THE CONNECTION

Walking up to his father in the office he looked him straight in the eye as he was standing a few steps away from where he was sitting and asked him "Do you have to?" The father, knowing what his son was asking about, didn't say anything but just asked his driver to take the boy home. The boy refused to go while struggling with the driver demanding an answer from his father before he left.

The driver managed to take him out of the father's office and down to the parking lot to calm him down. He tried his best to make the boy calm. After succeeding he explained to the boy that his father is not someone he should struggle with but rather make do of every situation into a better one.

The boy looked at the driver and said "Are you trying to tell me now that you are in support of what he is about to do? Tell me how one can make this situation into a better one because taking me out of the country might seem the best thing for him to do but in my opinion I don't see how good this is for me."

The driver looked at the boy with pity because the boy's eyes were full of tears that were about to come rolling down his fine, fair, and innocent face. The driver drew him closer to him and tried to console him by saying "In this situation, nobody has the power to take you out of this because you know how your father does his things. He treats family matters like business and no one can easily temper with that. I just want you to hope that something might change his mind along the line before it's too late for things to be undone."

They couldn't hold back the tears because it was too much for their eyes to hold. The driver helped by wiping them off his face and told him to come with him.

The driver took him to an eatery but the boy said he had lost his appetite and that he should just take him home because he wants to be alone. The driver quietly took him home and it was a silent moment all the way. Nobody said a word.

On getting home the driver bid the boy goodbye after asking him to please not go on hunger strike - to make the atmosphere lighter he jokingly said because you need to eat and get the strength to properly get enraged about the situation. He smiled at the boy and the boy smiled back because he was fond of the driver.

The boy walked into the house as the driver watched him close the gate then he drove off.

The boy went straight into his room and sat in bed looking so pale and distressed. He uttered lightly in a soft voice "Dad, it's not because I don't want to leave this country, I know you have the best interest for me at heart but I'm just trying to run away from what I see happening to other families. That disconnection is what I'm running away from because my age is not a good number for me to say I will feel comfortable getting separated from you. How I wish Mum was here."

Tears were just flowing down his cheeks as the bedsheet soaked it into the mattress. After some minutes of wallowing in tears, he fell asleep.

The day for him to move has arrived within the shortest period he could imagine. The boy was thinking I might still have some time to finish up the first term but to His greatest surprise, he was asked to park because everything was ready and he would be taken to the airport the next day. He looked at his father thinking his pitiful facial expression might change a thing but his father was so bent on his decision.

The next day came and he woke up seeing his father already dressed for work. The father told him to get ready and wait for the driver to come and take him to the airport. The boy looked at his father with great shock and a look that says I'm heartbroken and disappointed.

The father further explained to him that there is a guardian that will go with him and watch over him and in case of anything he can reach out by giving him a call.

As the father was about to step out he asked him to give him a minute. The boy went into his room and brought out an envelope. He gave it to his father and asked him to read it when he got to the office.

The father left and the boy went in to get ready. After some minutes the driver came. They parked up and left for the airport.

The father on his way to the office couldn't be patient enough to wait to get to the office. He opened the envelope and found a letter in it. The letter reads...

"By the time you have finished reading this letter I might be in the air flying to your desired destination. I know you have good plans for me and I know you want what's best for me and I'm grateful for that as your only son. But there is something that I wanted to prevent by staying back not because I don't want to leave.

I have seen children disconnected from their parents. As time went on, that disconnection started cashing out its savings on their parent-and-child relationship. It became unpleasant and some of it completely soared into the sky to the land of the unknown.

I just wanted to stay close to my father and enjoy that fatherly love even though you are always busy but it is better than none and I can always make time to meet with you in your busy schedule no matter how short the time I will get. I don't want to wake up one morning and find out my father is like a stranger to me. I don't want to be just a child that is brought into this world by you - I want to have that connection running alive until I'm grown to the level of no matter how far I go or wherever I find myself the connection cannot be cut off.

At the moment I'm missing my father but I'm not sure for how long this feeling is going to last and I'm not sure of the type of feeling that will creep in next. But always remember, you once had a son who loved his father and missed him. Goodbye."

The father felt a chill down his spine. He immediately told his driver to make a U-turn and head to the airport as soon as he could. The driver made a U-turn ahead as the father picked up his phone to call the other driver. Unfortunately, the driver did not pick up. He called the guardian and the same thing she was not picking up. The father became so tensed that he was slightly sweating despite the car was air-conditioned. He asked the driver to speed up. The driver was being careful but he had to follow instructions.

The father kept calling until they reached the airport. As his driver was about to park he did not wait for the car to stop moving completely he opened the door and started rushing to where they were checking in.

Immediately he got there he found out the boy had checked in already. As he was about to start running to check for his boy he saw them coming towards him. The father didn't waste a second he went and grabbed his son and told him to get his things they were going back home.

The boy and everyone present were surprised to see the reaction on the father's face. They asked why and his father said to him "Because I don't want to ever miss my boy for anything."

The boy was so happy that he held his father so tight. He was so appreciative that he told his father not to worry, when he is of age he can travel out to fulfill his heartfelt desire. The father said to him "You don't have to go anywhere if you don't want to and I don't want you to go anywhere if I will lose you."

You see, everything has its own time and moment. When you misplace the time for a moment that is supposed to happen within that stipulated time you temper with tomorrow. Most especially when dealing with growth and relationships.