by Emma Easter
Leila stood up as Khadija went to the door. Leila turned around one last time to look at Khadija and then hurried to Malik’s room. She quickly climbed out of the window, praying that no one would see her do so.
Some children were playing near the back of the house. They stared curiously at her as she jumped out of the window. She smiled at them and ran past.
*****
Khadija listened carefully to make sure Zainah had left the house and then she opened the door for her father. He stormed in and gave her a dirty look. Fear gripped her at the look in his eyes, but she hid her fear as carefully as she could.
She winced when her father grabbed her shoulders and shook her. He said angrily, “Khadija, what have you been doing in here? Who has been in here with you?”
She avoided looking him in the eye and said, “No one was in here with me. I’ve been here all by myself, Papa.”
He laughed harshly and slapped her hard. “Tell me right now who was in here with you. If you had a man with you here, I will kill you.”
She staggered back in pain. Cupping her cheek, her eyes widened in fear. He looked like he was about to hit her again. She shook her head vigorously. She had to convince her father that she had not been in here with any man. The penalty for that was grave. “Father,” she said, “please go around this house and if you see anything that makes you think a man apart from Malik has been here, then do with me whatever you will. But I am telling you, I have had no man here with me.”
He glared at her and then looked back. “Musa,” he said to one of the men standing behind him, “come and take her away!”
One of her father’s bodyguards, an always angry brute, came and grabbed her arms. Khadija screamed and tried to wrench her arms away, but she couldn’t.
“What are you doing, Father? Tell him to let me go!”
Her father looked at Musa and said, “Lock her up in the shack behind the house until she’s ready to tell me the truth!”
“You can’t do that to me!” she screamed at her father.
“Yes, I can. You will stay locked up until you tell me what I want to know.”
She blinked as she stared at her father. He had always been a hard man, but never this wicked. At least, not until some months ago. Suddenly, he had become an evil person who didn’t care who he hurt, even if it was his own children. But maybe he had always been evil and she had never wanted to acknowledge it… until now. After all, he had chased Zainah out of their community. At that time, she had thought his actions were justified. Now, she knew better. The worst thing was that her mother saw everything he was doing and still did nothing about it. In fact, she supported his actions most of the time.
Khadija did not struggle anymore as Musa took her to the shack and locked her up. Fear ran amok in her mind, causing her to tremble. Fear of what her father planned to do if she did not tell him who had been living in Malik’s house for the last week, and fear for Leila. Hopefully, by now, she would have gone far away from the house so she could escape.
Papa will probably have people looking around the community for a stranger, Khadija thought.
She sat on the floor and bit her lip until it became too painful to do so. For a long moment, she sat waiting for her father to come to the shack. When she realized he wasn’t coming back, she lay down on the floor and fell asleep.
*****
A few people turned to look at her as she followed the path Khadija had told her about. She didn’t look at any of them as she ran, her heart beating fast. It was nighttime when she had arrived in Nira, so nobody had really seen her. Now, it was broad daylight. People in this community probably knew everyone who lived here and would know she was a stranger. If someone who was affiliated with Karim Keita saw her now, they would definitely remember she was the girl who was supposed to get married to one of Karim’s friends but had made a fool of him when armed men came to rescue her. They would go and tell him, just like that driver who was supposed to take her and Zainah out of Nira had told him they were trying to escape. Zainah’s father had had them recaptured. Leila pursed her lips. She would not be safe until she was out of Nira.
She kept running until she was almost at the market. When she got to the market, she began to walk while trying to make sure she looked no one directly in the eye. A trader who sold all kinds of meat called out to her to come and purchase his meat. She ignored him and walked on.
Someone ran into her and apologized. She didn’t look at the person or acknowledge their apology. She kept going, praying that no one would recognize her. When she finally got to the bus station, her eyes widened and panic overwhelmed her as she remembered that she didn’t have any money to pay for her trip. The robbers had stolen almost of it.
She scolded herself harshly for not hiding the money she would need for her return trip from the robbers. She had only hidden the money she needed to go to Nira. At that time, she had believed Malik would be in town and she hadn’t been bothered about her return trip.
Without a doubt, she was in trouble. She began to pray desperately, as desperately as she had prayed when she was almost forced into that sham marriage months ago.
An idea came to her, but she didn’t know if it would work. However, she didn’t have any choice. She had to follow the idea.
She went to the counter and stood in line. There were only two people in front of her. She prayed that the idea she had in mind would work, because if it didn’t, she would be stuck in Nira without a place to go, a place to sleep, or anything to eat.
When it was her turn to pay for her ticket, she said to the woman behind the counter, “Do you have a taxi I can hire… just for myself?” She knew her plan was far-fetched. This was a bus station. And even if they had a taxi, it would be outrageously expensive to hire one to Blima, just for herself. Hiring a whole bus was definitely out of the question.
The woman looked at her as if she were insane. “This is a bus station,” the woman said. “We do not have taxis.” The woman looked past her and told the person behind her to come forward, dismissing Leila.
