A live punching bag Written by AL-BINT’S DIARY Maryam walked hurriedly into the hallway as soon as I opened the door.Without even saying the salam, she turned and said to me: ‘Are you free now Bint?’‘As free as I can be when Tahir is around.’ I replied, puzzled.‘Well let me go and personally seek his permission to let you go out with me now. This is an emergency.’ She explained, mysteriously.‘Really? Well, assalamu alaikum, you are welcome to my house.’ I greeted with irony.‘I’m sorry I forgot to say the salam when I arrived.’ Maryam replied, extending her hand for me to shake. ‘It’s just that I am so disturbed by what I saw that I completely forgot my manners.’ She added. ‘And what did you see?’ I asked leading her into the sitting room.‘I was returning home from my weekend Arabic class when I suddenly saw myself on the road to Sadiya’s house. On an impulse I just said let me go in and greet her. I turned back and drove towards the entrance only to be confronted by the security guard who said to me I couldn’t go in. I asked why but he just repeated himself. I reminded him that I had been coming to that house since that young lady was brought there as a bride, over a year ago, and that he ought to recognize me.He answered that indeed he recognized me but that he was acting on orders. Orders from who? Did Sadiya say she doesn’t want to see anyone? I demanded. No, he replied, Sadiya was inside since last night, it was the husband that gave strict instructions that no one must allowed into the house when he was going out this morning. But why, I asked again, could she be sick? He answered that he honestly didn’t know but he had been told not to let anyone into the house.Ok, I said and began to drive out of the home entrance. Just then I saw her younger sister Aqiba shedding tears and waving me from within the gate. I moved back and once again demanded that the guard let me in, but he refused, insisting that he couldn’t ignore his boss’ strict instructions. With the sight of Aqiba’s tear-stricken face haunting me I forced myself to drive away from that house. But I couldn’t go home knowing that something could be wrong with Sadiya and that was why her sister was waving me and crying. I decided to come and get you so that we can go together and see whether we can prevail on that guard to let us into the house.’ Maryam concluded.‘Yes, we can give that a try and I really wonder what the problem is that her husband should want her isolated. But do you really think we should insist on going in? You know we are not her family, so we can’t lay any claims to having the right to see her whenever we wanted.’ I observed.‘But we are the closest thing to a family that she has. She is the younger sister to our best friend. And with Asabe out of the country, we are the only big sisters she has. We owe it to Asabe to stand by her relations when she is not there to do it herself because we are practically sisters.’ Maryam argued, with passion.‘I know Maryam, I am not arguing with anything you said. All I am saying is we may have problems convincing the guard to let us in because he doesn’t know us as Sadiya’s family. However a thought occurred to me now while you were talking. Why don’t we go and ask their mother to come with us? I don’t think either the guard or the husband can stop a mother from seeing her daughter.’ I advised. ‘Will that be a good idea?’ Maryam wondered aloud. ‘I mean what if it’s nothing serious? We would get their mother worried over a false alarm.’‘Did you not see Aqiba crying and waving to you?’ I asked and Maryam nodded, ‘then that is enough to convince me that something is wrong.’I declared, rising up. ‘Let me go and explain to Tahir, then I will pick my veil and we can leave.’ I added. We met Asabe’s mother enjoying her weekend with some of her grandchildren. After the greetings Maryam went straight to the point and told her why we were there. She immediately looked disturbed but didn’t say much apart from her willingness to go with us. We drove in silence until we reached Sadiya’s gate and the guard came to drive us away.‘I want see my daughter.’ Hajiya Umma said, as soon as the guard started to talk. He looked at her in silence because he probably didn’t know how to turn down her request. After a few seconds, the guard walked back to the gate and opened it. The moment we parked the car in front of the bungalow, Aqiba rushed out to meet us. With tears in her eyes she grabbed her mother and held her tight.‘What is happening, why is the guard saying no one can come in? What happened to your sister?’ The questions tumbled from Hajiya Umma’s mouth.‘Just come in Mama, come in and see her.’ She replied, dragging her mother by the hand towards the house. And as if noticing us for the first time, the teenager raised her head and said ‘You are welcome Anti Bint and Anti Maryam. I saw you when you came earlier.’ Aqiba said to Maryam.‘Yes, I saw you too. That’s why I decided to come back. But I asked Bint and Hajiya to come with me.’ Maryam explained. We proceeded into the house wordlessly until we reached Sadiya’s bedroom. Aqiba opened the door and the rest of us froze with horror. Sadiya’s face was unrecognizable. It has swollen to three times its size and she could barely open her eyes. She lifted her head from the pillow when she heard us enter but didn’t say a word.‘Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un.’ We all chorused. ‘What happened to you Sadiya?’ Their mother asked, as she rushed to the bed to embrace her daughter.‘It’s nothing Mama, really it’s not as bad as it looks.’ Sadiya answered weakly, trying to raise herself to a sitting position.‘You call this nothing? Who did this to you Sadiya, who was it that tried to kill you?’ Hajiya Umma demanded.‘It’s Makau Mother, it’s her husband Makau.’ Aqiba answered, still wiping her own tears. ‘I don’t know what happened, I just heard her screaming from my room. I rushed over to check her when he pushed me aside and locked her alone in this room. He then forcefully dragged me back to my room and warned me never to go back to where my sister was.Then he asked for my phone and took it away with him. Throughout the night I tossed and turned because I couldn’t sleep not knowing what happened her. This morning, after he went out, I knocked on the door and luckily she had a spare key in her bag which he didn’t know about.She got up and opened the door for me. We just embraced each other and cried for several minutes. Then I asked for her phone in order to call you but she said he had also taken her phone since last night. I asked her for money to take a taxi home to go and tell you but she said no that she didn’t want you disturbed. She said she had been through this several times before. I asked how come we didn’t know and she replied that he always did it when it was just the two of them in the house, and had always avoided hitting her face in the past. Last night he concentrated his savagery on her face.’ Aqiba explained.‘But this is inhuman.’ I said, finding my voice for the first time.‘What was he trying to prove?’‘That he is a first-class monster of course.’ Maryam replied, angrily.‘Well he will soon find out that he has married the daughter of another first-class monster. By God I am going to make sure he knows exactly what it feels to be beaten to a pulp.’ Sadiya’s mother vowed tearfully, holding her daughter in her arms.‘But why, why does he like to beat you?’ I asked.‘He drinks a lot Anti Bint.’ Sadiya answered in pain. Any time he returns home drunk, I will caution him against it both from a religious and from a health perspective. That usually provokes him. He will get angry and start saying I had no right to change him. Then he will get violent and start beating me.’ She explained.‘But why didn’t you ever tell me?’ her mother asked.To be continued.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 18:51:16 +0000
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