1 The Lost Children Part One.

The Lost Children.

© 2019.

By

Olayiwola Oromidayo (Ayomide).

Info About The Book You Are About To Read.

Setting; Nigeria: Lagos, Abuja, etc.

Language; English.

NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: Twenty and above.

Genre; Prose.

Moral Lessons;

1. Talent pays more than strength.

2. Never give up.

3. Remember the helpless and help them.

4. Don't abuse children.

5. be diligent.

Writing Duration; Three days.

Pages; 89 pages – (30, 398 WORDS).

FOREWORD.

This book is for you- irrespective of your age, race or achievement. I don't know why I wrote this book but whatever inspired me to write it will undoubtedly spur you too to do greater exploits and have faith that tomorrow would be better than today.

"We may stumble and fall but we shall rise again......" Mahatma Gandhi

This book has two distinct plots. It chronicles the lives of two kids who started their lives on the streets and how they chose to better in the future than to be a menace to the society.

Some of my friends had criticized this book for having two prologues. They said it is 'confusing' but I think it is very important I put it this way because this book is about two young people from different backgrounds thus they must be treated separately until they are merged together.

Though I have never seen any prologues written that way before yet this is a new book too so what is wrong if I bring a change? (smiles). Please don't get confuse. It is very simple.

AKNOWLEDGEMENT:

I want to acknowledge the following people for their moral and financial support for me at all times: Miss.

Paula A. Olaosun (Big Sis), Mr. Olayiwola Gbenga (Big Uncle), my maternal grandparents, Mr. K. Olayiwola (Small Uncle), my Aunts, Bodunde Olayimika (Small Gurl), Mr. Ayobami Bayonle, Susan, Olubamiro Michael families and friends who are too many and too important to be forgotten. I love and appreciate you all.

PLOT.

Michael was nine years old when he left the motherless babies home where he had been living almost all his life. He took the streets of Lagos with the childish mentality that things would change from bad to good if he leaves the oppressive motherless home and he left eventually. On the streets, he met so many bad people who almost corrupted him till he was challenged into becoming a better person so he started building his future, shunning all the bad friends he had made. Rose was inspired by Michael's determination to succeed so she joined him in a quest to achieve their dreams together. They chose music. (something that they both love ) as the tool for their development in life and though they faced many problems yet they overcame them - all together.

PROLOGUE

The presiding officer over the holy matrimony read some scriptures from. The Songs of Solomon as their wedding toast then they were made to repeat their wedding vows one after the other. After they were through, they put rings into each other's fingers then the man of God presented them to the anxious congregation which was made up of their families, colleagues at their different work places, church members, mogbo-mo- branch and gossipers. Among the gossipers in the church during the matrimony, there were 2 who seemed to know everything about everyone in the church.

"Hey Shade! See your friend!" the first gossiper said, pointing at someone in the front row.

"Who are you calling my friend?" Shade asked eagerly.

"Eliza or have you forgotten? She is the bride's best friend back in those days of their youth."

"yes. She still is. She is the best lady. She look so bad in that best lady rubbish." Shade said.

"Though I must confess that she look gorgeous..."

"She is not! The bride got pregnant back then...."

"Ah! Lower your voice, people are hearing you! Which bride are you talking about ?"

"this bride of course. You don't know? WOW! Almost all the world knew about it. She got pregnant and even gave birth to a baby boy." Shade said.

"O my God! Are you serious? So where is the baby, who is the father and does her husband know about that scandal?" her friend asked eagerly.

"Well nobody knows where the baby is few months after he was born and nobody asked her. About the owner of the pregnancy, he is the man on the alter with her so he knew about everything but the man of God may not know anything about it." Shade said conspiratorially.

"That's bad and she look so fresh and innocent!"

The landlord looked at the young man that was standing sobbing in front of him and he felt sorry that he couldn't help him in anyway. The lady he was looking for died about a year ago. She was one the landlord's tenants. Her friend packed out of their one room with her little baby girl and the friend left no address for anybody who wants to see them and now this young man is here and crying bitterly at the news.

