Once upon a time, there was a couple named Bright and Sandra. After they got married, they were not fortunate to give birth in time. It took them five years of crying and praying before they were able to give birth to their daughter, Naomi. After they gave birth to Naomi, they couldn’t stop thanking God for giving them Naomi when all their hopes were lost.
One beautiful evening, after they had eaten dinner that night and retired to bed, Bright was lying down in between the couple. Mr. Bright just kept staring at his little daughter and smiling.
“Tell me the reason behind this smile tonight,” Sandra asked her husband, also smiling with him.
“Who would have ever thought that we would have been parents someday? I hope you remember all we went through,” Mr. Bright asked Sandra.
“Can I ever forget? I was called a barren woman. We were mocked for five good years. I got different advice from different friends. Old women called me aside and tried to give me various solutions. Doctors had different things to say each time we went to them. People always pointed to me as I walked past. Even some women in the church used to mock me. I was referred to as the ‘fair barren.’ I almost committed suicide after a fellow woman told me to my face that I was a man and that was why I couldn’t give my husband children,” Sandra said, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. Those are in the past now. God has given us Naomi and blessed us with our bundle of joy,” Mr. Bright said with a smile.
“Her seventh birthday is coming next week. Our daughter will be seven years old,” Sandra said with a smile. They both just kept staring at Naomi, who was sleeping peacefully. Then Mr. Bright stretched his hand and turned off the light and bid his wife goodnight.
The next day, Mr. Bright was so tangled at work that he forgot it was time to bring Naomi back from school. It was the weekend, and Mr. Bright was the one who took Naomi back during the weekends. It was already 40 minutes after dismissal, but Mr. Bright was not yet back with Naomi. Sandra decided to wait a bit longer, thinking it was traffic. After a few more minutes, she became worried and called her husband on the phone. Mr. Bright was shocked that almost an hour had flown by after Naomi’s school dismissal time. He pleaded with his wife to quickly go get her because he was still very busy.
Sandra left what she was doing immediately and started heading towards Naomi’s school. She was already 55 minutes late, and it took another 15 minutes to get to Naomi’s school. Sandra entered a bus, and just after a 5-minute drive, she got stuck in traffic. The traffic was so bad that Sandra decided it was best to come down and search for a bike that would be faster because the bike riders always have a way of maneuvering the traffic. After walking for a while in haste, Sandra stopped a bike. She tried hopping on the bike, and then she remembered she had forgotten her purse inside the bus she had entered earlier. Sandra didn’t know if she should continue to the school or go back to get her purse. She asked the bike rider to go while she went to take her phone because her phone was inside the purse.
Sandra started walking back in quick steps, looking for the bus she had entered. Meanwhile, back at the school, Naomi sat outside with some of her classmates who were waiting for their parents to come and take them home. Some who had older siblings went home with them as parents came, taking their kids in numbers. Naomi only sat, wondering if her father had forgotten her.
“Naomi, your father is not coming today?” one of her classmates asked her as she left with her mother. Naomi was already tired of waiting. She was so hungry; she didn’t eat the whole day because she didn’t like the food her mother had prepared and put into her lunchbox. Naomi stood up and decided to go home alone. She left the school with her bag and lunchbox. She started walking home alone while carrying her lunchbox. After a few minutes of walking, Naomi’s lunchbox fell from her hand and rolled into the main road. She tried going to pick it up. Someone tried calling out to Naomi because of the speeding car coming towards her. In haste, the man driving the car quickly stepped on his brakes, but it was already too late. He had knocked Naomi down. The man came down immediately and saw Naomi lying down, almost lifeless and bleeding. Before people could come any closer, the man carried Naomi into his car. He reversed with her in his car and drove off in haste.
As Sandra walked back in quick steps to where she had alighted from the bus earlier, she noticed some bus drivers were turning around to follow another route because of the traffic ahead. She increased her pace, trying to find the bus she had come down from earlier, but she couldn’t seem to identify the bus. It looked like the bus had turned around with the others. Sandra carried her hand on her head in confusion. She had just lost her purse containing her phone. She wanted to call her husband, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t pay for a bike either because she had no money on her. She decided to head down to the school and then call her husband with one of the teacher’s phones.
