Everything is nothing

Raheem got up suddenly after his phone rang. Apparently the station deputy chief had imbibed the habit of checking on all staffs of the station on daily basis to check in on them from 6pm-7pm. The call had ended before he could grab his phone.

He could hear the muezzin's call to prayer. He look at hist wrist watch and it was about 7:00 pm already. He got himself up and made for the bathroom. He got out of the bathroom with water dripping all over his body. He couldn't find the towel.

It was just right there on the hanger when he had used it in the morning. Maybe room service took it for dry cleaning and didn't remember to bring in a new one he thought. He waited a little while for his body to dry off. He felt a chilly breeze blew across his body.

He wandered where that must have come from. He looked at the air conditioner and saw that it was still unplugged from the wall socket. He moved towards the window and found it still open. He quickly closed it up and put on the same clothes he had on before. As he was putting on the clothes, he though about what Vulganizer had told him during his time in porthacourt. " cold and death are friends". He remembered someone saying it when he was alighting from the bus that brought him to Kano. "Wanna sanyi ba ze keshe ni ba Kwa ?" (I hope this cold would not get me killed) the man had said which made everyone laughed.

It must be true what the man said he thought. One could die of cold if one was locked in a deep freezer or even if one was too exposed to the cold out here in Kano. He remembered his late father. One evening he had received a call from Uncle Badmus to report to Ibadan immediately. He knew something had happened. His father must have passed or been seriously ill which could be the only reason why Uncle Badmus would have spoken in such a dictating tone. He had already made his peace with whatever outcome he met when he gets to Ibadan. That evening in Lagelu, he had seen his father's body lying motionless in his room. He had moved closer to the body and touched his father's hand. It was so cold. He had felt nostalgic that day and for the rest of the month.

Everything is nothing he had said. Seeing his father lying lifeless on his own bed. His mother had passed away when he was only 2 years old so he had very little memory of her.

It was his father who had raised him alone. He had always wondered why 'Baba' as he usually called him was never remarried. And that evening when he saw his father lying lifeless, he felt alone. With no sibling or close relative except uncle Badmus.

He removed himself from his thoughts and exited the room. As he walked down the stairs to the reception, he could see Aisha standing at her duty post and going through the books. He was lost in thought again.

She was putting on a nice 'abaya' gown that concealed her shape. She was obviously slim. Her lips was glowing, and he wanted badly to kiss her. He had imagined this before. Aisha turns to look and finds him staring at her. She smiled and asked him.

"For how long have you been standing there staring at me now?"

he was embarrassed and apologized.

" I uhmm… I apologize sincerely. I had been lost in thought thinking about work. I must admit I must have starred at you for a while there" Raheem said.

Aisha smiled and responded. "Good evening Mr Raheem. I hope you had a great day today? You go where you have to go and when you return, you'll have to pay me for staring at me without my consent"

They both laughed. Raheem told her he was just about to go for the prayers in the mosque and he was going to return to her and "find out what it cost to look at a beautiful lady like you". Aisha smiled as Raheem walked away.

He had performed his ablution before inside room 404. But he chose to perform it again. He grabs a little kettle which was already filled with water and begun to rinse his hands and legs. He went into to mosque which was almost empty this time. He performed his prayers and was already to go back to Aisha.

Getting back to the reception, he could see a lot of people waiting for Aisha to attend to them. Apparently, some new guests had arrived. A wedding was taking place in town and a rich politician had decided to lodge some of the attending guest at Hotel 17.

Aisha was busy attending to them and he wasn't sure how he would feel if he went back to his room without seeing her. One young man who was at the reception was talking to Aisha. He could see the young man was trying to flirt with her with all his impressive jokes.

Aisha had only smiled once. He decided to sit it out and wait for her. He sat down on a couch which was at the reception. Aisha looked up and saw him sitting on the couch staring at her. She smiled again and continued with her work. It was almost 8:00 pm and the muezzin's call to prayer came in again.

He had to go for the prayers. And this time, he was joined by nearly all the young men who had come to lodge in the hotel for the upcoming wedding. They all trooped to the mosque outside the hotel reception and performed their ablution before going into the mosque.