"Who are you to Elizabeth when she was alive?" the landlord asked.

"I was her fiancée and we were thinking about marrying each other when I come back to the country only to hear that she is dead. Aahahhhhhhh!!!!" he wept.

The landlord looked helplessly at the handsome crying man. "I'm so sorry for your loss" the landlord consoled " Actually she has been falling sick for a while before she died. In fact, it was after she gave birth to her baby girl that the sickness started."

"She was pregnant ?" the Youngman asked suddenly, almost rising from his chair.

"Yes she was. She gave birth to a baby girl . Her friend who left this house about 5years ago was pregnant then too. She took all her friends belongings away and since then nobody else has come to ask about her except you."

"Thank you baba. I have to go now."

"Alright, take heart and be strong. Someone who is dead is gone, whatever we say or do after that is just wasting of time. Bye" the landlord advised.

"Alright baba"

"Wait!" the landlord said suddenly " her books! Her friend didn't take away her books and photo albums. Since nobody else has shown up, let me give them all to you. I almost forgot!" the landlord said and went into his bedroom. He came back moments later with a heavy sack" I packed these when her friend left in case someone else come for her things. Take them if you want or I burn them."

"Thank you so much baba. " the young man said and carried the back to his waiting car outside.

"Hey, what's your name my son ?" the landlord asked from the front porch of the house.

"Oromidayo sir"

"Hmmm.... good name. Alright, goodbye."

LIFE ON THE STREETS.

Michael was nine years old. He lives on the streets and wears patched up cloths. He lives among homeless and reckless kids like himself.

When he was a baby, his faceless mother discreetly dropped him off in front of motherless babies home and ran away. The nuns in the house were used to seeing new born babies being dropped by their mothers at the entrance of the home so when the gateman found him, he simply shook his head and took the baby Michael into the home with other babies.

He lived in the home for 6 years with meager meals and oversized shirts. Of course he was not the only one, other kids too passed through the hardships. He ran away from the home when he was just 6years old. That day, one of the Nuns in the home punished him for singing when he supposed to be sleeping. The nun took him to the punishing room and made him recite Ave Maria for two hundred times, psalms 23 and 24 five times each. At the end of the punishment, he felt angry and cheated that he decided to run away from the home. He had heard stories about kids who ran away from the home and made it on their own and he had been seriously thinking about when he would gain his freedom and fortunately for him, the punishment hardened his heart thus he decided to run away after the punishment.

He didn't go back to the wards for his cloths or other belongings since all he had was a pair of old shorts and a torn shirt and he was wearing them both by the time he got the punishment. The old gateman was sleeping by the time Michael got there. The old man had already locked the gates and puts the keys in his pockets. Michael walked quietly to where he was sleeping and he picked the bunch of keys from the sleeping man's pockets without the latter knowing anything. He quickly opened the gates and stepped out into the cool night Lagos streets.

When he had made sure that he had lost sight of the home, he slowed down and took a long deep satisfying breath. When he was through relaxing, he started wandering aimlessly about in the middle of the early evening Lagos milling crowd. Everything he saw or heard were very strange to him because all his life, he had been confined to the premises of the home without having taking a step or venturing out of it. It was a wonderful experience for him to be in the middle of the noisy Lagos night. He mixed with the pedestrians and listened with unfeigned pleasure at the burst of cacophony of loud music coming from the opened shops by the roadside. He felt as if he was on another planet. After an hour, he reached a place where many people were watching a movie on a television by the roadside and he mingled with the crowed till he reached the front and he was able to see clearly. The movie was a Chinese movie that was translated to Yoruba. It was so funny and interesting that Michael sat with the other people to watch the movie to the end. After two hours, the shop owner closed the shop and the crowd dispersed. Everybody went in different directions and he was left alone, without a destination. Unsurprisingly, the Power Holding Company of Nigeria withheld the power according to their name which suits them perfectly like a glove. Everywhere would have been thrown into pitch darkness but thanks to the shop owners who put on generators whose noises can deafen someone if care is not taken.