When she got to the school after so many minutes of walking under the scorching sun, Sandra arrived in front of the school gate. She was sweating profusely like someone who had engaged in a marathon race. The environment was very calm, unlike the usual time when there were kids around the vicinity. Sandra’s only hope was that her daughter was inside the gate. Seeing that there was no padlock on it, she reached out to open the gate. She saw the headmistress coming out of the gate, holding a padlock to close the gate.
“Good afternoon, Ma,” Sandra greeted, trying to force a smile.
“Good afternoon, my dear. Why are you sweating so much?” the headmistress asked, looking at Sandra.
“I’m sorry. I’m so, so late. It seems everyone has left already,” Sandra asked, looking around.
“Yes, it’s already 4:00 p.m., and everyone has left. Today is Friday, and we close early,” the headmistress answered.
“What about my daughter?” Sandra asked, fixing her gaze on the headmistress as she locked up the gate.
“Your daughter? No one is here. Why not call your husband and know if he has her? He comes to pick her on Fridays,” the headmistress answered.
“I know my husband too well, and he can’t ask me to come to take my daughter from school if he has already done that,” Sandra said, already having mixed feelings.
“Why not call him?” the headmistress suggested.
“That’s the problem. I can’t. I was in a hurry and I forgot my purse with my phone inside the bus I entered earlier when there was traffic. My phone and the little money I had on me are all gone. I just wanted to come and pick up my daughter first before talking about my phone.”
“Then how did you pay the bus driver when you came down?”
“I had money in my hand already, and I just… Oh Ma, my phone is not my problem. Where is my daughter? Where is Naomi?” Sandra asked, already having a bad feeling.
“Take my phone and call your husband. Let’s see if he took her,” the headmistress said, dipping her hand into her bag and bringing out her phone. She gave it to Sandra, who collected it and dialed Bright’s number immediately.
Mr. Bright picked up the call immediately, and Sandra asked him if he came and took their daughter from school. Mr. Bright told her he had been calling her and she was not picking up her calls. He wanted to know if they were back home. He couldn’t understand what he was hearing over the phone—that his princess was missing. He told Sandra that he was coming over immediately. Mr. Bright hung up the call, and Sandra could feel the tears building up in her eyes.
“Where is my daughter?” Sandra asked the headmistress in a stern voice.
The headmistress was dumbfounded. She had no answer to the question Sandra just asked her. She calmed Sandra down and called the teacher in charge of Naomi’s class. She asked the teacher to come back to school as there was a case of a missing pupil. Sandra didn’t know where she would start looking for her only daughter. Tears just kept rolling down her cheeks as she waited for the teacher in charge of Naomi’s class. She was restless and just kept looking around, hoping to lay her eyes on Naomi.
It took a few minutes, and the teacher came back to the school. She was asked who had taken Naomi. The teacher said Naomi was sitting with her best friend, Anita, outside, waiting for her father. She saw Anita’s mother coming to take Anita. After a while, she didn’t see Naomi anymore. She thought her father had taken her. Sandra asked the teacher to call Anita’s mother on the phone and find out if Naomi had followed them. The teacher was scrolling down her contact list, looking for Anita’s mother’s number when Mr. Bright came down from the bike and walked towards the rest in a quick pace.
A call came into the headmistress’s phone. She picked it up. “Hello, madam. I think one of your students met with an accident a few minutes ago,” the voice said over the phone. The headmistress shifted a bit to where she wouldn’t be heard. She asked what the pupil looked like. The description fitted that of Naomi. She slowly brought down the phone. She didn’t know how she was going to tell the couple that their only daughter had been involved in a life-threatening accident. More so, no one knew where she was carried off to by the man who had
knocked her down. The headmistress just kept staring at Bright, who was consoling Sandra, who cried bitterly. It seemed like Anita’s mother had just told them Naomi wasn’t with her. A tear almost dropped off the cheek of the headmistress in confusion and pity for the couple.
