13 13 IS NOW A STAR

Eghe Boom Boom became a star too. But unlike my mum who winked at me from the night sky, Boom Boom's smile shone brightly when her eyes made contact with mine. It was a happy smile. A new kind of smile.A healthy smile. Eghe Boom Boom had lived up to her word and come back home alive.

She was a star because her story had been splashed all over the news since she left for the bone marrow transplant. New Face had made that happen by going on a show on television and talking about all that had happened to our family. He was a very powerful man, and he brought all his powerful friends together in a big fundraiser at a beautiful hotel in Victoria Island. They had come to donate to the Sickle Cell Foundation and also to the fund that he had set up to pay for all Eghe Boom Boom and my dad would need since they were going to be in London for three long months.

At the fundraiser, Kompa and I performed. The audience laughed and cheered. Morenike, who had returned to Nigeria two weeks after the transplant, also spoke. It was an innocent and touching speech. She captured all the fears, concerns, doubts and the experiences of a donor. The audience was very silent as they listened and when she was done, a lot of them were crying. People gave a lot of money that night, and some of them put their names down on a list that the Sickle Cell Foundation had at the fundraiser. At the end of the fundraiser, people came up to Kompa and I and they hugged us and said sweet words of comfort and support to us. Kompa barked, whined, I translated and the people oohed, ahhed and laughed.

When I got back home that night, I spoke with my dad over the phone and told him all about it. He was happy about what had happened and told me that he and Eghe Boom Boom would be returning soon. The news thrilled me to no end as I had missed both of them a lot. Later that night, I went to the back of the house and told my mum about it all as she winked down at me from the sky. Then I went to bed, and the last thought I had before I fell asleep was of Eghe Boom Boom and as usual, the last person I thought about was the person I dreamt of.

My dad, Eghe Boom Boom, Kompa and I went to a house in a huge estate where the very rich people lived. One of my dad's friends lived there, and it was because of him that they had let us into the estate. In this estate, the houses were big and beautiful. They had well-mowed lawns and pruned flower hedges. There were no fences around them, unlike other houses in Lagos. Instead, there were just paved driveways that led to the garages and front door.

My dad followed us slowly in his car on the street, while we knocked on doors, delivering pamphlets on sickle cell anaemia and educating the people who opened their doors to us about the disease.

We finally got to a big house. It was the biggest house on the street. We walked up the driveway and got to the door on which was a huge metal knocker. Our hands couldn't reach it, so we pressed the doorbell and waited. It took a short while before the door slowly opened, and a woman in a colourful gown emerged. She was wearing eyeglasses and her hair was grey. She looked kind and was smiling.

"Hello," she said with a voice that sounded like she was singing.

"Good afternoon, ma," Eghe Boom Boom replied with a wide smile.

"How can I help you?"

"My name is Eghosa Osagie. You can call me Eghe Boom Boom."

"Eghe Boom Boom, I like the sound of that name."

"Thank you, ma."

"You are welcome."

"I used to suffer from sickle cell anaemia, but I no longer have it, because I was lucky to find a donor who was a match with me."

"Oh my! I am glad you are doing okay. My grandson is suffering from it too."

"I am so sorry to hear that, ma. How is he doing?"

"Not too well, I must tell you. But how come you both are here? Where are your parents?"

"Our dad is in the car," I said as I pointed to my dad who sat in the car across the street.

The lady looked across at the car, and my dad waved.

She smiled and waved back to him, and then she turned back to Eghe Boom Boom. "How were you healed from the disease?"

"I did a bone marrow transplant. Now I am well and healthy like my brother here and no longer afraid of dying early."

"A bone marrow transplant?"

"Yes."

"I have heard about that before. It is used for some other diseases, but I didn't know it could be used for sickle cell anaemia."

"Everyday research is going on around the world to cure the disease, ma, that is why we need people like you to help support the scientists who have dedicated their lives to finding a cure."