He marveled at the noisiness of the streets, the throng of people who seemed to have no destinations and the ruthlessness of motorists as they left the congested roads and took to the paved sidewalks to the anger and curses from the leggers. A woman walked up to him and begged him to give her money that she lost her wallet. Michael felt sorry for the woman but he had no dime with him and he told the woman so. She looked at him scornfully and hissed, walking away.

Michael was still bitter over the woman's attitude when a husky voice boomed behind him. "Hey idiot, how much do you have there? I have a gun so don't try to shout because I will kill you alive." he said as if killing someone is possible when the person is already dead.

Michael was scared

"Please sir, I have no money on me!" he begged without looking back at the person for fear of being killed.

"Liar" the husky voice said

"I'm saying the truth sir" Michael begged but the man still didn't believe him. Before he knew it, two large hands shoved deeply into his pockets and came out some seconds later with a handful of bread crumbs. The man threw the mess at his face and slapped him. "As old as you are, you are putting bread into your pockets?"

"I'm sorry sir" Michael said frightfully.

"Now go but if you look back, I'll beat sunshine out of you" the voice said and Michael ran away without looking back because he thought that the man was behind and watching him.

The man's presence continued to hunt him for a very long time. He dared not look back because he thought that the man would deck him from behind. When he couldn't take the torment anymore, he dared the man's order and looked but there was no mean looking man behind him. All the passersby looked uninterested in him. He sighed deeply and relaxed.

The time was already going to 11PM and many shops were already closed but few others were still open. Night food sellers were by the roadside, displaying their enticing delicacies.

Michael's stomach grumbled at the thought of eating some food and the meat pieces that were heaped on a tray. Michael was still admiring and wishing for some food when a boy- probably someone within his age bracket ran past him, he had stolen some of the meats heaped on the tray and the food seller was already shouting thief and calling for help. Michael was frightened that they may mistake him for the street urchin that stole the meats so he quickly began shouting that he was not the one but the few people that were running in his direction didn't hear him. Instead they ran past in the direction that the thief had gone. He released his breath and thanked God. He took another direction and walked away. Hardly had he walked for ten minutes than he saw the boy who stole the meats with a handful of meats and eating them. He wanted to go on his own but he felt it compulsory to talk to the boy. After all, it was his moral duty to let the boy know that what he has done was wrong. "Hey, nice job you did" Michael said but the boy looked insignificantly at him.

"You were so lucky tonight because had you been caught, they would have beaten you to pulp"

"I didn't plan to get caught too big head. Meanwhile, how did it concern you and should I say that you are interested in the meat?" the boy taunted.

"God forbid, you stole it and I will not take part in that because God hates thieves..."

"Hey are you calling me a thief now? Did I steal anything from you?!" the boy demanded. He would have struck Michael at least twice but the meats in his hands seemed more important than dealing with the nosy Michael. He hissed and left Michael standing hot faced there. Michael didn't know that they would meet and become friends again though he hated the boy with passion at that moment.

It's been three days since he had left the home. Gradually he was learning to adapt to the harsh reality of life on the streets. More than twice, he had been bullied by the streets ruffians and urchins who were barely older than he was and on both two occasions he had been really disgraced. He had been beating to the point where he was crying and begging them for mercy whereas he didn't do anything wrong in the first place. He woke up the third day with a fever and a pang of hunger because for those three days he hardly eat anything. He didn't want to steal yet he had no one to help him. The place where he slept was mosquitoes maternity because a thick- smelling stagnant gutter was beneath some planks of wood on which he slept and there were slits in the woods where the disgusting smell of the gutters wafted up into his nostrils and professional blood-sucking mosquitoes used those places as the airports to the streets.

