Writing contest: One Good Turn Deserves Another

to all the great Steemians. I hope you are all fine! In a certain town, there was a young man named Okon. As typical of orphans, he had passed through one difficult moment or the other. The parents died in a fatal motor accident when he was just two years old. He had relatives but none offered to take him in.

A poor good samaritan woman lent a helping hand. Five years after taking the boy in, the poor woman died of a chronic ailment. By this time, the boy was just seven years old. Imagine the heartache he must have had to witness another tragedy in his life- the death of his fostered parent! For him it never rained but it poured.

At that juncture, the boy had nobody to depend on for any support. At that tender age, he started street life. He had no place to put his head or a place he could call his home. Why? Because his uncles had confiscated all of his parents' properties when they heard of the sad and untimely death of the boy's parents. What wickedness!

To eke a living, he went on the street soliciting for alms even at that tender and naive age. As time went on and as he was maturing, he felt there was no dignity in begging. So he decided to quit. He began doing odd jobs to earn a living. He worked as a bus conductor and later as a scavenger. Life was very difficult for him.

In fact on many occasions, he slept without eating for the day and when he woke up the next day, he never knew where the next meal will come from.

Interestingly, one day while he was just having a stroll, he felt so hungry and thirsty that he decided to branch a compound to ask for help. Behold! A middle aged woman appeared and asked him why he was there. The emaciated looking boy could only mutter to the woman "please i need a glass of water to quench my thirst". The woman instantly felt for the boy and saw no need to ask further questions.

She went into her room, came out with a glass of milk instead of water and gave to the boy to drink. The boy was taken aback, he had never drunk milk before except the breast milk he sucked from his mother as a baby. He hurriedly collected it and began sipping it slowly. He thanked the woman profusely for her kindness which was unprecedented in his life.

That singular act of magnanimity remained indelibly etched in the boy's memory. With the passage of time, the boy had a menial job that improved his economy. Hence, he decided to go to school. He enrolled in adult education, took his senior school certificate examination (SSCE), wrote Joint Administration Matriculation Board ( JAMB) exam and passed with flying colours. He gained admission into the university to study Medicine.

He struggled to see himself through higher education. In time he qualified as a trained medical doctor. As fate will have it, he was employed to work in one of the renowned hospitals in a nearby town.

One day, the woman who had given him a glass of milk in place of water many years ago was seriously sick and was unwittingly rushed to the hospital in which the boy, now a practiced medical doctor was working.
On seeing the now very old woman, he quickly recognized her but kept his calm. He immediately facilitated her treatment.

Eventually the old woman was back on her feet, hale and hearty. She asked for her bill but the doctor had already taken care of that. In her hospital folder, the doctor wrote in a piece of paper: " your bill has been settled with a glass of milk". When the woman saw the note, she quickly remembered with nostalgia the act of benevolence she had shown to a little poverty stricken boy many years ago.

She burst into tears which elicited the same reaction from the doctor. They hugged each other. This tale clearly elucidates the saying that one good turn deserves another.

Moral lesson: We should seize every opportunity at our disposal to help someone in need because nobody can predict the future with precision. Future event may warrant the same person whom we
expressed kindness to reciprocate such fine gesture to us or our children as the case maybe.