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[B]

Before he answered her, they heard the voice of Alhaji as he descended the staircases while he was on a call, they all waited until he was down and Hajia smiled before he ended the call and sat down by her side. “Good evening, Alhaji,” he greeted, and he looked at him squarely before he nodded his head.

“Evening, how’s work?” That was it, always. He had never heard something close to ‘How are you?’ or ‘Are you fine?’ came from his father even if that question would be fake. It was always about work as if he was no human that had problems as if he was no human that needed consolation from what had happened to him.

“Everything is fine, Alhamdulillah.” He looked down on his feet because he hated it when he saw his father in the body of another man which he didn’t recognize, it had been years, but there were times when Yazeed found it so hard to keep up with the pain and accept the reality of his life.

“I was just talking to him about how he wasn’t visiting Kebbi at all, if one wants to see Yazeed, he or she has to come to Abuja.” She chuckled softly, and Yazeed knew that was a giveaway for Alhaji to start scolding him for not visiting Kebbi. Maybe she meant to say visiting their house in Kebbi because he felt he had no one in Kebbi to visit often.

The scoldings from Alhaji came, and she sat there lovingly smiling at him while he had a medicine of his own. When Alhaji was done, she looked at Yazeed and asked, “Will you like to have dinner?”

He silently shook his head, “No, I’m full. Can I leave?” He prayed she said yes because there was no way he could go against her words if she said otherwise, and he wanted to leave this house.

“Yes, I think that’s all. I heard you’re always grumpy at work, Yazeed, why is that? Must everyone know what happened in your life wasn’t pleasant and you’re still angry at God for making your life that way?” Woah! She was tired of pulling up the facade? The fake smiles and everything? She was back to her real self, and she wanted Alhaji to intervene, maybe this time fire him from work?

“What is that, Yazeed? Grumpy at work? I made sure I showed no sign of you being my son at the company, do you have to show that yourself? And what Hajia said is correct, you’re still angry at God for what he did to your life, right? Are you the only one to ever experience that?” He was about to speak, defend himself when Alhaji roared and pointed at the door for him. “Leave! Get out of my house, I’ll put eyes on you in the company, one mistake; you’re not just going to leave my house, you’re going to leave everything that has my name attached, arrogant boy.”

Even though the words he was being thrown out of the house were hurtful, he was glad he would be finally out of this house, their faces won’t be appearing in his eyes. He palmed his face when he was in his car and sighed. He had heard that numerously from Alhaji, there was a time he even suspended him from work. He didn’t know what Hajia exactly wanted from him, just that he knew whatever that was, it wasn’t something good.

He drove out of the house and went directly to a mall, where he knew he was sure he would get his sandwich maker. After he parked, he walked out bringing out his phone from his pocket to mask his angry eyes. He walked inside while getting himself busy with his phone. He knew where to get what he needed, and he walked directly there while musing to himself how he had to eat and sleep tonight, as far as he wanted to remain sane. It had been the third day since he hadn’t slept at night, he knew as much as he didn’t want to take his pills, he had to do that today.

Someone bumped onto him, and he watched as both their phone fell on the ground. What he first noticed was that person was on a video call, and with a girl. Who was ever on a video call in a mall? “Oh my amazing god!” The girl screamed when he bent down to take his phone. “Jalilah! You went to the mall together?!!!” What?! Just what had he heard?

In a swift, the person that bumped onto him bent down and took her phone, it was now that he realized she was a woman, because at first when he saw the person in the screen, he thought it was a man having a call with his wife or girlfriend. They stood up at the same time while Yazeed put his phone into his pocket, glad that his screen didn’t crash.

“I’m sorry,” she was about to voice a word out when Farha spoke again, “Farha, I’ll call you later.” And she ended the call without waiting for an answer from her.

Yazeed looked at her for some time before he noticed she had changed into new clothes, the first image that flashed through his mind when he saw her now was the way she danced, and he resisted the urge of asking her to dance again. He softly nodded his head and walked away. What was she doing in the mall? At night, and maybe alone? He discarded that thought and brought out the sandwich maker before he left to the cashier. When he went there, she was already standing there with her hands at akimbo and she looked ruminative.

He acted as if he had never seen her in his life, even when he looked up at her and their eyes met, he acted that was the first time he had ever seen her. She smiled at him softly before she walked out of the mall, and Yazeed didn’t know when he heaved a sigh. He wanted her out of his sight so bad that he felt her presence there was suffocating him. Because whenever he saw her he felt that he wanted to ask her to dance again, maybe for a second or two. After he paid, he walked out of the mall and ignited the car to life, ignoring Sulaiman’s call because he was sure if he knew he was out, he would have to pester him until he went to his house to have dinner there.

❤︎

If one thing, he couldn’t ignore Sulaiman’s call forever, he had to pick, and he did while making his sandwich in his dim lighted kitchen. “Hey, Sulaiman.”

“Yazeed do you ever realize that you hardly keep your promises if it has you as the benefactor?” Well, that wasn’t well, maybe Ilham had been nagging to him about while he wasn’t there and he would vent it out on him?

“Oh, I’m sorry. Hajia came, I had to go and meet them in Asokoro, you know if has never ended well when they come together, so I wasn’t in the mind to come to your house, please apologize to Ilham on my behalf.” He informed, taking his sandwich and drink to the living room.

“You should have called me, I would have brought it home for you. How are you feeling now?” He liked that Sulaiman was his first cousin and only friend. He understood him in a way no one had ever done, and he would forever be indebted to him.

“I’m feeling much better. It’s the usual, I’m fine.” He sighed and began taking his sandwich while they conversed freely with Sulaiman. Well, maybe not freely, because he had learned not to speak too much, not to give away too much. He had become a closed book, but at least with Sulaiman, he was slightly opened. They bade each other goodnight after Yazeed had spoken with Ilham and she nagged about him not eating dinner in their house. After they were done with the phone call, he went to the kitchen, rinsed the utensils he used before he walked to his room, contemplating on whether or not to take his sleeping pills.

As he laid on bed with the pills and water on his bedside drawer, he wasn’t sure what to do. He closed his eyes and put the advice his therapist had once told him, that if he couldn’t sleep at night, he might as well think about something beautiful he had seen for the day. Even if not beautiful, something that hadn’t irritated him and he found that amusing to his heart. He closed his eyes reminiscing all that happened in his day and when he came to where Jalilah was dancing, he just couldn’t keep on thinking. He figured out it was the only good thing he had seen today, and he kept thinking about that. From the way she smiled, the way she expertly moved her body, the way she giggled while staring at her screen, clapping her hands in excitement, everything. And slowly, sleep overtook his consciousness.

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