_________

Adeelah didn't care about her birthdays. If it was left to her, she would love to scratch the day out of the calendar. Well, she's done what she could -she had used her red pen and cancelled out 'May seventh' on every of their calendars- the feeling was satisfying.

She could remember loosing her mother naturally__with no illness or anything. Her mother slept at the night, little did they know that she was sleeping forever.

She liked to say her mother died a year after her tenth birthday because it sounded better than to say her mother died on the night after her eleventh birthday. As young as eleven, the death stricken her so bad and knocked her to a sick bed.

She was used to having her mother around. Her mother would wash her hair, plait it and loose it for her. Most hairdressers didn't like dressing her silky hair. Her Oum, never complained. She was her best friend figure and sister.

Adeelah wasn't the only female in the family. There was Nafeesah; Hajiya Sadiya's second daughter and Ummahani; Hafsatu's only daughter from a previous marriage. Hafsatu married someone at the age of fourteen and gave birth to Ummahani when she was fifteen. He divorced her before Ummahani was born. Thence, Alhaji Rabi'u married her when Ummahani was a baby.

From then, Hafsatu went back to school. Hafsatu was just thirty one. Hence she did all forms of shameful acts to rub it on Hajiya Sadiya's face whom was hitting forty five. She got married early too.

Nafeesah was twenty one and was out of the country, studying. Ummahani whom they called Haneey, was sixteen, four years younger than Adeelah. She just gained admission at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

None of the two sisters were so close to her. Of course, they would sometimes gist as sisters but they shared no sacred bond.

Ya Abdul was Hajiya Sadiya's first son and was twenty seven. He was Adeelah's favorite person. Next was Ya Ammar then Ya Fadeel both of which they shared the same mother. They were twenty eight and six respectively.

The door of her room made a sound. She looked and it was Ya Fadeel with a nylon on his hand. He wanted to wish her happy twentieth birthday obviously even though she had warned them all not to wish her.

Adeelah looked at Ya Fadeel's soldier's three quarter trouser. He just came back from their school yesterday. He was a tama two cadet. Before he joined the school, he had bagged his degree in criminology. He had a passion of joining the force and so he did.

"Don't shout at me yet, I know you're senseless as fish. I brought something to you." His Adam's apple bobbled up and down as he gulped as he sat by the periphery of her bad.

"Oum asked me to give you these stuff to you on each birthday of yours but I didn't because I don't want to press the sad button. Because you turned twenty today, you have it." He placed it to where her legs stretched. She watched him go out of the room. It used to be her mother's room.

Tears blurred her sight as she wandered her gaze around the room. She could see the mirage of her mother about the room. She could see her sitting on the couch of the room as she painted Adeelah's fingers with the butter cream of her cake. She could remember rubbing some of it across her mother's face too. Their giggles echoed and rang in her ears now.

Adeelah wiped her tear away and hugged her pillow.

"I missed you so much Oum. I still miss you." She sniffed. Hajiya Sadiya had tried her best undoubtedly, but she could never be like her Oum. No one could replace her Oum ever.

She wanted to let go, feel free and accept love but she couldn't. After her Oum's death, the only person she welcomed was Fatimah, her best friend. Aside that, she was afraid of loving something or someone lest she would loose it or them. She knew it was crazy but she had no choice.

Behind that loud girl was a girl that yearned for love. A pure and serene love not the type of heartbreaking love she had heard about. She wanted someone to give her their all without expectations. Someone to be just there for her, and someone who could adjust to her level. Someone to make her feel worthy. And they should never leave.

She rummaged through the stuff. There were birthday cards and letters attached to them. Yes, her mother used to give her a birthday card after every birthday. Maybe she wrote them and kept them.

'Happy eleventh birthday Adeelah'

My baby girl is growing. Eleven, excellent! I can remember when I was eleven, I was a happy child always quiet and reserved. My father used to call me Sabreen. And sometimes while he sat in the backyard, he would call me. I would sit together with him. He normally said:

Be patient Ayaat, let patience be your lifestyle. Thus, your life will take the best shape.

I didn't attach a lot of meaning to that. I knew what patience is. When someone slaps you and tells you sorry then you smile and forgive them was my definition of patience.

But it was bigger than that.

Patience isn't easy as it seems. It's not an instant attitude. You have to practice it before it becomes part of you.

The flower you nurture, water most often, grows beautifully and bloom. The attitude you nurture grows bigger and occupies every portion of your heart thereby becoming your habit.

Nurture and inculcate patience in your heart Adeelah. You may not understand this at eleven I am sure.

But remember some day I will leave the world and you see, you have to be patient habibty.

Adeelah didn't go further than that line. She folded the paper and put everything back. She pushed the nylon under her bed as she held her whimper. She would read others someday.

It was the truth. She had to be patient, willy nilly. The lack of patience won't bring her mother back.

She sped to the bathroom and turned her shower. Adeelah stood there and let both tears and water cascade down her face. She let out her emotions until she felt better. That's why she loved water. It soothed her more than one could imagine. She didn't have a word for the feeling. It was extraordinary and different.

_________

"What's the news?" Ameer asked his wife when he returned from work.

"You left news at the station. Or do you want me to turn the radio on for you?" They laughed.

"I am serious though. You have been receiving calls that's why I thought to ask." Hidaya swallowed a lump.

"No everything is fine." She muttered.

"That's good." He said and she smiled.

"Bring dinner." She nodded and ambled to the kitchen. She was thinking of how to do what her mother told her. Sure, her mother had told her the tactics but she didn't know how to go about it.

She wanted a huge amount of money. They had to buy several lands.

While in the kitchen, she took thirty cups of rice from the sack and hid it. She would take it to the market and sell it off in the morning when Ameer's gone to work.

She took a knife and made a patch at the bottom of the sack. If Ameer ask about why rice finished so fast, she would pretend and check the sack then she would miraculously find the hole and blame it on mouse.

Perfect! She put dinner for him and two hundred naira meat all for him. She kept the three hundred naira change with her.

Hidaya smiled and carried the food to Ameer's parlor.

________

It was nine in the night when Adeelah came out from the shower. She got dressed in her pyjamas and plodded to Haneey's room.

When she made her salam, she pushed the door and went in. She was glad she didn't meet Hafsatu on the way.

Haniey was sitting at the extreme end of her room were her lamp was sitting and shinning to it's peak. The room was too bright for her eyes. She wondered what Haneey was doing with too much light in the night.

She shrugged.

"Haneey!" She called, bouncing to the corner of the room.

Haneey raised her hand in the air in a 'don't talk' way. Adeelah nodded and sat on a stool beside.

She looked at Haneey whose total focus was on her phone camera in front of her.

Haneey cleared her voice one more time before she began talking.

"Hello guys welcome back to my Yourub channel. If you're new here don't forget to subscribe, like and comment. If you've been here, you're welkam back. As I promid zis video is gonna be a questin and answerrs. It's not your regular q and a. You berra be ready..." Haneey was cut by Adeelah's laughter, which ruined the video.

"Oh girl! All this fake accent for what? What's Yourub channel again? Lord!" She slapped her forehead and tilted it back in laughter.

"You're a parry popper." Adeelah laughed again. She couldn't hold her laughter until when Hafsatu entered.

Seeing her, made Adeelah stumbled out covering her mouth.

It totally made her night.

________

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