"It is good to see a lovely girl like you doing what you can to help find a cure. Knowledge is what we need, and you are spreading it, so bless you love. If I knew what I now know, I wouldn't have allowed my daughter to marry her husband. At that time we didn't know their genotype and we didn't encourage them to check before marriage. Genetic counselling. For me and my husband when we married, no one knew anything about sickle cell anaemia. In fact, when you married then and had children who died early after falling sick repeatedly, people called them Ogbanje. You know what that means?"

"Yes, children who live in a magical world and come to this world over and over again to the same father and mother. Each time they come, they can decide anytime to return back to the magical world, and when they do, they first fall ill before they die and when they are ready to come back to this world, they come back by being born to the same father and mother they had the last time they died,"I answered.

"Impressive. Who told you about them?"

"My mum. She told us about a lot of things."

"And, where is she?"

"She is a winking star up in the sky, looking down at us."

"Oh…" she appeared confused as she looked at me.

"Our mum is dead now. She died after a crisis," Eghe Boom Boom spoke with a firm voice after giving me a quick disapproving look. She had told me to stop telling people that our mum was a star because although our ages were still five and eight, we were no longer kids and people expected us not to say childish things anymore. I did not agree with her since I wanted to still hold on to everything our mum had said to me that day on the bed.

"I am so sorry about that. Your mum must have been an incredible lady to have raised two smart children like yourselves."

Kompa barked twice and whined.

The woman looked down at Kompa and said.

"Oh, sorry. Is everything okay?"

"He just said that my mum raised three kids and not two. He is the third kid."

She looked at Kompa for a moment, her brow creased and then back at us before she said, "Your dog talks?"

"He is my brother, and yes, he talks."

She hesitated for a while as she looked down at Kompa, then she said, "Impressive."

She bent down, stroked Kompa's head and asked him, "Young man, what is your name?"

Kompa barked twice.

"What did he say?" the woman asked me.

"He said his name is Kompa," I replied.

"Kompa. Lovely name. Glad to meet you, Kompa," she extended her hand to rub Kompa's head but Kompa lifted a paw and placed it in her hand before he barked thrice.

"He says he is happy to meet you too."

The woman laughed loudly, let go of Kompa's paws, stood up and turned to us. "You know, when I was young like you guys, I used to hear animals speak - the birds in the air, the dogs on the road, the goats and the cows, the frogs, the crickets and the mosquitoes, the flies, and even the earthworms. But when I told my parents, they thought I was crazy. In fact, my mother would flog me anytime I said so. I would lie on the bed and cry because I felt so lonely since I couldn't share it with anyone. I started forcing myself not to understand what animals said because I didn't want my mother to be angry with me. I would tell the animals not to speak to me. I didn't want to hear them. And one day, I woke up and I couldn't understand them anymore. To be honest, I was sad that I couldn't hear them again, but as long as my mother didn't have to flog me, I could care less about losing my ability to hear them speak, so much so that I completely forgot about it. But now you have brought it back to me and I realise how much I miss it and how lucky I was to have that gift of hearing. Does your father know you can hear Kompa speak?"

"Yes," I said.

"And what does he say?"

"He didn't believe at first, nor did my mum, but after a while they did, and they became cool with it. But other people still don't really believe until they see him do things and then they change their mind."

"You are so lucky and blessed. I wished I had the same kind of parents you have."

Then she fell silent as her eyes took on the look of someone who was daydreaming. We stood there looking at her, then she came out of her daydream and looked over at Eghe Boom Boom and said, "I am so sorry, my love. It was rude of me to have interrupted you. Please, what were you saying?"

"It is okay," Eghe Boom Boom said, smiling before she continued sweetly after she handed over one of the pamphlets to the woman. "As I said, ma, we have come here today to speak to you about the sickle cell disease which affects a lot of people. I'm sure you know this since you said your grandson is also a warrior."

"A warrior?" the woman raised her brow.

