FINDING HAJIA (EPISODE 2)

The thought of stabbing Aunty Aisha to death made me shudder with fear, but I asked myself, if I killed her, would I also have to kill my father, who entertained her seduction? This situation was the hardest two minutes of my life, but I knew I had to make a decision; I decided not to kill anyone. I paused and put the knife back... "Not today," I told myself.

I retraced my footsteps to the living room; all the while, I avoided looking at the living room because I didn't want to see them in a compromising position; then, I went straight to the room to lay my head. It has been a long day, and my body deserves this rest; I saw the twins sleeping peacefully on their beds and adjusted their blankets to cover them. They look so peaceful when asleep; I smile and call them 'Yara masu taurin kai.'

The next day at school, I kept thinking about my action the previous night and how things would have been different this morning if I had stabbed Aunty Aisha to death. My mind drifted to my dad's meager salary and how it was just enough to get us by, but he rarely supported my mom with the bills at home or bought any household appliances until the day my mom argued with him about it.

I have only seen my dad's pride waver once, and this very day, he had a heated argument with my mom about the bills. In his defense, he said he had been saving to buy a house and figured my mom's salary was enough to cater to us all hence his seasonal contribution to the house. He apologized and told my mom he was sorry for not being honest about his intention to buy a house from the get-go. His behavior changed after that day, and he realized that he couldn't keep saving without caring for his home.

Anyway, it was almost break time, and I decided to eat and thank Allah for not allowing me to commit such a crime.

It took Papa a few months, but he started buying home appliances. I returned from school one day and saw our first Inverter at home. I was shocked, so I ran to my dad and asked him, "who bought the inverter?" He smiled and said, "Mr. Bello, the Physics teacher in school, Introduced me to CDcare, the pay small small app, and that was where I bought the Inverter. I am enjoying a seamless service and paying small small for home appliances and gadgets".

It then occurred to me that my father intentionally assisted my mom with the bills using the pay small small app. Tears rose in my eyes, and I was grateful that things were beginning to look bright.

He told me he was going to pay small small for a car from CDcare so that he would be able to drop my siblings and me at school every day.

I took one good look at him and became tempted to ask him about the night I saw Aunt Aisha touching him provocatively.