HEART OF GOLD

CHAPTER 6: DREAM COMES TRUE

On the same bench Alhaji Sani sat earlier today now sat Mr. Alliu reminiscing about his meeting with Alhaji Sani.

Wow! It was like a dream come true. For years he'd been reduced to nothing, like a shadow of his old self, he's only good at relishing his past and bemoaning his lost glory.

Seeing him now, who would ever believed that he was once the then Mr. Alliu, alias Alliu De King - a nickname that used to ring the bell all over Sokoto. 

For a top flying farmer who owned one of the biggest farms in Sokoto specialising on mix cropping with focus on crops like beans, carrots, onions, cucumbers and watermelon, surely, life hadn't been fair to him.

Miriam was just five years old when tragedy struck and he lost everything. He lost his farm to a fire outbreak that swept across his entire farm and neighbouring ones leaving nothing behind at its wake. And all he owned went down the drain. Even his wife left him with three children behind.

Flashback: 

In the bedroom of an apartment, a woman was hurriedly parking her things into a medium sized Ghana must go bag with a baby girl not more than three years seated on the floor crying and a six years boy standing by the door, pasted on his face is a look of confusion. 

The Alliu's family moved in here a month ago when they were forcefully evicted from their three bedroom flat which Mr. Alliu used as a collateral for a bank loan. When things went sour, he couldn't pay back and then the bank came without mercy and threw them out unceremoniously.

Now they were here in a room and parlour apartment in a lonely neighbourhood with bushes as their only companion.

"Kadiyat, what are you doing?" Mr. Alliu came running into the room in the speed of one been chased by a wild animal.

He was seated on a bench outside when Aminatus ran up to him with the news that his wife is parking up her things.

"What does it look like I am doing?" she fired back. "Leaving you of course."

"So na (my love), please don't do this now," he pleaded. "I thought we are over this."

She stopped parking and faced him, "Over what? I told you to do something about the house or I will leave and you didn't take me serious. Now see what happened, they threw us out shamefully and now you expect me to stay in this place with you?" She threw her hands over in disguise.

At this point he knew that there was nothing he could do but to resigned to his fate. He'd pleaded with her to bear with him when he got summoned in court over the bank loan but she went loose like a mad woman, threatening to leave if he does nothing to retain the house. She'd told him then that she was not ready to suffer with him.

"So now you are leaving with my children, how are you going to take care of them?"

"Who said anything about leaving with the children. I'm leaving alone," she resumed parking. "They are you children, so take care of them."

"What! How am I going to do that without their mother?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. Find a way. After all, they are your children, they bear your name.

End of Flashback:

It had always been his dream to return back to farming but the lack of startup capital made him nothing but a poor man with a fat dream.

Now here comes Alhaji Sani with the promise to set him up again at the price of his daughter, Miriam's hand in marriage.

He adjusted his sitting position, then sweep a glance at his surroundings. With face shone and jar dropped, he sat upright and wondered, is this actually happening for real? I never knew dreams do come true. Things like this only happened in the movies. Well, so I thought before now.

But Miriam. . .

His expression gradually transformed, one could see the excitement draining out of his face as his thought shifted to Miriam.

Oh Miriam, a very smart child with a great dream and even a greater drive to pursue it. That child was all that he was not. 

She was very strong willed and her fighting spirit was matchless. She'd been a major support of his household for the past three years.

She never stopped telling him of her dream to be a journalist. He would've understood if she was upset at his inadequacies and inability to sponsor her but her optimism was so palpable that sometimes he couldn't help but share in her light of hope even in his hopelessness.

He often saw her fantasied about being a journalist when she thought no one was watching. His face lit up again with a huge smile like that of a child that just received a Christmas present. Oh how funny of her to think that those little drama of her's were witnessed by no one else but herself. 

As suddenly as it came, the smile was replaced by an expression of sadness. Anytime he saw her in that mode and considered his inadequacies in helping her actualise her dream, it pained him so much and the thought of marrying her out made him feel guilty.

He shrugged off the guilty feeling as he continued down the path of his thought. It was such a shame that those dreams and fantasy would be trampled by the harsh realities of life.

He knew she would be devastated by these turn up of events but it was high time she realises that fate is not fair. It had never delivered to anyone the package of their expectation. It was high time she grew up to the awareness that there is difference between fantasy and reality.

Besides, she's a strong girl, he believed she would do just fine. She better be because no way on earth would he allow this opportunity to pass by. 

He could no more sit and allow his eleven years old daughter shoulder the responsibilities of his household. He hope she would understand that he was doing this for the good of the family.

It's a good thing that Alhaji Sani was financially capable of taking good care of her. She would be safer with him. After all, he had nothing to offer her the way things are with him now and he was a strong believer of the slogan - "good money makes a good home."

A/N: Thanks for reading. I would love to know what's on your mind. 

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