Matthew 6:27 KJV
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?🤷🤷🤷

Christmas celebration went well; they saw a movie at the cinema, went to the amusement park, and ate at a restaurant. Then James have them the surprise travel to Abuja by a plane.

Boarding a plane was something new to Tomisin, Elizabeth and Michael. When they got the news that they would be staying in Abuja, Elizabeth was most excited of the three. She wouldn't stop shaking Tomisin and Michael in excitement. Michael wasn't pleased with the rough handling so stepped away from her. The next day they went shopping—Christy and the kids—for necessary items to buy for the travel to Abuja.

While Christy was busy pricing the items she bought with the salesman, Elizabeth and Tomisin wandered around the store while Michael stayed closed to Christy as always.  They viewed many sections of the mall until they got lost in the labyrinth. The mall wasn't that big but smartly designed to have different sections but as regards to kids and their childish nature they thought they were lost. At that realisation of their imagination, Elizabeth and Tomisin hugged each other out of fear

"Elizabeth, I'm scared. Where's mommy." said Tomisin

"I don't know." replied Elizabeth in fright.

To confound the situation, they heard strange noises around them.

" Ojuju kalaba is coming!, mommy" cried Elizabeth.

"What's that?" asked Tomisin bewildered.

"It's a ghost that takes children in the night." explained Elizabeth still hugging Tomisin.

"But it's not night." said Tomisin quickly then a loud thud sound was heard beside Tomisin. Due to Fear Elizabeth shouted, Tomisin screamed — louder than Elizabeth. Then Elizabeth ran away oblivious of the glass that divided the compartment of the mall, she hit her head on the glass and landed straight on her butt. The scene was so funny but there weren't audience to laugh at it. Thankfully

The manager of the mall was a white man. When he heard the shouting, screaming and the big bang sound, he ran to the place. He met two girls of the same age on the floor. It appeared to be that one was hurt while the other was consoling the injured person.

" Hey, what happened?" asked the manger as he approached the girls

"She banged her head on the glass." explained Tomisin consoling a crying Elizabeth.

"Ohh, lemme see." said the manager getting on his knees to inspect the supposed wound.

He lifted Elizabeth's head and saw the bump on the middle of her forehead.

"This appears to be bad, you know what? Follow me to get some ice for the injury and you'll explain to me how it happened, okay?" said the man to Tomisin and Elizabeth to which they nodded.

The middle aged man carried Elizabeth and led the way while Tomisin followed behind.

He took them to the kitchen

"Can you please get me some ice." said the middle aged man to a black chef.

"Yes Darwin" replied the black chef.

"Sit here and you sit here" said the man placing them both on a slab.  Tomisin continue to console poor Elizabeth while the white man stood akimbo staring at them. The chef came back

"Here it is Darwin." said the chef bowing his head.

" Okay, this gonna hurt. So I need you to hold her while I apply the ice okay?" instructed the white man to Tomisin.

"Okay sir." replied Tomisin.

The white man applied the ice gently in Elizabeth's forehead to which she winced and held tightly to Tomisin's reassuring hands.

"Don't call me sir, my name is Darwin." said Darwin smiling. " Sir makes me feel old" explained Darwin.

Tomisin smiled and nodded while Elizabeth was busy wincing.

"So can you explain to me what happened?" asked Darwin robbing the ice gently and carefully on Elizabeth's head to reduce the pain she felt. Elizabeth was more relaxed with the treatment and was about speaking when the man stopped her.

"Shuush, let your sister do the explaining. She's your sisters right?"
asked Darwin.

"Yes!"answered Elizabeth. And Tomisin smiled at her.

"What are your names?" asked Darwin

"Tomisin and I'm Elizabeth" said Elizabeth not knowing he wanted Tomisin to speak.

" What a lovely names you have!" complimented Darwin.

"My daughter's name is Elizabeth." said the man with a cheerful demeanor.

"Wow, really ouch!" said Elizabeth wincing when she felt the pain of the bump

"That's why I said you shouldn't talk. When I get the ice off you can speak." said Darwin whilst applying the ice on Elizabeth's forehead.

"So back to the question: what happened?"

"We went round the mall and got lost. And then Elizabeth said there's Ojojo alaba..." explained Tomisin before everyone busted into laughter even Elizabeth was laughing. It seemed everyone in the kitchen was listening to their conversations and majority were Yoruba.

" Guys, what's so funny?" asked the white man laughing also but not knowing why.

"It's Ojuju kalaba not Ojojo alaba" explained Elizabeth whilst laughing. Tomisin was bewildered.

"Ohh"  she said wild mouthing it when she realised her mistake.

"Okay that's enough, so what this O-ju-ju ka-la-ba?" asked the Darwin, making sure not to get the pronunciation wrong, to the chefs.

" It's an imaginary beast that's used to scared children to obey instructions especially at night" voiced out a chef from one end of the kitchen

"Ohh, thanks Fumito!" appreciated Darwin.

"So it's basically to instill fear in children?" asked Darwin to confirm his theory

"Yes Darwin." confirmed Fumito

" So you guy got scared, then you ran away and hit your head on the glass. Right?" said Darwin.

Tomisin and Elizabeth nodded, this time Elizabeth had the ice in her hand and was robbing it on her head.

The chefs stifled a chuckle.

"What's that?" asked Darwin trying to dispel any mocking laughter

"Nothing Darwin!" chorused the chefs concentrating on their jobs.

