Not edited.

****

Not only Maleekah felt the bitterness and the rancour of being divorced. Sadiqu himself felt something crashing in his world. He felt like he was the most awful of all men. In sum, he wished he didn't write it or better didn't even thought of it at all.

Something from his heart reminded him that that was the only resort he had. After a little while, once she apologize before her waiting period ends, he would bring her back. That was his plan.

When he remembered Yusrah, his heart twist, and beat faster.

What has he done?

The nagging voice answered him. 'You did the only lawful act that Allah doesn't like!' Sadiqu didn't know when he forcefully closed boot of the car he was working on. He let the tyre on his hand to roll away.

Sadiqu slapped his hands to his face and went to meet his master to discharge him for the day. The master was kind and he understood that Sadiqu was in a dilemma.

While on Sadiqu's way, Sadiqu almost broke down. He couldn't believe that he made Satan happy. Because it was narrated that Satan normally has meetings with his children/servants (the ones known as 'qareen' which everyone has.) So, during this meeting every qareen reports what he did to one person or the other to the leader, Satan.

One would say, I made someone skip his salah. Another would say I made someone cheat someone. And the list goes on until it reaches the one who would say 'I made two married couples to fight' or 'I made them divorced.' Satan would smile and laugh. He will then began praising that particular Jinn and say anta! anta!!! anta!!! You're the one! You're the one!! Three times. He would shift and let that qarren sit beside him because that moment he was Satan's favorite just because he did what Satan loves most.

And that was causing fight between two people.

Sadiqu couldn't believe of how he let Satan overpowered him. Well, it wasn't his fault. Humans and Satan are in an unending battle with the accursed. He would never ever let someone until he mislead him except those who Allah rescues.

May Allah protect us from the plots of the accursed devil and give us the will to ask for forgiveness once we're brought down.

***

Sadiqu was surprised to see Maleekah packing her stuffs while she cries non stop. He tried to talk to her but she kept blocking him a way from her reach. He let out a sigh and gathered himself together.

"Maleekah please..." She raised her hand.

"Please nothing." She completed her sentence and continued putting her clothes in a box.

"Listen,"

"There's nothing to listen about."

"Okay but you know that's not how it's done. After divorce, the wife stays..." She caught the sentence.

"I know. The reason of the stay is for reconciliation and there will never be any sort of reconciliation between you and I. Okay?" She pointed her forefinger at him angrily and stomped out.

Inna stood at the entrance hands in akimbo. Leek didn't mind who was on the way. She barged out, hitting Inna to the other side.

Sadiqu followed her out.

"Yusrah? Go with her."

"No!" Maleekah shouted and got under her wheel. Sadiqu watched as she zoomed away. He knew she was sad, she was hurt now. She would come around. Allah knows he did the divorce so that it will bring an ending to their misunderstandings. He didn't do it to cut them apart.

But Maleekah wasn't ready to listen.

*****

Songhai, Niger.

2017.

January's believed to be cold. But that year, it was colder especially in villages were they're large expanse of lands and large trees winging off air with their leaves.

The compound was walled off, with thatched roofed medium separate huts. There was a little distance between the huts and each hut has a silo from behind it. The inside of the huts has been decorated with silver cups and designed silver plates and bowls. It was a sight to behold for a new comer. Especially the one that come from the city.

The family owned a farm where they rear their livestock and plant crops like corn and millet, which they used as source of their livelihood.

A lady of about sixteen years of age came out from one of the huts and yawned. She was wearing a blue wooled-knitted wrapper with a white cottoned-knitted dress that stopped before her navel. The wrapper was normally tied on top of the dress. Perhaps it slipped down while she was sleeping.

She redid the tie of her wrapper and started removing the clothes she washed yesternight from ropes that started from the beginning of the house to the end. It was the rope everyone used to spread their clothes after they had washed them.

She folded them as she removes them and put it on her head. She had folded the last one when the hill she formed on her head erupted and all the clothes went down.

Khadijatou almost cried. She hated folding clothes and now she has to do all over. She gave up and took the clothes inside their hut.

When she came out, She visited the toilet and came out then washed her hands.

Kneeling at the centre of the house, she kept trying blowing the fire which she would use to cook but the wind of the weather wasn't helping. She hissed nonstop and continued trying her luck.

A young man came and kneeled before her, umbrelling the fire from the wind.

"Khadijatou," he said. She didn't raised her head instead, she smiled shyly. She joined the firewoods together and let the flamed stick of the matches on her hand in contact with them.

"Aran kani baani Frère. Good morning brother." The young man smiled such that the left and burnt part of his cheek titled up in a smile. Half of his face was burnt. Even the skin of his left ear was gone. His eyelid was affected too.

