Chapter 93 Loved By The Soldier

60: Loved By The Soldier
The thunder scared the brittle heart that slept peacefully. And then as though it were a dream, he began to hear the groans of pain that was obviously coming from the person seated next to him. Even though the sound of the showers of the rain along with the wind blowing the windows off was making it hard for his ears to hear. He turned and wanted to go back to sleep, to the beautiful dream he was having of creating a paradise for the little sister that laid patiently in his mother's womb.
A soft smile crept to his lips when her little fingers touched his, and when he looked up to her face; Mammi had kept to her words. The baby in her stomach was indeed a girl. And a very beautiful one that he childishly wished she could marry off to him. And even now, he wished Mammi didn't say it as impossible, that he couldn't marry his sister.
The screeching of the sky was becoming more ominous as he turned to the other side, Mammi said whenever he had a bad dream, he should turn to the other side. And even though this dream felt so amazing and he was even smiling, he felt a feeling of foreboding and there seemed something dangerous surrounding him.
A hand tapped his shoulder and he abruptly jolted at the touch. Lazily, his eyes began to open and even though they were engulfed in utter darkness, he could see the figure that sat beside his sleeping body. "Mammi?" His 10 years old sleeping voice muttered, and he moved towards her but before his outstretched hand reached her, there was a loudening thunderstrike that convulsed his soul and he dropped down to his knees, both hands on his ears to block away the deafening sound.
He felt her warm body against his, shielding him from all harms imaginable and for the few moments he was in her embrace, he felt safe. But then he heard it, the cries he thought were in his dream. The groaning of pain he thought was a nightmare joined with the fantasy he was having as a dream. He quickly looked back at her face, and with the soft light illuminating through the room, he saw the sheen of sweat covered on her forehead.
"Are you in pain, Mammi? Is she coming now?" She was about to shake her head at him when her lower abdomen made an excruciating move that she cried out along with the rain blasting upon their windows non stop. It seemed as though the universe cried along with her pains. As though the strange wind today was there to comfort her aching body. And the thunder strikes deafening all ears from hearing her cries.
"You're crying, Mammi!" He said in a voice that shook. He had to speak loud for her to hear what he was saying and he rushed to where she always kept her phone. Somehow, in his baby mind, this little boy was glad he was so persistent to sleep in his mother's chamber today. Who would have helped her now?
He brought the phone to her and she took it gladly, "We should call Abba, he will have maids here to help you and they will take you to the hospital, Mammi." He was already crying, seeing how she winced in pain and was already in tears herself.
"There's no network," she whimpered and dropped the phone down. It was too much agony for her body to take and she didn't know what she would do if help didn't come through in time. Her protruded belly twinged in pain and she held his shoulder, crying silently.
He waited until she seemed to have eased off before he stood, "I'll run to his chamber to tell him. Maybe I can find someone that will help you even before I reach him."
She silently shook her head and held his wrist. "You can't leave alone, Your Highness."
"Mammi!" The little boy cried. Even when she was in pain, she couldn't just call his name? "Then let's go together, it will be easier to get help that way." That was the only solution his mind could come up with, and when his mother agreed to that, he seemed proud of himself, albeit terrified at the situation at hand.
She wrapped a veil over her head and he helped her tie it tightly so it wouldn't get loose, Mammi hated having her hair revealed. She held his hand as they trudged out of her chamber. The rain was heavier than they thought, the sky so dark one could hardly see what was in his presence. It felt as though they were walking through an asylum, and there seemed a dangerous aura surrounding them both, but all they wanted was to get her out to help and have his baby sister safely delivered.
The rain had blinded their eyes, the wind shivered them enough to lose their balances and the loudening thunderstorms had instilled fears in their minds that with each step they blindly took, the rain showers making their paths muddy, fear intensified in their innocent hearts. They had involuntarily closed their eyes as they walked through the path that seemed to lead them to Abba's chamber until he felt a sound. It was in no way connected to the downpour gracing the earth. Something, precisely a metal had hit something. And then came a thud on the ground, and that was when he realized Mammi was no longer holding his head, she was slumped on the floor.
