The Last Insurgent

Triangle

“Mufty is alive.” A man said as he stood before Jahl in his new palace. They had relocated and moved the camp to another part of the Kabari forest. This time, the place was more secured.

Some experts were brought in to fix cameras and detectors around the camp.

“What?”

“The attack was not a military attack. We combed the place today Ya Amir. There was no single sign of any military invasion. It was an inside work. The shattered cabin had the dead bodies of the men that were with you, and three other unidentified men.

I suspect they were the men you sent to kill him. There was no body of a woman in there and……Mufty had a secret safe in the room. It was empty.”

“Hmmm….Are you suggesting that he escaped?”

“Yes, and he was the one who detonated the bombs and killed our men. Mufty may be the man in the mask.”

Jahl got on his feet. This was not good!

“I hope he is not going to talk.”

“No. He is as guilty as us.”

“What if they offer him amnesty? What if they strike a deal with him?”

“That is a possibility.”

“We must find him and kill him. Mufty knows too much! Ya God, Mufty is Your enemy. Show him to us.”

“I am very interested in the girl.”

“Which girl?”

“His wife. I think we should find out more about her. The press have said little or nothing about her. They are hiding her. She may be with him.”

“Why?”

“We saw a lot of drugs on the ground. Mufty never used to consume the retroviral drugs. I think he was not HIV positive. What do you know about him before he saw the light?”

“He is out of the light and don’t connect him with the light again. Mufty is in darkness. It was Alarama Saheed who recommended him. I don’t know much about his past. He is from Kano.”

The man, Aloma, smiled. He was the leader of the intelligence squad. He was a dismissed police detective.

“We must dig into his past. I think he had the girl fell in love and she stuck to him. She came back for him. Let us find her. It may be difficult.”

“God will help us.”

“Ameen wa alaikum salam.” Leena said with a shaky voice. She was trying to look calm, but her eyes, shaky lips and fake smile gave her away.

“I did not say the salama, Leena. I asked a question.”

“I did not get the question.”

“You told me that you were going to visit Rabi’at. Now, I followed you and Rabi’at happens to be a guy you met at Maidaribe Junction, and went to have lunch with before coming down here. Maybe I did not hear you properly. Did you say Rabi’at or Rabi’u?”

“Dammy…”

“I asked a question.”

“It is not what you think. I actually said Rabi’at but I …..okay, I actually lied to you.”

Dammy felt his head ringing. His hands still in his pockets but they trembled in anger.

“Why Leena?”

“I was actually going to meet him.”

“That brings us back to the first question I asked. Who is he?”

“He is a friend.” She said.

“You have such a close friend I never knew about?”

“I never said a close friend.”

“You did not have to say that. It is obvious. You are betrothed and you lied to me to meet him, have lunch with him, and come here to sit down. If there was nothing fishy, why did you have to lie to me?”

“Because you will not understand.”

“No. There is nothing complex to understand here. You have been lying to me.”

“But I did not go to his house to meet him. I met him at an open place and it seems you have been stalking me so that substantiates that we did nothing wrong.”

“Following and not stalking.” He said. “I have the right to do that because I have paid your dowry. I have passed the level of introduction and reached the level of a fixed wedding date. From the moment I sought for your hand formally in marriage, it became disallowed for you to engage in another relationship. Yes, I did not see you guys do anything that is haram, or see you in seclusion but you know it is not right.

You can’t tell me that there is nothing going on between you and that guy. I see how you guys talk, smile and the way you look at him. I think this explains the root of your newly found tauheed.

I am disappointed in you, Leena. Tell me what I did wrong to deserve this.”

“Absolutely nothing Dammy.” She said amid tears. “You don’t deserve this and if there is anyone to be blamed, it is me but God knows I never intended to do this. I will never hurt you on purpose.”

“Who is he?”

She paused, crying and her lips shook.

“Moore.”

“Who is Moore? I mean what is he to you?”

“Dammy, I am sorry but I don’t want to hurt you…..”

“Could there be anything worse than what you have done already?”

“Okay, Moore is the guy I- I fell in love with.”

Boom!

Even though he saw it coming, or suspected it, this confirmation from her broke his heart. He stood still and felt as if the ground was vibrating and about to crack. It seemed he was losing friction.

“That is why you have been acting strangely. But I asked you if you had fallen in love with someone else and you lied to me.”

“I could not admit it. I did not want you make a scene. I am sorry Dammy. I am such a terrible person.”

“How could you? After everything?  Since when has this been going on?”

“We met a few months ago but fell in love not so long ago.”

“Was that when you said you were abducted. Were you even abducted the first time?”

“Dammy!”

“Do not Dammy me. I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

“Yes, I was abducted and there are proves.”

“So you met him there.”

“No. It was after I escaped.”

“What does he do for a living?”

“Dammy you can’t keep asking me questions like that. I said I am sorry.”

“Sorry? Define sorry. Explain what you mean by you are sorry. Sorry for what you did and plan to go ahead and, marry him? Or sorry for your goof and you are letting him go at this very moment and we forget none of this ever happened?”

She wiped off tears from her eyes.

