And so is Life...

You could say I lived a crazy life for a man so young my age, the kind of life that made me question my faith. Now I’m looking back just wondering where the time has gone but I guess that’s the price I have to pay, I’ve been through it all and you won’t ever see me cry if tomorrow never comes. Growing up in this wild city you had to fight or run and so you know why am not afraid.

We walked from the field that Friday evening as our plans for that Friday were already complete, my three friends and I sat on Terrance’s swapping ideas on how we were to spend our Saturday holidays. Suddenly I saw the sun ravishing light drifting across the tropical blue sky like a mountainous bonfire as the outlets of the vast bodies beneath the earth open, all the floodgates had been opened as it rained cats and dogs.

As it rained the thought of getting home late struck my mind, I got up from where I had sat, waved at my friends, and zoomed at a terrific speed to my residence. On my arrival, I tiptoed to my room, took a towel, rushed to the bathroom, and took a bath. In a thrush of a ducktail, I was already in my pajamas in the sitting room, sitting on a clumsy couch watching television. my mother came in holding a hotpot which bared a sweet-scented delicacy as I greeted her and she replied with her sweet motherly voice. as we conversed a mother-to-son friend conversation, I had violent noise at the main gate which got to alert me.

As I was about to open the main gate, I met my dad who was drunk to his fill, I greeted him and he replied gently as I opened the door for him. He got in and picked a quarrel with my nanny as I run and begged him “please dad, isn’t this shaming? May we go and speak inside the house”. As we got inside the house my father uncontrollably shouted at my mother, in their quarrel I had that my father had heard from neighbor’s gossips that my mum was having an affair.

As they were quarreling they started wrestling with each other as I got between them to separate them, my dad got up with fury and rage as I received uncountable blows and kicks which made me scowled in pain and fell with a thud. Still brave and courageous, I got up and tried to plead with him gently “please, please and please dad, stop doing this”, but instead of calming, I was given a super deli blow which sent me kissing the innocent ground. I got up confused like a rat in a boxing arena, left in sixes and sevens not knowing what to do. Due to frustration I got up and run as if chased by thousand unseen demons. Outside our house was the neighborhood who had gathered watching the two as they tore each other apart.

On my arrival at my uncle’s residence, I got inside and reported the scene to him as I met eyeball to eyeball with him as we rushed back to the scenery, on our arrival my father was nowhere to be seen; only my mum was down on the floor dressed in a neat bloody dress. Without ignorance nor negligence, my uncle phoned 911 and within a fraction of a second, the ambulance had arrived as we rushed my mum to the hospital. Upon our arrival, my mother was rushed to the intensive care unit where she received medical treatment. Inside the waiting room, I was huffing and puffing vehemently like a wounded animal, the thought of the fresh red soil was a fact too much for me to bear. After an hour or so, the doctor came in and told us that my mum was stable and we could go and see her.

Inside the patient room, I saw my mother sleeping. I pulled myself close to her and held her hands as I uttered a word of prayer. As I was about to say amen she woke up and called me with a faint voice. “Gift, Gift, Gift my son, do not cry since the Lord is on our side. Tears of despondency slowly cascade down my visage living me as weak as a frail. After one month, my mother was discharged as we left for home. On our arrival, we found both kinsmen from my papa’s and momma’s side accompanied by my father inside our house sitter, as we sat on the couch, as the two discussed the issue at hand in front of the elders. After a very long serious conversation, the elders concluded that my parents were to divorce.

Surely, it was a bitter pill to swallow but I had to swallow but I had to go with the terms of the elders and the rude reality that things were never to be the same again, but I then asked myself why should I cry over spilled water. I then saw my father getting inside his room packing up his belongings as I rushed to him and held him tightly never to let go, “please, please daddy don’t leave us”. But he replied “son, it comes a time in life when a man is thought to do what is not ought to do” I did not understand the meaning of his saying but I got the feeling that my father desired time to think before taking any actions. After a spur of the moment, my father carried his luggage ready to exit from the door as sting tears rolled down my visage temporarily blinding me as I called out “dad…”