He looked around, even though blinded by the rain as she whimpered in sheer agony. "Run, Your Highness." She begged. He saw a looming figure in a rain coat with everything masked, the dark exterior giving more mystery to this man or woman as he held the metal he had hit his mother with.
"Mammi, let's run!" He cried, talking above whispers to be heard clearly.
She pulled him painfully to her body and hugged him for a split second before she whispered into his ear, "He'll kill you if you stay, Your Highness. Run, okay? Go to Abba, he'll protect you."
She tried to push him away but he was being adamant, "Mammi!" He cried, "I can't leave you here, we have to go to the hospital to deliver the princess."
She smiled painfully and with one tight hold on his wrist as life began to ease out of her body, she urged, "Run, Na'im! You have to live, okay?" The first time she had ever called his name, which also happened to be the last. He cried bitterly as he did what she said, he ran, but it took less than a minute before he hit something. The world swiveled around his eyes, the few memories he had accumulated in the ten years of his life rustled through his mind as though it were an avalanche before he slumped on the ground, the rain washing over him as the wind tried to lift his petite body. The last words he heard were, 'Run, Na'im!' Before everything became pitch black and he gave up his fight to live.
?
He heard their voices under hypnosis, it felt as if he was alive and yet, he felt dead. He tried to move on whatever hard board it was he was lying but his body found it too hard to even make the movement, he was exhausted. Not just physically exhausted, but his mind, heart and soul were so tired that he wished it was possible for someone to die and then be back after a few days.
But he had to live, he thought. He had to make sure that Maryam lived, because no matter how Na'im wanted to keep on fighting for his consciousness, it was just so hard because he had fell into the abyss of pitch blackness because of how painful everything had been for him. How chaotic his mind and brain felt at the avalanche of memories that rushed through his entire being. And he ended up succumbing to the abyss of memories and darkness even though he could hear the searing scream that had escaped her lips.
The thought of Maryam jerked him upright and he felt someone gasped, he hadn't even opened his eyes but there were tears running down to his cheeks. His Mammi, he silently thought. That was the last day he had seen her, heard her voice and felt her touch. She had called his name that day and he was never able to hear it again. And the worse of it all, he ended up living all these years without a single memory of her.
Fighting through the thickness of his lashes, Na'im tried to open his eyes and he saw the worried face of the woman that he had now named after what he used to call his mother. He knew she was never like his mother, but she had loved him genuinely and Na'im didn't know when he fell into her arms. He didn't care that someone would see him crying like a little boy, it was just that his heart felt so little after he had remembered his mother and he hated himself for having zero memories about her until now. The least he would've done was prayed for her!
"It's alright, Na'im, you both are safe." She tried to console him and the plural she had used reminded him of Maryam and he knew he had to go and check up on her.
So, he pulled his body away from that of Mammi while he wiped at his tears, "I'm in a hospital?" It was more like a statement, even though there was a question laced on his tone. Yesterday, it had rained, but instead of him to forget about the ones that mattered, he ended up getting his memories about them and it felt like a blessing.
"Yes, Na'im. Maryam has been in the labour room since yesterday at night. The doctors are not out yet..." Before Mammi was done with what she was saying, Na'im was already on his feet as he pulled out the IV that was attached to his body. "Where are you going to, Na'im?" Mammi asked quickly and he was looking for his shoes to put on.
"Sadeeq, I'm going to kill him Mammi!" She tried as much as she could before she got a hold of his wrist and he turned to look at her with eyes that were a color of blood due to anger and pain before she spoke softly.
"He has been shot by your friend. His other man is died but he's in the ICU, the doctors said he has lost the use of both his legs because the bullet went directly into his spinal cord and right now, he's in a coma, Na'im." She watched the way his expression was changing and she used that as an opportunity to deviate his attention back to what that mattered.
"Right now, you shouldn't even be looking for Sadeeq because it might take him a year or years or even forever to wake up, because he hit his head on a stone when he fell. Do you still have the memories of your wife?" Her voice was soft, a motherly tone laced in each word she had uttered.
