"Khairiyya stop talking and eat that food before it gets cold, I've warned you countless times to do away with talking until after eating but you wouldn't hear." Hajiya Maryam scolded her daughter like a 2 year old child. She and her brothers had being talking since, forgetting they were eating.
"But mummy I was just showing Sabir something on my phone, he had been pestering me since to sh.."
"And you are still talking right?"
She was left with no option but to keep shut and continue eating her food but her mother wouldn't stop complaining, she went on with the everyday lectures they were already used to.
"How many times would I have to keep warning you to stop bringing these things here" she pointed at their phones on the table.
"That's all you guys are good at, finish eating your food then afterwards you can use your phones from today until eternity."
Khairiyya and her brothers exchanged glances before shaking their heads. Their mother would scold all of them from the oldest to the youngest whenever they talk or use their phones while eating, and they were used to that habit, that they couldn't abandon it. They continued eating their food in silence until their mother noticed something again.
"Young lady and what's that you're doing?"
Khairiyya dropped the bottle of coke she was drinking from and looked at her mother wondering what she had done wrong again.
"Where are your exquisite manners? A lady is not supposed to have a drink directly from the bottle but put it into a cup and sip slowly in a tasteful manner, or better still use a straw, even a man wouldn't do that because it's so gross, stop it."
Her brothers couldn't hold back their laughes so they laughed out loud, it annoyed Khairiyya, because she saw nothing wrong in seeping from the bottle, it was sweeter than pouring it into a boring cup. Her mother had being scolding and correcting her about that for as long as she could remember but it was in her blood, so she couldn't stop.
"I'm sorry mummy." Her soft gentle voice was soothing which made her mother smile sweetly at her.
"It's alright baby, next time always use a cup."
she pout after her mother said that and her mother smiled.
"What's wrong my baby?"
"Mummy you know I don't like it when you call me that, I'm no longer a baby, I'm a big girl."
Her mother laughed wholeheartedly and the boys joined her.
"But you're my baby, and you'd always be that, you would always and forever be your mummy's baby my dear."
"Come on mummy I'm 23, look at me all grown up so I've automatically left that baby stage back then." She threw her hand over her shoulders dramatically. It made her mother laugh the more. They were now sitting down on the royal chairs in the ultra expensive sitting room. Sabir and Ibrahim had gone to their rooms leaving mummy and her two favourites Khairi and Sadeeq alone.
"Even after Sabir, you were still my baby because you were such a beautiful and clingy baby, you were always with me unlike the boys who wouldn't look for me until they are hungry which is still happening now even though they're all grown up men. That's why you're still my clingy baby." She gave Khairiyya a side hug making her lean her head on her mother's shoulder.
"Mummy, but I was closer to you than baby, until she came and took away my place forcefully." Sadeeq feigned hurt placing his hand on his chest.
"Brother you're too big to be a baby." Khairiyya teased him
"That was then, how would you be close to me when you're here and there, I can't even remember the last time you spent a complete week at home here with me." There was a little glint of pain in their mother's eyes.
Khairiyya wondered how their mother would spend time with any of them when she was always travelling here and there. Their mother was a busy woman that so much of her time was not for them, a little portion of her time for her work and a larger portion travelling but they still managed and appreciated the little time. And here she was complaining about Sadeeq not spending time with her.
"There again you go mummy, you do know how I love spending time with you but it's work that consumes much of my time and moreover you're even busier than I'm so we both hardly have time to waste only when our holidays clash. You see that's the reason. But you know I so much love it when we are all together and the house is full" He stretched on the couch placing one leg on the other.
"It's alright I'm always busy too, you know how I love travelling and exploring the world, meeting new people, but these days, I'll have to minimize that so I can spend much time with you kids. Sadeeq be sure you're getting married here, so I can have my grand kids close to me because I have to spoil them rotten." Khairiyya and Sadeeq just shared glances laughing silently.
Hajiya Maryam adjusted her sitting position for the umpteen time so she was sitting at the edge of her seat, Khairiyya got up, picked up a cushion and placed it beside her mother so she could rest her arm on it, it made her mother smile at the kind and loving gesture.
"That reminds me did you meet Hajiya Aisha Tambuwal's daughter the other day I sent you there." She asked Sadeeq who felt suddenly uncomfortable after she said that.
"Yes mummy I did. I've to get something from the room, I'll be back." He got up quickly walking out of the sitting room before their mother began her perfect matchmaking lectures.
"And where do you think you are going? Come back here and tell me what happened in details, hope you didn't disappoint me this time how you did last time?" Khairiyya laughed at her mother.