Leila sighed softly and then went out of the bus station. She stood on the road opposite the market to wait for a taxi, feeling miserable, and prayed that she would find one along this road, which would be difficult as taxis hardly ever plied here. Her plan had been to hire a taxi for herself to take her to Fatima’s. There, she would borrow money from Fatima to pay the driver. But now, the bus station didn’t have a taxi for her to hire.
When the plan had come to her, she had simply just hoped that Fatima would have the money to lend her, but standing here now, she admitted to herself that her plan had holes. She was taking a huge gamble. Even if she found a taxi here to hire, what if Fatima did not have the money to lend her?
She pressed the thought out of her mind. She couldn’t think about that right now. At this time, she had to focus on finding a taxi.
She stood on the road, praying and hoping. A few drove by, but they were fully occupied. She began to grow tired and desperate after about an hour of standing and waiting on the road.
After another two hours, she almost wept. Her leg and back, which had mostly healed from her fall during the robbery, were now on fire. She felt like collapsing to the ground. Her stomach was rumbling with hunger.
She decided she couldn’t stay standing any longer. Her leg and back were hurting terribly. Any moment now, she would not be able to stand any longer. She had to find somewhere to sit down.
But she was slightly hesitant to do so. What if she left and an empty taxi drove by?
Like that is going to happen now after I’ve been waiting for so long, she said to herself.
She looked back at the bus station. It was the only place she could find a seat. She began to limp back there, wincing in pain. Every step was pure agony.
Just before she entered the station, she noticed a man standing beside a car. The car was old and rickety-looking. Hope entered her heart. Maybe the car was for hire. It might not be, but ther
e was no harm in asking. She slowly walked up to the man, still in pain, and said to him, “Excuse me, is your car for hire?”
He nodded and asked, “Where do you want to go. Kazi?”
“Blima,” she said.
The man’s eyes widened in shock. “That is a two-day journey!”
“That is where I want to go,” she told him. She looked at the car again and wondered if she should back away. It did not look like it could make the journey to Kazi, let alone Blima.
The man said pensively, “It will be expensive to take you there. Can you pay the money for the trip?”
“How much is it?”
He named his price and she almost choked. “That is too expensive,” she said, shaking her head in shock. “Can you not go lower?”
“That is as low as I will go.”
She looked at him and from the determined expression on his face, she knew he would not budge. She also knew he was her only hope out of Nira. She sighed loudly and then told him she would pay the money he had quoted. She entered the backseat of the car and he got into the driver’s seat.
He drove out of the grounds of the bus station. As he drove through the community, Leila kept her head down so no one would see her. She did not raise her head or breathe easy until they were far away from Nira. The car was surprisingly fast. She had expected it to move at a snail’s pace, but the car was eating up the distance and racing past several other cars on the road.
When they got to Kazi, she let out a huge sigh of relief, and then told herself not to get too comfortable. She wasn’t even sure Fatima would have the money that the driver had quoted to give her. If Fatima didn’t have the money to lend her, she would be in trouble. This driver would not let go until she had paid everything she owed him. And rightfully so.
As the car sped on, she kept praying and praying that Fatima would have the money to lend her. “Lord, I need a miracle,” she whispered.
As nightfall approached, fear gripped her as she suddenly remembered the robbery. If her memory served her right, they were almost at the spot where she and the other passengers had been robbed. That could not happen again. Not that she had anything that thieves could steal this time. The robbers had stolen everything.
She felt slightly relieved when they passed the spot where she and other passengers had been robbed. Still, she was too concerned and doubtful about how she was going to pay the driver to sleep. She stayed wide awake throughout the night. Just before daybreak, she finally fell asleep.
She awoke much later with her stomach rumbling. She had bought a small loaf of bread and a small bottle of water earlier with some coins she’d found in her pocket and had eaten some of it. She ate the remaining piece of bread. After that, she washed it down with the bottle of water. Sated, she settled back on her seat and fell asleep again.
She woke up some time later and found that they were in a traffic jam. The driver was complaining bitterly about the traffic. She smiled in amusement. All the complaining in the world would not free up this traffic jam. She looked out the window and shook her head at the impatient expressions on the faces of some of the people in the other cars.
Soon, she yawned. She was bored. If only she had a book to read. She had only gotten out twice since the journey started, both times to use the restroom at a restaurant and bus station. Now, not only did her leg and back ache, her behind did too. She would tell the driver to stop at the next bus station so she could use the restroom and stretch her legs.
The traffic jam did not free up until an hour later. When they began to move again, she gave God praise. The heat had been stifling. Now, as the car picked up speed, she smiled as the cool breeze blew on her.
Just before nightfall, the driver drove into a compound of a dilapidated building. He had told her they would have to stop tonight to sleep and rest before they continued the journey tomorrow. She stared at the guest house with the words PALATIAL HOUSE etched on it. It was anything but palatial. It was a dump. She was used to staying in places that were a far cry from ‘luxurious’, but this building just looked awful.
