Being Mrs Dantata

Prologue

July, 2020

Ekpoma, Edo State

She stared at the computer screen, waiting patiently for the National Youth Service Corp portal to load completely. The network was being unusually slow and while she could be patient, it was quite frustrating.

The chair beside hers was pulled back and her older sister sat, asking "Are they out yet?"

Hanan Sufyan nodded, eyes never leaving the screen. "They are. I'm still waiting for this site to load so I can know my fate."

"What if you're part of this stream?"

Hanan sighed, turning to briefly look at her sister – Hauwa. "Is it not better to just do it once and for all?" She turned back to the screen. "If not that this country is mad, how can they release call-up letters half an hour to midnight and expect people to report at their various camps by next tomorrow?"

Hauwa chuckled. "Welcome back to Nigeria."

The portal finally finished loading and Hanan put in her details. As soon as she was granted access, she clicked on the link for call-up letters. It took a near minute for it to load and her eyes narrowed at the message displayed on her screen. She was to be in the next stream.

Hauwa, who had also read the message, snickered. "Wahala for who is in stream two." She pushed her chair back and stood. "Sha, it gives you more time to enjoy life!" Her smile was evil. "It gives me more time to annoy you too."

Hanan exhaled slowly. "Are you sure I'm not going to return to Ghana like this?"

Hauwa's smile dropped and her eyes narrowed dangerously. "If you try it, I'm going to kill you. Stream one will be done in no time."

"Stream two isn't going to camp until the first week of September, Hauwa." Hanan faced her sister. "What am I going to be doing until then?"

Hauwa shrugged. "You've been freelancing since you came back. You can continue doing that. Besides, didn't you say you some clients that you were going to virtually help renovate their home? You can do that."

"I just want to get this NYSC over with. I'm tired."

Hauwa's expression softened and her smile was small. She moved behind her sister's chair and put her hands on the younger one's shoulders. "Hanan, this is happening for a reason. Allah knows best and you know that. No matter how you whine and complain, we can't change anything."

Hanan sighed, resigned. "True."

Hauwa's smile widened. "Exactly. So take it in good faith, continue doing what you're currently doing and have fun. In fact, this is good. You'll get to know what to bring to camp and what not to bring. We can get them at a leisure pace. Imagine those that have to travel far now, they're probably hyperventilating and thinking of how they want to get things done before they report to camp. Don't forget the medical tests they have to run too."

Hanan saw reason; lots of it. "That's true."

"Exactly! So have faith." Hauwa's smile turned mischievous. "You can also marry in the meantime. I'm sure Mummy and Daddy will love that."

"Hauwa!"

Hauwa laughed, stepping back. She raised her hands in surrender. "Don't kill me abeg. Na joke I dey joke."

"You're supposed to help me!"

"I am helping you, my dear."

Hanan rolled her eyes and turned back to the computer. "I just hope they don't post me to a useless place. I'll cry ehn."

"In Shaa Allah they won't." Hauwa's hands returned to her sister's shoulders. "You're going to be fine, Hanan. Everything is going to be okay."

Like every single time she faced one issue or the other, Hanan let her sister's words get into her head and soothe her thoughts. She let out a small breath and put a hand on Hauwa's. She was going to be fine. Everything was going to be alright.

~~*~~

Assalam Alaykum. Hello, everyone.

Welcome to Being Mrs Dantata, the sequel to Architect and Mrs Dantata (if you haven't read that yet, please do. You will understand this book to a certain extent without reading that but you can't appreciate this book fully without it).

As you have seen, I won't be telling this story in the first person narrative the way I told Amal and Zayd's story. I did this intentionally because this is a story I would like to tell from my perspective and not from the perspective of the characters. I hope you understand and I hope this is not too much of a change for you. I hope you enjoy it too.

Without further ado, please scroll on to read chapter one. This is picking up from where Architect and Mrs Dantata stopped. You'll understand what I mean in the next chapter. Don't forget to vote and share. I'm not crazy about voting and commenting but they do make me happy so...Yeah.

Bye!

- Latifah