One of my best childhood memories was when my dad came back from a trip to France. I think I must have been seven or eight years old. I woke up on an upbeat mood. I was so happy and anxious at the same time as I patiently sat by the window looking out for him. The minute I saw the car pulling up the driveway and my dad alighting, I quickly jumped on my feet and in a split second I was at the door and running down the stairs of our apartment block.
Midway down the stairs, I tripped and fell down with my chin hitting square and hard at the ledge of the stairway window. Because of the speed at which I was going, you can only imagine the impact! That impact resulted in a open split chin and a deep tongue bite! Gosh! The pain was excruciating!
As basic instinct would have it, I immediately let out a sharp shrill of pain and cried out loud! I sat there for a few seconds to comprehend as to what had just happened. I then remembered why I was running down the flight of stairs. I shot up immediately. Tears, mucus, blood stained and all as I called out "DADDY..." Dad on the hand was startled by the spine chilling cry and ran up to the entrance of our apartment block.
We met just at the entrance at the start of the stairway. The look on his face was that of a worried parent who is equally sorry for the accidental hurt I had just incurred. You can only imagine the tears, mucus and blood on his clean clothes! All these are immaterial to a parent whose baby has gotten hurt, especially at that impact at which it all happened.
He held me in a tight embrace then pulled me back to see the extent of the accident as he soothed and comforted me, all at the same time. When he saw the deep open wound on my chin and tongue, we immediately turned back to the car that dropped him, straight to the hospital. I was taken in at the Emergency Casualty entrance and received a few stitches after cleaning and anesthesia of course.
When we finally got home a few hours later, I had already calmed down but was spotting a swollen chin and tongue. I was still high on the thought of seeing and receiving my present(s) and that kept the pain at bay coupled up with the dose of painkillers. My elder bro and I anxiously waited for our presents. My dad first gave us clothes but the show stopper was two real-life sized white toy doves! ...with a remote control!!!
Boy oh boy you shoulda seen how our eyes lit up! The sight was magical! They were as white as snow and just the thought of buying white toys for your toddlers begs the question, "What were you thinking...?" It must've excited him too and just couldn't imagine the same for us. He took us through step by step on how to operate the doves to fly while moderating the speed and finally let us try them out. Excitement nayo!!!!! :-)))))
That moment, right there, is one of my exciting and unforgettable eventful childhood memory! I still spot the scar on my chin and tongue as a constant reminder of the events on that day. In all honesty... All this is an effort to distract my mind off the election tallying results! Funny yeah?... ;-))))
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