Where was Janice?
That was the question on everybody's lips as we searched the entire house, combing from the first to the second and then, the last floors respectively.
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We had just escaped the most ugly incident that would have left a scar on our lives as a family but just when we thought it was all over, my aunty asked if anyone had seen her scrawny 4 year old.
We all began looking around the house calling for her. There were only 3 bedrooms and 4 toilets and she was in none of them. She was not in the kitchen either or even in the generator house.
Where could she have gone?
By the time we finished a thorough search of the apartment, my aunty became frantic.
My mother held her close and spoke reassuring words into her ears. Promising that we were going to find her and she was definitely in the house somewhere.
My older sister suggested that we began to search other houses, “maybe she went in there to play with the kids”
“But after this robbery shouldn't the adults in such a house return her?” My mother asked. None of us had the answers, there was only one way to find out.
We went knocking house by house and showing each face that appeared at the door Janice's most recent picture on my mother's phone but at every house, we kept seeing heads shaking in the negative. There was no Janice there.
By the time we were heading for the second floor, my aunt had begun weeping and when we finished asking from every house in the compound, she was throwing herself to the ground, wailing uncontrollably. She had just 2 children and one of them was suddenly nowhere to be found after a robbery operation.
It was some minutes past 1 am when we all finally decided to go to bed. That Christmas holiday, my mother's younger sister came to see us with her 2 children. Our uncle was supposed to be at the house with his family as well but his flight got delayed and he was to arrive the following day.
Since it was Christmas eve, we decided to create a movie list of movies we all had always wanted to see and binge watch them into Christmas with the fried chicken my mom and her sister spent the previous day preparing. The entire episode was going well until half of us fell asleep.
My mom had to wake us up to go to our respective rooms and just when we were saying our goodnights, we heard a gunshot.
My mom bolted all our doors leading outside and turned all the lights off at first, then we all stayed silent on her command to know if it was truly a gunshot we heard. We didn't need to wait for long. Before we could understand what was going on, we began to hear rapid gunshots, as if the robbers were shooting and someone was shooting back.
My mom instructed all of us to lie down flat and stay close to one another. I could hear her muttering close to the chair where she lay and I knew she was praying.
About 10 minutes later, we heard a siren blaring in the distance and knew that the police were around. Very soon, there was peace and quiet as if nothing ever happened.
My mom quickly got up and turned the lights on, it was already 3 am. We began praying immediately, thanking God for exempting us from the plan of the enemy when my aunty suddenly tapped my mom and whispered, “where is Janice?”
The last time we saw her, she was struggling for a piece of fried chicken with her brother.
When it was obvious that we weren't going to find Janice that morning, my mom sent us, the children, to bed and placed a call to Janice's father, explaining the situation. By this time, it was 4 am on Christmas morning and we were all exhausted to the bones.
By 7 am that morning, my aunt's husband landed at our house.
“The police station will not be open today, it's Christmas” my mother said.
“If they caught the robbers yesterday then someone should be at the station this morning. Let's just go and give it a try” my aunt's husband insisted.
My mom agreed and went to take a shower while my aunt's husband decided to make something for his wife to eat.
My mom just poured some water on her body when we heard my aunt's husband scream. We all woke up and ran out from our different rooms, he was shouting, “she's here, Janice is here!”
She was folded in one of the kitchen cabinets sleeping soundly. His shouts woke her up too. Everyone wanted to hug Janice at the same time. Her mother began another round of tears from relief.
When the heightened emotions became calm, my mother took Janice who was quite confused and asked why she had gone into the cupboard.
“I was hiding from the armed robbers” she said.
I thought about it, none of them would have gone to look in the kitchen cabinets if they had entered our house, they probably would have looked in the room cupboards but not the kitchen.
It was possible that she heard or saw that brilliant idea somewhere else and noted it in her brain. Through that experience, I learnt to be careful around kids, you never knew what they were watching and listening to in order to practice later.
Wow! It was amazing by this baby Janice. The child learned at the age of 4 years and implemented it fantastically. The robbers are common and we should learn how we can protect us from them.
Thank you for your comment. I agree that Janice's action during the robbery incident was amazing for a 4-year-old child.
You make a valid point that robberies are unfortunately common in many parts of the world. As adults, we should make sure that children are not exposed to such traumatic events. Thank you for visiting
Edit: Thank you for the support. I appreciate you.
Mum must have gotten military training somewhere for telling you all to lie down flat, lol. Janice was really a wise kid to opt for the kitchen cabinet for safety, because no thief would have located her.
Perhaps she has a secret past as a special ops agent? Just kidding, of course.
You are right, Janice's choice of a hiding spot in the kitchen cabinet was clever and effective.
My adrenaline got a hype reading this, Iska. Especially the movement when the mother had another round ofvtears finding her daughter. Oh My God! What a terrible night it would be when was lost and what a surprise it would be to see her safe and sound in front of your eyes.
However, when we have young kids we need to be ultra vigilant. I have heard of cases where kids locked them up in cupboard or cars and that caused them suffocation which lead to death.
Hey, Amber.
It was really terrifying night for my family. We were all happy to find her safe and sound.
I will defintely talk to my aunt about this.
Thank you so much for visiting. I appreciate you, ma'am.
Always a delight to visit you, Iska
Oh my world haha 😂 the innocent girl was making sure she was very safe while everyone almost had an heart attack, children are very unique in their thinking, and sometimes we need to consider ourselves as children before we can read their minds. Thank God she hid in a safe place, I've once read about a child hiding in a condemned refrigerator and only survived because an adult unintentionally found him early enough before suffocating.
Lol. We were all consumed with worry. I am grateful that we found her sooner before she got into harm's way.
Thank goodness Janice was alright. I was almost palpitating right now while reading. No words to describe the pain of losing a child o. But in truth kids are smart especially these genz kids. They are already tech gurus from the womb😁