The fever was so severe that pains shot through his head and raged in his body like a wildfire. Few hot tears escaped his eyes and he let them fall without holding back. Amidst all these problems, the tapeworms in his stomach became so hungry that they began tearing at his lungs and intestines. He doubled over and cried.

"Hey, what's wrong with you ?" A boy that was standing above him asked. He was the same boy who stole meats three days earlier but Michael didn't look up at him. "Are you an Ebola patient?" the person asked uneasily.

"No, I'm not. I'm hungry, that's all" he said weakly.

"Uh-oh. I guess as much. I have foods but I don't think you will like them...." the boy said and Michael cuts in sharply.

"I don't care what food it is, please just give me something to eat!"

"I stole them, so hope you don't mind?"

Michael looked up and he discovered that it was the boy he saw stealing three days ago. For few moments he was lost whether to accept the food or starve to death but he decide to accept the food and ask for forgiveness later.

"You see, stealing is justifiable under the condition that one is about to starve to death. It's better to steal food and live than to steal bigger things. God understands that you need it badly so it's useless thinking about it when you are helpless in such circumstances" The boy whom he later knew as Neyo said.

"But can't we work for our living instead of that? It's too dangerous and risky." Michael said without conviction.

"Let's drop the subject because as young as we are now, nobody will employ us so that's a no go"

"Okay, I've heard you."

"Are you ready for some lessons?"

"Yeah" Michael said excitedly. He had been receiving lessons since they met again when Neyo had rescued him from the jaws of death. He had decided to survive on the streets.

"Lesson seven- you can eat in a canteen without paying a dime. All you just have to do is chose the canteen of your choice especially the ones that are usually crowded and local. Don't go to all these fancy restaurants like Mr. Biggs where you have to pay before service. Just enter the canteen of your choice and order food. Don't buy too much so that your escape can be easy. Eat normally. For instance, a piece of meat and two wraps of amala or eba or anything. Finish the food and watch to make sure that nobody was looking then you will walk out confidently. Don't look at anybody's face, just walk out.

Lesson eight: how to eat and collect change in a canteen without paying. I call this code double magic. Just order the food of your choice and finish it. Then go back to whoever is collecting money and demand for your change; calm and cool. Look straight into the Person's face without fear. The person will not want to argue with you......"

Michael and Neyo began a kind of partnership through stealing, lying and cheating people. He became wild like Neyo and he soon began to get better than Neyo at all these vices. Many marketers knew. them and wished to catch them and give them the worst beating of their lives but the boys seemed too smart to be caught.

One Sunday morning, Michael dragged Neyo to a nearby church despite his protests. He was about to tell him as a matter of fact that he was not going when Michael informed him that the church was celebrating its 40th year anniversary and that there would be enough food then he gave in quickly.

They wore the best among their cloths and went to the church. They were only allowed into the church after the pastor had prevailed on the ushers to allow them in, otherwise they would have been disallowed from entering the church because they looked unkept and stank and their cloths were patched up in several places. They chose the front pew because they knew that should food sharing start, it would be from the front row. The pastor continued to talk about Jesus and all the wonders he performed on the cross.

Somewhere in the pastor's sermon, Neyo suddenly raised up his hand. The whole congregation fell silent and focused on him. Already the people were tired and bored with the sermon. The story was what they already knew and the pastor was not creative in narrating it but to Neyo, it was a new story because that was his first time in a church. The sleeping congregation looked interestedly at Neyo.

"Neyo stop that stupid thing and put down your hand!" Michael whispered in his ear but Neyo shrugged his shoulders defiantly. He didn't care and was not ashamed of anything. The pastor looked at him for a very long time as if considering if he should allow his question. Eventually he gave in.

"Yes my son, what is it?" The pastor asked kindly.

Neyo stood up and everyone leaned forward to hear him.

"You said that Jesus was a good man and he was innocent?" Neyo asked

"Yes, he was good, kind, humble…" The pastor rambled on.

"Then why did they take him to the cross? Couldn't he fight back, wound them, kill them?"

"No" The pastor said smiling.

