When He Died

Part 3

What was wrong with having sex with my own husband in our own house? I was just tired of this people. And I was warned not to marry a Muslim but I was in love with Haleem. I should have married Adewale instead. He was a Christian and loved me a lot. I was still lost in my thoughts when I felt a strong whack on my face. I looked up dazed. What was going on here? Is this some form of traditional right?  I burst into tears. Where was Haleem right now? Shouldn’t he be protecting me?  I saw my mother in law push the person that slapped my away and she sat by me on the floor.

Iya Haleem

I looked at my poor daughter-in-law, she was just a young wife. Their marriage was not even up to a year, such a good girl. She does not deserve this. I do not deserve this either but who are we to question Allah. I pushed away my friend that slapped her and sat beside her. I would try my best to reach her as a fellow woman. I know she is in denial. I raised her face, I explained as gently as possible. I kept explaining the same thing over and over again. I had gone to wake Haleem up to eat as I had not seen him that morning. I assumed he slept in as it was a Saturday but I also know that he kept saying he had to wake up early to pick you up from the airport. I knocked severally but there was no answer. I went him and saw him on the bed, dead. I called everyone I could and the doctor certified him dead. Based on religion, we are all preparing to bury him. I knew she didn’t understand as she just kept looking at me.

I heard everything that my crying mother-in-law had explained but I did not understand. I kept looking at her maybe that would give me some meaning. Hold on, did she say Haleem died. What? No. I screamed.

Iya Haleem

I saw understanding dawn on her. She understood all I had been saying for the past 30 minutes. She screamed. The scream was so loud and piercing that i shook. She stood up and ran. I ran after her.

Ibrahim.

He went to his brother to cover him up, at least till the people that would wash him would do so. As he pulled his trouser up he saw that his member was turgid. That wasn’t normal for a dead person, was it? He heard him sneeze. He jumped back in shock. He saw his brother’s eyes half open. How could that be? His brother had come back to life. That was impossible. He had made sure he saw the final twitch when he had tiptoed into his brothers room at midnight and put the pillow over his head, paying special attention to the nose and mouth, just as it was in that YouTube video. He had planned it all out, pretending to sleep and rushing out when he heard his mother’s scream that morning. The small smile that played on his face when he had gone to pick his brother’s wife from the airport had not been planned though. He had seen her calls on his brother’s phone and somberly volunteered to pick her up. He was quiet through the journey from the airport and refused to answer her questions. He watched as his older sister, Aunty Halimat had come to the car and gently guided his brother’s wife in while explaining what was happening to her. He saw his brother’s wife act neutral as she sat in the sitting room and looked straight ahead like she was unaware of her surroundings. He had hoped that after the burial rites, she could find comfort in his arms. He had always had a crush on her. He hated his brother because they had always compared them. They told him of how his brother did everything right but he was clumsy. Right from how his brother always led his classes in school till how he had started a business while he was in the university that had  became a huge success. Unlike him, Ibrahim,  only struggled through school and had been in the university for seven years for a four year course. What had gotten him over the edge was that he was with his brother’s phone one day when he saw a message pop up. It was a credit alert of 10million naira. He was wowed. The next day, he had asked his brother to buy him a car and his brother had laughed in his face. That had earned him being called names and a 40-minute lecture from his brother. How dare his brother treat him this way? Apart from school fees and some allowances, his brother was never generous towards him. Telling him that he is a man and he had to learn to handle his own affairs, claiming to be showing him tough love. Tough love my foot! The idea had gradually formed in his mind and when he understood that their family tradition dictates that the younger brother was to take over the properties of the older in the case of demise, he read and watched some videos and he was set. How then did his brother come back to life? He had done everything right. Thank God that in the confusion of the abomination nobody had noticed what happened. He roughly took out the pillow under his brother’s head to finish off what he had already started. His brother is too weak to fight it anyway. He put the pillow over his brother’s face.

I'm really sorry about posting this late. I ran out of data, and the money for the data. hehe.