Chapter 7 7: B

Abba had said that he should at least be replying their messages when they sent, and he simply thanked her for the Eid wishes and made no comment about the picture. '16th September had asked if he was free and she would fly from Abuja to Maiduguri to see him this Eid, he nearly laughed. Nearly. He only sent her an Eid message and acted blind to her request. Yet it was '28th December that had made him chuckle a bit, she sent an old picture him and her with the caption; 'Eid Mubarak to you, my prince. We would ve been long married to each other now, but you choose to break everything we ve built. I still love and cherish you, and I'll keep on waiting for you. What the hell was wrong with these women? He wondered and placed his phone down. He nibbled on the meal and when he realized he had lost the appetite to eat something, he turned off the lights and walked to his room. For the next two weeks, his life had been filled with paperworks and more rescuing than he began to wonder if these insurgents weren t playing with them. They would turn their attention to a certain village, yet when they arrived and start to rescue people, news would reach them at how they had fully destroyed a certain area and it was just too hard for them to handle. Peace had reigned for the past two days, yet, he had more reports to write than he would ever get done in the few days he had left. But he was thankful for the distraction. Thankful that for those two weeks, he didn t even have the time to think of the secret change his life had taken. If he was going to be truthful, he had forgotten about everything that had happened. Well, until Hafiz decided that he had been enjoying his not so peaceful life and threw the question at him. They were in his office arranging their reports when he looked at him, "Have you went to see her?" He asked, fumbling between papers. "Seen who?" He asked cluelessly, his eyes fixed on the laptop that was in front of him as he thought of the right word he would write. The gasp that had escaped Hafiz s lips was what forced him to look up at him. "What is it?" "Don t tell me that you didn t visit that innocent girl, Na im." From the moment he called his name, Na im knew he meant business and he didn t care that they were in the office and in their khaki, but he was going to speak to him as a friend. "Innocent girl?" He repeated and then it occurred to him. He palmed his mouth and stood up, "Subhanallah, wallah I've totally forgotten about her, Hafiz. But I'm certain she s fine..." He let his words trailed off before he sat back, shrugging his shoulders because he didn t care. "She s your wife, Na im, for god s sake! You can t have her live there forever, can you?" Na im looked askance at him, "What do you mean, that I should bring her to the palace and live with her as a wife or what? And you of all people should know the reason why I got married to her." "That still wouldn't change the fact that she s your wife." Hafiz argued and Na im realized he was getting angry the more Hafiz called her his wife. "I'm certain she won t be my wife anymore the moment I divorce her, would she?" He bumptiously asked, and instead of his words to touch Hafiz the way he imagined they would, he chuckled and walked to the door. "I doubt if you re willing to divorce her. I've known you for some years now, and this isn t how you re going to act if you re really going to divorce her." He emphasized on the 'really and before Na im thought of a perfect reply for him, he was out of the office and he hissed loudly. Now, he just had to go and visit her like he had promised. Damn you, Lieutenant Hafiz! He had changed into his normal attire, he wouldn t want to see her while he was in his khaki. Getting into is car, Na im wished there was a way he would run away and someone would take care of everything for him. He wished he had an identical twin with whom he could switch over with whenever he so wished. Everything was just so hard on him that he just wanted a day s rest. But right now, he had to do what was right, which was to go and see his so called wife. He drove out of the barracks, ignoring Hafiz that had saluted him and was flashing him a wicked grin because they both knew where he was headed to. On his way to the camp, Na im thought of what to say to her. What he would go there to her as and if even if she would be able to recognize him because somehow, the girl seemed too dull for his liking. He parked his car and stayed there for some minutes, there was a huge thong of people gathered at the centre of the field and from where he was, he could hear someone crying even though those watching the supposed show had blocked his view from everything. He walked out of the car, locked it and aimed at the matron s office when something caught his attention, the crowd had dispersed and he caught the face of the one that was getting beaten. Damnation! Na im didn t know when he