INI'S LETTER

TO YOU,
It's been a while and I haven't heard back from you so I thought to write you a letter just to let you know how things have been.
Exactly 22 yrs ago today, i received a sealed enveloped addressed to me from a post master 4 days to my 10th birthday. The joy I had on receiving an envelop from a post master knew no bounds; I suddenly became popular,  every child my age wanted to be like me. Do you know what I did after I got the letter? I took it round where I lived,  showing it off to other kids my age with a smile across my face that could be used as a bridge from here to where you are.
When I finally opened it, Every body gathered around me to see what the content was. In it was a birthday card & 50 naira (22 years ago that was good money). Though excited, I couldn't help but wish that dad was home.
My father was attending a course in Lagos at a time when the June 12 election was just annulled & there was so much anxiety in the air, the gist that another violent civil war was being cooked rent the air like the aroma from my mums kitchen when preparing her special fruit cake. And mom? She had left the house 3 days earlier because her Expected Due Date for my last brother was 2 days away. I wished she was there too, she always knew how to make me spend all my money well.
  Well,  from that money, my elder brother could pay his transport to School where he was a junior student for 2 more days, even though he had to go by way of speed boat. We could still not afford road transportation. Secondly, I brought a packet of Yale cabin biscuit , because it had just come to the market & was more sweetened & cheaper than Oxford. I also got a cup of fried groundnut & a crate of soft drinks to celebrate with friends.
I still had 12 naira left but my older sister bullied & took it from me in a bid to end my reign as the latest celebrity, she said it was for up keep (but I know better).  "One day, I'll be big too and no one would be able to bully me",  was all I could think on after the money was taken. 

Many years have come & gone, the journey to this point has been longer than I thought & not without many twist & turns, but at many of those twist & turns  your kindness & love has always decorated them like a beautiful  icing on my mum's fruit cake. I could have turned back at some point on the journey, because there were many times when the journey was truly rough with pains, hunger,sickness, tears, sadness & loneliness etc like the time I was ill for a whole year. Mom and dad were worried and the doctors didn't know the cause. It was funny because as the illness came,  so it went. Oh and there was another time when all I could eat was dries cassava called garri . It wasn't mine at the time,  I was to keep it for someone but I had no food of my own and would have died if I didn't eat it. That was my meal till God blessed me with real food. There was also a time when I got kicked out of my apartment by the landlady for no reason at all and I had to sleep in a classroom for a while. None of my classmates knew about this until after I got a place to rest my head. In all these,  I resolved to move ahead, because some persons like you  in your kindness encouraged me. You have been a blessing to me in many very special ways, you have played a major role in my success story. In some days from today, I'll be a lawyer, and I'm grateful for your support. I'm  a year older; many things have changed, mom isn't expecting another baby, (what if she is?) dad isn't at Lagos anymore, he is enjoying his latter age in Port Harcourt, the annulment of the June 12 elections is not causing anxiety & panick  in Nigeria; my brother is no longer using the speed boat nor is he still in school (he is a big man now). But one thing has refused to change, YOUR GENUINE ACTS OF LOVE & KINDNESS.  Words may not be able to express how much I appreciate you.
I'll sum it up by saying THANK YOU and GOD BLESS YOU.  You are always appreciated. Posterity will not forget you in a hurry.
                                                 Love,  Ini.

WRITTEN BY: OKON, INIOBONG.
EDITED BY: FICTIONS.