"Mate ga ham? How are you?" He replied, shifting away because of the blazing fire. Khadijatou washed the pot beside her and put the water filled pot on fire. She stayed by the fire rubbing her hands in order to feel warm.

"Semeyno. I'm fine." She answered and dusted her wrapper then rushed to the backyard where their Silos were. She brought out a grinded millet which she would use to prepare millet porridge, doonu with okra soup.

By the time she was done, everyone was up from sleep. They ate in group before everyone dispersed. Khadijatou gathered her sticks and went inside their hut to see her sick mother whom had not been able to walk for two years then because of an accident she had.

She made sure her mother was well before she said goodbye to her and headed out to their farm. Khadijatou was the only child of her mother. And the youngest among other girls in the extended family. As per the village rites and culture of the Songhays, Khadijatou was supposed to be in her matrimonial home three years ago.

After her mother fell ill, Khadijatou felt like she couldn't leave her mother behind. Hence, she shooed away evert suitor that came to her way. The guys even knew her popular phrase to say whenever they approached her and hence, they named her 'wa koy'. Because she would often say in Zarma language; alhanan! Wa koy! Excuse me, go away. She won't even stop to hear what one had to say.

Khadijatou has been too primary school in Niamey, capital of Niger where she stayed with her maternal grandmother since infant days. After that, she was brought back home to Songhay by her father. Her paternal grandfather was a native of Tillabèri but they resided at Songhai several years ago. Ruqayyatou knew the French language more, then a sentences in Zarma. She knew the greetings in English too.

Khadijatou reached the farm few minutes after. She checked the cattle and unchained them and let them out of the farm for grazing. Khadijatou walked behind them with her stick on her shoulder as she sang a song.

"Hey Khadijatou!" The young man said from behind her with his flock of sheep behind him. She didn't know he was around the farm too.

Khadijatou ducked her head shyly. She didn't know why she's shy of him though. Or why she feels so much attached to this stranger whom had been staying with them for three years then. She wondered why.

With her head still looking sideways, Khadijatou smiled and greeted him oncemore. But this time around, in French.

"Bonne après midi frère!" He smiled too. Over the years he couldn't deny the fact that he was in love with a woman after all that happened to him. Two years were a hell to him. He lost himself completely and thought that he won't be able to live as a human again. Khadijatou was always with him when everyone wasn't around. She always managed to feed him milk and millet while she cheered him up.

"Comment vastu ma femme?" How are you my wife? Khadijatou gasped and placed her hand on her chest. How could he call her his wife? For what reason? Khadijatou's heart raced in it's cage.

"Frère Jameel!" She whinely dragged his name and dashed away from his sight feeling her heart throbbing in an unexplainable way. He only smiled and watched as she stole glances of him from where she stood amidst her cattle.

****

Kano Nigeria.

"Abba my socks," Yusrah jumped impatiently and held Sadiqu's leg in suspense. She was three and a half old and has started attending a school at the city. The little girl was always talking and smiling to whoever she came across. She was a cute and bright girl.

"Yuchlah," Sadiqu leveled to her height then placed his hands on her shoulder.

"My name is not Yuchlah," she pouted sending her tiny fist to her father's shoulder. Sadiqu threw his head back and laughed heartily.

He sat her down and drew her leg to put on the socks for her. Three years were something. He had been nursing the child together with Inna therefore she grew up so close to him.

"Okay what's your name?" He asked, putting on her uniformed dress and her hijab. He knew what the answer was but he couldn't stop his mouth from asking.

"It's Yuchlah not Yuchlah," Sadiqu broke into another laughter. He couldn't stop laughing over that since Yusrah began complaining. The little girl couldn't pronounce her name correctly and she doesn't allow anyone to pronounce it the way she says it.

"Let's go and eat breakfast with Inna." He picked her up on his shoulder and trudged to Inna's side while Yusrah blared his ears off with mostly incoherent words. Sadiqu would only say yes and no to most of what she says. Though, she has improved recently.

"Good morning Inna," Sadiqu smiled gleefully at Inna. With this little cutey, he had no reason to stay behind the past. Leek wasn't ready for reconciliation still. Sadiqu only takes Yusrah to her on weekends. Most of the days, they don't even meet at all.

"I thought you two aren't going to school today. You're almost late." Inna answered his greetings afterward and they sat in her parlour to take pap and beancake. The house was so quiet. Sadi and Wali have joined the university at Wudil. Fatimah was serving.

"Abba, Inna didn't say bismillah. She eats with the shaitan." Sadiqu and Inna laughed and ate fast.

When they were done, Sadiqu carried Yusrah with her bag strapped to her back, her lunch box and headed out.

He was now a teacher in a private school with a fair salary. Yusrah on the other hand was in another school different from where he teaches because the schoolfee of the school he was, was quite expensive for him.

