As he lay there Ben remembered his mother telling him about her death. She had already forseen her end long before she passed. 'My son', she would begin ' When am gone your relatives will not acknowledge you. They will treat you as scam because by then I will not be around. You see the way they love you now, that's not love, it's nothing but pretence. They do that because you are not their responsibility. They love you now because am here to take care of you'.
One night she was very sick and feeling very cold. The step dad had been out drinking without a care in the world. Mona felt so cold that she had to call little Ben to sleep with her on her bed just to provide her some warmth. Ben could do nothing but feel pity for his mother, he felt like crying but he didn't want to show weakness to his mother.
As they lay there mother embracing her son, her heart racing she began to talk about her death again. 'Mom do...don't say that please, am so you young, I...I don't want you to go pleease mother....', Ben sorbed so painfully and begged his mom to stop talking in such manner but in vain. Mona could look her son deep in his eyes full of tears and say, ' Ben my dear boy, don't cry for I am preparing you in advance for my death. As my first born you have to be strong for your mother ok son? I love you and I wouldn't like to go without your knowledge. Take heart for I will forever be with you'. Ben could only sob and hug his mother tightly not wanting to believe her words.
'I will tell you where to find your father, his home and his people. You look exactly like him once you're there people will guide you to his father's compound where they'll be happy to see you' Mona would say. 'Momma I don't want to see that man's face, he left you and I and for that I would never forgive him...NEVER' Ben disliked his father for leaving him and his mother. He wouldn't want to meet him or see him. In his heart he knew very well that come whatever might he would never look for that so called father of his.
Mona would tell her son where she had hidden money that she had saved for such moments when she will not be around. When the time came, it would help Ben figure out somethings in his life. He never took nothing seriously about his mother's death therefore never checked. All he knew was that mother was lying and only scaring him so that he could be a good boy. Ooh Ben, so naive.