Father's Day

  I don't know but memories of my father makes a part of me shrink a little, so many mornings and nights, I see his face fade away, it has began to blur. But I remember his face was dark-skinned - the color of the bottom of my pot of burnt food, and covered in beards, along his jawline. Whenever he smiled, his cheeks swell up steadily and open his white teeth, it looked identical to the way I smiled now.
   One of my fondest memories with my father was reading the papers every morning. He brought mostly Vanguard; I loved reading the Saturdays editorials and played Sudoku at the back of the newspaper. The old newspapers were piled up on a stool and used to make flower cones or go to the toilets. Sometimes I cut some parts of the papers to cover my books with torn book covers.

   When I imagine my father, it reminds me of how he can make pap with no lumps and bake garri so perfectly that it isn't neither too strong or soft-that a ball of garri can't go down your throat or it couldn't form into a ball. It tells how much I didn't take this from him pertaining to my poor kitchen skills. Even when I remember how I burn my yam and plantains.

 I love sitting on the steps of the Veranda to wait for my father because he leaves so early and came back late so many nights. He brought suya wrapped in old newspapers for us almost every night.

 I never had washed my father's jeans _he wears a pair for three or four days, maybe because he never liked me to break a nail over things. He will call me 'sample', and ask me those days when I cried because I didn't want to eat the soup for dinner what I wanted to eat. Tuck at my cheeks and call me sweet names.

  Knowing how much he used to worry about us, and say things like "I will go naked so that you girls will have the best education" brings me to tears. He made me the tough girl I have become. I believe in so many things because of him. I believe in self worth and confidence because of him. Before boys started calling me 'pretty' he had  told me that every single day. I am not afraid I am not enough for any man, I was enough for my father.

  "There Is so much love I had of you and it will never slow down. Wish you could stay with me. But you are always on my mind." Happy Father's Day.