Chapter 3 Humairah

A whole month passed but I was still living in my father's house. The person they wanted to arrange my marriage with disappointed them just after seeing my picture, a picture my mother spent her savings on. I was very happy, God really answered my prayers!

I never wanted to be married off that early but I also couldn't stop myself from masturbating over and over again. Since the day my mother caught me in my room, I decided to stop doing it inside the house but in the barn at the backyard where no one would see or hear me mourn. I knew it was a bad thing to do but also the only remedy to quench my burning desire and to prevent me from engaging myself into fornication.

My image had already been tarnished by my mother, the whole town knew what I did hence nobody wanted to marry me or arrange my marriage with their children. If only she was patient enough to keep the matter a secret and do the right thing at the right time, maybe things wouldn't have escalated to this point.

She learnt her lesson though, she was no longer telling people about it anymore. Not even some of our relatives that haven't heard about it yet, but she still wanted to see me around no more.

There was a time I even had a nightmare that she threw me and all my belongings out of the house that I should leave, I thought it was only a nightmare until my uncle from the city came days ago. The man whose laptop taught me how to masturbate. She told him I would follow him to the city to learn handwork. He was so surprised to hear that.

"Handwork?" He had asked. "I thought she wanted to study, isn't it Humairah?"

"Ye..." I had said halfway as my mother cut in.

"No!" She had glared at me. "I mean, yes... she wanted to study but not anymore. I am also surprised how she changed her mind. But I trust her"

My uncle, who was oblivious about everything and what my mother had in her mind fell for her trick. "If that is the case then fine, not everyone is destined to earn for a living through formal education" He had said pitifully.

"Yes, Habibu" My mother had said with a triumphal smile on her face.

I wanted objecting all her lies but something told me I would end up ruining my only chance of living a good life and restoring back my dignity if I should do that. Afterall, I could eventually decide to further my education in the city if I like. Thus I smiled, and that made my mother to wrinkle a brow at me as if to ask why I was smiling.

...

With uncle Habib around, things really changed. My mother treated me nicely, she never rain insults on me anymore and she had warned everyone in the house not to ever say a word about the masturbation, not even my father.

I had only been to the city on three occasions, first was when my uncle's wife gave birth to her first child, second was when I wrote my scholarship examination, and third was when my uncle's wife gave birth again. Now, I was eager to go and live there. But one thing about time is when you are waiting for it to be fast that is when it will reduce its pace. So I had to patiently wait for the week to elapse.

On the day of our departure, uncle Habib gave me a stare. "Are you sure you want to follow me?" He asked.

"Why not?" I blurted.

"Okay then" He huffed with a smile and asked me to get my things inside the boot of his car. I was very happy, and so was everyone in the house. At least the bad girl in the family would be gone. I bade them goodbye as we drove away.

...

Uncle Habib didn't say anything ever since we embarked on our journey, I also didn't because I wanted him to concentrate on the road. But as soon as we reached the city's gate I blurted out a WOW because the gate was big.

"This wasn't the way I saw it before" I commented as we drove past it.

"Yeah, the new governor is making changes" Uncle Habib finally uttered.

I wanted asking him why it wasn't the same with the rural areas and why the governor completely ignored us when he intruded.

"The barn," he cleared his throat and continued. "I used to see you enter there all the time, are there still animals?"

My heart nearly missed a beat after hearing that. Indeed we didn't have animals anymore, and indeed he got me! I cleared my throat thinking about the kind of lie to tell when a car hit us by the back. Uncle Habib quickly pulled over and so did the driver of the car behind us. "Are you okay?" He asked me and I nodded. It wasn't that bad afterall.

We stormed out of the car to check if the person that hit us was okay as well only for him to storm out of his own car and start raining insults on us. It was a very handsome man, the crash left both his headlights and pointers destroyed. However, our car sustained the impact due to the metallic object in its back.

"Do you know who I am? Do you know who my father is?" The man yelled at us for the umpteenth time as people gathered. Nobody interrupted or cared to tell him he was the one at fault, they were only watching as if they were afraid. "This is a 56 million naira car, and you are going to pay for what you've done" He said as he quickly brought out his phone from his pocket.