Diary of A Broken Heart Episode 8

Diary of A Broken Heart Episode 8

Read the previous Episodes Here

"It just doesn't make sense. Of all the things you could have thought of, you came up with this?" Ammi said in frustration as she let the gift I bought her dangle from her hands upside down. "Wannan ai zagi ne. I mean I appreciate it and all. I know NEPA takes light all the time around here and it can be useful.  But there's torch light all over the house. But come on really, I mean what am I supposed to use this one for? She continued whining...  I sat and was watching her like a movie. I just like watching her talk her usual Ammi talk. It gives me the greatest of Joys. I was smiling and observing her as she went on and on and on....until she broke my reverie.  "Why torch light?" She gave me a sharp jab on my shoulders.  "Don't you have eyes Ammi? It isn't just a torchlight"  "Really?" She started excitingly checking the entire torchlight with great interest. Looking for what she possibly might have missed. I laughed.  "It's really handy you see. Zai rakaki kashi toilet" her eye brow raised.  "Its your favorite colour kuma" she rolled her eyes.  "But what am I missing" she begged.   "The writting"  "The writting? What writting?"  "Just check and tell me what you see"  "Am looking. I can't see anything.....MADE IN CHINA?"  "HAHAHA.....not at the bottom dum dum. How about the top? Isn't the top the most important part of a torch light? Where the light shines?" I rolled my eyes in mockery as she had already hurried to check.   "S" "A" she shouted triumphantly. "But what's that?"  "Can't you tell what those two alphabets stand for?" I asked with a mock smile. She looked like someone deep in thought.   "Dum dum"  Don't call me that.....it's South Africa.....YES" she shouted happily.  I really laughed hard.  "Is that the best you can manage? Does it make sense to you?"  "What? It's not South Africa? Or please just stop it Dan Allah. I don't have big fat brains like some people do. People who their brain waves gives them very nasty ideas that frightens me and makes me wonder if they are not aliens from Planet Mars. Why can't you keep things simple and be ordinary like everyone else?"  "Like a dum dum you mean" I winked. Before she could fire back I quickly forestalled her and said "by the time you see and understand the artistry behind this gift, you will think my brains are from Jupiter sef not  only Mars."  "You mean there is more than just the writing?"  " thank God you are catching up fast"  "Tell me Dan Allah"  "Well it's so so disappointing really seeing as they stand for our names. S for Sani and A for Ammi" I announced.   "Ooh " her mouth made the perfect circular shape of the letter "O" "But I call you Muhammad"  "Yes but am the only Sani in the entire Family besides Bappah (our Granpa)"  "But..."  "But doesn't the gift mean anything now?"  "Er it does. And thanks but..."  "But there's more and that's what I want to show you dum dum..." she hung her head as she noticed her impatience.   "Okay show me.......pls"  "Er....on second thought, I would rather not come with you"  "Come where? Why not?"  "Cause i know emotions will be very high and you never can tell what I might do to you"  "Now am scared"  "You should be....are you ready?"  "Always"  "Take the torch light and go to a dark room and turn it on against the wall.  I think you should rather go alone and see for yourself. I promise its nothing scary. Allah" I had to assure her cause I saw plenty flickers of fear on her face when I said "dark room" and "alone"  "Don't you trust me?"  "Not this time"  "Alright. Go with someone then. But am not going. And don't go too far from the wall when you turn it on nor too close just so you see them clearly"  "See who?"  "Just go see for yourself. I hope you even understand it dum dum"  I heard her whisper "crazy BF" as she left. I laughed.  She came back several minutes later blushing from head to toe....I was just enjoying myself and smiling. She didn't talk to me at all till the next day. But on her way to bed that night, she passed close to me and muttered;  "Stupid Big Jupiter Brains. Thanks"  I laughed and said "anytime dum dum"  I was named after two people in this world. First My Maternal Grandpa, second my Father. My Maternal Grandpa (we all call him Bappah) was one of a kind. He took fancy to me I guess from the very day I was named after him. He was very old even before I was born and i grew up to know I had a very old Grandpa somewhere in Maiduguri that I bear his name. He was very fond of me as I was of him. He was a big mallam and the entire unguwa knew him. Just ask for Mallam Muhammad Sani and no mistake you will get to Bappah.  I craved to be like Bappah. Though he had a short temper and can be a little impatient like every other old man but his heart was in the right place. He has everybody's interest at heart. He was soft to me and never showed temper with me. But he won't hesitate to show it in front of me to the next person. He was very selfless as he was always worried about the leaking roofs of people's houses even though his is leaking. He was worried about the children of his friends who have died and left behind them widows and children. He was the selfless human being I have ever had the privilege of knowing and meeting. And I plan to emulate his selflessness and try to touch lives as much as he had in many ways.  I miss him this day. This instant as much as I missed him on the day we got news of his death.  Us loosing him was nothing as compared to the loss the community suffered in his absence. The community did everything from burial down to all the prayers that came after the burial.  We were overwhelmed by the number of people that attended his adduan uku and bakwai. On the day of his burial.  (We couldn't make it from Abuja to Maiduguri) we heard the crowd that gathered was more than the crowd that gathered to observe Friday prayers in the community's central mosque.  We arrived Maiduguri but we were lost in the midst of people. You would think they would greet us as his children and grandchildren but nobody seemed to care. Anytime the children and grandchildren of Mallam Muhammad Sani were summoned, other strange people come out to identify themselves with him as his children.

May His Soul Rest in Peace Amin. 

To be continue insha Allah on Wednesday 20th July

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Special thanks to Muhammad Sani