It's a bright summer sky over the farming fields of West-East Africa. Mama suddenly stopped working, stood stationary, and then slowly lifted her face towards the bright beautiful morning heavens. Her action caught my attention, as I sat down under an Oil-bean tree and watched her every move. I was only eight years old, neither the first nor the last of her five children left with her by her husband to cater for all by herself and without a job. It will take yet another eight years before I myself would begin to understand only the surface of what has already happened. Mama gazed intently right into the heavens as if she was starting to see the one whom all religions of the world claim to worship but has failed to behold his physical face. I quickly grasped the turn of events, and the stimuli they sent into my brains activated a tiny camcorder seated in there which started recording motion pictures and sounds that has only become indelible.
About sixty seconds has passed by, mama is still motionless and her head has not tilted an inch. Suddenly, she gave the heavens a very soft smile. That smile was so full of meaning that the heavens accelerated its brightness. It was as if the skies above understood all the unspoken words. That smile also preceded a sudden fall of her countenance. Even my young and naïve mind could quickly write the drama unfolded thus far between mama and the heavens -
Mama: hello God, are you there?
God: oh yes, as always!
Mama: it's truly not a happy day for me today...
As I watched with keen interest, I noticed that her fallen countenance also preceded an immediate fall on the heaven's countenance as well. It looked as if the bright nine a.m. weather jumped three hours backwards. I and my two older siblings were beginning to be terrified. We instinctively pulled ourselves together in a queue and matched slowly towards her, then we surrounded her each one of us grabbing a tiny part of her long sleeveless gown. She stood her ground, her posture- unchanged!
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