The abandoned

Chapter 1

Children, are the lights of the world. If you have kids, then you will understand what I am talking about. Children are soft minded, forgiving and loving. So I thought I was. As a little child, I thought I should be all that my parents ever needed. I thought I should be treated like a puppy. I needed to be nortured and Fortified into a man that I should be. I didn't have to think about my daily bread, neither do I have to care so much about going to school because I wasn't born by myself.

1989, I was only five years old, then my Dad went to Jail. My mom could not handle the situation, so I was taken to live with my grandmother in the village. Then my mother disappeared and never came back for me. Many nights I cried, hoping that she'll be back. Days gone by, there was no traces of my mom coming back for me. My loving father is in jail, I heard people don't usually go to jail and come back to still be themselves again, yet I waited for him to show up so I can continue to enjoy my childhood. But the waiting, will only take forever as there was nobody coming back for me.I had to stay strong. I didn't really understand what was going on, but I was only left with a choice to be strong.

Five years gone by, Mother didn't come back. 1995 my Dad got out of jail. He could no longer afford to live in Lagos, because he had lost everything, so he came to the village. My father finally showed up and it was a big moment for me. I was happy to see him again after a long time of being away without anyone to call my daddy. Ever since he had been away, and my mom was no where to be found, I have been craving for a sense of belonging. I was supposed to be completely happy to see him again, yes I was. But at the same time I was sad because he came back with sickness and diseases from prison.

My dad came back and become another liability to his mother. Grandmother did everything to ensure my dad was cleansed of all the sickness and diseases he came back with from the prison. He was taken to the hospital and after some months he had fully recovered. But my dad needed more healing, losing everything he had worked for and having gone to jail with a crime he didn't commit, he got depressed. He was introduced to farming, the family had lots of land, so there was no problem acquiring land for farming, but for someone who had lived almost all his life in the city, farming was not something he wanted to do. Moreover, the fact that his wife ran away when he had problems, was heavy in his heart, all he wanted now was to go and search for his wife and bring the family back together.

So he left for the city in search of his wife. After few weeks, he returned to the village sad and disappointed. What he found out in Lagos was too heavy to share with me because he thought I was too little to understand or be bothered by it. But he had to share with his mother. The sad story was that when he got to the city my mother had moved on with another man. And they were already having kids together. My dad became more miserable than how he was when he got back from the prison. He would show up a couple of times to come and check on me at my Granny's because he couldn't live with us. His mother already got him a place to live by himself and start a new life. But he couldn't put himself together despite all my grandmother's efforts to make sure he stood back on his feet. He could not even work to take care of himself because he was so depressed. And so it went on.

My grandmother was kind enough to take care of me to the best of her ability. But she couldn't do all, because she was only a farmer, she cannot afford to send me to school, she didn't have the money. Grandmother didn't want me, growing up in the village to become an ordinary farmer. She wanted me to be more. So I was moved back to the city to live with my Aunty, My father's elder sister. Aunty Mary was a trader, while her husband worked as a nurse. When I moved in with them, I thought it would be just the same way it was with my grandmother, where I always got attention and everything I wanted.

My struggle to survive began at the age of eleven, when I moved in with my Aunty and her husband. The instructions from my grandmother was that I should be properly taken care of. That I should go to school, that my Aunty and her husband should ensure my well-being. But my Aunty would not do as my grandma instructed. I was treated by my Aunty as a slave and a total stranger. I was meant to do all domestic works, these include laundry and washing dishes. I would wash my Aunt's and her husband's clothes, including their underwear with my hands. I had to wash their children's clothes too. Even though I was doing all of these, it was never enough for this family. I got beaten daily, sometimes I bled before I was left alone. My cousins were in their twenties , yet I had to be the one to wash their clothes and wash the dishes when they're done eating.

I was made to Hawk on the streets of lagos even though I was Ten years old and I barely knew my way around. I couldn't even get a chance to play with other kids, If I wasn't doing chores at home, I would be in the market hawking. I didn't get a chance at all to be a kid.I endured, hoping that one day I will taste freedom and all I had to go through will become history. But freedom would be a long journey ahead of me.

Despite all that I was going through as a child, I didn't lose hope. I kept my head up. I was not ready to give up. I always have it at the back of my mind that better days are coming, even though I didn't know when and how, I just knew that life would not continue to put me down. I was doing my best to be happy, even though it was not easy for me. I didn't understand why I had to be maltreated by my own family. I was a poor child in need of all the help I could get, morally, emotionally and physically. But instead of getting the help I needed, I was brutalized and abused. I wasn't growing up like other kids, they raised me with all the bitterness, they could unleash on me. A lot of times I would cry to my bed with physical wounds from the beating that I got. As much as I was hopeful, sometimes I prayed, for the world to just end. If I knew my way around poisons, I knew I would have ended my own life.

At the age of eleven, aunty Mary, was planning to take me to an electronic repair shop, where I would start learning how to repair electronics, as an artisan, instead of going to school. She said, it wasn't convenient for her to allow me go to school, even though it was free education. In Lagos State of Nigeria, primary and secondary school education was completely free.

This wasn't what I wanted. I wanted school, my grandmother promised me I was going to come back to the city to continue my studies because I had already completed grade six in the village. The only reason I was ready to go through all the things I was going through, was because I desired a proper education. I desired education, because I believed, without education, a man can be reduced to nothing. This was what my Grandmother put in my head. She really wanted me to go to school so bad, she made me believe that, I could be better in everything if I went to school,and I believed it.

But my Aunty didn't want that, even though her children were already graduating from the University. I don't know why she felt that way, but I came to realise that she was considering her husband's expenses, on the fact that some of their children were just graduating from the University, while they still had more in school. She didn't want to be the one to bring in burdens on him because he was paying the tuition for my cousins in school. Her Husband , Deacon James, didn't understand why little Fred won't be allowed to go to school, when his own children did.

Deacon decided to take it upon himself to ensure I started Secondary school. He was able to convince Aunty Mary to allow me go to school. The whole family, I mean my cousins agreed to the idea. While the process for me to start schooling was going on, I was enrolled in a summer lesson to prepare me ahead. Luckily for me, Mr. T. the proprietor was a family friend, he allowed me come to learn for free. While I was attending Mr. T. Classes, I start meeting new friends.

Everyone of us lived few houses away, so we had the opportunity to play football after lessons and get to know each other. Although, many of them already knew each other before I came, I was the only one that needed to get know each person. It was fun. I was getting ready for school, then I was being allowed for the first time to meet the kids around the neighborhood.

Sound track : common person by Burna boy.