FATHER’S EMBRACE

The sun creeped behind the darkness of the clouds, hiding its face from the earth. Not that it didn’t want to shine any longer, for though it was half-passed six in the evening the skies were still bright, but because it time had simply run out.

The evening was taking its rightful place, tummies run out of energy and the demands for food was the order of the moment.

For a moment the whole compound of the house was hot, filled with heat from sources of fire that the various rooms, within the compound house, used in preparing supper.

However, the compound was still manageable due to the enticing aromas evenly diffused into the atmosphere.

And man oh man!, hunger had completely caught up with my little brother and I, because daddy had not yet returned home

Living in a room of three people, myself, my little brother and my dad, our supper period alternated with the times that daddy reported home.

Hurray daddy is home, time to eat.. Night had already dawned on us, so we had no choice than to buy food outside.

So my brother and I went out to get food. Guess what food was desiring to a Ghanaian child, located in the Greater Accra region. We came back home with two balls of banku with pork meat, each. (Banku is a local dish prepared from mixing and cooking of maize and corn dough).

By the next 20 minutes I had done justice to the food and about to lay hands on the pork meat, since I always finished eating whatever food am given before chewing the fish as a young boy of nine years old.

Just after grabbing the meat with my teeth, about to crash it open, my jaws started shifting opposite each other in the horizontal plane. And all of a sudden, I was 99% poliomyelitis patient without any know cause.

My tongue drew back inside my throat, making my speech hard to identify what is being said. My hands, neck and legs started crumbling opposite each other and I lost control over my motor neurotic actions.

Those 45 minutes of the night of 15th July, 2001 has remained the most frantic moment of my whole life.

But, hallelujah!!!, my dad was right indoors and when he heard of what supervened, he bolted out with a strong, choleric, parental spirit.

He grabbed me in between his arms, gave me a hostile embrace and shook me like a local medicinal suspension that needs a thorough shaking before drinking.

Guess what, just as the poliomyelitis zoomed in from nowhere, it likewise detonated out of me to nowhere. Ha!

To be frank, I have never been that frightened before, and the first five minutes after that event was the most relieving period of my life.. It sounded like been snatched from the pit of death to life.

Hallelujah!!!. This is my testimony. Prayer works and so is the spirit of a father strong enough to protect their children.. I would love it if you could join me say a big thank you to my dad..

#Prince Joe#