Chapter Five: Hustling for thy Daily Bread

The rest of the class ended uneventfully, things went smoothly and once again, I hit the streets, hustling for my daily bread; in the ghetto of the capital. I thought of what to have for dinner, as I looked at the wares and commodities of various shops, both openly displayed and inside. My eyes quickly scanned the goods and my stomach rumbled, telling me to pick fast.

I stared wide eyed at both lanes, checking to see if the city patrol were present or some local vigilante hero wasn't absent or if the owner was watching his goods with both body and soul.

I stylishly made my way to the pork soup stand as I requested for a plate, my eyes eyeing the bakery next to it.

"Yes sir, here's your pork soup." The middle age fat man gave me the food, served in a plastic plate. It was sizzling hot but cold to the touch. It was a thermal plate, a poor one as I could still feel the heat with my palms.

"Anothe one please " I spoke good English like a respectable human would and this only pleased the man as he decided to say something.

"You know I thought you were a thief, like all those scrawny children and teens who had nothing to do than to suffer us honest workers. But I can see you're a respectable lad. I smiled inwardly, If only he knew what's coming next.

"Here for you good sir?" The man said with a cheerful smile as I took it gratefully, casting a glance at his gleaming left wrist, what a watch!. My class influence coming up as I pulled out my wallet. With clever fingers, I pushed the money out a bit allowing the man to see the huge wads of notes sticking out. He saw it with wide greedy eyes....'and there goes my bait, perfectly swallowed.'

"Say good sir, could I drop this here and go over there to buy bread, it wouldn't take long.

"Sure sure !" He said as he carried both bowls of soup in and smiled warmly at me.

"Wait a minute, add two more pork soup for me and package it so I don't have to wait while I come back, and you get your money quickly."

"Yes sir!" He was excited, same as I was.

He said happily as he got to work, not knowing he was about to be ripped off.

"Hey, four loaves of bread please !" I called out to the seller who was a pretty girl.

"Four you say ?" She asked as I suddenly felt displeased at seeing her. She had previously caught me before when I had tried to rip her parents off. Like she literally caught me mate, she pursued me till my legs gave out and I stopped running. I mean I just crumpled to the ground before her. She didn't even beat me or anythimg just dragged my ears till they were red and took her loaves of bread back.

It was embarrassing, but not my fault anyways, since that bread was to be my first meal for that day. I bet she was a knight or maybe a barbarian. Here she was, grinning at me, as if she knew why I was here, and expecting another episode. It wasn't like I have never bought bread from her shop before, I had with pure cash. Of course that was also stolen.

"Golden haired boy, you again?"

"Yes ma, present!...I need four loaves please ?"

"Buying this time ?" She asked with a wide smile. Didn't allow it to fool me despite it been charming.

"Of course ma'am, of course."

"Hey, go help your mother, she needs you " her father, an older bulky man came out of the back. Staring at his huge frame, it was easy to know where she got her stature from.

"Say what do you want boy?" He asked in a deep gruffly voice.

I almost lost my composure.

"Four loaves of bread sir....the pork man sent me ." I quickly added, deciding not to use the previous scam I thought of, cause with him, I would be easily caught.

"Huh ?" He stared at me with curiosity as I made way and he poked his head out of his stall.

"Billy! You sent this kid ?!"

Billy , the pork man came of his stall, his belly first as he waved at both of us and I quickly waved back at him like he was the Dad I never had.

"You sent this kid ?!" The man screamed again and only God knows what Billy heard, cause he just kept on waving and I too waved back. I was so into it I almost said yeah, Pops sent me.

"Fuck Billy, well since he's waving so consistently like a lover bading farewell to her man hitting the frontlines, go meet him with the loaves I would watch you both from here."

"You don't need to...."

"Boy! Don't test me !" The older man quickly cut me short as I inadvertently swallowed a ball of saliva. Everyone guard was up, did they know my class ? Or was I now famous, for been a thief ? Except Billy though.

"Does Billy even eat bread?" I asked myself as I slowly walked towards the happy Billy.

'Quickly, I had to think fast. '

I pulled out my wallet as I turned back to the man and waved at him, his eyes still trained at me simply nodded with folded hands.

"Ol' good sir Billy, I quickly said in a foreign tone as Billy quickly reached out to give me my package. With a side glance I could see the Baker was still looking at us and I knew I had to be fast and discreet. I quickly took the pork soups from him and feigned passing the bread nylon to him.

Immediately I let go of the bread nylon as well as my wallet, the two items dropped to the floor. Billy hands had instinctively reached out for the bread nylon and mine had crossed to his left side. But in that moment, greed won as Billy saw the overflowing cash and quickly let go of the bread nylon and picked my wallet. And me I picked what I liked from Billy. My slippery fingers at work.

In the blink of an eye I grabbed the bread nylon and took off, like a pursuing Ostrich. Rounding off the corner, I kept on running until I got to a dark alley where I stopped briefly to rest my tired body. Running on an empty stomach wasn't easy man. This was my first meal today.

"Fuck! I pulled it." I smiled while staring at the universe for giving me the skills to provide one more meal for myself. Praise be to God.

'Time to go home'

Having rested enough and it was now almost dark, I slowly began to walk back to my abode.