Chapter 88: Who Are You?

"Yes. So, what are you going to buy there?" She asked interestedly in whatever they were going to do. "Is the place...what did you just call it, beautiful?"
"Quebec? It's so beautiful that I wish you were here with me. Do you want to see it?" He asked as he motioned for Adeel to go and he will be there in no time.
"Yes, I want to. But how?" She asked with an innocent smile and Na'im pulled his phone away from his ear and switched the call into a video call. Maryam heard the beep sound the phone was making and she lifted it from her ear too, picking the strange call that she could see herself through but when she picked, she saw his face, smiling at her that she gasped, chuckled and cried at the same time.
"Na'im! I could see you!" She squealed and Na'im nodded his head happily. He didn't know why it had never crossed his mind to video called her, he wouldn't have missed her the way he did. He saw that she was getting her hair pleated and even though she had gotten a bit chubby due to the pregnancy, she looked so beautiful that he wished he was there to keep on seeing her for as long as he wanted.
"And I could see you too, looking all pretty and fresh that I wish I can give you a gift now." She threw her head back and laughed, fully understanding what he meant by the gift before she nodded her head at him.
"Will the gift take me the whole night to unwrap or it's just a short one? Because you're making me crave for a gift right now, Noory!" She whined and Na'im didn't know how he bursted into the kind of laughter he did.
"Hoor! Ya Allah!" She was laughing along with him, missing him with each breath she took. "I haven't seen you for long, so it's definitely going to take you a whole night to unwrap." The smile she had flashed him was enough to melt down a mountain and he felt his heart swaying and swooning with the love he felt for her.
...
He was grinning as widely as he could since they boarded their plane to Lagos, he couldn't wait to see her. He had been so happy and the days they had spent in Quebec were so terrifying, and he wondered how he was able to live them without running back to Nigeria at any given chance he had. There were days he had to search up flight tickets back to Lagos because it was so hard living there alone, but then he would revoke the idea because he knew the triplet would certainly not like him doing that to them.
He turned and saw how Areef was smiling at him and Na'im punched him lightly, "What? Even if they don't understand how I must be feeling, I'm sure you do, right?" He chuckled and Areef nodded his head then it occurred to him who he was in love with, too. "Wait, are you still together with that girl? Doesn't she hate you now because of what I did to her sister?" He sincerely asked, and in his heart he was hoping that it wouldn't be true because he wouldn't have known what he would do if what he did to Nafisa affected Areef's relationship.
"At first, she was a bit sad and we had a fight over it; everyone supporting his sibling," he stopped and chuckled at their childishness, "But later on, we realized those with a failed relationship shouldn't make ours fail, so we reconciled and she's even trying to convince her mother about me; who is still angry at the whole royal family." They laughed at the same time and Na'im nodded his head, understanding what that meant.
He could remember vividly the way she had looked at him the last day he had seen them, he knew certainly, that it would take her years, if not forever, to stop holding her grudge against them. "I'm glad y'all have reconciled, I'd have gone to their house myself to beg for her forgiveness."
They kept chatting with Areef that sat close to him on the plane until it was time for the plane to land and they heard the pilot's voice booming through the speaker, "Due to the harsh weather in Lagos, we will have to wait for fifteen minutes before we could land, I hope that's okay with His Majesty." Harsh weather like how? He knew no amount of sun or coldness will stop a plane for having an immediately landing, but rain.
His heart lost a beat, please, ya Rabb. Can't they just go back to Quebec? He was shaking without knowing he was and he kept shaking his head. They shouldn't land. Na'im wanted to go to Alan Gubro and speak to him so they wouldn't land in that rainy weather, but before he had his composure back to make out the right words to convince him, he felt the plane descending on earth and he could see through the window, how rain was splashing on the wings of the plane and Na'im knew, for sure, the end had come for him.
He didn't know he was crying until he felt Areef's gentle hand on his, he was shaking his head. Having images, flashes of the night he couldn't clearly remember, yet it was sending too much grief to his heart. He was crying, feeling a pain so pierce yet so ancient searing through his entire being and he wished there was something he could do about it.
Then he saw a pregnant woman, a brisk image of her being in pain and wincing and crying while they tried to run away was so vivid in his mind even though he couldn't point out her face. The remaining images he had of Maryam in his mind became blurry even though he thought she was that pregnant woman, but then Maryam wasn't even born when he was at that age.