The prayers had ended and everyone was exiting. He went back to resume his seat at the hotel reception and this time, he could only see women there. About 6 of them. Two elderly ones and four younger ones excluding Aisha. All the men whom they had just prayed together had gone out.

Aisha looked at him again and they both smiled at each other. He was anxious to find out if she was in any relationship. He had made up his mind that he wanted her and was going to ask her out whatever it took.

Aisha was about to round up with the women. He had been sitting for about 40 minutes. During this time, he had received a call from Musa who had wanted to know if he needed anything.

His patience would be tasted again when the gentle men (5 of them) who had earlier gone out returned to the reception. He felt bad that he could not be alone with Aisha.

He thought he would probably go and come back again. He stood up from the couch and made for the stairs. He thought about his mission and the sacrifices he would have to make to be successful.

He wondered if the operation was going to take as long or even longer than the one he did in portharcout. Or maybe lesser. He brought out the key from his left chest pocket and opened the door to room 404. He reached out for his backpack and brought out the folder he had gotten from Boma and sat on the bed.

Boldly written on the front cover of the folder was, "classified". He flipped gently through the pages, carefully studying the information in the file.

He took a look at his watch and it was very much past 9:00pm. He tried to meditate about the operational requirements of his mission but he couldn't. Thoughts of Aisha's beauty and his desire for her flooded his mind.

While in his room, he decided to strategize on how best to get himself close to any member of the Jihadist cell. At least enough to get him some useful information about potential operations. He thought about sleeping in the mosque for starters.

He had thought that he could make himself really useful at the mosque. Sweep, clean, fetch water for ablutions, anything. That way, he'd become noticed. He would make arguments in favor of extremist views during teachings in the mosque and he would agree with anyone who makes fundamentalist points.

Many times he had always wondered why people who agreed with fundamentalist do so. Why would you want to agree with someone who thinks that bombing a mall filled with people is a way to get revenge on someone or a way of championing a religion that preaches 'peace'.

He decided that he would need some costumes and props to help him enter properly into his new role. He grabbed his backpack and dipped his hand into his backpack and brought out a pen and a little red notepad.

He scribbled down something on the paper and paused. He starred into the wall in front of him for a couple of minutes then continued scribbling words on the paper.

One thing was certain about what he was doing. He was serving his country just as his father had. But differently. His father had served as a police officer for 35 years in the police force. He had never known how much his father had earned even until his retirement.

'Baba' as he had always called his father was always away. He had always lived with the neighbors and was only able to spend time with Baba in the morning on Sundays just before going to church.

Baba was a regular church goer. He might not return during week days but had kept a habit of coming every Sunday morning to attend church service from whence he'd depart for work again.

Baba would hand him a 1 kobo coin and ask him to dip it in the offering box. He had never seen Baba angry all. Until one day in Ibadan. Baba had just been transferred to Ibadan again after a about 3 years of living in Warri Delta state.

He had been happy to go back to Ibadan and he was quite eager to return home where he had an uncle who would come visit every evening.

Uncle Badmus was serving as a youth Corp member then and he would always return home with a can of ice cream for him before going over to his house which was only a few blocks away.

It was the evening after the day they had gotten to Ibadan. Uncle Badmus had taken him to Lagelu high school to find out what is required to register him as a new student.

He had seen some friends he had been with before leaving three years ago and they had recognized each other. He was excited to start school in Lagelu high school as a form 1 pupil.

Once he had left the school with uncle Badmus, he went straight home while uncle Badmus went somewhere else he didn't know about. He had been sleeping in the house all afternoon.

He had heard the voices of children screaming in Yoruba. He had gotten up from his sleep and peeped through the window to see what was happening.

He had seen some children playing football just outside the street in front of their house. His father had moved them back to their old house. He had quickly unlocked the door and went outside to see if he could join them.

In the midst of the children playing outside of his house was Bayo and Abiodun. His childhood friend. They had attended the same primary school. He had called out to them and Dey dashed towards him as though it was an Olympic race.

They had embraced each other and instead of going to play football with the Omer kids, they were now playing inside the house. While jumping on the couch, Abiodun had accidentally hit the wal clock which immediately fell on the floor and got damaged.