The driver came out of the car she also exited. She followed him into the ‘guest house’ and waited while he went to the check-in counter to pay. She had told him she had no money on her and that she would pay him once they got to her friend’s in Blima and he had been surprisingly okay with that. More than that, he had also generously told her he would pay for her room here.
She looked around the place that was supposed to be the lobby. It was no better than the outside of the building. Men who looked like vagrants and bedraggled women and children wandered about. She hoped none of the men here were robbers. Some of them looked to her like the men who had robbed her. One of the men looked at her, and she shuddered. She sighed in relief as the driver walked up to her, clearly finished paying for their rooms. He handed her a key and told her to follow him. Apparently, he had been here more than a few times.
She followed a little reluctantly, and then began to climb a flight of stairs with him. Doubts assailed her as she climbed the stairs. What if this driver had an ulterior motive? He had been too nice, offering to pay for her room. What if she was in danger here? She kept praying in her heart as she followed him up the stairs.
At the top, he opened the first door on a long corridor and then pointed at the door next to it. He said abruptly, “That’s your room,” entered his without saying anything more, and then shut the door.
For a minute, she stared at the space in front of her and then said, “Well then!” She unlocked the door to her own room and entered.
The room was not what she had imagined. She had been sure it would be terrible, with old stained sheets, dirt-stained walls, an unswept floor, and barely any furniture. And definitely without a bathroom. But it was actually clean. The sheets were clean and fairly new, the walls had been freshly painted, and there was an ensuite bathroom.
She felt greatly relieved as she went into the bathroom, had a much-needed bath, and came out feeling refreshed. She stretched out on the bed after shedding her clothes, and immediately fell asleep.
The next morning, she and the driver got back in the car and continued the journey to Blima.
The rest of the trip was uneventful. Hours after they left that morning, they reached Blima. Leila’s heart pounded as she gave the driver directions to Fatima’s house. Her heart beat in dread. What if Fatima was not home?
They got to Fatima’s house an hour later and parked right in front of her door.
“Lord, I need your help right now,” Leila muttered. She smiled scornfully at herself. It was too late now. If Fatima was not at home or did not have the kind of money she needed to pay the driver, she was in serious trouble.
She got out of the car and went to the door. Her hands were clammy as she knocked and waited.
The door opened a moment later, and Fatima came out of the house. “Leila, you are back!” she exclaimed. She grinned and gathered Leila in a hug. “I’m so glad you’ve come back, Leila.”
Leila smiled nervously at her and looked back at the driver who was waiting patiently beside his car. She turned back to Fatima and said, “I have something to ask you, Fatima.”
“What is it?” Fatima stared curiously at her.
“I need a huge favor. I was robbed . . .”
“Oh no!” Fatima exclaimed.
Leila continued quickly, “All my money was stolen and I did not even see Malik in Nira. I had to hire a taxi to come all the way from Nira to this place. I need you to lend me the money to pay the driver. I promise to give it back to you as soon as possible.”
“How much is it?” Fatima asked. When Leila told her how much it was, her mouth fell open.
Leila’s heart sank. Fatima does not have the money. What am I going to do? She said to Fatima, “I know it’s a lot. I’m sorry for asking. I was desperate. I guess I knew you wouldn’t have that sort of money to give, but I just hoped . . .”
“No,” Fatima cut her off. She shook
her head and said, “I mean, yes. I have exactly the amount you’re asking for. It was given to me today by someone who owes me for some goods he bought from me over the past year. He just came and unexpectedly handed me the money. I was happy to get the money back, but now I know the Lord touched his heart to pay me just so I can help you out. That it is exactly the same amount is amazing and shows it’s the Lord at work.”
Leila felt tears swimming in her eyes. Her heart flooded with gratitude to God, but also shame. Even in her disobedience, He had blessed her with His grace. He had still come through for her, even though she didn’t deserve it. She whispered, “Lord, how wonderful you are.” She smiled at Fatima and thanked her even before she was handed the money.
“Let me go get it,” Fatima said and went into the house.
Leila turned around to look at the driver. He was tapping his feet, watching her with an impatient glare. She turned around again as Fatima came out of the house. Fatima handed her the exact amount she needed and Leila said, “Thank you so much, Fatima. I will pay you as soon as possible.” She quickly walked up to the driver and paid him the money. After that, she gave a huge sigh of relief as he drove away.
She and Fatima went into the house. She asked Fatima about the children, and Fatima told her they had all gone to visit their cousins.
“So, Malik was not around,” Fatima said. “You didn’t see him at all?”
Leila shook her head. “No, I did not.”
“You must have been so disappointed,” Fatima said.
“I was devastated, but his sister was so good to me. Because of her, his absence was somewhat bearable.”
Fatima sat down beside Leila and said, “Tell me everything that happened.”
Leila sighed and began to tell Fatima everything that had taken place, from the day she left the house up until her return minutes ago.
After she finished, Fatima shook her head and stared at her with a worried look. “Wow! You went through a lot to find your Malik. It was a close shave, Leila; too dangerous for my liking. And yet, you say you will return there?”