"Yes, ma," Eghe Boom Boom replied.

"I like that," the woman said, smiling.

"Yes, people who suffer from the disease are warriors. They fight a war that they did not start, but this is a war that has to end. A lot of them are dying, the young, the old, boys, girls, and even parents too. But they will not die if there are people who are willing to register at the bone marrow registry at the Sickle Cell Foundation as donors. Please ma, will you help to save a life from dying from the sickle cell anaemia by volunteering to be a donor?"

She looked at us silently for a while. I could feel her thinking. Then she broke out in an even wider smile and said, "I think I would do something even better than that. Do you want to know what I will do?"

"Yes, ma," Eghe Boom Boom and I said in unison.

"Do you know what a trust fund is?" she asked.

"No ma," we answered again in unison.

"Okay, I will tell you what it is, and make my explanation simple so that you would understand it."

"It is okay, ma. Even if it is complicated, we will still understand it."

"Hmm. Someone is very confident."

"We are smart," I said.

"Don't listen to him, ma, he is full of himself. Please, make it simple if you want to." Eghe Boom Boom said with a smile.

"Okay," the woman said, paused for a moment as she collected her thoughts, then she continued. "A trust fund is money that you give to someone to keep for another person so that they can release that money to that person when you want them to, even if you are no longer alive. Do you understand?"

"Yes. You mean a trust fund is a transfer of money from one person to another through a third person who makes sure they get the money in the exact way and manner which you want the person who should get the money, gets it," I said.

She smiled and turned to Eghe Boom Boom, "And do you understand it, young lady?"

"Yes. It's like my mum gave money to my aunty and told her to give us the money every month when we start going to university."

The woman smiled even broader and turned to Kompa, "Does Kompa understand it too?"

Kompa barked thrice and growled. I translated. "He said a trust fund is like food that used to be given to our former maid by our mum to feed him, whether she was at home or not."

The woman laughed loudly and said, "My lord, you are all so precious. So, yes, I will start a trust fund and make the Sickle Cell Foundation the people who benefit from it. So, any time there is someone who needs to do a bone marrow transplant, the trust fund will pay for it. Actually, it will pay for the whole transplant for the first twenty people in a year, half for the next twenty people, and a quarter for the next twenty people.That means there will be sixty people with sickle cell anaemia the trust fund will help every year if they can get a donor. Now, what do you think about that?"

Eghe Boom Boom and I stood there staring at her in shock as her words played in our heads. It was when Kompa barked thrice and whined that we came out of our shock. His tail was wagging and he was prancing about in excitement.

The woman looked down at Kompa and asked, "What did he say?"

"He says the trust fund rocks," I translated.

"And what do you both say?" she asked again.

"It is really cool. Thank you so much, ma," I said as what she truly meant by the trust fund sunk in.

She turned to Eghe Boom Boom, but before she could talk, Eghe Boom Boom ran to her, hugged her tight and broke out in tears.

The woman hugged Eghe Boom Boom and stroked her hair slowly as she said, "It's okay, my love, there is a reason why God kept you alive and led you to my doorstep today."

Then the woman looked over at me as Eghe Boom Boom kept crying and said, "Go tell your dad to come over so I can discuss the details of the trust fund with him."

I ran over to my dad in rising excitement, with Kompa at my heels. My dad looked at me in concern as I approached.

"Dad, she wants to cure sixty warriors a year with a trust fund!" I called out to him.

"What?" my dad called back to me in confusion.

I stopped and called out to him, "She wants to see you," I said, pointing back to the woman who was still hugging Eghe Boom Boom as she cried.

My dad came out of the car, shut the door and walked towards me.

"What did you say?" he asked me again when he got closer.

"A trust fund for bone marrow transplants," I said.

My dad stopped. He was surprised.He stared at me and then at the woman.

