“Hold this.” He leaned forward and rubbed some lotion.

It smelled good! I sniffed the air then reached for the lotion bottle. Papa seized it and tickled my belly. I laughed hard. Papa laughed too.

At night, Papa told Mama he was going to the employee’s club. I followed and peeked. First, he played ping-pong. The ball flew vroom and landed pong. Vroom and pong…vroom and pong. He won the match. That was my papa!

He spotted me and came over with a stick of peppery suya. My eyes lit up; then I ran behind the building and ate it all by myself. It was a great night!

The next day, when Papa got up to go to work, I tiptoed after him all the way to where the gwongworo stood waiting for him and the others.