"But why?!" Neyo shouted angrily. "He must be a MUMU!"

The church broke into an uproar. It took the pastor a very long time before the laughter subsided. He replied his question.

"You see, he had to pass through that pain because of you and me so that we won't suffer. He died because of us. He could have saved himself but what about us? He thought of us and that was why he surrendered himself."

"My next question is about how he turned water to wine, if he could do that then it is not a sin to drink alco…." The angry ushers grabbed him and Michael and drove them out of the church. For the rest of the day, Michael didn't speak to Neyo because he didn't let them get served with food before they were thrown out of the church.

One day, they both went out together to the next streets for inter-street football competitions. They were on the street waiting for the match to start when a fully air-conditioned bus halted on the street in front of a very beautiful mansion. The mansion's gates opened electronically and a small girl who must not be older than he was stepped out of the gates. Her father and mother stood watching her entered into the fully air conditioned bus and Michael realized that it was the girl's school bus.

"I love you mum!" the girl said as the bus sped away. The mother dabbed her eyes from tears and her husband put a arm around her and they both went inside the mansion, the big gates closed automatically after them. Other homeless kids were angry and frustrated by the family's affairs. They booed and jeered at them because the bus parked on the street that served as their field and this was delaying them. The match resumed immediately the bus left and everybody except Michael forgot about the rich family.

Before he saw the family, he was as happy as a monkey that has a bunch of ripe bananas up on his tree-house but seeing the family made him sad and sore and he realized that if he didn't take a step, he might miss a glorious future. Right there on the street, he made a resolution that henceforth he would not walk with bad kids and that his goal now is to get educated and have the kind of house he saw that day. He told Neyo that he was no longer interested in the match and of course their sinful friendship. "Are you crazy? Do you want to start comparing yourself to that rich kid? You will never be like them! This is our destiny, let's embrace and accept it with contentment. We are born into poverty and as long as we don't aspire too high, we will survive. Let's just fight to survive. All those big dreams are useless because you can never actualize them."

"Thank you Neyo but I've already made up of my mind. I want to change and become a better person. I want to go to school and be educated. I don't want to be a thug or ruffian on the streets. Though I don't have parents or anyone to help me, yet I'm sure that I will make it someday. Neyo let's change together" he begged

"No way. You are just stressing yourself and wasting your time because it will never be."

"Alright, goodbye Neyo" he said and walked away.

He left Iganmu part of Lagos where he first came to and travelled to Mushin. At Mushin, life was a little difficult because the only survival skill he has was through stealing but since he had decided to stop stealing, he had to find an alternative.

The alternative came not long after he saw some kids begging for money. He told himself that he could do it too and whatever he was given would be better that stealing so he decided to start begging people for money. That night, he begged till he was tired but he was given only seventy naira. He spent twenty naira out of the money and saved the rest for the next day. That night, he slept in front of a closed shop and forgot all his troubles. He was still sleeping and dreaming when he was rudely woken up the following day by the shop owner.

"Get up and get lost before I wound and beat you black and blue now!" the shop owner threatened.

He rose up quickly and ran away from the shop before the man could beat him like he threatened. He walked aimlessly about, bumping into people and he was shoved aside by the ever frowning Lagos workers who were hurrying to their working places.

"Hey watch it idiot!" An impeccably dressed man in a black suit snapped at him "Don't step on my shoes!" Michael apologized and walked on carefully. Since he had no wristwatch, he had no idea of the time (not that it matters anyway) but the sun had already risen from the east and it was full and scorching in the sky. People were already many on the streets and more than twice, he was pushed off the sidewalk by the impatient Lagosians because he was not walking fast enough for the passersby.

After twenty minutes of aimless wandering, he decided to beg just like he did the previous day so that he could have money to buy food. Unlike the previous day, nobody gave him anything for three hours. Everyone that he approached shunned him and walked away from him as if he has a plague. He used the remaining fifty naira and used it to buy food while he used the remaining ten naira to buy water because of the hot, dry temperature. He rested for an hour then he continued begging people for money. After one and half hours, he had made about three hundred naira so he decided to work harder and get five hundred naira so he could be able to spend one hundred and fifty naira that day and keep the rest till he had enough money to buy a bicycle.

