Kiki and the Bird

Not so long ago, there lived a young boy by the name Tikiki. he is a father right now and has gone through a very wonderful life. but am sure that you boys and girls have met a Tikiki somewhere. maybe, you have done things like those he used to do.

Mr Tikiki is my uncle, do you have an uncle? has he ever told you a story? uncle Tikiki tells me stories and you should ask your uncle to tell you sweet stories too. today, he is going to tell you and i a story so, let us sit still and listen to one of the sweet uncle Tikiki's stories.

'I was a young boy just like my nephew here is. about four years or slightly older. we lived i the village where we could get a lot of clay to mold. I am told that you boys and girls model with plasticine. I loved to model. Most of the boys and girls my age did too.

I could model cars, and people. It was always fun modeling mama, daddy and my little sister. but my sister Phina never loved the sight of my models' of her. they would make her to get into fits and cry herself out. this never stopped me from modeling her though it earned me so many beatings from my mom. dad never cared, or maybe it is because he was seldom home. He was always busy not like now that even your mama's get busy and you can carry your mischief though don't tell her I said so.

I loved to watch the television too. but in our days, the television only showed black and white. It was still thrilling but am sure I would have loved it more if it had colour. We never had a television set of our own but that was never a problem. Our neighbours would always let me into their home to watch with them. Phina loved it every time there was a bird series going on or a favourite cartoon series that i enjoyed.

this would always be her point of retaliation about my modeling of her long nose. she has a long nose Now and please do not let her know that I said her nose used to be long. maybe it just like appearing long in my models. She could tell my mom about my watching TV at the neighbours. I can not say what would follow but all you boys and girls who have parent that have bought TV in the home, say thank you to mama and daddy because of that. okay?

Good. my fascination with birds never died with the lashes though. I wanted to know how birds managed to fly. No one could ever tell me this and it kepd nagging me. everyone I asked told me that only the birds knew why and how they could fly. It made me to long more to be like a baird. to have a secret that many did not have and wished to know. But only the birds could tell me the secret.

Everyday, I tried to find a bird to make friends with. I needed a revelation of the secret badly. I wanted to fly. fly in the air spread my wings and go away. where mama could not reach me with her lashes. I wondered if the birds could talk, all I needed was a bird of my own. with no option, of ever getting close to any bird, I had to mold a bird for myself.

I now had a bird. just my own but it could not speak, and flying, is a story for another day.

But my story does not end there, it has grown with Kiki. at frist I used to wonder why they gave him my name. but today, as we walked in the garden and he forced me that he needed a bird of his own, I knew why. We both desire to fly. but something tragic happened,

I managed to get a bird for Kiki but as he held the breathing bird in his hands, the warmth from it must have scared him. He kept squeezing the bird it almost fainted. I had to rescue the poor bird to see if it could be our friend and tell us the story about flying. But that never was, our sweet little bird died. probably to keep their secret conceled.

Now I know, that birds never speak, and I will never fly. But Kiki's tears, took me so many years back and I had to console him with a story of my own experience. of a life I lived and a longing that will never die in me. I hope boys and girls, that you would learn to make decisions which are not out of reach as you grow up, but those you would be able to achieve. Do not desire wings, to fly fast through your life, just take a stride at a time in the light of the Lord and you will get there. It is time for play now.......

Thank you uncle Tikiki for your wonderful story. I have stopped looking for wings and birds. they cant talk and I will never grow wings to fly. but you should not have told them that I have been crying about a bird. Now everyone is laughing at me.