Marcus was excited to be back home. He had always tried to make time to come visit his father but for a whole year something seemed to always come up. He walked around the compound greeting the workers who had practically raised him as they had been there since he was a little boy and this brought back memories of his childhood. His childhood was the happiest he had ever been in his life. His father was loving and caring, his mother was his strength and his brother was his confidant but all this came to an abrupt end when his beloved mother died while delivering their baby sister Grace and things took a dramatic turn.
His father turned cold and distant and seemed to always be busy working in his businesses and political career. His brother Kim shifted his focus to his studies and parting. For him medical school and the hospital became his new family. It seemed everyone had a way to grieve their mother and the poor Grace had to suffer the consequences of it all. He often sympathized for her as she never saw the beautiful and loving their family they once had been. She was given everything money could buy but denied the most important thing in a child's life the affection of her family.
"Hey! You have grown tall princess, what are they feeding you here?" Marcus wiping the tears which had started running down his cheeks from the memories. "Why are you crying Marcus?" She whispers concerned. "It's nothing my princess, it's just that I have a bad cold. Guess what I brought for you? I had you were the best in your class." Marcus always tried to be there for her sister though his job seemed to deny him the chance to be with her as much as he would have liked. When he looked at her, more tears trickled down his chin as she was becoming a spitting image of his dear mother and he couldn't stop his mind from wondering what would have been of their family if his mother was a alive.
"Go check in my car for your gift my princess. Where is dad?" he asked wiping his tears. "He is waiting for you in the garden." "Okay, go pick your gift let me go say Hi to him then we will go to the mall." He tells her a she speeds off to his car innocently.
He heads to the garden and he can see his father seated near the flowers deep in thought. He seems a decade older since he last saw him. He had grown slimmer and his gray hair made him seem older than he actually was. This was what life had turned his ever joyous and playful father.
"How are you doing old man?"
His father stands and embraces him with joy in his face. It reminded him of the old times when he used to pick him up from school. "Karibu sana daktari"(meaning 'welcome doctor' in Swahili). His father's embrace was strong like that of a young warrior, tears of joy filled his eyes and Marcus could not control his emotions as he also started crying once again. This was the man who made him who he was and taught him everything he knew about this cruel world.
They sat there staring vacantly at the empty space each one of them preoccupied with thoughts.
Mr. Johnsons finally breaks the silence "You know son, I always loved the dedication and passion you had in the medical field and the love and care you had for the well-being of everyone even the people you knew nothing of." He continues. "I am an old man now and I have achieved everything I dreamed of in this life and now it's my time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labour and raise your sister. With that said, my businesses cannot run themselves and I have assigned the other businesses to your brother but my hospital and health businesses I want you to take over and as you know with that you have to enter into politics my son."
Marcus detested politics and his father's businesses as they took him away from them when they needed him the most. Now his father was asking him to become the person he promised himself never to become. His father was asking him to lose a part of himself, at the same time this was the only thing his father ever asked him for. Was he about to lose himself to get the affection of his father which he had dearly craved for since his mother died?