On the run again

Julianna put her sleeping baby on her back and secured her with the baby wrapper and shawl. Going around, she consoled her neighbors and offered words of encouragement to the distraught middle-aged couples.

Suddenly another teenager who she did not see when she came earlier rushed inside the building and spoke silently with Abubakri, who in turn called his mother aside and started muttering inaudible words into her ear frantically.

Panic-stricken, Abubakri's mother called the attention of everybody.

"Attention please!" She called and all the people directed their eyes towards her.

We just got the information that the miscreants are on their way here now as I'm addressing you. Please if you have anywhere to go, now is the time to start moving to avoid putting all of our lives in danger.

As we all know that these criminals show even less mercy to us Muslims who have opened our homes and renders helping hands."

Following her announcement, there was an uproar of cries and pleading from the people since they knew the area was still unsafe for them to wander. 

Where would they go from here? Hardly would anybody agree to accommodate them without first considering the safety of their own family, and who would blame them?

"We are sorry but this is how far we can go to help out. My advice is that you find your way to the nearest police station while trying to avoid them in the process."

When she finished, she took her son's hand and immediately walked out of the building without looking back. 

Julianna calmly sat back on the concrete block. Even amid the uproar and cries from the people, she willed herself to neither be afraid nor panic, as she thought...

'The nearest police station is many kilometers away, same also is my mother-in-law's house... What do I do Lord, what do I do!?' 

She covered herself and the baby back with the long qimar and calmly walked out of the building. Unknowingly, she made her way briskly towards the highway with no specific destination in mind.

It was just as if something was guiding her steps while she unconsciously sings the hymn all over again:

"When peace like a river attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul!"

It is well with my soul!

It is well, it is well with my soul!....."

By that time, it was already past 4 pm, the day was still bright but the sun had gone down. There was nobody on the street, people were safely hidden away in the comfort of their various homes. Some men rushed past her with a badly burnt victim carried inside a makeshift stretcher of cloth and sticks.  

Julianna longed for her husband now more than ever and wished for the comfort and protection of his arms around her. Weary of it all, she stood dejectedly by an old abandoned kiosk...

"Segun where are you, my love?..." She whispered her husband's name and started weeping silently.

"This is not the time to cry...do not stop, keep walking towards the highway and start praying." 

The voice just came to her from nowhere. She felt a cold, chilling sensation down to her bones with goosebumps that appear all over her body, the strange feeling makes her hair stand on end.

"Segun!" She whispered, frantically looking around her surrounding. She could swear it was her husband's voice she heard.

"That was my husband's voice. I could never forget that voice even if I live to be a million years. Where are you my darling?" She cried out a little too loudly. 

She stood still on the road for some minutes, listening and hoping to hear the voice again... But silence! She was only greeted with silence.

She recalled what the voice said to her and repeated it to herself: "This is not the time to cry...do not stop, keep walking towards the high way and start praying."

"Keep walking towards the highway and start praying," she repeated to herself again, and again. Immediately she resumed walking and started praying with a clear mind...

"Jehovah God, you are the Father to the fatherless, you are the Defender of widows, my hope is in you.

You The Lord that watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, we hide under your wings."

She prayed continuously non-stop. While walking, she was occasionally passed by some miscreants brandishing their weapons and chanting their songs of "death to the infidels" but none paid attention to her.

Almost at the highway, she was suddenly accosted by some men who were dressed finely in expensive western clothing. They were all sitting inside a bus on the other side of the road that she was walking.

"Hajia! Stop right there!" A very hard voice shouted to her in Hausa and she immediately froze on the spot.