My Best Friend's Dying Wish

        When I was younger, I had a best friend named Kofi Zuri. He was originally from Nairobi, Kenya. When he came to the United States he knew very little English and spoke mainly Swahili, and when I met him in school we became quick friends. I got books on Swahili and English and we learned each other's languages, I would speak to him in Swahili and he would speak to me in English. It was a mutual partnership that lasted for many years.

        When we reached Junior High, we became even closer friends; getting even closer when we transitioned into High School where we started dating. It wasn't until after Winter Break that I found out how sick Kofi was, that entire time, whenever he missed out on hanging out with me or when he said that he had to go back to Kenya for a few months, he was in the hospital getting treated for cancer. It was because of his cancer that he and his family moved to the States. He only told me before Winter Break because the doctors said there was nothing they could do, he was going to die.

        I cried myself to sleep over the entire break, I wasn't joyful at all, and I was completely heart broken. My best friend, my first love was dying and there was nothing I could do about it. I sat many nights just thinking about that and trying to see if there was anything I could give him, anything he wanted from me that he would always treasure, and always remember fondly.

        When I returned back to school after break, I shared with him everything I was feeling, everything I was thinking, and I asked him what he wanted. Kofi thought long and hard before we both settled on the one thing we could both give to each other and remember forever... Our first times...

        I readily agreed, after all I loved this boy more than I could say and I was willing to do anything to have a piece of him that I could always remember. We did it and he died in the few weeks before Spring, but it had been done and I had something of him that I would remember and cherish forever, but little did I know I was getting more than I had bargained for.

        He told me he was infertile because of the chemotherapy and radiation therapy, so we didn't use protection... We should have...

        Shortly after my best friend went on to the afterlife I found there was a piece of him growing inside me, a baby...  I attempted to contact his family and tell them that there was a piece of Kofi alive within me, but after they moved back to Nairobi, it was as if they had vanished off the face of the Earth.

        Days went by and finally it was time for me to give birth, and had a beautiful baby boy that looked just like his father. That face, with the same white birthmark on his left eye that reminded me of my nickname for his father. That day I named our child Kovu Kofi Zuri.

        Since that day life for me has never been the same, it's not everyday your best friend's death wish gives you such an amazing gift.