An hour later, after the woman had discussed the details with my dad and exchanged phone numbers with him, we stepped out of the house and walked towards the car, the woman and my dad in front and the rest of us following a short distance behind.

Kompa barked as he said to me, "Didn't I tell you that everything will be okay?"

Before I could respond, Eghe Boom Boom turned and said to Kompa, "Yes, you did Kompa.

Remember you told me the same thing that day before we left for the airport on our way to London."

I stopped walking and stared at Eghe Boom Boom in shock. She stopped walking and looked back at me.

"What?" she asked.

"You can hear Kompa speaking?"

"Yes," she responded.

"Since when?" I asked, still in shock.

"When I woke up at the hospital. Mummy made me hear him because I said I wanted to be just like you, but only smarter."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because a girl needs to have her secrets, but now, I guess it is no longer a secret. Don't feel cool with yourself though, because I have other secrets that you can never ever know until I want you to know."

I turned to Kompa as he stood there staring at me.

"Kompa, why didn't you tell me?"

He barked and whined as he said to me, "I guess since I am smarter than you too, I know how to keep my mouth shut and make sure that my old friends do not become my enemies and I do not lose my new friends."

"Kompa, we are family!" I said to him.

"Yes, family sticks together no matter what right? So, suck it up, she played you, that's all," Kompa barked and whined as he responded.

Eghe Boom Boom laughed and said to Kompa, "That's my brother, high five." She raised her hand up, Kompa sat on his haunches and raised his right paw up, and she touched her open palm to it.

She turned to me and said, "Remember you said you wanted me to be well so that you can play with me like you play with all your friends and Kompa? Now it's game on!"

I was angry at her and Kompa for keeping the fact that she could hear Kompa speak from me, but I felt a thrill run through me as the excitement of a new beginning dawned on me. I now have a baby sister I could play with like I had always wanted. Now, the three us, Kompa, Eghe Boom Boom and I, and sometimes Morenike and her brothers, when they came over for the sleepovers, could all play together.

I shouted loudly while laughing, "Traitors!" and I chased both of them around the car where the woman and my dad had been standing with a grin on their faces as they watched us talk.

And just as I grabbed a hold of Eghe Boom Boom, I woke up from my sleep.

I sat up in bed and looked around. There was no Eghe Boom Boom, no Dad, and no woman. All I saw was Kompa staring at me.

He whined as he asked me, "Did you have a nightmare?"

"Not really, I just dreamt of a trust fund."

"What is a trust fund?" Kompa asked.

I looked at him for a moment, remembered the dream, smiled and said to Kompa, "Don't worry about it, just come and sleep on the bed with me."

Kompa jumped on the bed and settled in by my side. When we finally fell asleep, there were no dreams.

In the weeks that followed, the newspapers spoke about Eghe Boom Boom. The people on the radio spoke about her. And the people on television spoke about her too. Something had happened. Something unexplainable. Somehow the name Boom Boom was on everybody's lips. And people also spoke about Morenike, who some called, "the other brave little girl," and others, "Atasweswe, the donor". People donated clothes, books, food, and money to Morenike and her family. A family gave her father a little house, a company gave him a different job, a shopping complex gave her mother a store to sell things, and a school gave Morenike and her brothers scholarships. It was like a miracle had happened, and the days during which Eghe Boom Boom and my dad were away in London were some of the happiest days I had lived through.

Time flew by and then my dad called and said over the phone the day after the transplant was completed, "The worst is over, Osaik. The surgery was successful and Boom Boom is awake and well."

There was no more fear for me; instead, it was a rollercoaster of pleasant surprises and happy revelations.

The day Eghe Boom Boom and my dad came back to Nigeria, the airport was filled with people who had come to welcome her back. Lots of people. People we didn't know. There was a huge crowd that was kept back by policemen from entering through the doors of the main terminal and flooding the arrival hall of the airport. A crowd that had cameras and microphones and flowers and placards that read:

"WELCOME HOME, BOOM BOOM!"

