MY HUSBAND’S BROTHER

IT'S ALWAYS THE TRUCK DRIVER!

[ FLASHBACK]

"I'm pretty much f****d" Maizah thinks as she looks at her surroundings. The sun is gradually sinking below the horizon. It paints the sky with a breathtaking display of colors that range from brilliant reds and oranges to soft pinks and purples.

Maizah is on her way home from school. Her sister Laylah got home before her, along with everyone else who went to school with her. She doesn't even know what excuse she will give her parents for being late this time, and she already used all of her tricks. Grade 7 doesn't have extra work, and she was too busy catching up on her games to keep track of time.

Maizah has nowhere else to hide, so she has to swallow the massive lump in her throat, focus on her breathing, and focus on calming her heart that is currently beating out of her chest. She can even hear it thumping as she gets inside the gate.

As Maizah climbs the steps to the front door, she can hear murmuring inside, and there are not only three people but more. Her parents couldn't have possibly called the whole neighborhood thinking she was missing or anything like that, or did they?

At the front porch, Maizah takes a few seconds at the door to brace herself for hundreds of questions that are about to come the moment she steps foot inside the house. Maizah looked around and noticed many cars, which she did pass, but somehow, she didn't even notice them. Maizah was too caught up in her head to see the vehicles, and by cars, it meant it was not only the neighbors but probably her uncles and aunts from both her father's and mother's sides.

"It's about to get ugly." Maizah thinks as she turns the nob on the door and slightly pushes the door open. Everyone inside the house stops whatever they are doing and looks at her.

Maizah feels embarrassed, exposed, and shy. It's like they caught her walking around naked with the way they are looking at her. It's like she is a thief who walked into the wrong house naked, and they are wondering about her next move.

"I know it's rude not to greet guests, but I don't want to be in the same room with them any longer." Maizah thinks as she struggles to maintain eye contact with everyone in the room.

She puts her head down and walks straight into her bedroom, pressing herself on the door as soon as she enters my room, just in case someone follows her.

Fortunately for her, no one is following her.

Everyone in the living room was too stunned to speak, and some understood the little girl's attitude. They thought she already heard the news, so she acted like that.

Her aunt Masara knew she had to talk to her niece.

Maizah sigh as she tosses her school bag on the floor, takes off her school uniform, and changes into her pajamas.

Knock! Knock! A knock on the door interrupted Maizah from her thoughts, and instead of answering who was at the door. She looked at the closed door as if she would suddenly get X-ray powers and see through the door.

She knew she was in resounding hell, and today is finally the day her parents put her up for adoption or, worse, kick her out.

"Little dove! Can I come in?." A voice called outside the door.

"There's only one person who calls me by that nickname, it's Bambi! What is she doing here? My parents are done with me, and now they sent Aunt Masara. At least I like her, though," Maizah thinks as she fixes herself and prepares for her punishment.

"Yes, you can come in," She replies, her voice cracking. Her aunt enters with a warm smile on her face. Her big brown eyes look a little glassy and puffy, which confuses Maizah, but she decides not to ask because after getting punished by her parents, it will be her looking like that.

"We were waiting for you to come back for a while now. Where were you?." Aunt asks softly. She walks towards Maizah and sits at the corner of the bed.

"Everywhere but nowhere," She murmurs so low, but her aunt hears her because she decides not to ask again.

"Do you know why everyone is here?." Aunt Masara asks. Maizah's heart starts beating faster, and she has a pretty good idea of why they are here.

"Yes, I do," She replies as she feels hot tears forming in her big eyes that look exactly like her aunt. Maizah looks down, trying to stop her tears from falling, but that is the dumbest mistake because they keep falling like rain with no sound coming from her mouth.

"Oh, Maizah. I'm so sorry. We thought it should be the family to tell you that. You didn't deserve to hear it outside. How are you holding up?." Aunt Masara asks awkwardly, patting Maizah on the back.

"I will miss them," Maizah replies, crying softly.

"It's not like anything else will go wrong just because my parents decided to kick me out at the age of 9 years. I have been a bad daughter; I can live with that, and it's not like they are sending me away to live out on the streets. Aunt Mascara is my father's sister; she's family, but I will surely miss them." Maizah thinks as she stops herself from pouring rain out of her eyes.

"Oh my dear, you're taking this better than your sister. She fainted two times." Says Aunt Masara.

If Maizah weren't in this situation at the moment, she would have laughed her ass off but hearing that her sister was also getting kicked out, she stopped laughing and looked at her aunt with wide eyes.

"Wait? What did Birdy do? She's an angel!" Maizah says as she voices her thoughts. "They are also kicking my sister out? She didn't do anything. Why are they kicking her out, too? I need to talk to them. Did they call the whole neighborhood to kick both of their children out? I always knew something was wrong with me, but now I understand it's not me. It's the tree! Of course, it's the tree!." She says, moving towards the door to find her parents and tell them everything on her mind.

"They are already kicking me out, and there's nothing else they can do to me." That's what Maizah thinks, but she's wrong. Though they may s***k her, hit her with a wooden spoon or with slippers, or chase her with a wet towel, no one is going to argue with her mind.

"Honey, what are you talking about? Your parents passed away at noon." Aunt Masara replies, but somehow Maizah doubts her, and she believes her at the same time. Her aunt is old enough to know not to joke about that. Maizah stands in the doorway, mouth gaping for a full minute, not knowing what to do, what to say, and how to react.

"Both of them?." She asks softly as the tears start forming in her eyes again, making it hard for her to be able to see her aunt's expression.

"Yes." Her aunt answered calmly. She had already cried the whole day because her one and only brother died, but the last thing she needed was to cry in front of her niece.

"How did both of them die at the same time?." Maizah murmured, confused, but Aunt didn't hear her, so she asked her again."How did they die?."

"I'm so sorry, little dove. They got into an accident." Aunt answers honestly. No one knows how the accident happened to the Igwe couple, and they don't even know where they are going.

Maizah's ears stop listening when her aunt says accident, so someone out there just had enough and decided to drink and drive and hit her parents, or was it a truck driver? Bus driver?

"Were they hit by a truck?" Maizah softly whispers to her aunt. It's always the truck driver.

"No, little dove. A drunk teenage boy hit them. He was not injured, so after the collision, he ran away from the scene, leaving a few witnesses who saw what happened, but no one could identify the boy's face. Also, the police say the car was reported stolen this morning."

"So they don't have a lead on the kid?" Maizah asks

"They don't." Aunt Masara answers with her head tilted upwards to stop the tears from falling from her eyes.

They talked almost all night until Maizah fell asleep, hugging her aunt tightly like she would lose her too.

Just like that, the next day, Maizah woke up paralyzed!