Earlier, when Naomi was hit by a speeding car, the man who had knocked her down came down from his car immediately. He saw Naomi lying down almost lifeless, and without wasting time, he carried Naomi into his car. He reversed his car and drove off. He was praying so hard that she didn’t die before he got to the hospital. David was on the phone talking with a business associate. He had actually come for a visit and was going back to his city. He didn’t see Naomi. He was lost in the call he was making. He only heard someone’s loud cry, which drew his attention, but before he could step on his brakes, he had already knocked the little girl down. So he immediately came down and carried Naomi into his car. He didn’t want to take any chances in saving the life of the little girl.
“What kind of temptation is this?” David asked himself as he drove quickly to a hospital he knew was a distance away. He was sweating profusely as he drove at his maximum speed. When he got to the hospital, he carried Naomi into the hospital. She was already bleeding from her mouth and her head. It seemed like Naomi’s head had first landed on the iron in front of his jeep before falling to the ground. The nurses took charge immediately. The doctor was busy with another patient when he was told of the emergency. He quickly came to see the new patient. David was pacing around the hospital. He didn’t know what to do. The doctor was really taking quite long inside the hospital room, and David grew anxious by the moment. He didn’t want to hear any bad news. The doctor came out with a sad look. David walked up to him to ask him how the little girl was doing. The doctor looked at David and shook his head.
“I’m sorry, sir. The accident was really fatal. We examined her thoroughly and found that she has internal brain bleeding. We have tried to control it with some drugs and injections. She needs immediate surgery for her to survive,” the doctor said in a very concerned tone.
“A surgery? Go ahead with the surgery, doctor. The money won’t be a problem. I will sign any document necessary. I don’t want that little girl to die, please, doctor,” David begged with his hands together.
“I’m sorry, but we don’t have the necessary equipment here. You will have to take her somewhere else. I will give you some written notes,” the doctor replied.
David didn’t know his way around where he was. He didn’t know which hospital had the equipment that was needed for the surgery, so he decided to take Naomi to his city. He needed her to get better before starting to look for who her parents were. David asked the doctor if he could take Naomi on a 4 to 5-hour journey drive to another hospital from where he came from. The doctor gave his approval and gave some written notes to David and another injection to the little girl.
Back at Naomi’s school, “Sir,” the headmistress called out softly to Mr. Bright. Both Mr. Bright and Sandra immediately turned to see why the headmistress was calling.
“I just received a call. Your daughter Naomi was involved in an accident.”
“My daughter was involved in an accident? Where? Where did it happen?” Sandra ran and held the headmistress, asking her impatiently.
“Few minutes down the street,” the headmistress answered. Sandra ran off immediately towards where she was told, without waiting for the rest. Mr. Bright immediately followed his wife, running towards the said accident scene. When they got there, they were told that the man who knocked her down had taken her. Maybe he had taken her to the hospital since no one knew which hospital Naomi was taken to. The teacher, the headmistress, and the couple stopped a taxi and left for the closest hospital.
In the taxi, Mr. Bright wanted to burst out at the headmistress, but he knew it was all his fault. Sandra held Bright tight, hoping for her daughter to be in the hospital as streams of tears rolled down her cheeks. Both the teacher and the headmistress also hoped that they would find Naomi in good health. When they got to the hospital, Sandra was the first to run into the hospital. She asked the nurses if they had seen a little girl in a school uniform who got involved in an accident. The nurses checked, and there was no record of a little girl involved in an accident. Sandra was disappointed but still moved on to the next hospital.
By the time they got to the third hospital and asked about the case of a little girl who had an accident, they were told that a little girl who fitted their description was brought into the hospital. It was a big hospital, so they were asked to wait while they found out which ward the girl was taken into. Sandra was relieved that finally, she was going to see her only daughter. She only hoped that Naomi was okay. They all waited impatiently for someone to come and take them to see Naomi. Then the doctor came out. He came to see those looking for the little girl.
“Doctor, how is my daughter? Where is she? Can I see her?” Sandra asked the doctor in tears.
“Yes, doctor, please, can we see our daughter?” Mr. Bright asked anxiously.
That was when the doctor realized that those standing in front of him were the parents of the girl.
