April

April was excited, she was on her way to the embassy with her mother, her Dad was coming to see her for the first time, she wondered what he looked like.

It was raining but the weather had no effect on her mood, this was the first time she was visiting the embassy since her mother started working there.

Her mother Eva was a senior officer at the German embassy in Abuja, and she had only agreed to take April along so that she could see her father Robert Fulle, she had a brief affair with him when he came to Nigeria for a visit years back, which resulted in a pregnancy, it was only then that he told her that he was married and urged her to abort the pregnancy, she refused and he was furious, after weeks of pleading he abandoned her in Nigeria and returned back to Germany without leaving any form of contact.

He came back to Nigeria one month ago and came to see her at the embassy, pleading for her forgiveness and begging to see their child, he did not even know the gender of the child till she told him.

She told him to leave that she aborted the baby, but he refused to believe her and kept on stalking her around the whole Abuja in other to see her with the child.

He never saw April with Eva, because she was at her grandmother’s place, but after weeks of begging and when she saw that he was truly remorse he agreed to bring April to see him.

Eva flagged down a green taxi cab and they entered, the interior of the cab was uncharacteristically neat for the normal Abuja cabs, they were often dusty and needed washing.

The jingle of the new indomie advert was playing on the radio and April hummed along.

Eva called her attention and she stopped humming, now April I know that you are very excited but you have to promise me to be at your best behaviour when you get to the embassy, the embassy has a lot of rooms and I would not like you to be roaming around.

I promise, I would not get lost. April I am not asking you not to get lost, I am asking you to remain wherever I tell you to stay.
Okay mum, I would be in my best behavior.

They got to the embassy and alighted, the embassy building looked strange to April, it looked more like the museum she saw in her English reader, there were minimal movement in the front of the building, the security men at the entrance looked more like marble statues, the only thing moving was the national flags mounted on steel pipes in front of the embassy.

As they entered the museum through the metal detector April was amused, the interior of the metal detector felt like she was in another world.

There were nothing much inside the embassy that caught April’s attention, the long counters inside made it look more like a bank, Eva exchanged pleasantries with a tall woman standing near the counters, April have never seen a woman as tall as her, and she turned back occasionally to glance at her direction as her mother led her to an inner room.

The room was large and brightly coloured, and there were a lot of cushion seats in the room, a television was perched in one corner of the room.

Now remain here let me go and look for Rita, she would have to look after you while I work. Eva went over and switched on the television changed the channel to Cartoon Network, I will be back.

When Eva got to the main floor, she saw Robert sitting in the reception, immediately he saw her, he stood up abruptly like his buttocks were on fire, and walked briskly towards her, he held a big box of chocolates in his hand and a polythene bag filled with all sorts of goodies.

Well, I didn’t tell you she was starving, it looks like you bought all the snacks at Shoprite. Robert took a look at the bag, well I have to make a good first impression. Where is she?

Eva took a long look at Robert, he looked desperate to see his daughter, someone he had wanted to be aborted years back. Follow me, she is inside our conference room.

When they got to the room, April was engrossed in the cartoon she was watching, Robert dropped what he was carrying and went to where she was sitting and knelt in front of her.

Are you my Daddy? Yes dear, Robert replied with tears welling in his eyes, she stood up and hugged him.
Eva from where she was standing on the doorway wiped her tears and left father and daughter to catch up.
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