While he was still begging, he saw a fine school bus and well-dressed students who were his age mates in their smart uniforms getting on board of the bus and he wished he could be among them and have a school, a uniform, school bus and of course parents like the kids he saw. This brought tears to his eyes and he let them fall without shame even as the passers-by looked pitifully at him. He had already been told that kids without parents like him use to live in the motherless babies home and other public places so he knew that his parents were dead and that they left no family behind to take care of him. He thought that God must be a very wicked person to make the equation so imbalance to the extent that some kids have parents and the parents are also very rich whereas people like him have neither parents nor money because he knew that without parents or at least money, he cannot go to school bcos they are the ones who will pay his school fees. He felt so angry and he blamed God for making things the way they were and accused Him (God) of being partial. He asked God why he couldn't go to rich and posh school like "Binta International School" like other kids, like kids in the bus. When God didn't answer, he cried bitterly and the passersby stepped far away from him.

The Meeting.

Rose and Pelumi were childhood friends. They started their friendship since they were both babies till they were adolescents. Rose was ten years old and a year older than Pelumi. Rose mum who was who was Pelumi mum's friend died when Rose was only a year old and since nobody knew her family, Pelumi's mum started taking care of Rose whereas she was pregnant at the time.

Pelumi's mum was a street-sweeper until she was hit a car hit and her right leg was amputated. After the amputation of her leg, she decided to start begging since there was nobody that would employ her in her current state for any kind of job. So she brought up the two girls though begging. When they were still very young, she used them as twins to beg people for money because they were of the same height and strange enough, they looked so identical that people absolutely believed that they were twins.

When they became seven and six years old, she told them to go and beg for money together. The two kids went back home that first day with four hundred and eighty naira. Since then, she bought two rubber plates for them and taught them songs to sing in other to get money from people. "You must present yourself well if you want people to give you money" She usually tells them. "It is easier to receive than to give. Giving usually must be preceded by conviction. If the person you are approaching is not really convinced to give you something, he will just ignore you so you must make yourself presentable."

On this particular day, they walked on Isolo Bridge and crossed to Daleko market in Mushin then they walked on through the streets, begging and singing for money. A man gave them two hundred naira and they were so happy and excited that they bought two ice-cream cones and savored its sweet and creamy taste as they begged from streets to streets.

When they got to Palm Avenue junction, they saw a large group of people with drummers and trumpeters, carrying big banners and posters. The people were so many and rowdy to the extent that motorists couldn't move. Rose and Pelumi were distracted and they watched the crowed with excitement because they were bored from singing the same old songs and repeating the same words. While they were watching, a man violently pushed Rose aside from the road and almost into a gutter nearby and by the time she regained her balance, Pelumi was gone!

She shouted and called her name but the noise and the milling crowd were too much to the extent that the person beside her didn't even hear what she was saying. She searched frantically through the crowd but she was nowhere to be found. The crowd left Palm Avenue and danced towards Mushin Ojuwoye-market. Rose stayed behind, thinking that she would see Pelumi.

Michael was still roaming at the Ojuwoye market, begging the marketers to give him money when the campaigners reached the market. He stopped begging and drew closer to the crowd to watch. In the middle of the melee and the middle of the road, an emergency wooden platform was raised and a man whose pictures were on the banners and posters mounted the podium to a cheering ovation from the crowd of supporters.

"My people!" he began in a loud voice, his voice rising above the noise of his supporters with the aid of the microphone that was provided. "God has sent me to you and this country at large to save you and our dear nation from the oppressive regime of the present president and his cohorts...…" the crowd cheered at this slander. The man continued "The president and his cabal in Aso rock are robbing this country blind! They are stealing trillions of naira in the guise of democracy! They build huts and sheds in Nigeria to fool us that they don't have money but they wire the loot to foreign accounts in Zurich. These are the people that will come and prostrate to you at election times. After that, they will dump you like pieces of worthless rags. Is this how you want to continue?!"