Sadiqu stopped a cab for them. Dropped Yusrah at her school and went to his place of work. He was still applying for job but the story was still the same.

****

It was after Isha when Mimi took her daughter's bag and brought out her assignment books out. It was tracing and counting/recognition of numbers.

Asnah was four. She started attending school that session. She was a slow learner and that put Mimi in worries.

"Come let's do our assignment Asnah." Asnah walked to her little study which was by the corridor. It had pink dora the explorer tables and chairs. The walls around the place were stock with stickers of different children's animations. The famous Tom and Jerry, Zig and Sharko, and Mr Bean animation.

Asnah sat on the smaller chair while Mimi held her hand and directed her on how to trace the numbers. They finished it after fifteen minutes then started counting the numbers.

"1...2...3...4...5..." Mimi repeated for the couple of times. When she lost count of how many times they read, she decided to test Asnah.

She pointed at 2 and asked what was it. "Which number is this Asnah?" Asnah looked at the book, at Mimi then raised her head and looked at those stickers by the wall.

"Laa mummy Tom is scared of Jerry and Jerry is wiser than Tom!" She clapped her hands. Mimi almost slapped the girl out of frustration. She didn't know Asnah's attention wasn't on her, entirely.

"Asnah I will beat you this instant! Which number is this?" Mimi frowned and showed her forefinger on number four.

Scared of how hard her mother's face seemed to be, Asnah focused on the number for a while.

"It's two." Mimi angrily flipped the page of the book and hissed.

"Go downstairs to Maama's room. She will teach you the assignment. I have some work to do." Asnah stared at Mimi.

"I said go!" The young girl flinched at her mother's voice and ran down muffling her cries.

Once she was out of sight, Mimi rubbed her temple thinking of a solution. How could a four year old be in playgroup for God's sake? She needed to see their teacher the next day.

Mimi drew her laptop and checked the project she was working on. Ten, clicked unawares to her until eleven, she became cognizant of the time. Asnah must have slept off in Maama's room and she might be angry with Mimi.

Mimi smiled and had a shower then went for sleep without checking on the duo.

****

"Mummy our aunty beats us and she sleeps. Our uncle is nice!" Asnah told Mimi two weeks after. They had just finished another assignment and Mimi was loosing Asnah's braid.

"Do you have an uncle?" Mimi asked, holding the tip of a hair strand.

"Yes! He is tall this way!" Asnah stretched her arms up.

"Okay do you like the uncle?" Asnah quickly nodded. Mimi kept quiet for a while. What if she hire the man as Asnah's personal lesson teacher? Would it be of any help and make her daughter excel? Perhaps it will since Asnah said she liked him.

"Do you want aunty Okafor as your lesson teacher?" Mimi inquired to know if her decision was a right one.

"Nooooo mummy. I don't like her. It's uncle I like."

"Okay turn around let me finish loosing this." Once Mimi was done, she went to her room and brought out the complimentary card of the school's principal to ask if she could take one of the teachers to teach her child at home. Some schools have the rules of not allowing their teachers to be mentors to their students outside school.

The principal told her it was okay and asked which teacher was it. Mimi said she didn't know his name. She only knew he was teaching in playgroup. She asked Mimi to give Asnah the phone. The principal asked the little girl some few questions.

"Okay that must be S. Muhammad. The man is really good with kids. Most of the children love him. But he's in the secondary section where he teaches mathematics and physics. We only ask him to cover up in a class when their teacher isn't around. I will send you his contact ma'am. Thank you." Mimi mumbled the answers she's supposed to give and cut the call.

The principal knew who she was. The former governor's daughter. And currently the owner of SeemahSponsor. Mimi doesn't like the title at all. Unlike those days.

Her phone beeps in notification of a message. It was the number.

Mimi dialled it immediately but she cut it. No, she wasn't supposed to call whoever it was. She would make it more official.

Mimi opened her data and sent him an e-mail telling him about her daughter and that she would give him ten thousand per month. She waited for reply to come but it never came.

****

Sadiqu came back early and was planning a lesson note when he decided to check his mails. He hoped one of the institutions he applied for, would accept his application and give him an offer. He was checking through the mails when he saw a new one.

Just when he opened it, his battery shut down. Sadiqu tossed the phone down. He looked up and remembered what he did the other time before his marriage. How he generated electricity from the well and a dynamo before Inna asked for the well to be filled up with sand.

If only that still existed, he would have charge by now. Light didn't came. Sadiqu went to school with his charger the next day.

After work, he put the phone to life and checked the mail. He read and reread it. Additional ten thousand naira? That was a fat amount.

He replied the mail immediately. Few minutes after when he was about leaving, another mail came in.

'Let's meet at the gate of the school today so that we will discuss on how it's going to be' Sadiqu replied an okay and gathered the books he would mark in a nylon before he exited the staffroom.

