"Alfred come and see my new toy. My mummy bought it for me today." Seven year old Sonia shouted happily to her neighbor, Alfred, a ten year old handsome boy who stayed up the stairs while Sonia stayed down.

She was at the veranda, playing with her toys when Alfred got back with his father.

His father smiled at little Sonia and waited for Alfred to take a look at her toys before taking him upstairs.

"Wow, they're nice! I like the dinosaur, will you let me play with it when I come down, please?" Alfred asked little Sonia.

"Sure, you are my best friend, so I'd gladly let you play with my dinosaur." Sonia said, smiling at him.

"Yes! I'm coming down after lunch." Alfred said happily before he was led upstairs by his father.

"Son, you never told me Sonia was your best friend." Desmond, Alfred's father said when they got to their flat.

"I'm sorry dad, I never told you. She is my best friend, she and her parents have been really nice to me each time I go to play with her.
We are even attending the same school." Alfred said.

"Wow! I never knew my son knew what it means to have a best friend, I'm proud of you baby. They're really nice family."

Helen, Alfred's mother said from the dining, placing three flat breakable plates on the table, obviously done with lunch.

"Yeah, they are. Honey isn't the lunch ready, I'm famished. I could eat a cow!" Desmond said.

"Sorry baby, It's almost ready. Church Service really took long today. Shaa, that's how it always is, every first Sundays." Helen said, dishing the food into the plates.

"And I'm still not used to it. I get hungry once we overstay in church." Desmond said, sitting on the dining chair.

"I'm not really hungry." Alfred said, sitting down as well.

"That's my boy, always strong. But you have to eat your lunch so you could go spend time with your best friend, I'm sure she's expecting you."
Helen said.

"Alright mom." Alfred said and they all started eating.

That evening, Sonia and Alfred played together in the compound, while their parents sat at a corner of the compound, discussing, with their eyes following their restless kids.

Sonia's parents got to like Alfred's in the course of their discussion.

The two mothers started discussing about their kids while the men talked about businesses and sports.

Ngozi, Sonia's mother shared her experience of child birth to Helen, Alfred's mother.

"She is a God sent. I had stayed for three years without a child. My husband's people almost chewed me raw as if I was the giver of children.
I was about giving up when God sent Sonia to me." Ngozi said.

The two women had spaced themselves from the men such that, the men could not hear their conversation.

"Thank God you never gave up. She's indeed a God sent." Helen said.

They both rested their gazes at little Sonia.

"Adanne why are you beating Alfred kwanu? I thought you said he was your best friend?" Ngozi shouted when she realized Sonia, was beating Alfred.

"He is throwing my dinosaur, I told him to stop but he wouldn't." Sonia said, still struggling with Alfred.

"Fredee, be a gentleman and stop throwing Sonia's toy so that you won't spoil it, okay?" Helen said to her son.

"I will not be your friend again." Alfred said to Sonia, threw the dinosaur on the ground and made to go inside.

"Alfred please don't go. Come and take it, I want to play with you." Sonia said, almost in tears.

Alfred went back, got the dinosaur and they continued playing.

The two women looked at each other and burst into laughter.


TWENTY YEARS LATER...

Read Full: https://www.imaudott.com.ng/2020/05/prologue-she-is-one.html

op shey owa OK