"You know how Yaya feels when it comes to that, he doesn't like it when he's asked to go and see ladies. He gets very uncomfortable with that." She placed her hand on her mother's trying to make her understand.
"Of course I do, but he better understands that he's not getting any younger so I think it high time he chooses from the numerous number of girls he had been introduced to. I wonder why in the name of Allah none of these beautiful girls stole his heart." She complained shaking her head.
"Yes mummy, I wonder too." Khairiyya knew very well how her brother detested matchmaking which their mother so much believed in. She felt choosing spouses for them was the best, they deserved partners of the same upper social class as them, and she would sometimes forget love is and has to be the backbone of every relationship not materials, riches or a life of luxury.
Sadeeq came back to the sitting room some minutes later, his mother raised up her head to look at him.
"You've finished running away so welcome back, now tell me how your meeting with the girl went."
Sadeeq chuckled. "The meeting went well but as usual you know how these type of meetings usually end with me. So all is well."
"What do you mean, didn't you like the girl, wasn't she beautiful, or is the girl not your type, is there a problem with her?" His mother asked in shock.
"The girl was okay. I just wasn't interested, so I told her that and she was also okay with it because she had someone she loves so it's fine. There's no problem."
"I so much wanted that girl for you because I don't think you'd ever get someone better than her, she's a lawyer, very educated and well brought up, so she'd make a good wife and a perfect mother." Their mother talked on.
Khairiyya wanted saying something but decided against it, she knew the girl through her best friend Suhaila, so she was supposed to be the one telling her mother who she was, because obviously their mother doesn't know the girl well. The girl was an only child and very spoilt and she wasn't respectful as their mother said, that girl was far from that. She wasn't ready for marriage because she felt she was so civilized for that because she felt superior to every guy that approached her. The girl wasn't a wife material at all. So why would her brother with someone like that?
Khairiyya got up, picked her phone and climbed the stairs to her room, a cool shower and a good nap was what she needed. She left her mother and brother still talking about the girl Sadeeq wasn't at all interested in.
She opened the door and got in and just seeing the king-size bed laid perfectly with burgundy red bedsheets that matched with the curtains made her want to lay down immediately, but she had to shower. She undressed then wrapped a towel and entered into her enormous bathroom that look very welcome and amazing. After having a shower, she changed into a lose gown before jumping on her warm bed as she could feel her eyes already closing on their own.
*********
Ummul Khairi Abdulwahab Dangote fondly called Khairiyya is a 23 year old woman, the daughter of Maryam Sa'id Abubakar, a surgeon and the famous and influencial oil and gas billionaire magnate Abdulwahab Dangote, one of the extremely powerful and wealthy business men in the country. She had 3 siblings Sadeeq 28, Ibrahim 26, and Sabir 18.
Born with a silver spoon and from one of the most wealthy, and privileged family consisting of wealthy business magnates to her royal maternal relatives consisting of doctors and well-read lawyers. Ummul Khairi was a girl who felt the world in her pocket, she had everything a person would ever desired in life, which was the complete definition of her creme de la creme background. She had everything she requested within the blink of an eye but she wasn't spoil, she knew what life was and made sure to always do the right thing to please her parents so they would always be proud of her.
She was a graduate from one of the most honored universities in the world where she had pursued a degree followed by a successful Master's degree in Fashion Design. Since from childhood she was a creative child who loved to draw and sew little dresses for her teddies. Fashion designing had always being her dream when she grew up which made her go very far to see her dream come through by studying that in the university and establishing her successful fashion line called 'Khair's Designs' with a very reputable fashion company in Nigeria.
Even though her mother regarded her degrees as 'useless' and a complete waste of time it never bothered Ummul Khairi because she loved that more than everything, it made her proud about achieving what she desired. When her mother understood that Khairiyya wanted to pursue her first degree in fashion designing, she coaxed and pleaded with her daughter to abandon that and study an 'influential' course that suits her and her background, a course like Medicine or Law: what her entire maternal family specialized in.
Khairiyya felt a family full of judges, attorneys, barristers, lawyers, pediatricians, surgeons and physicians was boredom so a little diversion from that was okay. Her mother felt Ummul Khairi was too stubborn and she was left with no option but to let her daughter study what she wanted. And when her dad gave her his complete support Khairiyya studied fashion designing, because it was her dream, her father couldn't deny his only daughter what she wanted, he just couldn't. The love he had for her was so much so he let her have all she wanted in the right way, perks of being her daddy's girl and being the only girl child he was blessed with. He had always been proud of the independent and strong woman his daughter was.