"No!!!"The crowd shouted in frenzy.

"The president is a thief, am I right?"

"Yes he is...!"

Michael walked away from the place. He wondered why Nigerian leaders are uncouth. They have been taught at the motherless home that they should mind what they say about other people- slander is a sin according to Jesus Christ in the bible. The man cracked a joke "We are tired of them in Nigeria as well as Lagos state so let's use their brooms to sweep them away!"

Michael soon forgot about his dislike for the candidate and he listened and laughed as the man cracked lame jokes. He shouted with the people when they shouted and he sang and danced with them for two hours. After the campaign, the crowd dispersed to their various destinations.

Michael resumed begging

"PDP will win in Jesus name" he said to one of the party supporters "If you want your party to win then give me money" he said with a charming smile. The man gave him fifty naira out of party concern than simple humanitarian gesture. He continued begging till seven in the evening then he decided to stop and rest before he starts the night shift. Meanwhile he decided to buy puff-puff to eat to refresh his body. When he got to the puff-puff vendor, there were many people there so while he was waiting, he saw a black girl with thin and beautiful face. Her hair was long and packed with blue ribbon- she was eating puff-puff not too far away from where he stood. He liked her instantly so he walked up to her. He stretched forth his hand to her "give me some" he begged

"Haven't you been taught that it is bad to collect something from strangers?" the girl said retorted "I could poison you"

"I'm just playing with you. I don't need your puff-puff because I will buy mine now" he said

"Then off you go and leave me alone" she said and hissed.

Michael left and came back moments later with two puff-puffs. He offered the girl one but she refused to take it so he started eating.

"My name is Michael" he said

"My name is Rose. Where do you live and where are your parents?" she asked. Whenever children who are living on the streets meet, these are the questions they always first ask each other. So Michael knew immediately that she lived on the street just like himself.

"I don't know where my parents are and I live everywhere where there is space for me to sleep" he said, eating the hot puff-puff. "What about you Rose?"

"Did you help me to see Pelumi?" she asked instead of answering his question.

"No, who is she?'

"She is my sister. We came to Mushin together but I lost sight of her in the crowd"

"Maybe she has gone back home?" Michael suggested

"Yeah I think so too" she replied, wishing that it would be true. But Pelumi was not at home when she got there. Her mom was hysterical when Rose reached home without her. "Let's go and find her!" she said fearfully. They searched all the streets that they both passed through that day but there was no sign of her. At 10PM, it was obvious that Pelumi was lost so they ran to the nearest police station and filed a case for a missing person. After describing what she looks like, the cloth she wore as at the time she got lost, her age and height, the policeman on the counter said "It happens a lot in Lagos mam. Every now and then, people get lost; some are found later others are simply- gone."

Rose sobbed quietly "Pelumi!"

"Madam, we go find am for you. Pay now so that we can do our job"

"But I thought it's free!" her mom said. "Please help me sir. I'm a helpless widow; I have no husband or family…."

"Alright but a police station is not a charity organization. Pay three thousand naira now because you said you don't have a husband or family and you don't even have a right leg. So pay it now or you can forget about your missing kid or any help from us because we will fuel our vehicles when we are looking for the kid. Do it before it's too late"

Since she had no money on her at the station, she had to run back home to take all her savings (part of the money that Rose and Pelumi brought back from begging that she'd saved in case of emergency) which was just two thousand five hundred naira and gave the policeman after much begging and tears. The policeman collected the money and told her to go but to check back by 12PM the following day.

Michael didn't see Rose the next day or the next one. Not even the next five days either. Rose was the first friend he made on the streets since his freedom from the oppressive motherless home and after breaking up with Neyo. He thought that maybe she didn't want to be his friend as much as he desperately wanted to be hers. Later he decided to forget her and find a new friend.