"WE LOVE YOU, BOOM BOOM!"

"BOOM BOOM IS OUR HERO!"

"SICKLE CELL ANAEMIA IS NOT A DEATH SENTENCE."

"BE A DONOR AND SAVE A LIFE!"

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT SICKLE CELL ANAEMIA?"

"SUPPORT THE SICKLE CELL FOUNDATION!"

"DONATE MONEY, DONATE STEM CELLS, DONATE LOVE."

"HAVE YOU CHECKED YOUR GENOTYPE?"

There were other placards that had so much more written on them that I couldn't read, but the joyful energy was infectious as I stood close to the door with Kompa, Morenike, her parents, her brothers, New Face, my uncle, and aunty.

When Eghe Boom Boom walked out, she stopped in shock. I could see her look at the crowd and her mouth formed the word, 'Wow!' She looked up at my dad and said something to him. He laughed loudly and at that moment, Kompa found an opening through the legs of the policeman that was in front of us, and he slipped through it and raced over to Eghe Boom Boom.

"Kompa!" she shouted and dropped to her knees; opened her arms wide and he ran into them, yelping and whining in excitement as he licked her face. It was when she looked up that her eyes met mine and a smile spread across her face. She stood up, separated herself from Kompa and ran across the driveway in front of the terminal towards me with Kompa in tow and my smiling dad walking behind her.

When she got to the part of the crowd where we stood and tried to find a way to get to me through the rope barrier preventing us from spilling into the terminal, the people with microphones and TV cameras shouted questions at her.

"Boom Boom, how do you feel returning back to Nigeria totally healed from the sickle cell disease?" one asked.

"Do you feel healthy?" another asked.

"Were you afraid you would not get a donor?''

"Does your transplant mean you will no longer suffer any crisis?" a woman with a long microphone asked again.

And as their questions came, I could hear Eghe Boom Boom say to the policeman that stood in front of the rope barrier, "Please, can you step aside? I want to talk to my brother?"

The policeman turned around to look at her and asked, "Where is your brother?"

"He is standing behind you."

He turned and looked at me, there was a frown on his face as he asked, his voice loud because of all the people who were shouting at the same time, "Are you her brother?"

"Yes, I am, and this is her family around me," I said pointing to us all.

He looked at everyone and then smiled before he stepped aside and said, "Okay you all can enter, but you wait."

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He pointed at me, "You will point them out so that I will allow only them in."

"Thank you," I said and stood aside as every one of us entered through the open space in the crowd, until the last person had gone through, before I said to him, "That's all of us."

He smiled and nodded. I nodded back and stepped out of the crowd and walked to Eghe Boom Boom who was hugging every one of us. I stood there patiently as the questions kept coming from the crowd and once she had hugged the last person, she walked over to me and stretched her arms wide as she called my name with a giggle, "Osaik!"

We hugged each other.

Just the two of us standing there in each other's arms as the others looked on.

And as though the moment needed to be respected, the crowd went silent, but the cameras continued to click. They recognised that what they were looking at was the love between siblings: a special kind of love that spoke about standing strong for one another and being there always for each other.

Kompa barked once and then twice. I looked over at him and smiled before I said, "Okay, come join us."

He did and we hugged him too, after which Eghe Boom Boom looked over at Morenike and invited her to join us too. She did. And we stood there hugging as my dad turned to the crowd and began to speak.

