Yushraf POV
Flashback continues
3 years back
After strolling on the empty street for what seemed like an hour, I started thinking deeply of where we would spend the night.
We listed the friends we had and if they could accommodate us, for just a night, but couldn't come to a decision. After several thoughts, I suggested we go to Jibrin's — our secondary school friend's house. After our parents death, he was one of the people that stood by us.
We took a cab and gave the driver the address of where we were headed. Immediately we alighted, I brought my wallet out and paid the driver.
We knocked on the gate and the security men opened the gate and asked us who we were looking for at that time of the night.
"Sir, we are here to see Jibrin." I responded.
The man just give us a look of sympathy and broke the heartbreaking news of Jibrin relocating to Dubai with his whole family. The news made Reedah burst into tears and hugged me.
"Yushraf, what can we do now? It's getting late. This is already pass 9pm and yet we haven't found a place to sleep for just tonight. God is this how we are going to keep suffering?" Reedah sobbed.
I wiped my own tears with my hand and reached for Reedah and hugged her again, assuring her we would get a place to sleep and when we wake up the next day, all of our suffering would be over, if we get to Uncle Jaafar's place in Lagos.
Reedah nodded and wiped away her tears.
******
We finally arrived at the doorstep of Aunty Sarah's house — one of ammi's close friends, when she was alive.
I hesitated to knock on the gate and when I finally did, a security man came into view and asked who wanted to see. We greeted him and told him we wanted to see aunty Sarah.
He just nodded and asked us to follow him and he led us to the living room, where aunty Sarah was with her family. Though they were christian, she used to be our mother's close friend. She rushed to Reedah and gave her a hug and then turned to me and greeted me with a smile.
She asked us to greet her husband and we did. Before we knew it, she already had food served on dinning for me. Reedah had already gone upstairs with Aunty Sarah's daughter, Favor.
Aunty Sarah asked favor to let Reedah eat first, before they would start with their unending gist.
Reedah came down with a smile on her face and sat opposite me and ate in silence. When we were done eating, we told aunty Sarah how we moved out of the house empty handed and were planning to move to Lagos to stay with an uncle.
She was very sad that we had to go through all the sufferings, but told us not worry, as everything happened for a reason. She asked me to sleep in the guest room, while Reedah slept in Favor's.
I entered the room and went straight to the bathroom and had a shower, then performed ablution and then went to the corner of the room and prayed. I poured all my tears to Allah, praying to him to forgive our parents, whereever they were. "May their souls rest in jannah. Indeed it's true that every soul shall taste the bitterness of death." I never realized how painful death was, even when our grandma passed away, but ever since Allah took both our parents away, we felt the pain of death.
I stood up and turned off the light. I lie down on bed, hoping Reedah would be able to have a sleep, free from nightmares. Because ever since the death of our parent she have been constantly having them.
*******
The next day, I woke up, performed ablution and offered my fajr prayer, then went back to sleep.
Thirty minutes later, I reawakened and realized the sun was already out. I got out of bed and ambled to the bathroom to have a shower and brush my teeth.
As I walked down the stairs, I could hear Reedah and aunty's laughter. A smile crept up my lips.
"Good morning, aunty" I greeted when I approached them.
She smiled and asked if I slept well last night. I nodded and thanked her again for giving us a place to sleep. I then asked of her husband, uncle James, but she told me he had gone to work already. A sad smile appeared on my face as I suddenly remembered my father. He used to go to work very early as well.
We all headed to the dinning and took our breakfast.
Immediately we were done, Reedah and favor took the plates to the dish washer.
We told Aunty Sarah we would take our leave and She went inside and returned with two envelops. One for Reedah and the other one for me.
We simultaneously thanked her,
For all the kindness she had shown us.
She assured us we could come to her anytime we needed anything, but we turned down the offer, because we knew we had uncle Jaafar to rely on. She gave us one final hug each, before seeing us off to the gate.