His whole body began to convulse, there was a sound so loud and searing in his head and his ears were being deafened by something he couldn't point out. He was seeing faces hovering over him as agitated as they would, if one of their beloved was in the kind of pain he was, but Na'im couldn't voice a word out and when he was tired of fighting to keep the memories of the only one he loved with his entire being, he succumbed to the comforting darkness, the pleasant silence and peaceful body he could find for his soul.
He awoke hours later that even though they wanted to leave to Maiduguri that very day, Alan Gubro had arrange for their hotel and they were taking care of Na'im there. He began to squint his eyes, feeling a throbbing headache at the back of his head as he thought about what had happened. He knew they were coming back from Quebec but why was he in a hotel room instead of Maiduguri?
He tried to sit upright and then Amjad quickly ran to him and helped him up, "Oh, thank god! Adeel, can you go and inform Abba that he's finally awake?" He said as he placed a pillow on his back and Na'im rested, his hand still on his head as he felt a mild headache that if not for the fact that his heart ached too, he wouldn't have been bothered by that kind of pain.
Alan Gubro rushed into the room and he was relieved to see Na'im seated on the bed and even though wordlessly, he was staring at him. "How are you feeling, Yarima?" He asked while holding Na'im's hand and he tried to smile at him while he nodded his head.
"You look so tensed, Abba. I'm fine, when are we leaving? I have to report back to the barrack as soon as possible. I only took a week's absence." They all nodded heir heads with smiles on their faces, because they thought he was just using his work as an excuse to go and see his wife. Even though their smiling looks made him curious, he didn't ask.
And that night, no matter how Abba wanted them to sleep in the hotel and leave to Maiduguri, knowing how eager he had been for them to go back, none of them even tried to stop him and they all took the next available flight back to Maiguri. Throughout the flight, Na'im was silent and his mind had been so blank for a thought to get registered. He didn't know why there was a part of his heart that was so sad.
He knew it rained, and whenever it rained and after he had woke up he always felt this unusual and there was a always a feeling of foreboding attached to his heart, today's was different. It was so serious and grievous that he didn't know what else to do but just accept the comforting blankness of his mind. Their plane landed in Maiduguri and he was so relieved to have it devoid of water while they got out.
The King's entourage was so welcoming and it reminded him of royalty that he smiled when Alan Gubro offered that they sat in the same car to go back to the palace. He sat down beside him, but he wasn't feeling himself enough to strike a conversation between them like he had always done. So, when Abba cleared his voice, Na'im turned to him with a soft smile. "Do you want to say something, Abba?" He didn't feel like calling him with his royal name, he wanted a father today and a father, he was getting.
Abba tapped his shoulder for him with a smile that offered he laid his head there. Na'im was glad about the darkness in the sky which had engulfed the whole world, he would've felt shy to think someone would see him resting his head on his father's shoulder for comfort. He closed his eyes when he felt his head resting on the shoulder that had always been there for him to lean and slowly, Na'im took his hand and clasped it with his, sighing a bit.
"Is something wrong with you, Yarima?"he heard the soft worried voice of Abba before he softly began to shook his head. "You know you can always talk to me, right? Tell me, what's wrong?"
"I don't feel myself. I feel like I've lost something so huge and meaningful in my life but I can't point out what it is. Do you know how I feel after that night, Abba? When I found myself in your room?" He asked like a small child and heard the hum sound of his father that meant to answer his question. "That's exactly how I feel, just that the ache in my heart isn't as painful as of that day, but still."
Alan Gubro thought for a moment, he wanted to say something about Maryam, but with the way things were happening, he was afraid that Na'im had forgotten about Maryam. He had never believed him when he said he had forgotten about someone. Even when he said he couldn't remember a thing about his mother, he thought that it was just his way of avoiding that conversation forever. But it had taken decades and not even a word was heard out of Na'im's mouth about his mother.
And then came the girls he had fallen in and out of love with, even though everyone was certain that he had never loved someone like he loved Maryam, but still. If it turned out that he had forgotten about Maryam, then it would take a toll on himself and while Alan Gubro sighed, he thought of a way out of this, of what kind of illness it was and found no answer. The only thing he had to wait for now was to wait and see how it was going to turn out. If Na'im would really forget about her.