"Good evening Maamie, hope I met you well?" Haidar squatted a little bit to greet her.

"Evening my son, how are you? when did you arrive?"

"This morning. I slept through out, thus couldn't come to greet you earlier, I'm sorry."

"You came since morning but no one felt the need to tell me about it. Allah ya hadani da 'yan albarkan 'ya'ya - God has hooked me up with blessed children", she said sending a glare to the twins.

"I just came to the house, only saw him on my way here." Abdoul defended himself, raising his hands up in surrender.

"We slept and woke up at the same time." Aisar also lamely defended himself.

"Hmm, come and eat my son I know you must be hungry, let me set the table for you, leave this minions to suffice themselves." She said heading towards the kitchen, with Haidar offering for help and the guys trailing behind.

They ate steamed jollof rice grits with kpomo vegetable stew, grilled fish, salad, and a chilled tigernut drink. The food was good, Haidar thought, he couldn't remember the last time he had his hometown food that tasted this nice. Although he used to eat from few hausa people from time to time back in MA, there was just something lacking in those foods, like it wasn't the real Hausa food.

Voices came from outside, followed by the twins; Haidar's sisters' appearance into the parlour, and Sadiq's later on.

"Hamma we came to meet you since you don't want to see us." Hasnah shouted while giving him a hug. Husnah also came and welcomed him with a side-hug, then Sadiq welcomed him back to his senses.

"Ash where's Ya Gadanga?" Hasnah asked Abdoul for Aisar with the names she normally call them. Abdoul was about to say something sarcastic knowing he's right beside him, only for him to turn and find no one there, he looked around and he's not in the parlour at all. Well that's weird, Abdoul thought.

"He must be somewhere around Pikachu." He replied with a shrug. All of them kept chatting until Maghrib prayer was called, so they prayed, ate dinner, and Sadiq dropped Haidar and his sisters back home.

Some of the people that arrived must have slept already when they came back. Although the house wasn't entirely quite, it's not as chaotic as it was during the day. They headed to their father's side together with Yasar, Haidar's immediate younger sibling, who saw them from his window.

Abba called Ammie and Ameerah also to his side, knowing there are guests in the house, he doesn't want them to disturb with their noises. Lots of chitchats were made, with Ameerah secretly throwing daggers at Haidar, she wanted to keep portraying the shy bride facade in front of Abba, but it's getting difficult knowing he's secretly laughing at her. He knew she must be angry, seeing that he came since morning but was only meeting her now, however, her funny angry face couldn't stop his snorts.

They all left around midnight after Abba chased them out, that his wife was tired and needed to sleep. Well, they all knew that was an excuse to spend an alone time with her since she had been busy with guests and preparations.

For sure, Haidar knew Ameerah won't sleep peacefully till she rants his ears off, what he didn't expect though, was the twins following them to the BQ as well. Like ain't they tired of talking already?.

They spent the night talking, with Hasnah telling him all that he missed as if she doesn't used to call him immediately something happened in the house.

Husnah was the first to dosed off, followed by a very tired Ameerah, then Hasnah in the middle of a sentence, and Yasar while surfing his phone. Haidar only shook his head and returned to his room after closing door and offing light. Knowing very well there's no way he will be able to wake them up, he just let them sleep there. He's honestly not looking forward to the hecticly upcoming few days.

It was less than an hour to Fajr prayer, so he performed ablution, offered qiyamul-layl (night voluntary prayer), made lots of du'as, then started reciting Qur'an till Fajr adhan (call to pray) began.

***

Hello guys, as I promised, a chapter on Monday 😊
And yeah, I hope you have started enjoying the book? till Friday then🥰
Ciao🤞