At times, we stare so hard at something that it gradually blur until it becomes unfathomable and meaningless. Such is the case with Jabir and the tiny document that held more weight than its actual meager sixteen pages.

Gently, as if dealing with a fragile rare antique, he laid it on the table, at the same time undoing the top button of his crisp white shirt. Anwar was watching him closely with amused interest.

He walked to the dispenser and gulped a cupful of water. The slight scuffle suggested Anwar was putting the file back in its place but when he turned around, Anwar has cleared a space on the table and was carefully scooping cocaine from a small black container.

"Whoa man, don't! Not here...not now!" Jabir said, running a hand across his nape.

"Relax, the wife's not gonna show up and fire the husband okay?" He said with a wink.

"There must be some explanation to this...some valid, plausible...I mean the feasibility of it is..." he said, almost to himself.

"Easy J, don't take out your anger on the innocent thesaurus. "

A moment of silence ensued, dipping both hands in his pockets, he asked,

"How?"

"That's the million dollar question J." Anwar smiled bitterly, "I wish I know." He added.

Another silence followed.

"Alhaji shared this information with you? When?" Asked a bemused Jabir.

"Nah, you know him...always the noble one. Hajja did." He continued breaking the small lumps with the edge of a razor blade. " You know he is under the impression that I did this out of obedience and sheer good will." He laughed.

Jabir had no idea what irked him the most; the fact that their parents lied and Biba practically owns Nexus, or Anwar doing crack in the office?

"Am taking a break man, see you tomorrow. "

"Take it easy J."

The Jabir that walked out of the office was very different from the one that went in, Caroline observed.

Problem shared, they say, is problem halved. But problem dumped, beats all. He felt lighter after dumping his problems on his friend. His mind went back to sometime in the late 2016.

He felt terrible after what has happened, but really was it all his fault? He had walked out on his dad after a heated argument, which is definitely a first for him, but again, aren't parents supposed to know when they had taken things far? Do they need a handbook on not crossing the line before they could respect their children's boundaries?

His dad has gone too far this time he fumed. "We promised each other, but I need your consent, for it to become a reality. " He had said, as if it is that simple. If he thinks he can get his way this time, he has another think coming.

He flopped on the bed and closed his eyes.

He heard the click of the door but didn't bother to open his eyes. The soft footsteps and the unmistakable musky scent of jadore told him it's his mom.

If he had an idea she was there, then he didn't show it. She sat by the edge of the bed contemplating if she should keep her promise and in the process let her children lose almost everything, or just tell him.

Her mind had been made long before she took the first step toward his room. The hesitation was a last attempt by her conscience in an apparently losing battle between the decision of good and bad.

"If you are here to convince me about the so called village girl, I will save you the pain and tell you right now that it not going to work, never." He finally sat up and rubbed his temple.

She sighed as she removed the duplicate file she had kept hidden from her husband for days now. She knew Anwar will never believe her without proof, so she took great pains in getting a copy.

" You can either ask her to wait for Kamal to finish school, or better still, get her a husband elsewhere." He said and went to open the curtains, albeit roughly, flooding the room with sunlight.

"Anwar, I am your mom and I will never...never want to see you hurt..."

"Good then, atleast you know how much this will hurt me." He interrupted her.

"I do, and I also know how much not agreeing to this will cost you...us, everyone of us."

Anwar became confused, what has his marriage got to do with the whole family? Or is this his own mothers way of coaxing him to agreeing to it.

"It's my life mom, not yours, or dad's, or Muneefa's, or Kamal's. "

"We will lose everything...almost everything." she cried softly

"It don't understand mom. We are Muslims for crying out loud, it is not like he will write a will and cut us off. The only thing allowed is a bequest, which also has its limitations. I don't see how we will lose here mom."

"If it was this simple, I wouldn't be here, believe me, I would have fought your father till my last, but..." she broke down again

"What mom?" He was now losing a grip on the attempted bravado.

