Life’s sweetest reward

‘No one is dead Anti Bint. I don’t know why you should think so?’ She replied rising up to hug me. ‘You have never been to my office before, so to see you here unannounced can only mean one thing, a family emergency. Therefore let us have it. What went wrong, where and when?‘ I […]

‘No one is dead Anti Bint. I don’t know why you should think so?’ She replied rising up to hug me.

‘You have never been to my office before, so to see you here unannounced can only mean one thing, a family emergency. Therefore let us have it. What went wrong, where and when?‘ I answered, putting down the files I brought from the meeting I had earlier.

‘Believe me there is no emergency anywhere Anti Bint. May be I should have called first, but I was too excited I just decided to surprise you.’ Rabi explained.

‘Well shock is more like it. But thank God there is no emergency because I can’t handle one after this long meeting.’  I replied sitting on my chair.

‘Rest assured you have nothing to fear. You know Friday is our fifth wedding anniversary, and I want to give Amin a day to remember.’ She explained.

‘What’s so special in a fifth anniversary, why don’t you wait for a 10th? What have you achieved in five years that you have to crack your brain to make it memorable?’ I asked dismissively.

‘A lot Anti. You remember this was the marriage you all said will not last. Everyone had something to say against our decision. Now after five years, three children…..’

‘And a brand new car’ I interrupted her.

‘How did you know about the car?’ she asked incredulously.

‘An ear to the ground Rabi, I always have an ear to the ground.’ I said smugly.

‘But the car was only given to me last night. I am yet to tell anyone’.  She observed, perplexed.

‘Don’t worry about how I knew’ I assured her. ‘But it’s all about the car isn’t it? You are still your old materialistic self Rabi. Even at the beginning it was a car that made you marry him. And now all your past wedding anniversaries went unnoticed, but because Amin had bought you a car, he suddenly deserves to be noticed.’ I chided.

‘Haba Anti Bint that’s so unfair. You know his having a brand new car then had nothing to do with my decision to marry him.’ Rabi protested.

‘Go tell that to those who don’t know. But just for the record, remember that we opposed your marriage because 1. You were age-mates, 2. You grew up next door to each other and were playmates almost from birth, 3. You went to the same primary school and did the same escapades for which you were always punished together. To us you were like a brother and sister and must not complicate things by getting married. And you agreed with us at first. You were to tell him you couldn’t go ahead with the courtship when he took that bank loan and bought a brand new ‘End of discussion’ and that ended all our discussions with you.’ I recalled.

‘Ok, so that was a long time ago, and you can see what fate decreed for us. Three happy children and who knows what else will come our way? So please tell me how to say a big thank you without uttering a word. I know in those days, before you and Tahir got old and rusty, you had some cool romantic dos that we were always gossiping about. Advise me on which to adopt and make Friday our everlasting memory.’ She pleaded.

‘Ok, young and shiny ones, I will give you romantic moment ideas not because you deserve it. On one Valentine’s day, years ago, I returned home from work early, and took over my kitchen. I made Tahir’s favourite traditional dish, alkubus, the local wheat bread, I made his taushe soup just the way he wants it. I made Grandma’s royal rice drink the Sharbar muluk, and arranged a plate with his favourite fruits. I took the children home to Mama, came back and decorated the parlour with red heart-shaped balloons. Since I knew that on weekdays he stays at the mosque between Magrib and Isha prayers before coming home after work, I used that time to give myself a Cleopatra Hammam bath after Magrib. I launched my brand new see-through Bou-bou, clipped my hair with a heart-shaped ribbon, generously sprayed my then favourite perfume, Must de Cartier and put on a collection of our very best romantic hits in the CD player. I held the remote in such a way that the moment he stepped into the room, I quickly put on the music.’ I explained.

‘I bet he rushed over and hugged you the moment he stepped into the house.’ She interrupted.

‘Hugged me? Cousin dearest you don’t know my Tahir. He stood at the door way surveying the scene, after a few moments, he said in mock horror ‘Now Bint what do you want from me?’

‘Nothing, I’m just trying to welcome you home.’ I answered walking over to collect his briefcase.

‘Are you sure? Because you’ve never before welcomed me home like this.’ He observed.

‘And is it too late to start? Trust you to ascribe mercenary motives to every little gesture of good will. Any way it’s Valentine’s day, and I thought we should mark it.’ I explained.

‘But you know I no longer believe in such things. Yes we were foolish enough to celebrate it when we were newly-weds, now that we know it isn’t compatible with our culture, we shouldn’t even acknowledge it.’ He argued.

‘Really? Well I am not doing this because I believe in St. Valentine, I am doing this because I believe that love deserves a tribute. It is the one feeling that led Sultan Shah Jahan to the build the Taj Mahal for his beloved Queen.  You know it’s a marble palace that took 22years to build by artisans who worked day and night. It is one of the original seven  wonders of the world and is a tribute to love. Do you know how many kingdoms were won and lost over the love of a woman? Singers refer to love as life’s sweetest reward. So if you don’t agree with me then that’s too bad, because I intend to celebrate love as long as I live.’ And I was angrily making my way out of the room when he grabbed my hand and I ended up on his laps. Needless to say, the evening was saved and we had our night to remember.

The second romantic recipe came from Tahir himself. I don’t know whether you can afford this option given that you are jobless. Anyway, one day as I was about to close from work, I had a strange phone call from someone who said she came with a message for me from Lagos, and that I was to meet her and collect it at a certain hotel in town because she was leaving the next day. I forced myself to go. When I reached the hotel reception, I was told to proceed to a certain room that the lady from Lagos was there. So I went and the moment I knocked the door, Tahir opened it and dragged me in.

‘What are you doing here?’ I asked.

‘Waiting for you to come.’ He replied.

‘But why?  We should be on our way home to the children’ I urged, totally confused.

‘Relax’ he said ‘we are spending the night here and the children are in good hands’. And with that he went to the room’s wardrobe and brought out my overnight bag. In it were my beautiful night dress, a fresh set of clothes and under wears as well as my small toiletries bag. Still not getting it, I asked what it was all about.

‘It’s our anniversary’ He declared.

‘No it isn’t, this is January and we got married in July.’ I insisted.

‘I didn’t say it’s our wedding anniversary. This is the anniversary of the day we met. To me that’s the momentous occasion in our lives because if we hadn’t met, there wouldn’t have been a wedding. And you know why this year is so special? It falls on the actual day we met. If you can recall, it was a Thursday in January on this very date.’ He explained, his enchanting smile reaching from ear to ear.

‘How can I ever forget that day?’ I asked, finally allowing myself to sit on the bed. ‘It’s just that since we’ve never marked it before, I thought I was the only one who remembers it. Indeed on each of the last five anniversaries we had I always make a special prayer on this date, thanking God for the lives we live and the love we share.’ I answered him, smiling back. ‘Now where are my children?’ I hastened to ask.

‘With your younger sister, I invited her to stay with them overnight’, He explained. On hearing that, I relaxed. We had a dinner on the balcony and another night to remember. Now choose your pick and leave my office.’ I commanded Rabi.

‘I choose the second, it’s more romantic and mysterious.’ She replied.

‘You can’t afford it, poor, unemployed you.’ I joked.

‘Yes I can, Anti Bint, when Amin handed me the keys yesterday, he gave me a cheque for N100,000 and said to rev up my wardrobe. But I’d rather do this than buy new clothes. Incidentally, I’m still curious, how did you know about the car?’ she asked.

‘I helped him choose the colour.’ I replied with a conspiratorial wink.