Chapter 2 Life as an orphan

After the death of my parents,things became to hard for us.Grandma was getting so old she could not offer us so much we lived like beggers,I started skipping school to hawk at least to find something to eat for the day.My friends came visiting with their parents and teachers four weeks after the burial,They came with gifts and other things they could get for us.

We just had to adapt to the situation.Grandma could no longer pay our fee so we had to drop out of school to join grandma in her little store just down the street.Staying with Grandma made me learn a lot of things and I was able to start things myself as a little girl.

Years later, Grandma also died and we were taken to a home for our kind.We stayed there for close to nine years or less than,then I was eighteen years old while my brother David was eleven years.David would wake me up Everytime I was celebrating my birthday and sing for me but I wished I would just forget the date of my birth because there was nothing to celebrate that day for.To me it was a day of great pain and anguish,The orphanage could no longer take good care of us so we had to leave to save ourselves from hunger.We moved to the streets and mingled with other children staying by the road side at least to share their stolen bread with them which they shared happily with us,we also slept by the road side with them.That was how we survived daily,by stealing bread and then sleeping by the road side.David started coming back late with other guys there,he started living rough but what could I do.He was trying to find a way for us to survive, sometimes I would call him and warn him but he never listened to me.He would say he is doing it to save us from starving and Godforbid me slapping my brother,I don't know how but I just could not raise my hand to hit him.He was like my son already so I would just keep warning him to stay out of trouble.

One night,David came back with so much money instead of bread and I wondered what he did to get such amount of money,I asked him and he told me he did menial works in an old industry and he was paid for his labour,I didn't want it to look like I was doubting him so I let it be.Things continued like that for us for weeks, months and.....

I was washing our rags we called clothes in the street tap when two of David's friends came to me like something pursued them,I wanted to run myself but I had to ask what happened and they told me that David was with the Police and they had taken him to their station because he was caught trying to run away with somebody's bag.I left all I was doing and ran as fast as I could to the station they described to me.I requested to see David because he is my brother and I was taken to where he was kept.When David saw me he wept the more and looked at the ground because he couldn't look at me the way he was,I was heartbroken and I couldn't do anything to help him.I told him to tell me what transpired and he explained everything to me,He told me he started stealing bags in the market and he was caught that day."Why would you hide this from me and lie to me everytime I asked"I said to him but he could not reply he kept on saying he was very sorry.I went to an officer to beg on his behalf but it was as if I was invisible to them,they just ignored me and when I was able to get the attention of an officer,he told me to pay a certain amount of money for them to release him "we have no money"I said to the officer but he looked at me and walked away.I had no idea of what to do but I would not want my brother to spend the night in the cell so I went out to beg for help.Would I say luckily for us,A woman agreed to help is but she told me that we would now become her workers in her food shop.This condition was perfect for me and my brother because now we would have a shop to sleep in and we would also eat from there,I agreed to her condition and David was allowed to leave.We moved to her shop or would I call it our new home,we were instructed to wash all the dishes arrange the tables and the chairs but she never allowed us to serve the customers that came only big girls did that and they look close to being naked.After working with our boss for sometime her attitude changed,she started adding go our work and she even instructed I would be part of those that serve her customers since I was now mature enough to do it but David was not allow since only girls serve in her shop.Sometimes we would have nothing to eat for the whole day and the boss never cared about it,I tried to complain and she told me I was her servant and not her child so I had to do what she wanted me to do.David would sometimes sneak into the kitchen to take and hide some of the food for us to eat or he would keep the leftover secretly for us while washing the dishes.He was caught oneday and I had to take responsibility for it because I didn't want him to be sent back to jail.I was made to work overtime.

I was serving one particular day when I bent to drop the plate on a customers table.I felt somebody's hand on my ass and without thinking of it for a second,I turned around and slapped the man at my back.He removed his hands form my butt and held his face,my boss came out of the shop as people began to talk to one another.The man stood up with his face filled with rage and was about to hit me,My boss rushed to me and gave me the slap of my life and I was confused as to why I was slapped.She then asked for what happened after slapping me and I told her what the man did, instead of turning to the man she slapped me again and asked what my work was,she told me that my work was to satisfy her customers in any way they want.The man came close to touch me again but this time I just opened my eyes when I had somebody scream,I saw him on the ground holding his head while David dragged me out of the shop as we ran away.