A Miracle for Daddy

By Sunny J Obande

It is Otseme’s seventh birthday and he is happily waiting for Daddy to return from work. He is excited because daddy promised to take him, his sister and their Mummy to have fun at the amusement park. But everything takes a dramatic turn when the family gets the news that Daddy was hit by a car on his way home. In haste, Mummy has to go and be with Daddy at the hospital, so Auntie Rose comes to help look after Otseme and his sister. But will the children be happy in Auntie Rose’s company? Will Daddy survive the accident? Will he be able to fulfill his promise to Otseme? And who is the mysterious man that promises Otseme a miracle?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Accomplish Press
• Release date: Feb 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9780993177101

Sunny J Obande

Obande Sunny Jack was born in 1976. He attended the prestigious Government College Keffi and Kaduna Polytechnic. He has worked as a freelance script writer at various times for the NTA and KSTV (both in Kaduna State).In 2007, his first novel, Agbenu And The Forest Spirits, was traditionally published by Apex Books, Lagos.He is an active member of various writers’ forums, notably YouWriteOn.com and NaijaStories.com, and has published many literary articles with most of them selected as Editor’s picks.He is a staff of the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited, the best positioned Communications Satellite Company in the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa.He is also a fitness freak and loves to watch documentaries and cartoons.He is present working the last few chapters of his next novel.

Book preview

A Miracle for Daddy

Sunny Jack Obande

Accomplish Press

www.accomplishpress.com

Copyright © 2015 Sunny Jack Obande

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used, reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the authors except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews. Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Sunny Jack Obande has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author of this book.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious.

Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

Published in the United Kingdom by Accomplish Press

www.accomplishpress.com

Ebook Edition

First published in 2015

ISBN: 978-0-9571866-8-2

Cover Design: Realdreams Media

ONE

We were not as rich as our neighbours, the Salamis, but we were a happy family. Daddy took very good care of us. He was an honest man. He worked in an office where many Oyibos also worked. Sometimes, these white friends of Daddy’s would come to our house with Daddy and they would play with me and Oyigwe, my older sister. At times, they brought along lots of goody-goody candy, trebors, and chocolates. And sometimes too, they even brought us toys. Oyigwe was once given a doll with curly red hair, and I once received a toy car and a water gun.

People always said that I looked so much like my Daddy. Daddy is light-skinned, tall, and strong like a soldier, so I am proud to look like him. On evenings when he would come home early from work, Daddy would tell me interesting stories about faraway places. He once told me the story of a place called Hiroshima, in Japan. Daddy said it was a place where something called an atomic bomb was dropped many years ago. The atomic bomb killed many children and left several others with some really bad wounds. The story frightened me. For many nights after Daddy told me that story, I kept having nightmares about a bomb exploding.

Daddy also taught me how to pronounce many new words in our Idoma dialect. He taught me how to say ada’m, enem and oinem, meaning my father, my mother and my brother or sister. I even learnt how to say Nmaochi every morning when I woke up.

In exchange for the stories Daddy told me, he would lie down and ask me to scratch his back and crack his big knuckles. Afterwards, he would cuddle me and we would fall asleep in his big iron bed. It was a father-son moment we shared that made me feel safe, loved and well cared for.

Mummy was a caterer who baked delicious cakes and snacks. She often took me with her on her supply runs. One of the shops we visited was the corner shop not too far from our Bagaruwa Avenue house, within the Costain Quarters of Kaduna State. There, Mallam Buhari, the elderly shopkeeper who worked behind the counter of the shop, was always nice to us. Mummy said Mallam Buhari was from Sokoto State. She said people from that part of Nigeria were usually peace-loving people, and were mostly traders. Mallam Buhari was a lanky, tall man who always wore a kaftan. He spoke very fast in Hausa, so I did not understand most of the things he said. But he always had a warm smile and greeted everyone who came into his shop.

On this particular day, Mallam Buhari was behind the counter in his shop, as usual, when Mummy and I showed up. And he had a friendly smile and a greeting waiting for us.

Anz haw iz my little prend, tozzay? he asked me in that funny accent as he handed my Mummy money in exchange for whatever snacks she had supplied to him.

I am fine, thank you sir, I heartily replied, as I always did. It is how Mummy had taught me and my sister to reply to greetings, especially when talking to our elders.

"Bery gwood bwoy.