That night,Zainab barely slept.The letter lay under her pillow,its presence warmer than the blanket that covered her.Each time she closed her eyes,she saw Yusuf's handwriting,steady,unshaken,like a voice calling her back from somewhere deep.
The house was quiet,except for the clock in the corridor ticking towards dawn,Alhaji slept soundly;he always did,no matter what storms he caused in the day.
By the time the first call to prayer floated across the city,Zainab had made a decision,not a loud one,not even fully formed,but a whisper inside her:I will write back
The following day,while Alhaji attended a business meeting.she tore a page from her diary and wrote:
" I am still here.But not whole,the house is large,the walls are thick,and the silence has become part of me.i do not know what I want,Yusuf,but I know I am not the girl you once knew"
She folded it tightly and hid it beneath the basket of dried peppers.When she visited the market with the maid that afternoon,she placed the letter at the edge of the old well.
No one saw.
Weeks passed.Each day,a new mask.Each night,a new page in the diary.Alhaji noticed her growing thinner and said:
"Eat more.how will you give me a child if you keep vanishing?"
She forced a smile,but her body had started to mirror her soul,quiet,fading,cautious.
The second letter arrived wrapped in newspaper,Yusuf's words were careful,almost afraid of being too loud:
"Zainab,I do not want to rescue you,I want you to remember you are still a person,not a shadow.write to me when you can,Even if it is just one word"
She read it in the kitchen,hands shaking as she chopped the onions.
That night,for the first time in months,she whispered a prayer with a tear of something close to hope.
Then came the humiliation
Alhaji hosted a gathering for his business associates.The house smelled of fried lamb and scented candles.Zainab wore the green lace he had chosen,with gold earrings that felt too heavy for her thin face.
During dinner,one guest,a woman commented on how pale she looked
"Perhaps she is with child"the woman teased
Alhaji laughed
" This one?No,she has failed me in that matter".
The laughter that followed filled the room like smoke
Zainab kept serving the dishes.her hands did not shake,but her heart broke in a way no slap had ever managed.
She wrote to Yusuf again that night
"They laughed at my emptiness,they drank tea over it,I think I am no longer afraid of leaving,only of what will happen if I stay".