Hey my darlings, It's still Friday, sooo Happy Reading. It's sort of short o, but please manage it like that, between being ill and rain beating me more today, I don't know which one pained me more.

Please don't forget to comment. And vote please.

""Abdullah ya fada miki cewa za'a kawo lefen ki asabar mai zuwa kuwa?" Nadia stopped washing the  mudu of rice she had just put some water in to stare at her mother.

"He didn't tell you?" Her mother prodded, Nadia kept staring, remembering her last conversation with Alhaji. He had randomly mentioned it, but she didn't put it to heart, thinking it would be the usual one week before the wedding arrival of the Lefe. The timing was a little too early, about a month to the wedding.

"He told me, just in passing, he said soon, so I thought it would be much later." Nadia watched her mother shake her head in amazement.

"Wash that rice and come, let's talk." They both worked in silence, Nadia's mom stirring the sauce prepared to take the washed rice some more so it wouldn't burn before adding some hot water. Once Nadia was done washing, she put the rice in a strainer beside the cooker and walked to the living room where her mother was waiting.

On the way there, she undid the elastic sleeves of her work uniform that she had rolled up to wash the rice. She reached the chair where her mother was, now concentrated watching a streamed movie from northflix, Nadia was not really bothered to learn the title.

"Why do I feel like in spite of how much you say you like this man, there's a smidgen of fear in you, maybe you're hoping he'll change his mind and all this will go away." Nadia blinked away from her mother's face, it was so startling to be told what she thought she'd concealed well.

"I-" Nadia stopped as she realized at that point that she couldn't say anything without feeling like an ungrateful soul. Life had dealt her a bad hand but Allah's infinite mercy gave her a reason to go on, He shamed her enemies and shut the roving lips of mockers.

"I'm just worried, I honestly feel like a homewrecker. Even though they divorced so many years ago, she still has his name on her Facebook and Instagram, she still hashtags his surname as part of her names, she still dances to songs that praise singers sang of him years ago, I can't help but be fearful for what the future holds and the future seems so much more concrete now that the Lefe is coming. Mummy, I'm going be a married woman, imagine that?"

Her mother laughed at her last statement, a rhetorical question that needed no response. It was almost set in stone. She sobered up quickly though, to address Nadia's concerns.

"What is his attitude towards her?" Nadia raised her eyes to think, Alhaji had only spoken to her about his ex-wife thrice, never bad words, just enough words to explain the sham of an experience it was dealing with her. The third time was an explanation of what had gone on the last time in Switzerland, how she had broken his phone with her Prada boots for no reason.

"His attitude is pretty much," She stopped again to find a word to use, "Undaunted by her antics. That's what he call what she does. But, Mummy you and I are women, you know what we can do?" Nadia's mom nodded, from her position on the comfortable practical living room sofa.

"Don't you ever fight her, in public or in private. You now have the responsibility of being the bigger person, the onus to the better woman now rests upon you. She slaps you, turn the other cheek. Because what if you slap her and she faints? Calling attention, making you into a villain? Or gets you into a shouting match, God forbid it?" Her mother drew in a breath before saying,

"I will not lie to you and tell you that it's going to be over soon. It's not, infact, she's tied to him for life. Even if they're no longer married, with the behavior she puts on, there's no way she doesn't hope that they remarry." Nadia sighed and looked round the slightly empty room, it wasn't like their six bedroom duplex in Kano, this was a three bedroom bungalow that her father had built in the early two thousands.

"I know I want to be with him, I just don't want to be stressed." Nadia's mother got up, the pot on the fire was already signaling that it was boiling. Nadia got up alongside her and they slowly added the slightly dry rice to the boiling mixture, covered the pot with foil paper before covering it fully with the glass top.

"You can't rule out stress. Infact, factor in stress, because you'll be someone's wife, his confidant, his friend, even if you don't want it to be, the other mother of his children, you will be a mediator to the fights or who will his youngest child come to when she has issues with her father?" Nadia sighed for the nearly hundredth time that day. It was suddenly looking like an uphill task to be married.

"The only joy I have, and it is a full one, is the fact that their actions speak louder than their words. Alhamdulilah for that, for their honesty.

His mother told me, 'I will take care of your child, from the day she steps into my home, she becomes my daughter', that has let me rest comfortably. They let their actions speak for them and that is greater than any empty words anyone can give you." Nadia's lips widened into a beautiful smile that framed her now slightly acne free cheeks, the only thing left were slight scars from the acne that she was going to see her dermatologist for.

When they returned to the living room, her mother said, "I'll pick up your grandma for your cousins and take her to Kano with me and your aunt and cousins, I'll get some people to help clean up since we haven't lived there since that unfortunate incident." Nadia's happy nod was the end of the conversation.

Her mother's words rang with Nadia as she parked her car at the dermatologist's office in Gwarimpa. As she looked at her face in the sun visor mirror, she wondered how she could be the bigger person without feeling cheated. The last time she and Alhaji's ex-wife had met, Folake's intervention had stopped it from being a free for all fight.

She stepped out of her vehicle, adjusted her hijab, pulled on a pair of sunglasses that the doctor had ordered along side sunscreen and walked into the office.

"I'm here for my ten thirty appointment." It was only ten twenty am and Nadia was ushered to a chair near the consulting room, once Nadia got comfortable, she took off her glasses and picked up the glass of kiwi juice they served her. The service at the dermatology clinic was quite quick.

