He is my chauffeur

hrough every cell that made her up. She felt the urge to be loud—to wail out the maddening feeling on her heart. It meant she would have to take the public transport to school or beg Ya Abd

e Adeelah?" Abba's voice hit her eardrum. She looked up and let her eyes fell on him. Alhaji Rabi'u was short, shorter than all his wives. He was however, handsome with his small potbelly which Adeelah associated with age. "Abba!" She said and kept quiet. Her tongue was beating her teeth so that it would allow her mouth to open. Adeelah used her teeth and sandwiched her tongue. If her teeth were sharp, they would have cut the tongue already. She didn't want to say something because she was sure it won't come out well. It will come out unmashed, and un-chewed. "Go on." Her father motioned for her with his hand. She followed the direction of his hand with her pair of eyes which were exactly the same like her mother's. His index finger was the same height with his middle finger. New discovery. She noted in her head. Adeelah swallowed something hard. She was certain that, those loud words had been swallowed successfully and she hopefully prayed they won't come back until she's back in her room. Her eyes were bore to the ground. She noticed something that had to do with the carpet. The lines and flowers on it weren't laid out straight. She hissed about being observant of every slight and useless thing. Adeelah heard the sound of Hafsatu's flipflop. She used to call her aunt while she called Hajiya Sadiya, Umma. She looked at her, dressed in a yellow empire waist dress. Adeelah shook her head and wondered how Hafsatu was able to roam about like that even though there were adult males in the house. Of course they were like her kids but there's something called shyness. Her slender legs were revealing straight to her thighs all out. Hafsatu was slim but endowed in the right places. She's beautiful, granted and she knew exactly how to vaunt it. "Baby." She called and sat beside Alhaji. Adeelah bit her lower lip. Her father was sixty years old plus and someone was calling him baby. It wasn't the baby that annoyed her but how her father grinned. Hafsatu noticed how Adeelah was trying so hard to compose herself. Adeelah had learnt not to walk away when she's having a conversation with her father unless he asked her to leave. If not, she would have left the moment Hafsatu made her entrance. "Baby, I missed you so much." She kissed his cheeks loudly for Adeelah to hear. "Abba..." Adeelah managed to put an end to her stay in his parlor. It was obvious that Hafsatu would continue being shameless on purpose. "Yes Adeelah, I think you've understood all I have said." He said feeling a bit bad for forgetting that his almost twenty year old child was sitting before him. "What are you talking about baby?" Hafsatu chirped in. "It's none of your business!" Adeelah replied her instantly. "Why Adeelah? Why do you disrespect me this much? I am like your mother." "God forbid bad thing!" Adeelah hiked up. She felt how her father's eyes were looking at her in reprimand but it was on the bottom list of her worries then. "Adeelah!" He called but she exited the parlour pretending not to hear him. Alhaji put back his head on the cushion beside him. Hafsatu smiled. She wanted the space that's why she talked. When Alhaji cleared his voice, she made a sad face and turned to him. "Adeelah dislikes me the most." She leaned on him. He didn't say anything though. She felt angry but she had no option than to keep quiet. __________ The morning sun felt warm against his skin as he drove to his office. His stomach was growling and growling because he didn't eat anythi