A Lost Companion

I had my own gang whiles I was growing up like most children do. That gang didn’t necessarily have to be a group of bad boys. It was just a group that did everything together; the good, bad and at times the ugly. With this group, I learnt a lot of things and with that same group, I got into a lot of trouble. Before we relocated I thought I would never ever have such a family again. I thought that gang was the most notorious gang in the world and as such leaving them was such a sad thing. But one thing that was cool about the whole situation is that I was still so little. I think I was still a little over 7 years then.

At that age making new friends was not such a headache. It was as easy as you’d like it. We relocated to a new region and as such everything was different. From the food, to the building, to the language and most importantly the faces. I remember when we started school, how sad I was. I thought to myself, these people don’t know me and they will never like me.

One thing I’ve been greatful for is that I have a twin. So the worry of getting companions and the sense of belonging have never really been an issue for me. If I don’t have a friend then my brother will be my friend. So at break time we moved together. Then slowly we got to make friends. Along the way people who were similar to us arrived. In their case the eldest of them arrived when we were in the upper primary. He immediately became my friend. We seemed to have a lot of things alike. I like to play football like he did.

I liked sneaking out of the house to go to unauthorised places like he did so I mostly did that with him. This my friend was one of a kind. We rarely had arguments cause we liked almost the same things and knew just when to look for trouble. When ever I was at a place I made sure to look for him and whenever he was at a place he looked for me the same way.

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There was this time that I asked my mom for permission so that I could go for this festival, my mum refused as usual and I had to call in my friend to come bail me out so we could go together. I know him ever since we were in upper primary. Infact we used to have similar nicknames. The thing is I had my nickname and he didn’t have a nickname. So to mark our great friendship he decided to pick a name who is very similar to mine.

Fast forward BECE happened and we had to split schools. Since we were of different faith he wouldn’t have wanted to go to the school that I wanted and I wouldn’t have also liked to go to the school he chose. And he chose to stay back in his region. I wanted to go to a different region for my senior high school. So for a start we use to keep tabs on each other. We communicated every vacation but now all that is lost. I think the last time I heard from him has been over 3 years or so. I did have his WhatsApp contact but then I switched phones and I lost it.

For now I think he’ll still be in his town. He likes to play football so I know he will definitely be in this school’s team. He knows am in Tamale so am sure inter schools football competitions will bring him along this coast one day. I doubt we will meet but knowing the way he is he can just be wondering around and then he’ll meet me somewhere in town(I hope so). Seeing him in town will be one of the happiest day of my life. I know I miss talking and doing things with him.

He made my childhood memorable and as such he’s always in my heart. I know when I see him I’ll be the loudest person in town that day as I’ve always been very loud around him.

Hope we all get to see our long time friends once again.

Thanks for reading.