30th

30th October: he was born.

"He's coming".

It was a Thursday morning. October 30th 1997 in Minna. The wind blew harder than was expected,
considering the weather of the past 29 days. The forecasts predicted a warm morning with a lot of sunlight in
 the afternoon, but it was not even close. By 7:00am, that was already obvious.
The Yisas were expecting a new entrant into their interesting family. Though the due date was Friday the 31st,

 it would seem the weather wasn’t going to be the only surprise.

"He's definitely coming". His mother said. They just have a way of knowing. Mohammed Yisa knew at that
moment he had some heroic driving to do. He only hoped the blue VW "ladder" parked in the garage wouldn't
betray him today. He hurriedly helped her to the car while praying for the best.

k'hiihiihiihhiikihi… kihiihiiihiiihiiihii…  kihiihiihiivoooom!

"Yess! Thank God". He said, then backed up the car, turned and zoomed off.

His mother made herself as comfortable as possible in the back seat, but comfortable was not a word for a
woman carrying a nine month old baby, ready to come out into the world. He wasn’t aware what was going
on… he just wanted to come out. And there was no stopping him.

Minna General Hospital was the closest around. Yisa tried his best but there would always be crazy drivers on
the road. He wished he had a siren and a big bold sign that read "BABY COMING". That would've made things a
lot easier. But he didn’t, so he had to be cautious.

By 7:15, they were almost at the hospital. His father could already see it. All he had to do was use the
 roundabout to turn left and turn right to enter. "We're almost there o. Just in a bit". But right before they got
 to the roundabout, there was an FRSC check point waiting for them. He almost knew they would get pulled
over. "Damn those road safety mugus". He really didn’t have the time to watch his language.

"Oga, can we see your papers?". The tall one said. He was the only one not wearing the red hat.

"Sir, I would like to comply, but we need to get to the hospital. My wife is in labour".

"I just want to check the particulars, that's all. And your license, of course".

"My license is here". He reached for his wallet. "The papers for the car". He furiously opened the pigeon hole
 and removed the folder, then handed them over.

"Hmm…" the officer looked over the files. "Sir, one minute please".

"Did you hear what I said earlier?". He spat. "My wife is in labour."

"Sir…"

"We need to get to the hospital". He knew what they wanted, but he didn't want to give it to them. He never
gave bribes, and he didn’t want the first to be on the day his son was born. But this was by far the most tedious
birth day he'd experienced, and he wasn’t going to make it worse.

He removed a note from his pocket and handed it to the officer, took his documents back, got in the car and
sped off without saying a word. His wife just stared in awe. He had never acted like that. She was just glad it
wasn’t the military.

"Kai! This one is a hot head". The officer said, causing his colleagues to burst into laughter.

Some hospital staff awaiting emergencies came out to help them. By the time they got to the door, he had
already started coming out. His mother screamed in pain as they helped her to the labour room.

He was born at exactly 7:30am. Suddenly, what was to be the longest 30 minutes of their lives came to an end.
 His parents looked at him with such marvel. They just knew that this one would be different. He would be
 different from the others.

Later in the day, his brothers were back from school.

"Welcome to planet earth". Mohammed jnr. said, touching his forehead.

***

29th October 2015. Ali just got an idea. He would write a story about the day he was born. He loved to write
 and didn’t hesitate whenever he had an idea on what to write. So he went to ask his mother about it. He knew
 he'd heard it sometime already, but he couldn't remember. However, mom was busy and he didn't want to
 disturb. He just asked her when. "It was in the morning". She said.

"Oh yeah. Of course time will be on the birth certificate". He found out it was 7:30..

"well, it seems I won't be hearing the story of my birth today." he said to himself.

"I'll just make one up anyway… like I always do."

"Like I wanted to do in the first place".