A force for evil

‘Thanks a lot Aunty Bint.’ My friend’s recently-married daughter, Fatima replied. ‘Welcome to our home. Mummy told me to expect you since the week after the wedding, but I believe you were very busy you couldn’t make it.’ She replied, sitting opposite me in the parlour.
‘Yes I was and when I came to visit you two weeks ago, you were away.
The security guard told me you had travelled.’ I explained.
‘Oh so you were here too? The guard told me a number of people had come but he couldn’t name names. We were away at Aminu’s home town for a wedding.’ Fatima answered.
‘I see, so he’s already taking you along for family occasions. That’s good. It’s the easiest way to get to know his people. I hope you’ll get along well with them.’ I prayed.
‘I hope so too, Aunty Bint.’ Fatima said, looking down at her hands.
Suddenly she looked unhappy and unsure of herself. Then she rose up and said ‘Let me bring you some fresh mango juice. I made it myself today.’
‘No, thanks I am fasting. You know it’s the month of Rajab, I am observing a few non-obligatory fasts in pursuit of the blessings of this holy month.’ I explained.
‘Yes, it’s true. I was targeting the weekend so that Aminu and I can observe from Saturday to Monday and avail ourselves of the same blessings.’ She declared.
‘Masha Allah, so how did it go at the wedding you travelled to attend?’ I asked, curious about the sad look on her face earlier.
‘Yes, everything went well at the beginning but before the day was over I made a discovery that changed everything. I am still trying to recover from its effect.’ Fatima ended, mysteriously.
‘And what discovery was that?’ I asked.
‘You see when Aminu and I arrived at the town, most other relatives were already there.  He took me to his cousin, who is the mother of the bride, and after the usual greetings, instructed me to hand over to her the envelope he told me to keep in my hand bag. I did so and she seemed most appreciative of the gift. I had no inkling that anything I said or did was offensive to her.
Aminu soon left for the guest house where he was to spend the night and I joined the women for the traditional festivities. In the evening, I observed my prayers and retired for the night. I fell asleep almost immediately, at the room I was taken to. Not long after, there was a power outage, which I noticed because the fan had stopped working. I still don’t know whether that was why they forgot that I was in the room. The next thing I heard was the voice of Aminu’s elder sister, Hajiya Larai having a chat with the bride’s mother, Mairiga, in the sitting room.
‘Did Aminu give you any gift for this wedding?’ Hajiya Larai asked.
‘Yes, he brought me money in an envelope, in fact I am yet to find out how much it is because I haven’t opened it. What I did was to rush to my room and hide the envelope so I won’t lose it. I will check it tomorrow and let you know how much.’ Mairiga replied.
‘No problem, I only asked because I know it’s unlike him to attend an event without giving something.’ Larai answered.
‘Yes, he has always been a generous person’ Mairiga agreed, ‘it’s just that he seems to be too much in love with his bride. If he remains this devoted to her, it could be dangerous.’ She warned.
‘You mean you too have noticed? Everyone in our family keeps saying Aminu is deeply in love with his wife.’ Hajiya Larai lamented.
‘Yes, I noticed. In my own case it was when he asked her to bring out the envelope he gave her to keep that I became alarmed. I mean why would he need to give her the money to keep? Isn’t his big gown’s pocket large enough to keep such an envelope in? I realized that the only explanation was he couldn’t do any good deed without consulting her. And that is very dangerous.’ Mairiga repeated.
‘What can we do now? They are newly-weds, let’s just hope that it’s all part of the honeymoon and that once it is over, he will get back to his senses and treat her normally.’ Larai prayed.
‘But what if he doesn’t? What if things continue this way and she gets used to being treated like a queen? Look Larai, you can’t leave things like this to chance. You have to put a stop to your brother’s love-stricken treatment of his wife.’ Mairiga insisted.
‘But how can we stop it? We can only hope that it will fizzle out with time.’ Larai responded.
‘There is a certain tree that grows in this town. Its leaves are useful for these purposes. Once you add the leaves into a meal and the person targeted eats it, any excessive love and devotion to her will wane, in no time, then he will find her ordinary and not worth all that love.’ Mairiga said.
‘But how do we get her to eat those leaves, after all we don’t live in the same house? By tomorrow we will all be on our way to our separate homes.’ Larai declared.
‘Don’t worry, I will make sure she eats it before leaving here. First thing in the morning, I will send for the herbs and will personally cook her breakfast and put some inside. You will see how effective it will be in no time.’ Mairiga assured her cousin. A little while later they bade each other good night and went in to sleep. But I wasn’t able to sleep for quite a while. I kept wondering what I did to deserve their evil plot.
In the morning, after I had done my prayer and taken a bath, Mairiga brought me a steaming dish of fish pepper soup with bread. She said she woke up early, specifically to cook for her favourite new in-law.
I only took the tea with a little bread but told her that I never liked fish even in my parent’s home. She couldn’t hide her disappointment but kept on saying if only she knew she would have cooked something else for me. I told her not to worry, that I greatly appreciated her effort.
I became convinced that the evil herb that was meant for me was in the fish when some young relatives asked to be given the pepper-soup but Mairiga refused. I even begged on their behalf but she was adamant that it wasn’t meant for them so she will only give it to her very important wedding guests. Till the time I left the house, about two hours later, no one was given that meal.
On our way home I tried to tell Aminu what happened but he wouldn’t believe me. He kept saying that his people couldn’t be that evil, and that even if Mairiga was, his own sister Larai wasn’t capable of such a thing. In fact he insisted that I must have heard everything wrong, after all I woke up from sleep to hear them talking. But I knew what I heard Aunty Bint. I knew I heard everything correctly. And this is what makes everything so painful, the fact that Aminu wouldn’t believe me.’ Fatima concluded, tearfully.
‘I’m sorry Fatima, but welcome to the world of in-laws. They and close friends of a couple constitute the third force in a marriage. They can either be a force for good or for evil but either way they remain a force to reckon with. It’s obvious that the ones you encountered early in your marriage are the evil force.
You should be grateful to God that you’ve found them out early and then continue praying against their evil as well as their strong influence on your husband. As for him, give him time to digest this and remain on the look-out for another incident, may be next time something similar happens, he will not doubt you. Just have faith and continue to pray to Almighty Allah against their evil designs.’ I advised.