Nocturnal nightmares

‘Who were you talking to at this crazy hour?’ I demanded angrily. ‘My friend Fadila,’ she answered, moving deeper into the bed as if to escape being hit. ‘You are lying, I am sure that was not Fadila, why would she be calling you on phone at this late hour?’ ‘Wallahi it is Fadila, she […]

‘Who were you talking to at this crazy hour?’ I demanded angrily. ‘My friend Fadila,’ she answered, moving deeper into the bed as if to escape being hit. ‘You are lying, I am sure that was not Fadila, why would she be calling you on phone at this late hour?’

‘Wallahi it is Fadila, she is making use of the free call service that’s why she called me this late,’ Mimi insisted, the tears beginning to flow down her cheeks.

‘Please spare me your crocodile tears. I know it’s not your friend on the line. In fact I heard some of what you said, so I’m sure you were not even speaking to a girl, however just let me have that phone.’ She quickly put off the phone before handing it to me. I walked out of their room into mine feeling like the weight of the world was on my shoulder. Where did I go wrong? I kept asking myself. When I sat on my bed and put the phone back on, I couldn’t get to see caller ID because the phone was locked with a password. That was what confirmed to me that she wasn’t talking to Fadila, otherwise she wouldn’t bother to lock it up.’ Asabe paused for breath. ‘So what did you do next?’ Maryam asked impatiently.

‘I tried all I could but couldn’t sleep. The noise echoing through my head was the sound of my daughter’s voice telling some stranger that she loved him at 2am. My 15-year-old is old enough to love someone and even say so. I kept feeling the urge to go and drag her out bed and demand to know who it was, but I had to restrain myself because I didn’t want to wake her siblings. I forced myself to wait till morning. Needless to say I didn’t sleep a wink. Finally, as soon as I prayed Subhi prayer, I rushed out and called her to my room to pray.

Then I sat her down and said she should either tell me who it was or I will force her to unlock her phone so I could see who it was. And if she allowed me to force her then she should know that she will get the beating of her life. That quickly got her decided. She told me it was her classmate Musa. Why wouldn’t he call her at a more earthly hour, I asked. It’s because he wanted to take advantage of the free call hour. Doesn’t he have parents who could tell him it’s wrong to call people at that late hour? He does, Mimi answered even mentioning the full names of his father and mother.

So why did you tell him you love him? And at that question, she completely lost her guard. With fear written all over her face, Mimi could only look at me and then at the floor. No comment. I repeated my question and said I had to have an answer right now. Then she said in a small, scared voice ‘He said it first, I was only replying him.’ But who said you had to reply him? I demanded. ‘Because that’s how they say it in the movies.’ She replied again still looking down at her hands. I see, so because they say it that way in the movies, did you have to do it? Who knows? Maybe you two are busy doing everything you see actors and actresses doing in the movies as well. I charged. ‘No, no Mummy, we have never done anything in the school apart from exchanging phone numbers. I swear by God Mummy I will never do anything like that.’ She defended herself.

With the tears streaming down her face, I sat her down and gave her a crash course on the facts of life. I told her why she should avoid boys like the plague, especially boys who will call her at 2am and tell her they love her.  Then I made my first draconian decree of the year, all phones must be submitted to me at 8pm to be collected the next afternoon after school,’ Asabe concluded.

‘I’m sorry Asabe, you really had a scary experience’ I said.

‘Oh, scary is an understatement Bint, I was devastated. You see I thought my divorce from their father will affect them so much that they will find it hard to even trust men, let alone befriend them. Yet my little girl has grown so confident she is telling a boy she loves him. I was more worried about her elder sister who is 17 and is already looking like a woman. Yet Fatima is in the university facing her studies and Mimi is the one getting exposed to such danger. And in a day school too. Can you imagine?’ She asked rhetorically.

‘What this means is we can never be too careful in such matters. We really have to take some drastic measures against these nocturnal adventures,’ Maryam suggested. ‘Yes, and the first step is to confiscate all phones from teenagers below 18,’ I suggested.

‘No, that wouldn’t do Bint, they are already so used to it, they may end up paying the commercial operators to use theirs. I think the solution is what Asabe already started, regulating the use of the phone and confiscating it every night. Then seriously punishing rule-breakers,’ Maryam added.

‘Talking about rule-breakers reminds me I haven’t told you what I did with Musa. I went to the school and asked to see him. When he came to meet me at the principal’s office, I greeted him and asked after his mother you know, pretending to be her friend. Then I asked him to see me to the car. The moment we left the secretary’s office I warned him not to ever call Mimi again. I warned that if he ever did, I will report him to his mum and say he calls my daughter at 2am. You need to see the look on his face when he knelt down to say he was very sorry and will never do so again.

I went away relieved not only that he has apologised but that he was really another teenager not much older than Mimi herself. The night I overheard their phone conversation, I had nightmares thinking she was involved with a grown man,’ Asabe concluded with a sigh of relief.