“I am wrong in every aspect and have no reason to do this to you. If you say I should send him away now, I will do it and get married to you but I want you to know this….I did not plan to date him. I fell in love with him and could not get him out of my mind. I love him Dammy but I can send him away if you insist. You have paid the dowry and I promised to marry you.

I know I can’t forget him but I also lied to him. It is not his fault. He asked me if I had a formal knot with you and I said no.”

“You said no?”

“Yes. If I had said yes, he would have gone and I love him Dammy. I could not stop loving him. But I pray I forget him. I will go and talk to him right away and never see him again. I am terrible because I am going to hurt him. I should have let him go. Now I am going to destroy him.”

She began to cry.

“Go and talk to him. I am not letting you go!”

“She does not have to come and talk to me.” Mufty said and appeared from a corner. “Peace be upon you. I am Leader Moore.”

The two men looked at each other. Leena covered her face in tears.

“Peace be upon you too. I am Dammy Abdulsalam.”

There was a three second silence before Mufty said, “I must apologise for interrupting you. I also apologise for eavesdropping.”

Dammy said nothing. He still had his hands in his pocket, and trying to calm down. He could not stop the anger in him as he looked at Mufty. This was the guy who came to put a veil on his bliss. The guy who got into Leena’s head and made her derail. But he would calm down and listen to him. He wondered what he had to say.

“I regret been involved in this saga. Leena is in a hot spot right now. If this story leaks, she would be the one to suffer from blames. She would be seen as a player, toiling with the hearts of two men. She will be called a liar because she lied to you.

You asked her if there was someone else in her life and she said there was no one. I can imagine how disappointed you are right now, how hurtful it is to find out that the girl you have paid her dowry is in a relationship with another man.

I also stand in a position of being called a devil because I fell in love with a girl who has just a few days to stay in her parent’s house. Two Muslims cannot court a girl at the same time. You have formalised the relationship so I am the wrong guy here.

Please forgive me. She told me she had someone in her life. Having someone in her life did not stop me. I asked if there was any formal arrangement. That is what can stop me. She said there was no one.

She made a great mistake here. She is wrong but I still do not see her as a player or a girl just toiling with our hearts.

She lied to you because she could not tell you. You have a history and she never said a single thing wrong about you. She did not know how you would react if she had told you.

I am not justifying her actions. I am only trying to see things from her angle of view. We are not impeccable but we do bad things for various reasons. Hers was not with a bad intention irrespective of the consequences.

She lied to me because she knew I was going to leave immediately. I have made a lot of goofs in my life. I will never go close to a girl who has been betrothed to another man no matter how I love her.

Leena is a girl with heart and soul. A mere mortal who is prone to goof. I can imagine how confused and uncomfortable she must have been.

Please don’t judge her. I don’t know and I am not a clairvoyant but from what I see of you, you are a nice guy. From what I heard from you, you do not deserve to get hurt.

I placed myself in your shoes. How will I feel if a girl whom I am supposed to get married to gets abducted just three weeks to our wedding, comes back and another date is fixed only for me to find out that she is seeing someone else?

The pain is unimaginable. I do not wish this for myself and would never wish it for anyone. Firstly, I need you to forgive her and never hold this against her. Secondly, I need you to forgive me for coming into the picture. Thirdly, I implore with gusto, for the sake of God to keep this as a secret.

If I say I do not feel anything for her, I am a liar but if I really like her, then I should set her onto the right part. That calls for the word sacrifice. I have to supress my feelings, wishes and wants for the right thing.

The right thing here is to keep to her promise. Like I said in retrospect, I don’t know you but I feel you will never hurt her. I feel you will give her all the love and joy she needs.

That is my consolation. I just want her to be happy and be with the right person. I want you to take this event as just a hitch to a better life with her. I promise you that neither you nor she will ever see me again.

I will be just a part of history, a mistake and forgotten issue…..” He turned at Leena. “This is your man. I may not be privileged to attend the wedding, or know what happens after the wedding but I have this to say to you: never let him feel bad. Get married to him and fulfil all of your duties. This world is just a small temporary home. Besides, it will all come to pass.”

Amid tears, she nodded.

Mufty smiled, moved forward and offered a handshake to Dammy.

They shook hands.

“Thank you very much.” Dammy said. “You have said things that got me weakened. You just calmed me down and I must say you are a rare guy. I promise to keep this to myself till I die and I will not hold it against her.”

“You just made my century. May God bless the union, give you blessed offspring and make her your wife both here and hereafter.”

“Amen.”

“I think I will have to take my leave. This is her phone, she left it with me.”

Without another word, he turned and left.

Dammy looked at Leena. She wiped off tears off her face.

“Please forgive me.”

Dammy smiled.

“It is over my dear. Do you still want to marry me?”

She nodded.

“Yes.”

“Thank God.”

“Please I need something from you.”

“What?”

“I did not say goodbye to him neither did he say goodbye to me. For the last time, just let me see him go…”

“You want to talk to him?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk to him. I just want to see him one more time and I promise you will never hear anything about him again. That is the last request I need from you about this. It is over between him and me.”

He shrugged.

“Okay.”

She walked to the edge of the building close to them and peeped.