“I’m so sorry. Are you the parents of the little girl?” the doctor asked, shifting his gaze from Sandra to Mr. Bright.
“Yes, we are,” Mr. Bright and Sandra answered anxiously, nodding their heads.
“Sorry to break this sad news to you. Your daughter was involved in a serious accident, which nearly took her life. When she was rushed here, she was bleeding from her head. I had thought that was all until I decided to examine her thoroughly and found out she had internal brain bleeding.”
“My daughter has internal bleeding? Where is she? Where is my daughter? I want to see her, please,” Sandra asked, tears rolling down her cheeks.
The doctor heaved a sigh and continued, “Ma, she needed to be operated on to stop the bleeding completely. I had given her some drugs and injections to keep the blood from flowing. Our hospital doesn’t have the necessary equipment for the surgery, so the man who had brought her here decided he would take Naomi to a big city so that she can be treated.”
“Which city? Which city, doctor? Do you have his number?”
“I don’t know the city he lives in, neither do I have his number,” the doctor said in a disappointing tone.
Sandra turned slowly, looked at her husband, and then fell down and fainted. They tried immediately to revive her in the hospital. When Sandra woke up, all she did was cry bitterly, asking for her only child. “Why me? Why Naomi? After five years, God, after five years, you sent Naomi to me. Why this huge temptation? Where is my Naomi? Where is my Naomi?” Sandra kept saying in tears loudly. Mr. Bright tried to hold himself. His charming princess was on the verge of death, and no one even knew where she was. He held his wife and tried consoling her. Sandra refused to go home. She wanted her daughter to be brought back to her. The headmistress and the teacher couldn’t go home either. They just looked at the couple who were in pain and couldn’t help keeping their tears back.
It was getting dark already, and they needed to go back home. Mr. Bright convinced Sandra to follow him back home. The headmistress begged Mr. Bright not to take out his anger on their school, as they would put their hands together in looking for Naomi. Mr. Bright wasn’t in the mood to start causing havoc. He just wanted to take his wife home because she had not been herself. Going after the school was not going to bring back his daughter. He solely blamed himself and hoped the man would bring his daughter back alive to them.
Back to Mr. David, he was speeding a lot, and when he was stopped by the police, he showed them the report written by the doctor, coupled with the notes, and they let him pass. He drove for hours and finally got to his city. It was already dark, but he drove straight to the hospital. He gave them the notes the doctor had given to him. Naomi was quickly taken into the theater while Mr. David made the necessary payments. The surgeon was called, and luckily, he was still in the hospital too. He had wanted to leave a while ago, but it was as if something kept him back. He immediately went in to see Naomi.
Mr. David was in the waiting room. He was praying and hoping Naomi would come out safe. He kept pacing around and rubbing his hand on his head. His phone kept vibrating in his pocket. He brought it out, and it was his wife Tina calling. She had called him so many times, and he never picked up. He picked up the call, and his wife asked him why he wasn’t back home yet after telling her hours ago that he was on his way home. Mr. David explained everything to his wife. She asked where he was so she could come immediately. It took a few minutes, then Tina arrived at the hospital. She went and met her husband where he was seated and sweating. She asked him how it all happened, and he told her. Tina was concerned. She decided to wait with her husband for the outcome of the ongoing surgery. The surgery took a very long time. Once in a while, a nurse would come out and then go back into the theater. Mr. David and Tina kept sleeping and waking up at
intervals in the hospital waiting room. They earnestly wanted Naomi to be healed.
Time was crawling, but finally, the doctor came out. He was wearing a smile on his face. Mr. David was the first to see the doctor. He tried standing up, and Tina, who was sitting beside him, woke up too.
“Doctor, how is she? I hope the surgery was successful,” Mr. David asked the doctor anxiously.
“By the grace of God and not us, the little girl is safe and out of danger. Yes, the surgery was successful.”
“Yes, oh thank God,” Mr. David said out loud while his wife hugged him happily.
“Please bring down your voices,” the doctor said in a low tone.
“Okay, okay,” Mr. David said.
