Series Of Unfortunate Events SWC (II Entry)

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It happened here in plateau state Nigeria, I was just 7 years old as at then. My dad was serving in the Nigeria army. It was during the military regime and there is this saying in the army that once you join the Nigeria army your life is no longer yours. What this implies is that the moment you join the Nigeria army you can be posted anytime, you can be called upon at anytime of the day to a carry out an official duty, you can be taken away from your family for a long time to serve in another state or on a battle field.

It was on a Friday of august 1993, my dad just came back from work, after he pulled off His uniform, He decided to take a short nap on the couch in the parlor, mum was preparing dinner in the kitchen, after a while dad woke up and called my mum from the kitchen and said this exact words to her “if my dad (i.e talking about my grand pa) did not die this year He is going to be older than Methuselah” shortly after He received a letter from the village stating that my grand pa was very ill and that grand pa wanted to see my dad as the first son and I think He wanted to bless Him or tell Him something very important before He die. Immediately He got to the office the next day, He took permission from his immediate boss to travel down to the village to see His dad but out of wickedness, His immediate boss decline his leave request, He tried again and was rejected, He kept trying and even went to see His immediate boss to explain the situation to Him but once again the warrant officer rejected His plead. At this point, there was nothing He could do and any attempt to travel without an official permit, it will be said that He has gone AWOL i.e (away without leave or permission) and so, he could
be court martial or eventually be dismissed fro the Nigeria army without any benefit whom he has given about fifteen
years of His years to.

Now there was little or nothing He could do, after three weeks of continual denial of request. He got to work one morning and out of anger went straight to the warrant officers office and angrily said to Him that He is a wicked man that doesn’t have sympathy, there and then they started arguing that every body in the building could hear their voices and the warrant officer ordered that he should be locked up and while the soldiers He requested came in to take my dad to the guard room, a senior ranked officer came In and asked why they were disturbing the the peace of the environment, then the warrant officer explained his part of the story then followed by my dad. The senior officer then ordered them both to report to his office, my dad got there first follow by the warrant officer, then shortly the senior officer came in to join them, there the senior officer ordered that the clerk be sent for and when the clerk arrived He ordered Him to go draft a 2 weeks letter of leave for my dad, the warrant officer was furious and full of rage but there was nothing He could do because the order came from his superior and the senior officer dismissed the both of them.
Now immediately my dad came home that evening, He started preparing for his trip to see His sick father and by 8pm He was on His way to our village.

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After traveling about 900km, He saw a light traffic and suddenly there was sporadic gun shots in the air, and vehicles in front of Him were turning back as soon as they heard that it was armed robbers that were robbing in front of them. Now when this robbers saw that the vehicles were turning back, they started shooting at this vehicle and suddenly my dad got hit and was in comma for 3days, when He came out of comma, He asked where He was and they told him that he was in the hospital that he was hit by the bullets from the robbers. He told them to discharge him but they wouldn’t , the doctor said He is not fit to be discharged, when they saw that he was stubborn and was going to leave, they hand cuffed him to His sick bed. The next morning when the nurse came to give Him His drugs, He called her and pleaded with her to release Him but she refused, He then explained how He ended up in this incident, then the nurse had compassion on Him and later that night she arranged for my dad’s escape.

My dad find a way to his car and continued His journey. After traveling about 800km He finally got to the village. It was about 3pm in the afternoon of the sixth day after He was granted permission to travel from His place of work. His sister i.e my aunt came to welcome Him and immediately, He requested that they should take Him to see His grand pa. when He got there, baba (grand pa) was on His sick bed, now when baba saw His son there was a sharp smile on baba’s face, they were both happy to see each other, my dad hurried to hug babaon his sick bed and they both busted into tears. By this time baba was already lean and could not talk anymore, my dad immediately requested for His transfer to another hospital. But yet the situation was still the same, baba could only move His hands but nobody understood what baba was trying to say, about four days later baba died and couldn’t say what He wanted tell my dad before He died, my dad, my dad soon prepare to return back home, He was in deep grieve, as He was coming from the village, He was some few kilometers away from home when He got into an accident, His car was write off but He survive the accident with some bruises, some people assisted Him out vehicle and brought Him home.

It was on a Friday evening, my mum treated him and told Him that when He left, she had a terrible dream about Him and she had been praying for Him, and on Monday morning when my dad resumed work, the warrant officer called Him to his office and asked Him what happened to Him while He was away, then my dad explained all that happened while He was away, the warrant officer then said to my dad that He did not expect Him to return alive, that he was expecting His corpse, and he finished the conversation by saying that from the day He traveled he charmed Him not to return alive….