At the school premises, little Asnah sighted him and ran to his direction.

He whirled her up like he always does to Yusrah and other kids in the school. The kids love him and he loves them too. But for this particular one, he felt like he knew her for so long. He felt like she was a part of him.

"Uncle come back to our house and be my father. Mummy says my paapa is in Jannah and he will not come back." There was a hint of displeasure in the girl's tone. It was sad to know the girl was an orphan at such a young age.

"Do you pray for him in your salah?" The girl looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language.

"Asnah Aliyu." The gatekeeper called her name through the microphone. That meant Mimi had came to pick her. Mimi doesn't normally come out of her car. Once she arrived, the gatekeeper recognises her and call Asnah for her. Asnah will then run to the car or on other days, the teachers take her to the car. Or the gatekeeper himself.

"Mummy has come!" Sadiqu felt the urge to see her mother. He didn't know what was the sudden cause of an attraction between him and the jovial little girl.

"See her car there," she showed him a black Mercedes Benz C- class car. Sadiqu gulped hard. He knew he can't even approach her mother. Well, if was nothing. He will just drop Asnah like a regular teacher then he might exchange a greeting with the mother.

His phone beeped. He drew the notification bar and saw the message.

'I'm at the gate.' Mimi unfastened her seatbelt and came out of the car when she saw the message delivered.

By then Sadiqu has reached the car while Mimi was facing the other side.

"Mummy!" Asnah shrilled. Mimi twirled around with a smile.

Both eyes fell on each other.

"Umm..ermm..." They both stuttered.

"You?" They asked and on reflex, they busted.

Sadiqu dropped Asnah. Without saying anything, Asnah ran to the passenger's seat and waited for Mimi as though giving the two adults a space.

"What are you laughing at?" Sadiqu firstly asked.

"I don't even know why. Let's call it reflex." Mimi answered looking at him in question.

"This is where I work now." He dropped it.

"Oh," she mouthed.

"You disappeared all of a sudden. Three years is not a joke. You see I couldn't even recognise the little cutey." Mimi looked up at his face and gulped.

"You ditched us." She replied, stammering.

"I didn't. Let me be going, Yusrah must be tired of waiting." He said, glancing at his wristwatch. Mimi noticed the way he spoke with pride and how all of a sudden, he was in a haste. She could see the opaque love of this father to his kid.

Mimi wanted to ask of Maleekah and a lot. But she felt she wasn't in the right place to do that.

"Yusrah?" Sadiqu nodded.

"My daughter. She's in a different school." Mimi didn't know when she released a breath. What was she thinking?

"I'm waiting for someone too," she said, leaning back on the trunk of the car.

"I am too but I'm going."

"Wait let me see him first then I will drop you." She offered.

"No, don't bother." He denied and turned to leave.

"Bye..." He said, contemplating whether to ask for her new number or not. Sadiqu felt something rose to his throat when he remembered what Maleekah put him through. Was he ready yet again?

"Will you...? Oh I mean bye." Mimi said. Sadiqu stared at her before he smiled. Girls and ego.

Sadiqu wished he would stay for an hour and have a deep conversation with her. He wished he could open up to her like he used to.

Few steps away, a call came into his phone.

"I have been waiting. I'm by a black Mercedes Benz." The voice said with eagerness.

"I have been waiting too. I'm standing by the pole. Meet me there," he said rolling his eyes. It was not like he begged for it.

"Where are you at?" He heard the voice in different tone, in the phone and outside. Sadiqu turned.

"I am there standing." Mimi heard him in the phone and outside while he stood in front of her.

"You again?" They simultaneously spoke.

"Always authorative." Mimi said shrugging.

"You mean it's you that sent the mail?"

"And it's you that my daughter likes?" Mimi said in the same tone he used.

"The answer is clear."

"So what do you say about becoming her lesson teacher?" Sadiqu looked at Mimi intently. He didn't came out of his previous marriage to be controlled again.

But this's not a marriage!

Sadiqu stopped to think. What will Mimi think of him when he works under her and he pays him? Won't she belittle him? Sadiqu was sorry he couldn't accept that offer. He was sorry he won't help her in that aspect.

"I don't think I can do it. As I said earlier, my daughter is waiting! Good day!" He crossed the road and took a cab to Naibawa- straight to Yusrah's school. PassMark international school.

Mimi felt her eyes pepperish. What has she done to the universe? Why was everyone ditching her? And now, she has passed the trait to her daughter. Sadiqu doesn't want to help her, fine. But at least he should help Asnah. She needed the help.

Mimi got back to her car and drove with little energy in her system. Once in a hold up, she opened her message log and drafted him a message.

'Not because of me. For my daughter's sake.'

*****

Do you think he will agree?