Secrets Untold

    It was the fifteenth day of the month of April 2012, the very first day Mr Selman Danfiki was rebirthed into the Northern part of Nigeria. It was like he was starting life all over. Like a new born baby capturing its first light upon entering into this world, Danfiki's eye sight was blurred and at intervals he tried to refocus his sight in order to make clearer where he actually was. When it finally got clearer, he was welcomed with an holy presence of all white apparels and walls, that made him feel he was in the heavenly, being attended to by cherubs and seraphs on his allocated bed. Later he would be informed by his doctors and nurses that he was a victim of a devastating terrorist attack, which put him in a coma for two and a half months. What made his misery worse was when he was told that he lost his wife and children to such attack and that he was the only survival. After these news was broken to him, the doctor barely finished what he was saying when every thing around Mr Danfiki seized, even if he was breathing fine, he felt a stop in his heart beat, he earnestly prayed and hoped that all that was broken to him was a lie. He was later nudged back to the hospital, back from wherever he went to, with a warmth touch of one of the nurses who encouraged him to be strong. For days Danfiki tried to recollect how the incident happened, yet none came to memory, which left him with even more questions. Some days after his recovery , he was discharged. He stood at the entrance of the hospital a little longer than normal. Not that he was waiting the arrival of a family or friend to pick him up. He had no where at the top of his head to go to, or any vivid family relations to call and reunite with. If not for his doctor's generosity , he would have had no money that would last him two weeks before he would get comfortable with his new life. With all these, Danfiki decided to go back to the beginning, the beginning where it all started. Where his already prosperous life plummeted to nothing. He decided to go back to the building where it all went down.

    With the little directions he gathered from his hospital, he called a taxi, which took him to the place of the incident . Still there was nothing, he could have sworn that he had no recollections of the roads his vehicle passed, but he was still hopeful that somehow, something miraculous would happen.Even when Danfiki came down from his taxi, he found it harder recollecting to memory any past event, for the present exterior of the building looked nothing like his then massive and sophisticated bungalow which was situated at the very spot his taxi dropped him off. All he could see before him was a private owned café by one Mr Mohammed as written on it sign board mounted atop it roofing, it was opened to the public and at intervals people trooped in to get what ever the café offered. Inwardly , he praised the architect who reconstructed this building. The miracle he long awaited came when he entered into the café. He sensed little or no change done to the building's interior. After a long glimpse he knew nothing was changed, and the demarcations for each rooms of the café looked similar to that of his then bungalow. All that was replaced were the settings and furnitures for it to fit the description of a café. Suddenly his mushed memory was ignited with flashes of his past life. Like he has been to the building before. As Danfiki examined on, somewhere caught his attention. It was the section of the café's counter. For a moment his eye stood there and that place struck like the living room where his family once gathered to watch TV, play family games, have their morning devotions and do other family activities together. This was later confirmed by more flash thought that came to his mind. Now it looked like he knew every nook and corners of the café. The way other customers would hesitate or make an effort in choosing a sit,rather than act like that , Danfiki was at ease. On impulse, like an intent habit, as if he was controlled by his inner spirit, he found His way to the centre of the café , not too far from the counter and took a seat. At the centre , he had an omniscient view of the entire interior of the building. Another thought flashed his memory, he began to see familiarity between the counter and the centre. This centre was his very own dinning room, the same dinning room where his undisputed wife served sumptuous meal for him and his children to eat. He remembered the first oat meal they all ate together, how he made his children laugh when a chunk of oat meal fell on his nose unknown to him. It became ridiculously hilarious that as he tried to remove it, more was pasted on various places of his face. "Good morning sir, welcome to Kanji Kaffy. What would you want today", said a waiter who attended to him. Of course Danfiki had an appetite, but not for coffee or any light snack that was served at Kanji Kaffy. Politely, he told the waiter to come around another time , by then he would be ready. After that, he shifted his gaze to the café's kitchen . what used to be his kitchen was still the present cafe's kitchen. He could remember how furnished his kitchen was and felt like the architect made the right choice retaining that section of the café. Then he looked at the rest room and remembered how that room used to be his boys room. They were a twin- Jada and Jaka. They both had a great future ahead of them, one aspired to be a Medical Doctor while the other an Artist. Jaka was the talented one who could draw anything and bring them to life on paper, as long as he imagined it. He grinned a little to remember how they would competitively race each other from the rest room to the counter, to get the remote. Anyone who gets the remote first wins and could change the channel how ever he pleased. He even chuckled to remember how his wife would yell from the kitchen if any of the twin refused to accept defeat. Now he remembered how it all happened, how and when he lost his family right in this same place. It happened on the twentieth night of January 2012. It was a very first siege that shook Nigeria. Like every other terrorist attacks, it was unprecedented, even if it was suspected, no one expected an attack as such at a prosperous time of the country. Danfiki too never suspected it. How could he, when his spirit was filled with joy that he got a better paying job as a Managing Director of a big company in Kano , that he now struggled to remember it name. The terrorist group-Boko haram, attacked like a lightning flash, where AK-47s was sporadically shot and officers were gunned down, it even sent young men who committed suicide by strapping themselves with drink cans packed with explosives and to bomb-laden cars which was detonated at strategic places in Kano, all for the sake of their God Allah. Danfiki remembered it was the night he and his family were all on their way out to celebrate his great achievement , an achievement he had struggled to attain for years; this great achievement got him his new bungalow, a car of his own and far greater pay than that of his old job used to fetch him. He was at the dinning room that night when he said a joke that made his family laugh. As he moved from the dinning to the living room to go plant a kiss on his lovely wife, telling her she looked beautiful for the occasion; to also play a little with his children who were both anxiously waiting to see where they would be going. Then all of a sudden, like rapture, there came thundering and turbulent upheaval which sent everywhere shaking, pangs of painful cries could be heard. As Danfiki made another step, he was brought to the ground by a falling cut out crust of the ceiling wall. He remembered how he struggled between staying awake and moving into the after life. When he was half conscious, he saw his wife and children trapped in the already burning living room screaming for help, then he blanked out.