“She needs a lot of resting time. She’s likely to lose a part of her memory, which will only come back with time, by God’s grace. Also, she may not be able to talk well for a while. I have given a list of drugs to the nurse. You get them and make sure she takes them as prescribed. She really needs a lot of love and care from you both to get well soon.”
“Can we see her now?” Tina asked softly.
“Sure, but she needs no disturbance. She needs maximum rest,” the doctor said and walked out. The couple thanked the doctor and walked into the hospital room immediately.
Tina walked into the room and set her eyes on Naomi. Streams of tears ran down her cheeks. She started sobbing bitterly while Mr. David tried to console her. The headmistress left with a heavy heart. She knew Naomi was the only daughter of Mr. Bright. She knew what it felt like for a child to be missing. She blamed the teacher in charge for being so careless. The class teacher wanted to defend herself, but she knew that nothing she would say would justify the fact that Naomi got missing under her watch. She only prayed and hoped for Naomi to be safe wherever she was.
Mr. Bright stopped a taxi which would take him and his wife back home. He kept consoling her as they drove back home together. When they got home, Mr. Bright began to make calls, creating awareness that his daughter was missing. He wanted to go to the police station, but he couldn’t leave his wife all alone in the condition she was in. Sandra sat on the chair in the living room, feeling so weak. It felt as if she had just lost a part of herself. She wondered why such a heavy temptation would come to her. She couldn’t blame her husband. She knew it wasn’t intentional on his side, but she wondered why, of all days, it should be the same day that traffic would hold her up. If only there was no traffic, she might have gotten to school before Naomi met with the accident. Sandra stood up slowly, then she walked towards her room in slow steps after wiping her tears.
“Where are you going to, Sandy?” Mr. Bright asked, looking at his wife. Sandra just shook her head from left to right and kept walking towards her room. She entered her room and knelt down beside her bed.
“Father, I know you won’t let anything happen to the only child you’ve given me. I know you will heal her even though she’s not here with me. Whatever hospital she has been taken to, let her be healed because I trust in you, Lord. In the name of Jesus, Amen,” Mr. Bright responded loudly.
Sandra turned and looked at him. He had followed her into the room. Mr. Bright consoled his wife. They had no appetite for food. He took his wife to the bathroom and helped her take a shower. After they were done, they retired to bed. Both Mr. Bright and Sandra couldn’t find sleep as lots of questions kept running through their minds. Who had taken Naomi? Why did he leave for another city with Naomi without their consent? Was Naomi really safe out there? How would they get to see their only daughter again?
Tina started sobbing bitterly as she saw the condition of Naomi. Mr. David held his wife and took her out of the room. The doctor had warned them not to disturb Naomi to avoid any complication. Years ago, when Mr. David got married to Tina, Tina got pregnant for the first time. The couple were so happy for their incoming child. It took only a few weeks before Tina had a miscarriage.
She cried because she couldn’t tell what actually caused the miscarriage. She took in again. This time, she tried being careful and avoided everything the doctor told her to avoid. Finally, she gave birth to a baby boy. Mr. David and Tina were so happy. They called their little boy Pascal. After the birth of Pascal, the doctor came with the sad news that Tina wouldn’t be able to take in anymore due to some complications she had. Mr. David and Tina were not that worried because they had gotten their bundle of joy, and they never wanted many children in the first place.
Pascal grew into a very smart child. He was admired by many because of how intelligent he was. He became his parents’ pride. As time went by, Pascal fell sick. He was taken to the hospital for treatment, and after some treatment, he got better. After a few weeks, he got sick again. He was once again taken to the same hospital, and he got better.
It suddenly became a habit for Pascal to fall sick every week. It didn’t disturb Mr. David and Tina that much because they had money to buy drugs for their son. Pascal then began to lose weight, and his sickness became so serious that Tina suggested they change to another hospital. Mr. David agreed, and Pascal was taken to another hospital. When they got to the hospital, a doctor was called because of how serious Pascal’s case was. After a thorough checkup, the doctor called the couple into his office, leaving Pascal lying on the hospital bed.
