“Dad?” I ask in wonder, he should be home by now

“Hi Beautiful, happy birthday my angel.” He says with a shaky voice.

 

“Thanks papa, are you fine Dad?” I ask because I start to get worried.

 

“I Love you beautiful, can you put your uncle on phone for me.”

“Yes of course” I hold out the phone to him. They talk for a minute and he hands me back the phone and heads straight for my dad’s room.

 

“Dad?”

 

“Listen to me Angel, your papa can’t make it for your birthday. But I got you a wonderful gift, Ray picked it, I know you like what he chooses. For now go stay with your uncle, I love you princess and will always.”  With those am confused why won’t he make it and my dad goes silent on the phone.

 

“Papa? Papa? Da……d” still confused, my uncle holds my hand so fast.

 

“Listen to me very careful little Daniella. It's now just you and me  today and any time from now, very bad guys are going to go through that door, we wouldn’t want them to find us. Do you have the emergency bag your dad gave you?” he asks and I nod in response.

 

“Get it, don’t carry anything else, just that.” I hurry to get it and am back. My dad always made sure I know where it was. It’s as though he was always preparing me for a trip.

“And my phone?”

 

“Fry it, I will buy you a new one” he says pointing at the food heater in the kitchen with a smile. I throw it in and he holds my hand as we move through the back door.  As we head out, i hear voices.

 

“Find him, we must not lose him, tonight he dies by all means.”

 

“Yes señor.” Voices sound from the front door but we keep running. As we running I hear a loud burst and I look behind and it’s our house on fire.

 

“Keep running and don’t look back.” Now my heart is racing and I cannot seem to process the situation but my legs are moving. In fact, splinting to be specific and all I see is my uncle’s hand that am holding without looking at the environment.

 

My dad’s words are still on my mind, the house is on fire and am running. My uncle has that face that I have never seen before. Its deadly and I feel something is wrong.

We reach his training centre and he whispers something to Johns, Ray’s friend. Am now confused with the looks am getting and probably out of this planet and panting at the same time from all the running.

 

After a few minutes I realize am just in my sandals. I never realized my uncle was out of sight until he comes back with boots and changing clothes for me.

“Change into this and we make a few changes to your body” I walk to the changing room since this is one of those few places a frequent.  In just a few moments I move out with changed clothes. As I move out I see John come back with a bag.

 

“Come sit down, let’s change your hair colour” he says with a smilewhile guiding me to the chair.

As i sit quietly on the chair, all the emotions that had vanished come melting me down so hard. My uncle sees that on my face and holds me tight.

 

“Where is my dad Uncle?” I ask with teary eyes as I look at my Uncle. John pauses the work he is doing on my hair, and proceeds after some time. My Uncle says nothing but looks at me with worry on his face.

 

I feel it deep down that something is wrong, but no one is telling me. I keep calm, I tell myself over and over again that am overreacting. My hair is complete and its back to being red.

 

I look at my Uncle who has been talking to Paul. I know most guys here since I have been using this as my other home. He walks towards Johns and he holds his shoulder tightly.

 

“You know what to do” he says and John’s nods. My Uncle holds my hand and leads me out. We get into the car and my curiosity is killing me. I want to ask him but I cannot read his face at all.

 

“Your Dad wants to surprise you, he wants you to meet your grandfather and grandmother, plus your Uncle Anton” he says and I frown. I do not have any grandparents, none that I know of.

 

“Hahahha—I know what you’re thinking, but, let me tell you a story about that” he says looking at me as he drives and I nod in agreement. My curiousity kicks in, this would be fun getting to know about my grandparents.

 

It takes us 2 hours to get to the boats taking us to the ship while my Uncle tells me the story of how my dad saved my grandfather from a boar that had escaped from its cage.

 

We get to the ship and its big, it has the name Alves on it that happens to be the same family name I have but am so into the story that I don’t mind it. My uncle keeps telling me the story as we get on borad and sit down.

………………………………………………………..

 

Ray

As we are making the arrangements of taking David’s body back to Brazil. I notice that Daniele is seated with Timothy.  My head runs wild wondering if she knows or not. But the fact that she is smiling means she does not know.

 

We all got a text from Timothy earlier telling us not to say a word to her until we reach Brazil. I get close to them making my presence unknown to Daniele but to Timothy only and get to hear the story the Timothy is telling Daniele.

 

The Original story is so different from what Daniele is being told. I would consider that such a white lie is better for her since she knows nothing about the family she comes from.

 

As I hear Timothy telling a story about how David saved Uncle Ramos from a boar, my mind runs to the day Uncle Ramos told me about that story that runs in my mind automatically like I was told the story earlier today.

 

……………………………………

THE STORY

David was Ugandan. His birth mother abandoned David as a child and he never had a father. He was taken to a foster centre, but he turned out to be the most crazy and stubborn kid so no one ever adopted him. He turned 13 and that is when everything changed for him.

It was school day and he skipped skill that day and even put of his uniform since it was a habit for him to skip school every Thursday.

He always went to a nearby game park to sell bracelets to tourist from around the world. Since he had done that for about four years, he had learnt a few basic things in languages like Spanish, French and Germany.

That day was one of those good days where he would sale everything so fast and then go into the game pack to tour.

Everyone at the game pack knew him so they never charged him and gave him everything free of charge.

“Hello mister sir”

“Hello David, your early today. Have you sold everything already?”

“Yes” David replies with a smile and respect. Davis was crazy and stubborn but he knew what respect was. He continues his way deep into the game park.

As he moves around, he sees a man sleeping in a big bush with something that looks like a gun. It was normal that to see men with guns, since that week, veterinary doctors from all around the world had come to survey and treat animals.

He walks further but keeps seeing men with guns.

“These cannot be game guards, can they?” He speaks to himself silently but keeps moving.

One thing in particular catches his eyes. A tall gentleman standing a few meters away from him. He had a great build from behind and looked amazing.

“Wow, I want to be like him when I get older.” He observes the gentleman more and assesses him from head to toe with a big smile on his face.

Lost in his thoughts, he spots one of the men with guns pointing it towards the gentlemen. In a blink of an eye, David rushes over to the man without thinking and jumps to push him away from the bullet.