"I am JJ Osagie, the father of Eghosa Osagie, whom you all know as Eghe Boom Boom. I know you have come here today to speak with her, but as you know, she has gone through a surgery and is still on her way to full recovery so I hope you can give her some privacy to heal. She is just a five-year-old girl who is not used to all this attention. So until she is ready to talk, for now, on behalf of my family and her, I want to express my sincere gratitude to you all who have come out here to welcome her back: the press who took her story and her plight seriously, the people who gave money and time, the public who have championed her case and all other sickle cell anaemia sufferers out there. Without you all, we would not have been here today. I know my wife is looking down at you all and saying thank you too. And hopefully, other AS genotype carriers will hear the story of my daughter, Boom Boom and my late wife, and stay clear of repeating the mistake my wife and I had made: marrying and having children when we knew there was a high chance of birthing a child with sickle cell anaemia. So please, I want to leave you all with something very simple, which is that, love is beautiful and it should always be celebrated, but the love that enables this disease is a selfish kind of love. The love that is selfish is not worthy of being called love. So, if you are in a relationship where you know that there is a chance of bringing a child with sickle cell anaemia into this world, please think twice about it. If you can, I know it is difficult, but please become friends and don't go into a marriage, but if you must, please do all that is necessary to ensure you do not have kids and you can simply adopt children, if you insist on having children, please go over to the Sickle Cell Foundation for genetic counselling and they will share with you the new ways that can prevent another baby with sickle cell anaemia being born into this world. Thank you once again, and may the love that gives life instead of death reign forever."

The crowd started clapping and cheering as my dad walked over to us and joined us in the hug, while the cameras clicked away.

The days that followed were blissful and quiet before they became hectic and tiring. There was school to return to and homework to catch up on. But school was different. Unlike before when I was just one of the popular kids in class, this time, I became super popular. Everyone had heard about Eghe Boom Boom's story. And they knew I was her brother, so they spent every free time we had talking about her and me and Kompa and my dad and Morenike. They all wanted to know how they could help. They wanted to be donors. They wanted to be volunteers. Even Mr Ojo and Mrs Uzor wanted to help too.

They both wanted Eghe Boom Boom to come and speak to them at the school during an education program for sickle cell anaemia. The same people who didn't know anything about the disease or cared to know now wanted more information.

I was happy about how things had changed in so short a time. I felt blessed to have been part of it, doubly happy that even though it had all started sadly with my mum leaving us to become a star up in the night sky, it was now ending with Eghe Boom Boom being as healthy as me.

Eventually, we all settled into a routine. Morenike, her brothers, her parents, and New Face became our close family friends. There were sleepovers and dinners and parties between us all. Kompa became everyone's favourite as he cracked them up with his funny tricks and jokes which I translated.

My uncle and aunty moved back to their homes and my dad got a cook, a driver and a woman who cleaned the house. His business had picked up and money was no longer a problem.

My aunty, before she left us for her house, stopped arguing that Kompa can talk. I was happy for my aunty. She had become a different and better person from what she was when my mum was still with us. But my uncle did not change in any way we could see.

When he was leaving, all he said to us was, "Now you two, and this your dog must learn how to behave. Don't let this celebrity nonsense get to your heads. Read your books. Help with house chores and support your father. You hear me?"

We nodded. Then he finished by saying, "Goodbye."

Even when Eghe Boom Boom who had never really liked him surprised us by saying to him, "I love you, Uncle," all he said was "I hear you."

Then he picked up his bag, walked out of the house and left the door open behind him.

Kompa looked at him and whined as he said, "This man is something else. Thank God we are not his children."

Eghe Boom Boom and I broke out in laughter as we watched him leave. And as we laughed, the dream I had flashed across my mind. I stopped instantly and looked at Eghe Boom Boom quizzically.

"How come you are laughing?" I asked.

She stopped and stared at me with a puzzled look and asked, "Why am I laughing?"

"Yes."

"Because what Kompa said was funny."

"How do you know it was funny?"

"Because you laughed."

I looked at Kompa, he looked back at me with his head cocked at an angle. It was his what-are-you-getting-at look. I turned back to Eghe Boom Boom.

"Can you hear Kompa speak?"

"Me?"

"Yes."

"Of course not," she said laughing and then continued. "Aren't you the only one that does?"

I stared at her for a while and then turned to Kompa. He was silent and had his head cocked at another angle.