Pulling his trousers up a little to bend to their height - for he was slightly taller," Do you know what fear is?"

Tomisin and Elizabeth shook their head.

Standing upright, he told a chef to get him some flour, ketchup and a tray. When the chef brought the required materials, he poured the flour on a tray and spread it then wrote on top of the flour.

On it was; FEAR- False Experience Appearing Real.

"Fear is this" pointing to the art he placed in front of them. " can you read it?" asked Darwin.

They nodded
"What does it say?"

"FEAR, False Experience Appearing Real" chorused Elizabeth and Tomisin.

"Do you know what that means?"
They shook their head

"Lemme tell you a short story"
Tomisin and Elizabeth's lit up in excitement at this

"I guess you guys love stories but before I start." said Darwin, "Fumito can you please announce this missing children of the names; Elizabeth and Tom-sin on the public address system."

"Yes Darwin." replied Fumito leaving the kitchen to the address system office.

"Now this is a story of my childhood"

" Once upon a time, there was a little Darwin who loved balls and he played with it often. He loved his ball so much that he wouldn't lease it to anyone. So one day, he went out to the garden to play at night, as he played he heard a ruffling sound near the bushes and so he got scared and ran away leaving his ball behind. He ran towards his house and knocked on the door but no one answered. He knocked again but no one answered then the trees started dancing due to the breeze" explained Darwin acting some scene out for them to understand." The ruffling sound came closer, and he knocked harder on the door. The door opened suddenly and he ran into the house and to his room and covered himself with a blanket. He shivered underneath the blanket. Then the unexpected happened; he saw some boys laughing outside his house, they'd prank him to steal his precious ball." said Darwin waiting for their response.

"What's a prank?" asked Tomisin.

Darwin stood akimbo," it's somewhat like a trick to scare people or harm them just for fun," gestured Darwin with his hands.

"Ohh, they must have scared you really bad." commented Tomisin

"Yeah and from that day forward, I vowed never to get scared of the unknown until I see the cause of the fuss." said Darwin. " So you see that it wasn't the unknown that hurt you but your fear." concluded Darwin.

Tomisin nodded while Elizabeth tried to feel her bump.

"No don't touch it, it will go down soon." instructed Darwin to which Elizabeth said,

"Okay,"

"So promise me you won't get scared of anything unless you know what exactly it is."

"Elizabeth!"  exclaimed Christy, "what happened to you?" said Christy moving towards them.

"Good day Ma'am, she's fine, they got scared and so that happened." explained Darwin briefly.

"How did this happen?" asked Christy pointing to the bump on Elizabeth's head, oblivious of the explanation Darwin gave.

"Mommy I banged my head on a glass." said Elizabeth.

"Thank you so much sir." said Christy turning to the man standing akimbo.

"Oh no problem ma'am." replied Darwin. " You have lovely kids by the way." complimented Darwin.

"I thank God" replied Christy carrying Tomisin and Elizabeth down from the slab.

"I deeply appreciate this sir." thanked Christy again.

"Like I said it was no problem" replied Darwin smiling.

Walking out of the kitchen, Christy carried her goods from the mall and got to the car.

"I hope someone learnt a lesson today?" said Christy indirectly talking to Elizabeth.

"It's good that Tomisin is alright. Or else I'd have been really mad at you. Next time don't wander places without supervision or permission. You could have gotten more than this" scolded Christy before opening the car door for them

"Michael sit between Elizabeth and Tomisin." instructed Christy and quiet Michael obeyed

"But mom...". complained Elizabeth.

"Shush! no but, that's how we'll ride. Maybe you can get along with your brother." said Christy in an angry tone. "Managar banza" said Christy in irritation ( it's Hausa meaning nonsense).

Everyone got to the car and Christy drove off whilst Elizabeth cried and
Michael consoled her

'Thank you Lord. Atleast he's reacting to Elizabeth's cry. Oh good Lord let those test come out negative. I don't want Michael to be autistic" prayed Christy whilst driving and looking at the the rear view mirror.

"Uhmm, He's going to be fine." said Christy reassuring herself. She parked at an ice cream store to get ice cream for the children. Elizabeth stopped crying when she saw where her mom was parked.

Christy looked back at the children, Tomisin was staring at the mall in font of her, Michael was staring back at her whilst Elizabeth had a silly smile on he face indicating how excited she was that they'll be having ice cream

'Elizabeth will never stop being Elizabeth. The best way to stop Elizabeth from crying is to give her ice cream.'

"Happy?" asked Christy smiling.

Elizabeth nodded her head and cleaned her tears.

"Alright everyone let's go and eat ice cream."

They all got out of the car and went to the ice cream store. Everyone was happy with the flavor each chose but Michael was looking out of the window at something. Christy noticed this and turned to the direction he was looking at; it was a book store.

"Michael do you want to a book?" asked Christy

He nodded.

Christy took the children to the book store and bought a storybook for each one of them.

But she was still worried about Michael. He didn't talk much or interact much with people around him. This perturbed her to some extent and that's why she'd been searching for symptoms on his behaviors and the closest was autism. But she couldn't diagnose her own son as autistic since they hadn't done the required tests for it.

As she walked them all to the car, a verse of the Bible dropped to her heart

Matthew 6:27 KJV
Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

There's no need to get worried, God is in control