rushed towards the crowd with his blood boiling with each step he took. She was crying so hard, running away from the circle as she tried so hard to rescue herself from the merciless beatings of the matron as she insulted her ancestors. He couldn't believe what his eyes were showing him, it couldn t be Maryam getting this treatment, right?! She couldn t speak, she could only cry and he didn t know why he stood there, rooted to his spot as he watched her got beaten nearly to her death. He brought his phone out and dialed Hafiz s number immediately, "Bring the team to the refugee camp, come armed." He ended the call and gave no room for further questions. At the same time, the matron had lashed the huge stick she used in beating her, "How dare you do that just when the governor had arrived to check out on you guys?! Do you want me to lose my job?! You ve been a problem to me since the first day you came here and I'd die if I don t teach you a lesson!" She fumed as she kept on beating her and while trying to run for her life, Maryam tried to run away but she bumped into his rigid figure and when she looked up with her body trembling, her arms and legs patched with blood and sweat as her face was a mess of her tears, she saw his face. He looked like a raging bull as he stared at the matron that yelled at the other girls to bring the girl back to her. Maryam ran and hid behind him, her trembling hands clutching onto his shirt as she cried as painfully and bitterly as she could. "Save me, please." Her words were barely coherent, but she needn t to say the words out before he would be able to know what she meant. He had seen it from the first look she had flashed him. How hopeless she looked and when realization hit her, there was a sense of relief that surrounded her. "Come back he-"the matron had shouted but her words became guttural when she saw Na im. His now bloodshot eyes that were filled with nothing but anger looking intensely at her that her bladder instantly got filled with urine. What had she gotten herself into? Before, it was the governor. And now it was this soldier that seemed too merciless to let her live? Na im softly yanked Maryam from his back and she was shaking her head as she cried. He held her wrist, but today it seemed to be her least of worries as he began to walk towards the now trembling matron. Maryam turned to face him while she kept on shaking her head when there seemed to be just a feet away from her and the matron. "You can continue beating her as much as you want." His words were barely audible due to how much his heart was seething with too much anger and how dark clouds had hovered over his eyes. "I suggest that you kill her, so it would only be fair for the type of punishment I've prepared for you." She immediately went to her knees, it didn t matter whether he was in his personal wears, she knew he was capable of killing her if he wanted to. The siren that filled the entire camp was what brought their attention to the gate and the army vehicle pulled over, as soldiers began to hop down from the vehicle, making a thud on the ground. With one wave of a soldier s gun, the girls ran back to their hostels, leaving just Maryam that was still trembling with Na im holding her hand and the matron on her knees. Hafiz rushed to them, yet, when he saw the state Maryam was in, how blood was patched all over her body and the stick that laid beside the matron, he shook his head. "It can t be that she got beaten this much, right?" Na im turned to look at him, and the expression he saw on his face was enough to make him believe all his assumptions and he began to seethe in anger. "Take care of this woman and make sure she's dismissed from her post today. Bring her to the barrack for me." He said through gritted teeth and he didn t wait for them to chorus the 'Yes, Sir! As they used to before he gently dragged Maryam to his car. He placed her down in his passengers seat, sat on the driver s seat before he drove out of the camp in a high speed. He drove for a long time, not knowing where he was going to take her to. What he was going to do with her or anything. He just wanted to get her out of the camp and the more he heard her cries the more he wanted to go back and pull the trigger on that woman s throat. The more he stared at her tattered clothes and how blood had stained them, the more he hated himself for doing this to his wife. He knew, she didn t become his wife in the circumstances he would have wanted. But she was still his wife, and in the eyes of Allah, she was his wife just as same as it would have been, if he had married one of the bunch of wedding dates he had in his phone. He knew he didn t directly do this to her, but he was like the middle person of everything. If it hadn t been for him, if he hadn t added her name in the list of survivors, if he didn t bring her even though her name was on the list, she wouldn t have suffered this way.