Nadia picked up the latest issue of Vogue Arabia which had Salama of the Very popular comedic couple on the cover in a white Abaya that was very beautiful on her, while she spoke of her battle with vitiligo.

About five minutes later, the door to the doctor's office opened and Nadia's dermatologist came out, followed by two women, one of them, the very woman Nadia had spoken to her mother about. Gimbiya Surayyah Aminu Abbas.

Nadia immediately raised the thick magazine up to her forehead, trying to avoid a meeting but she heard fervent footsteps before the magazine was yanked off unceremoniously.

Nadia raised her eyes to look at the beautiful woman, her skin, the no wrinkle skin on her face bellied her age. No one would look at her and agree that she had bore two children.

"Why are you following me? Is this how pathetic you are?" Nadia refused to respond to the insult, pulling hold of the Louis Vuitton neverfull tote that Alhaji insisted he had to buy for Nadia when he finally returned from his Switzerland trip.

"Oh, because Abdullah is now buying you designers you think you can thumb your nose at me? Let me tell you, the hand that was dealt me, will soon be dealt you. It's just that, you won't stay so long enough to have children that can keep you in his good graces." Nadia let her rant, only pushing the finger that pointed itself at her nose away.

"Look at this husband snatcher, trying to fight back?" The doctor swung into action, she pulled Nadia up and took her to the consulting room, locked the door and Nadia calmed herself down in the fifteen minutes that the doctor was away.

"I'm so sorry. I'm truly sorry, I didn't even notice. Oh my God." Nadia let out a whoosh of air from her nostrils and forced herself to smile.

"It's fine, let's start, I still have to go to work."

\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*

When the first few pictures of their arrival came into Nadia's phone she was crossing the road to find a cab, she had suddenly gotten a break and together with Hajarah and Folake they flew to Kano for the three days CMD would be away on his course in Lagos.

Once they got comfortable inside the cab, Nadia showed them the pictures Sarah had sent her of the first few boxes that had been brought in, the keyword, 'first few'.

Hajarah gasped as she swiped through the pictures first, then she handed the phone to the waiting Folake who gasped some more. "What is this designer abundance?" Nadia stretched her hands out in question. The first open box she saw was a padded portmanteau box that held gold wrapped gifts, no one knew what was in it.

Nadia looked outside the window as response, she had at first told Alhaji not to go all out, that she liked simple things for the fear of being seen as materialistic, but she told him at some point when he asked and he decided to stop going the simple route. He sent her flowers twice a week, sent her lunch or someone with cooked food from a bistro far away in Maitama, he simply stopped being 'simple'.

About Thirty Minutes later, Nadia and her friends dropped at the back gate to the house, calling Sarah who had been declining their calls incessantly. Finally, she picked and Nadia heard her voice as she scolded them for calling so many times.

"I'm missing out on the videos I'm making for Maymunatu, stop calling my phone. How will you see everything if you waste my battery with calls." Nadia shook her head before knocking at the gate and saying on the phone, "If you don't open this gate, you won't even get to see the rest of the Lefe."

They heard her footsteps as she ran to the gate, jacked it open and jumped into Nadia's arms. The three women shushed her from calling out Nadia's name. Sarah hurriedly quieted down.

"I didn't know you were coming, what will you do now? You're not supposed to be at home right now." She stage whispered to her older cousin.

Hajarah handed her their bags, and said, "We'll go to the market to buy somethings, by the time we return, they must have left." Nadia agreed to the idea and they dumped their bags with the happy Sarah who took it inside and locked the gate.

About three hours later, they trudged into the house holding bags of several kinds of textiles, they'd braved it and gone to the Kantin-Kwori market where the largest textiles shops could be found and wasted time there.

Tired as they were, there was some measure of excitement in them, Sarah had refused to send them any pictures and had Nadia's grandmother had forbidden anyone from according to her, 'Posting Nadia's goodness for all the evil eyes of the world to see'.

As they walked in though, there were several family members eating several kinds of food in the living room and near the main door, so Nadia spent a good twenty minutes receiving congratulations and prayers from well wishing family members.

Most of the Lefe had been placed in a room downstairs, the room had formally belonged to an aunt of Nadia's, but she had moved out so it was empty. Several boxes filled the room, a traveling box set of sixteen was stacked in a corner, wrapped with hot pink bridal net, another set was locked and stacked atop one another in another part of the room. The star of the show however was the open boxes, the ones Nadia had glimpsed earlier.

Nadia pulled apart the ribbon of the first wrapped gift closest to her and it was a vlisco wrapper, she took another and another until a stack of vlisco wrappers filled the space beside the box.

They couldn't unpack the entire thing so Nadia left the room in Sarah's care who locked the door and handed the key over to UmmulKhair, before going upstairs.

Nadia laid on her bed, a vision of surprise, the monetary value of what had been brought to show their seriousness was far too much. And even though it meant they valued her and the joy she brought their family, it was still a little overwhelming.

"All the guests have a small purse each, coupons from ShopRite to redeem. Maymunatu said it's so that they don't feel disappointed. If I ever decide to get married, my husband's family better be this good to me or else." They all laughed at Sarah's antics.

"I'm a little worried about us being robbed." That was the only answer Nadia gave from her position near the headboard. The whole room shook with laughter as response to her admitted fear.

*****

Okayyyy.

I'll see you all on Friday. I hope I write more this coming week.

Eid Mubarak my lovelies. May God bless you all, Have a wonderful celebration 🥳.

TheOmoope 💙💙