I 'LL TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

AM I STILL LIVING? (2)

Being placed on a table-like raise frame, I was directed to face a fierce glowing bulb as I was lying faced upwards. I became oblivious of all things that transpired while in the hospital. The next place i found myself was in the house as I woke up and saw my elder brother sitting beside me. It was now time for me to eat. I did not realize that I had no mouth to eat until I tried to have a taste of food presented to me. It then became a tug of war feed to my satisfaction dye to excruciating pain I felt while trying to open my mouth eat. All my milk teeth were in a sorry state. However, as the days went by, I started having relief from the painful sensation. Courtesy of my elder brother Johnson who kept dabbing some parts of my body with hot water. That really quickened my recovery.

My father, as a civil servant, went to office early and came back late on daily basis except on Sundays and Saturdays. This working condition of his never granted me the pampering treatment I deserved from him, except in the night I went to bed with him. But I always got all the denied pampering in the night hour when I would be waking up in the middle of the night, asking him for bread or cup of tea. He never said no to my requests.

On one of his work-free days, my father got in conversation with one of his friends who visited him. As an infant, I was fond of being in my father's hairy bossom while he curdled me. It was in this curdling occasion that I heard my father narrating to his visitor how I free-fell from the balcony of our apartment. He told the visitor that I was lucky enough to fell into the second balcony downwards. 'It happened that he was resting in his bedroom', he said. 'I felt a great vibration in the whole building that I got startled. That was followed by shouting and yelling of people around. I had to rush out to know what really caused the great vibration'. Getting to the balcony, i met my elder son who that James my little son fell from the balcony and entered into the balcony of the second floor of the building downwards'. 'Finally, this boy had ended his life', said my father.