I finally sighed and said to them, "Now is your chance for both of you to come clean and tell me if there is a secret between you two that I do not know."

"Isn't that why it is called a secret, Osaik?" Eghe Boom Boom said, smiling.

"We are family," I responded.

Kompa finally barked thrice and whined as he said to me, "Let it go, the truth cannot be hidden for long. You will know what you need to know when you are meant to know it. For now, don't cry fire when there is no fire."

I turned to Eghe Boom Boom and asked, "Boom Boom, don't you want to know what Kompa said?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to. And can we stop talking about this?"

I looked at them for a moment before I sighed again and said, "I am watching you two, closely."

Eghe Boom Boom smiled, Kompa sat on his haunches, stared at me without any expression and we ended the discussion in silence.

The foundation gave Eghe Boom Boom a lot of pamphlets to give to people and encouraged her to share with them all she knew about the disease and how they could help stop it from affecting more people.

Most times, she got her friends and my friends to join her in sharing the pamphlets. Sometimes, we would go with Morenike and her brothers to share the pamphlets. They would come with their parents and we would all go in a convoy of cars to different neighbourhoods. Once there, all the kids would go to various houses, knock on the gates and doors, share the foundation pamphlets and speak to the people on what they could do to help. At other times, my dad would take just Eghe Boom Boom, Kompa, and I to share the pamphlets.

It was exactly a year after the day my mum left us that my dad, Kompa, Eghe Boom Boom and I stood behind our house and gazed up at the starry night sky. My mum was winking down at us as she shone brighter than all the stars that were around her.

Eghe Boom Boom was the only one who spoke that night. It was a long speech. And as she spoke, my dad held tight to my hand. Kompa made a whining sound as she stroked his head with her left hand.

"We love you so much, Mummy, and we thank you for everything you have done for us. It is okay for you to go to heaven now. All the angels you have sent to us are taking care of us. And if you are lonely or you want to see how we are doing; you can always come and visit us in our dreams just like you used to come to my dreams before. And Mummy, before you go to heaven, is it okay if Daddy gets a new wife?"

My dad grabbed my hand tighter and looked at me. Kompa stopped whining too. We all turned to look at Eghe Boom Boom. She was staring up at my mum with a smile on her face. She looked so happy and peaceful that none of us could say anything to her as she continued speaking.

"He is very lonely and Osaik, Kompa, and I want him to have someone who cares about him like you do. Mummy, you know Daddy is too old to play with us and it is not fair for us to be happy and he is unhappy."

My dad began to cry and slowly fell down on his knees as his entire body shook.I didn't know what to do for a moment, but when Kompa walked over and began to rub his head against my dad's arm in comfort, I went down on my knees and hugged my dad tightly as tears welled up in my eyes too.

Eghe Boom Boom kept on speaking. It felt as though she was caught up in a bubble that prevented her from seeing all that was happening around her.

"So, if it is okay with you, please, send us a new mummy who will love us all like you love us and who will take care of us like you took care of us. Please, make sure she does not have the AS, SC or SS genotypes and that she likes the colour pink. And Mummy, will you send a sign to tell us that you have gone to heaven and all that I am asking for, you will give to us?"

She stopped speaking and the only sound I could hear was the sound of my dad crying softly.

Then suddenly Eghe Boom Boom pointed up at the sky and shouted. "Look, Mummy's star is vanishing."

My dad immediately stopped crying as we all looked up at the sky as Eghe Boom Boom said the star that was my mum was slowly fading away.

"Mummy," I managed to whisper before it winked brightly one last time as though saying a final goodbye and disappeared from the sky.

My mum had gone to heaven and sent us a sign that she would always be with us and would grant all the wishes of Eghe Boom Boom.

We knelt there, sad and happy as we held our breath, in tempered excitement, not just for the new mum that was to come but for a fun-filled future with the healthy Eghe Boom Boom who was surprising us each day with the incredible things she could do.

THE END