ROBBED OF MY CHILDHOOD

By Mpundu Valerie

Christmas Eve at OK was everything. They had Father Christmas sitting on the hay stack at the entrance. Long white beard. Christmas lights blinking. Sweets. Parcels wrapped in shiny boxes. Every kid wanted a turn on his lap.

I hated Jimmy. I was only 8!

He was this coloured guy trying to win my mother’s heart. Every weekend he would come, hoot twice outside our apartment block, then drive away with my mom for hours. I would be left with Aunty Mavis, someone I never liked.

My neighbours were nosy. My mom was the only single parent there. It felt like we were always on people's lips.

That night, Mom said, "Be a good boy. Father Christmas is coming."

I didn’t sleep. I stayed by the curtain in my room, peeping through, waiting.

Around 11pm I heard it. Hoot hoot. Jimny’s car.That green Suzuki Jimny.

My first thought was he had come to ruin my Christmas again.

I looked through the window. He took a big red sack from the boot. Instead of coming straight inside, he stood under the Christmas lights outside, fixing something.

I watched closer. Jimmy pulled out a long white beard. The same beard from OK. Red hat. He was putting it on. Adjusting it. He had a sack full of gifts on his back.

It was him. Father Christmas from OK was Jimmey.

All those sweets, those parcels, it was Jimmy the whole time. The man I hated.

Something just dropped in my chest. I didn’t cry. I just stood there while my magic died. I ran back to bed and pretended to be asleep. He came in shouting, "HO HO HO!" I didn’t even smile.

He left a parcel on my bed. I didn’t open it for two days.

That was the night my childhood ended.

Life turned out differently.

Jimmy never left. He stayed. He paid my school fees. He gave me siblings. He gave us a family.

He and Mom are still going strong. He is my dad.

To this day, I still tell him, "You hurt me as a kid. You stole Father Christmas from me."

He just laughs. "I was just trying to make you like me, my son."

Now I understand. He wasn’t stealing Christmas. He was trying to build one for us.

To date, I owe what and who I am to the man who raised me. I never made it easy for him to step into my territory. I was so overprotective of my mom.

To him, that didn’t matter. He took me as his own. He was present whenever I needed him. Taught me right from wrong. Above all, he showed me what love is.

Christmas came early. Merry Christmas to all the Jimmys out there

Robbed of My Childhood