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Miles unending is the depth of the mind. The world can fit in perfectly and the space left won’t hinder its going round.

“Daddy!” Dorothy shouted as she began to run towards me.

I squatted and stretched my arms forward in anticipation with a very broad smile on my face. She ran into my arms and I lifted this very beautiful and weighty demi goddess into the air with a bit more strength than I had judged from her outward appearance. She laughed, giggled and chuckled.

“Aww! Aww!… I’ve missed my princess” I managed to utter between smiles and laughs.

“Missed you too daddy”

“How have you been?”

“I’ve been okay”

We walked to a still double swing, a couple of steps away, sat down and began to talk, updating each other on what we’ve missed while we were apart. We continued one of the sweetest conversation I’ve ever had when someone tapped me from the behind.

It was dark skinned man, must be in his mid-thirties and was nicely chiseled. His wrestlers shoulders were embellished by the light V-neck shirt he wore and his arms were wide and thick. He was wearing a black jean, brown timberland boots and completed the dressing with a black porsche shade.

“Hello?” I said as I turned around and squinted a little from the effect of the sunlight.

“Hey… Are you done talking to my daughter?” He said with a husky voice and removed his shades to look straight into my eyes. The fact that I was seating and him standing, made his position somewhat intimidating.

Dorothy didn’t say a word.

“Err… Err…” I was still stammering when my phone began to ring. “Hold on” I said and began searching for my phone. I couldn’t find it on me but I could hear it ring.

I turned to Dorothy.

“Have you seen my phone dear?”

She responded by shaking her head. The ringing got louder and louder until…

…I woke up with a start.

“Arrgghh!” I groaned. “This… is why I hate observing siesta. Your mind turns whatever you’re thinking about into a motion picture and adds some stupid, low cost scenes.”

My phone rang again.

“Hello?”

“Sup bro”

“Nothing much. How are you feeling now?”

“Never been better sir. I feel happy and I’ll be back to a hundred percent fitness in no time. Believe me.”

“Thank God for that. My regards to madam.”

“Yea. Sure. Take care bro.”

“Later man.”

I let out a huge sigh of relief and thought of how fast life had seem within the last couple of days. I’m working on getting engaged to a single mom. I’m planning missions for my crush to save my ex’s relationship. I almost lost my friend to a club brawl… Now I’m going to have to either find a way to stop Dorothy’s dad from ripping mother and daughter apart or step back to allow him do whatever he wants. Except for argument’s sake, they are his immediate nuclear family. Regardless of whether they like it or not, there is still the ties that bind.

Dorothy was spending the second week with Lizzy’s aunt. Lizzy had lost her mum two weeks after her eighteenth birthday and Aunt Sarah was the only woman to have taken responsibility for her survival first, then her education and other needed requirements to keep her body, mind and spirit together in her own capability. Liz had told me she was the only woman who was there for her when Dorothy’s dad had impregnated her and fled.  She was with her at the hospital at the point of delivery and since then, she had fallen in love with the little human being, even before she was given a name.

“…Without Aunt Sarah, I don’t know where I would’ve been.” She had said one time. When Tammy was down with fever and she wasn’t responding to treatment, she had taken her to church and brought her back hale and hearty. There was no other place she could think of for the safety of her priceless asset, since the return of the man who would just have to be tagged ‘A father’ but never ‘A dad’.

“…He suddenly called me one evening like that and I thought it was you. Then next I heard was his voice and I just couldn’t hang up although I wished to the universe that I could. Then he started apologizing and begging. Saying he realizes all his mistakes and he’s really sorry. That I should just try and forgive him. That he’s ready to make everything right and whatever I asked him to do, he’s ready to do it. I asked him if he expects me to believe what he’s saying and he said it’s true.

Although he sounded sincere and truthful, I can’t allow myself to be fooled again. So I told him I’ll need time to go think about what he said but in the meantime, he’s such an imp. The next thing he said was what scared me. He kept on insisting that whatever the price to make it right was, he’s ready to pay it.

Then I told him he can’t even start making it right from thousands of miles away and if he had just hit a big money and thinks sending money is what I’m in need of, he’s gravely mistaken cos I’m living comfortably with my daughter and giving her the best I could give. Then he said he had already taken the first step to redemption. He said he’s no more thousands of miles away and he had traveled all the way down, just to really drive home the fact that he is really sorry. I was shocked to my marrow and had I not seen something to hold on to, I would have slumped.

Jay, he’s been around for a week, searching for my contact everywhere and from everyone he knows might be able to help out, before finally contacting Bimbo. My roommate during university days. I don’t know why that one didn’t contact me first before giving him my number and allowing him back into my life. I don’t care much if he’s truly sorry but I can’t take chances with my daughter. That’s all I have in the whole world and I can’t let a wolf in sheep’s clothing come from nowhere and snatch her away from me. Not even after all he put me through.

He’s just not coming any close to my daughter and I’ll never disclose her whereabouts to a stranger cos for now, that’s what he is. I don’t know his plans, I don’t know his mission, I don’t know if he has changed or if he’s still the old screw up I knew him to be. Not like I care though but my topmost mission is to keep my daughter away from any intruder and kidnapper and I’ve explained that in details to Aunt Sarah. I’ve told her if anything happens to my baby, she’ll instantly give birth to another one for me.

If he’s sorry, let him be sorry. I’m not even angry anymore. Those days have passed and God himself has wiped my tears. What more do I want to complain of?… I live in an apartment I pay the yearly rent from my own pocket, I eat the food I want and not the one I see, I provide for my daughter whatever she needs and teach her morals and how to grow up not only to be a woman of class and high standards but to strictly avoid the mistakes I made during my own time… I’m just scared Jay. I’ve suffered and suffered over Damilola and I’ll just kill myself if anything should happen to her or if one human should come from nowhere and start claiming daughter.

If it’s to take her and run away to one remote village where nobody will see us and start our lives all over again, I would without any questions or hesitations. I’m scared… So scared Jay… So scared.”

She had busted in a fresh round of tears. And still in my silence, I drew her closer and gave her some reassuring pats while a thousand thoughts flowed through my mind.

                        ****************

“If she was not motivated about her ‘mission’, she shouldn’t have just gone AWOL. She should’ve told me and I’ll know the next step” I thought to myself as the over elongated church service was about coming to a close and I still couldn’t spot Kate in the crowd, no matter how much I twisted and turned my neck. I knew she was in the crowd somewhere but it was just like she had put herself in ‘camouflage mode’ to avoid the disturbance and inconvenience that would result from the contact of my prying eyes.

After service, I kept on walking slowly towards my car while twisting my head here and there, all to no avail. I shrugged and just as I grabbed the driver side car handle to pull back and open the door, I got a slight tap on the shoulder.

“Ah!… Kate!”

The kind of reply she gave me was indeed surprising cos without saying a word, she just drew me over and gave me a very warm hug like old buddies reconnecting after ages.

“I’m sorry bro.” She said just before she let go and allowed me to breathe.

“I was thinking you just decided to go off the grid for reasons best known to you.”

“No sir. I wouldn’t do that… I just returned from Abuja on Friday.”

The look on my face was beyond astonished as I replied…

“Abuja?!”

“Yes!… And I have both good news and bad news sir”

“Really?”

“Yep. So which do you wanna hear first?”

I thought for a while, what the good and bad news might be. I rolled my eyes, bent my back, racked my brain and got no clue. So I shrugged and replied.

“Let’s hear the bad news first.”

The wailing and loss of the farmer is indeed the cream of the party for the crows.