THE WALK

I heard her bend and whisper something to Mama that night.Mama turned to me.Streams of flowing water running down her cheek told me all wasn’t well.Then she slowly stretched her hands and held my fist tight.She struggled to mutter some words to me.All I could hear was “Goodbye child.I love you and I cry for I won’t be there to put the bridge for you to walk through.I am going and I wish you well on your walk” and one more breath counted as her last.At 14 years I had watched Pa and Ma sleep stiff.It was a dark and cold night with the timidly shinning lantern not being able to portray its prowess all through the dark thatched house we lived in.It had been rarely lively since Papa died.The moon refused to watch a day like this so did I refuse to stand a moment like this.I ran into the dark night.Too many questions to ask with no one to answer.Sitting outside, under the great Iroko tree which had seen my ancestors come and go, in my old pair of shorts and barefeets with a loin tied around my body was a young man with nothing but Great sorrow diluted with hopes and dreams and tears parallel to the mucus from my nostrils.It was a poor and small dispersed settlement village but the little thatched school i attended kilometers away made my dreams live out of it.I sat there watching day break before me.The sun shown from a completely blue sky when i saw four men walk towards me.They had prepared a place at the back of our small thatch to burry her.One said “son, your Ma was an ordinary farmer but good in heart and we want you to join us bury her’.From the Iroko tree to the burial ground was the most sorrowful walk I had to undertake.Everyone came talking to me but I dwelled my mind on what will happen after all was said and done.The day ran so fast and became slower as the people retired to their homes and when evening was near and everybody gone it was as if it didn’t want to move again.I walked into the house looking at it’s thinly roofed ceiling which had engulfed a whole lot of misery.Thoughts clouded my mind as I laid to rest on Ma’s mat with a few old clothes to support my head.I was a one man standing in a world of people who didn’t believe a boy of fourteen could need anymore help.I tried to understand mama’s last words.I could easily understand her when she meant I had no one to put a bridge before me to walk on but then knowing the walk I had to take from that moment became confusing and frustrating.When I was eight years old, Pa had told me a story about life in the cities reiterating the fact that that’s where all dreams of superstars come true.I had from then thought of superstar as the highest profession one could have or aspire to be.I knew the village could not contain my dreams of being a famous superstar.I told myself my parents may have died ordinary farmers but I am going to be a great superstar.That night I decided to take a WALK.It was dark and i couldnt pack all my bags but there were some bags I packed that night even in the dark.It was the bag of determination, the bag of hope, the bag of faith and the bag of being a famous superstar.It had to be the longest walk of my life but i slept being ready for it.Early next morning I took two trousers, the best mama could afford for me and three shirts which had been a donation from missionaries who once came visiting the nearby village.I used Mama’s old leather bag to carve out a portion for my feet to tread on for I knew the journey to be long one.I went to the back of the house and I placed the clothes selected on the last bag of yams in the house, intending to sell and hold a little cash for the long quest of being a famous superstar.Looking at mama’s grave I felt a moment of deep sorrow with tears mixed with pain expressed on my cheeks.I told her “Mama I will work HARD. I will put the bridges on my path and I will walk the path and when many will have used the bridges I laid, then will it be known that a the son of poor ordinary farmers fought through destiny and became a famous superstar so wish me well again mama as I set out to the unknown.I love you Mama”.I locked the doors and carried my bags crying along the way.No one I met along the way wished me well but I had the confidence deep within me that if mama alone can wish me well then all will be well and if Papa was alive he would have done same.One of the four men who buried my mum saw me pass by and came running after me.I turned thinking he will atleast give me a climpse of what encouragement looks like.He walked up to me and said “you have nothing and are nobody and where do you carry bags heading to instead of trying to hunt and farm something to eat and survive”.Feeling like crying again I looked him straight to the eye and siad “ i have nothing and am nobody but I have hopes and dreams and will take this last WALK to one day be the biggest superstar.” He laughed mockingly as he turned walking away reiterating the words “Hopes and dreams….. Superstar”.

That day i took a walk from many things to find my destiny and I am still searching for that destiny.In a world with just hopes, dreams and a knowledge of where you come from YOU can still find your destiny.You may reshape it but keep on walking.In determination, hope and faith we will keep putting and walking on the bridges till we reach that destiny.I havent given up so don’t you dare give up.TAKE THE WALK.