    "Sir how may I help you, what would you like to have this very morning", said the counter attendant to Danfiki, but for he was in a trance, he did not hear at first. Then again , the attendant repeated herself with a gentle nudge on his wrist which brought long gone Danfiki to life.Shocked , Danfiki realized that in his deep thought, he had moved from his sit at the centre to the café's counter. He put the attendant on edge for a little while. But when he got himself, Danfiki ordered for a black coffee with no added sugar only milk. After the attendant left for his order,customers kept coming in, ordered, had meetings, made new friends, but Danfiki was oblivious of all that for he was deep in his past. The dark past of his life. He was deep in thought he hardly noticed when his order came through few minutes back and had gotten cold . so deep in thought that he never knew when it passed day time into the afternoon. Many thought him rude , because he failed to respond to any of their gestures , Danfiki just stared onwards into space." Sir I hope all is fine, you hardly touched your coffee. We are closed now and you are the only one in here, I need to go home now", said the attendant. Indeed he was the only one. Now this was his life , a life without his wife, children and what have you . A life where he was to start from the beginning. All weak from much thinking , he peeled out from his pocket the cost of his coffee. Headed straight for the door. From his side eye he knew the attendant thought him crazy with the look on her face, as she took her money off from the counter. Now at the door, as his hand reached the door knob, he paused , turned to look back once again, he closed his eyes. At this point he was both fulfilled and disappointed that he got an answer to his concealed past. Disappointed that he lost a great deal to this incident-his life, wife, children, his job and most of all his property. Fulfilled in the sense that , he doesn't have to go on asking about the incident. Now a streamline of tears rolled down his cheeks. With that he took a deep breath, he not just believes but he hopes that wherever his family may be , they would be rooting for him to pick the pieces of his life and move on. He opened his eyes and slid out into the busy streets , out of the building which housed his past.