The doctor told David and Tina that their son had leukemia (blood cancer). He told them that leukemia was controllable and treatable in children, but Pascal’s case had reached its peak, and he could die at any moment. He advised Mr. David and his wife to go and spend their last moments with their son. Tina cried her eyes out in the doctor’s office, then she went with David to go and see their son. When they arrived, Pascal was just staring at his parents with his eyes partly open.
The couple tried their best to hide their tears. Pascal smiled at his mother while holding her tight. Suddenly, Tina could feel Pascal’s grip loosening. She looked at her son and realized that Pascal was gone. She shook him vigorously, trying to wake him up, but he was really gone. Mr. David stood looking at his son, and tears ran down his cheeks. Tina hugged Pascal, crying her eyes out. Looking at Naomi, who was lying down with bandages, made Tina remember how her son had given up the ghost on a hospital bed while smiling at her.
“Who knows if she’s the only one her parents have, just like us? How would they cope without their daughter?” Tina asked her husband in tears.
“Tomorrow morning, I’ll go back and look for her parents using the name on the school uniform,” Mr. David said, still consoling his wife.
The next morning, Mr. Bright woke up. He sat on his bed, thinking of how he was going to find his only daughter. He decided he was going to go to the police station and lay a complaint about his missing daughter. A call came through his phone. It was from the proprietress of the school. She was calling to plead for forgiveness and assure him that the school was going to help and make sure Naomi is brought back to him. Mr. Bright knew that those words only came because she was afraid of losing her school. He only wanted his daughter to be found and nothing more, so he left for the police station to lay a complaint about his missing daughter. The police assured Mr. Bright that they would try their best to bring his daughter back to him.
By the time Mr. Bright came back from the police station, he wanted to go to work, but on second thought, he decided to go back home and be with his wife. He got back home and discovered that the door was open. He had asked Sandra to shut the door behind him. Mr. Bright opened the door slowly to know why the door was still left open.
Back at the hospital, Mr. David went back to where Naomi was lying with his wife, Tina. She hadn’t moved ever since the surgery was done. She lay still with the white clothes she was changed into, and the bandage on her head had a slight stain of blood. The couple just sat on an empty bed opposite where Naomi lay.
“She’s so beautiful and adorable,” Tina said, hugging her husband as they stared at Naomi.
“Yes, she is. Her parents must be lucky to have her. Thank God the operation was successful,” Mr. David said with a smile. He looked at his watch, and the time said 2 minutes past 1 a.m.
“I think you need to go back home and rest, my dear. You have to be at work early, remember?” Mr. David said to his wife.
Tina tapped her phone and saw that it was early morning already. She told her husband that she wouldn’t be able to find sleep if she went back to the house. Mr. David tried persuading his wife, but she wanted to stay with him and Naomi. He felt the way Tina just kept staring at Naomi with so much love. As time went by, Tina slept off on her husband’s lap while Mr. David leaned on the wall, sitting on the bed.
The reflection of the early morning sun found its way into the room where Mr. David and his wife were. Noises of people moving around inside the hospital woke Mr. David and Tina up. They were tired. The
first thing they did was to check on Naomi. She was still sleeping and had not yet opened her eyes. Mr. David left the room and went to get the nurse that was attending to Naomi. He asked for the uniform that Naomi was putting on earlier before they had her clothes changed. The nurse gave the uniform to Mr. David. He went outside and placed the uniform perfectly at the back of his seat. After staring at Naomi for a while, Tina left the hospital room.
She was already running late for work. She left Mr. David in the hospital and left for their house. Mr. David gave the nurse some tip and asked her to look after Naomi. Then he left the hospital and went towards his car. Something surprised Mr. David. He had two flat tires.
He never noticed it when he had come to keep Naomi’s uniform. He had just one spare tire, so he decided to walk down the road to get help. A few minutes later, Mr. David came back with someone, and his tires were changed. It was time for him to travel back to the city where he had knocked Naomi down to look for her parents.
As Mr. David approached the city, something strange happened. He turned to pick up the uniform which he had placed perfectly at the back of his car, but to his greatest bewilderment, the uniform wasn’t there anymore. Mr. David stepped on his brakes immediately. He decided to clear off the road and search for the uniform. Well, he parked his car and came down. He searched for the uniform, but it was nowhere to be found.
