“I missed my Dad so much, I am not going to see him for a long time, it is the first time, I would be this far away from them.” She said, cleaning her eyes and he nodded.
“Oh.. oh… my name is Abdullah… I am from Ogun state.” He said introducing himself.
“I am Sabrriyyah, from Lagos state.” She said to him.
“Who do you stay with?” He asked..
“No one, my maternal uncle lives in New Jersey, he promised to come say Teslim once in a while.” She said to him.
“Hmmm, we can be friends, can’t we?” He asked him.
“At least I can watch you cry every time you miss home.” Abdullah said.
“No oooo, girls aren’t meant to be friends with non mahram, same thing with boys. I am not going to be your friend.” She said to him and he tried hard not to laugh.
“Ma Sha Allah… I don’t mean friends like that , at least we can have each other back until we can have other friends.” He suggested and she looked at him with surprise.
“More like elder brother, I am taller than you and I am sure, I will be older …” He said to her and she sighed.
“How old are you?” She asked him.
“I am twenty, I will be twenty one in three months ins Sha Allah.” He said to her.
“And you?” He asked
“I am eighteen.” She said to him and he nodded.
“I thought as much.” He said to her and she sighed.
“So can we?” He asked her.
“You won’t cross the boundaries?” She asked him..
“Ins Sha Allah…” He replied trying hard not to laugh..
“You would treat me like your sister.” She said
“Ins sha Allah, I have five of them at home.” He said to her and she smiled
“Are you the only son?" She asked and he nodded.
“The first?” She asked further and he shook his head.
“The third.” He replied
“I am the first and the only girl of five children.” She said to him.
“My mum had twins twice.” She said to him and he looked surprise.
“Ma Sha Allah, that is … you are a family of twins.” He said .
“My Maternal grandfather is an identical twin, my Uncle in New Jersey is also a twin.” She said to him..
“Ma Sha Allah, now I understand.” He said with smiles.
“My family is a family of farmers, it is been like that in the family for like eight generation. We have this massive hectares of land where we practice farming, every first son of the family and their son must be a farmer.” He explained to her and she opened her eyes wide.
“Ma Sha Allah, you mean your father is a farmer?” She asked him and he nodded.
“And his father before him.” He said
“And now you are going to be one too.” He said
“Ins Sha Allah… none of my cousins have interest… they want to do other profession and since it is not really their right since their fathers isn’t the first, I find myself here.” He said to her..
“Do you like farming and you are just one because you don’t have a choice?” She asked and he smiled.
“I love it …” He said to her.
“I hope my sons will too ins Sha Allah.” He said to her
“Perhaps you should marry a farmer for a wife.” She said to her and laughed.
“And if you have my parents luck, you are on your own, both of them are Pharmacists and I don’t think any of my siblings have interest in medicine or anything related. “ She said to him and he smiled..
“I might be luckier, but I am sure not going to force them.” He said to her and she nodded and that day marked the first day of their friendship.
He met her parents a year after and always meet with them every year when they come visit and then just a year before, her four brothers showed up and started their undergraduate courses too and it is funny how they treat her and for the first time in several years, he missed home.
Both of them were In their second year running their PhD and work on a farm. Unlike he who want to become a farmer, she want to be a lecturer just like her father and become one of the youngest professor in the country when she return back to the country.
He know he will surely miss their lifestyle once they return back to the country which will be as soon as they are done with their studies.
He smiled again as he recall all that they have been through.
©Umm Rumaysah