She tapped on the thin document on her lap. " I don't have the answers to the questions you might ask after this, but I know your father...you know your father. He will not hesitate to handover everything to the girl, and let us live on crumbs and pittance."

She handed him the file with shaky hands. He knows for Hajja to look this beaten, it must be bad.

He leafed through the pages with abated breath, reading with the speed of lightening until he reached the fourteenth page and right there he saw the ownership deed.

"This is unbelievable, fuc...unbelievable!"

"I hate to be the one to tell you, but it's all true, all of it." She said trying to avoid eye contact with her furious son.

"Everything was a lie? the carrot and stick torture we went through was all a charade to make us believe in his lies...God!" He said flinging the file on the ground.

"Stop pacing Anwar, it's making me nervous. "

"Why didn't he tell me himself huh?"

"Because he wants you to agree not because of the money, he even made me promise not to."

"And yet, here we are." He laughed bitterly

"I had no choice... being a mother gives you no choice, no promise in this world transcends a mothers will to protect her children. You may not know that now ...or ever, but a mothers love towards her children is second to none in the entire universe."

She broke down in uncontrollable sobs, her body shaking to the rhythm of her cries. Despite the storm raging inside of him, something broke at the sight of his crying mother.

He knelt in front of her and placed both hands on her shoulders and waited for her cries to subside. When she finally wiped the last of her tears, she looked into his eyes and knew the battle has been won.

"We will not lose mom, I just need time to clear my head okay?"

She smiled and kissed his forehead.

************************************

She kept toying with the sleek Samsung S8plus which Anwar's dad bought her yesterday. Half her night was devoted to trying to understand the very complicated device. Apart from the few things he showed her, everything seemed tedious and complicated.

She was so engrossed in it that she didn't hear Uwani and Atika walk in. They wondered what seem to consume her attention on the counter, so they inched a bit to have a closer look.

"Wow, a new phone!" Exclaimed Uwani. "Let us see, what model is it?" She asked Atika.

"Doesn't look like takano (Techno) or joni (Gionee), but it sure looks posh." Observed Atika, turning the phone in her hands while Biba and Uwani looked on.

It's a bit complicated than the one I know, but I know a camera icon when I see one." She clicked on the camera, after a bit up and downs, she managed to switch it to selfie mode.

"Wow! This camera is really something, see how smooth my skin looks?" She exclaimed.

Two faces now joined hers in the camera frame. She clicked a picture and they all clamoured to admire it.

"This is called solpi, you can take as much as you want in it...I hope you have enough memory inside for storage. Otherwise you have to delete some before you take a new one. That was how my old takano was." Explained Atika

"She's so smart, isn't she?" Uwani nudged Biba.

"Yes, she is." Answered An equally impressed Biba.

"It's because she's been in the city for long. I guess someday we will be like her too. That will be nice ko?" She nudged her again, making her nod and wincing a bit.

They took some more pictures at different angles in the kitchen. Atika even promised to show the phone to Idi the driver, so that he can help them out with other things. She assured them he is techno-savvy and will be of immense help as far as operating the phone is concerned.

"What's going on here?"

They were startled by Hanny's voice. Her face was fully baked with everything painted in the right places, she looked like she was going out.

"We were just trying to help her out with her phone." Said Atika.

"And we even took a solpi!" Added an over excited Uwani.

She received a poke on both sides of her ribs and she moaned.

"Oh is that so? Interesting. Let me see."

She snatched the phone before she could finish her sentence. Went straight to the gallery and scrunched her nose, and handed the phone back.

"This images will haunt me for the rest of the day." She said as she opened the fridge, took a bottle of water, and sashayed out of the kitchen.

"Thish shmages wee hanch me fa the resht of dah day...mtsww." Uwani mimicked her as soon as she was out of sight.

"Forget her, the amount of cuteness in those pictures alone is more than she could ever be in her whole life time." Atika hissed.

"Absolutely. Let's take another one, ladies?"

And their laughter reverberated in the whole kitchen.

************************************

Not much happening ryt now aye? The story is just starting, buckle up guys, there's much to come. Till then, Xoxo

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