"My wife, Hoor, Maryam!" He gasped when he thought about her. It was too much for him, the thoughts of her, thoughts of Mammi and his quest for revenge even though it had been died down by Mammi. "I have to go and see her now. Where's she?" He asked with a raspy breath as he aimed for the door.
"She's in the labor room...wait for me, Ya Allah!" She screamed the last words because he was already out of the room and even though it had been a dark night for the royal family yesterday, she chuckled at how childishly Na'im was acting today. It was obvious he had gotten back the memories of his beautiful mother, because throughout the night, he kept calling her name while he cried and Ya Girema knew she wasn't the Mammi he was referring to.
She ran after him and met him strangling one of the nurses. She gasped almost immediately and took a hold of his strong arms. "What's wrong with you, Na'im? You're going to kill her!" She yelled at him, but his eyes were blurred with his tears and anger to even know what Mammi was saying.
"How dare her tell me that Maryam is dead? I want her to rebuke what she had just told me!" He screamed and flung the frail nurse on the wall, she broke into tears almost immediately, her palms on her neck as she gasped for breath.
Mammi rushed to the nurse and began to apologize, even though Na'im's words struck her heart, "What is he saying? Is she really dead?" He was crying while resting on the wall, slumped fully on the floor as he thought about everything at once.
The nurse shook her head, "I was talking to that other man that one of his twin daughters was dead, but he just came at me and strangled me. His wife is okay..." Before she was even done with her words, someone walked out of the labour room and said, "Who has brought Maryam Bukar?" He immediately jerked upwards and Mammi rushed to him before he did something wrong again.
"What is it? Has she delivered the baby? How are they?" It was Mammi that asked, as she held his hands and it was only then that she noticed Saima, Bilkisu and Intisar at the other corner of the hall crying their eyes out, probably after they mistook the information of the nurse too.
"Yes, she will be taken to the VIP room to rest as requested. She has given birth to a girl, they both are healthy even though the mother is a bit exhausted and needs some sleep, with no noise around her, please."
Na'im hugged Mammi, he was crying and laughing altogether as he kept chanting, "She made it, Mammi, she gave birth to our daughter." Mammi laughed, but there were tears in her eyes as she hugged him too and over yonder, she saw how those three had hugged themselves, crying and laughing while everyone rejoiced.
He couldn't wait to see her, to hug her and tell her how much he had missed her. That he now had his memories back and he knew who she was in his life. Her love was back in his heart, even more stronger than before and he wanted to beg for her forgiveness. For all the things he said and did to her. He couldn't wait to see their daughter, there were a lot of things he wanted to do with her.
?
The doctor made sure they weren't allowed inside the room and they all lodged in front of the room on the carpet that was laid. When he had asked the doctor how many hours were required before she woke up, after he had managed to peaked at her face and he gave her sleeping face a forehead kiss, the doctor told him that she might spend five hours sleeping or even more, and he figured it would be enough for him.
"Where are you going, Na'im?" Ya Girema asked, because she knew he might still want to go to where Sadeeq was.
He sighed and took her hand, "I'm never going to see him again, Mammi. I'm going to shehuri, I need to speak to Abba." He turned to a forlorn Saima and smiled at her, "Princess, I'll always and forever love you, okay? Now, stop giving me that look and come hug your brother."
Saima had been holding her fear in without voicing it out, but his words prompted her to break into tears as she cried in his arms. "Thank you, Yarima. Thank you." He had to make her promise that she was going to call him immediately after Maryam woke up before he met Hafiz at the parking lot, where he was waiting for him and they drove to shehuri.
Na'im was immediately ushered in to see Alan Gubro and he was glad that he was alone in his reading area. He went ahead and sat down before he placed his head on his shoulder, fighting back his tears but they still came. "I miss her, Abba." He confessed and there was silence, which meant Abba wanted to know who he had missed so he would be able to give him the perfect reply. "Mammi, I can't believe I forgot everything about her."
Abba quickly pulled him at an arm's length, "Do you remember her, Na'im? Does that mean your wife?"
He chuckled and wiped at his tears, "I remembered everything about them yesterday." He hugged him and kept chanting 'Alhamdulillah' because it had bothered him so much. Even though now he knew it would stick to Na'im's mind, the loss of his mother.