One day he was on the streets begging when he reached a house. The house was very big and beautiful and tall fences were built around it with big-black gates. He was about to pass it when the gates opened and a well-dressed boy ran out of the gates with a bicycle. Michael was naturally a bicycle addict and his love for it would always pull him whenever he saw anyone with it. He forgot about his hunger quickly and became interested in the boy and his bicycle. ''Do you want me to push the bicycle for you?" Michael offered as the boy struggled with the bicycle.

"Yeah, thanks" the boy said as he climbed the bicycle. Michael pushed him down the street and little by little, the boy started pedaling the bicycle without falling down. He was so happy to the extent that he didn't mind as he pedaled very far away from his house.

After several minutes, the boy dismounted from the bicycle and told Michael to try it. Michael climbed it and he tried to pedal but he fell down hard on the floor. He felt pains all over his body but he was determined to know how to ride the bicycle. The boy laughed hilariously as he fell and instead of getting angry, Michael joined him and both of them were laughing very hard. Michael fell several times but he eventually mastered how to stay on the bicycle without falling down. He rode down the street, unsupported by the boy and was very happy.

He was still riding when a madwoman suddenly appeared from nowhere. Michael didn't know where the break was and it was even too late to avoid colliding with the madwoman so he ran into her and the two of them went down together with the bicycle.

The madwoman stood up before Michael could, so she pulled him up by his shirt.

"Stupid, idiot, crazy mad boy!" she screamed and slapped him relentlessly "Are you blind or deaf or both? Didn't you see me and my baby?" she shoved a dirty, ragged and torn doll into his face "Before you ran into us? Do you want to kill my precious baby? Talk! "

The boy came to the scene and saw Michael and the madwoman struggling.

"Mummy, my bicycle!" the boy cried. He tried to carry his bicycle and run but the madwoman was faster, she grasped his hand gave it a wicked twist. The boy winced in pain and fell down backwards. She sat on the bicycle and started singing "this car is mine, no one can take it away from me co it is mine It is mine

It is mine !!

It is mine!!!"

"Give him his bicycle!" Michael shouted.

"Thief! Mad boy! Ole!" the woman shouted back at him "Come and collect it if you dare because I will wound you!" A car halted suddenly beside them; a man and a woman alighted

"Mummy, my bicycle!" The boy shouted, sprinting towards the woman.

"What are you doing here Junior? We've been looking everywhere for you? How did you pass the security man?" his mum demanded angrily.

"Dad, I'm so sorry!" junior cried. He tugged at his mum's cloth so that his dad would not beat him.

"It's alright dear. We are so happy that we found you. No one will beat you" she assured him. "Who is your friend here?"

Junior told his parents about Michael.

"Okay" his father said disinterestedly "now let me collect the bicycle" he said to the madwoman but she refused to give up the bicycle.

"If you come here, I will beat nonsense out of you" the madwoman warned

"Darling please let's leave the bicycle. We'll buy another one" Junior's mother begged but her husband was adamant in collecting the bicycle.

"No, I will collect this bicycle from this lunatic woman!" he said and tried to snatch the bicycle away from the woman but she was very smart and fast. She pushed the bicycle away from his reach and slapped him in quick succession. Junior's dad ran back to his car screaming "Let's go!" he shouted to his wife and they quickly boarded the car and drove away.

Michael had been following the madwoman since afternoon. He had discreetly followed her (at a safe distance) to all the streets and junk sites she had been to but he had not been able to achieve his aim, yet it was already 7PM but the madwoman hasn't stopped. After Junior and his parents had gone earlier, he had tried again to get the bicycle back but the woman beat him every time he tried till he was aching all over then he decided to follow her to her house (if she had one) and steal the bicycle when she is asleep.

By 8:15PM, the woman went under an abandoned old bridge and put the bicycle down beside her after putting her baby on the dirty floor and sitting down herself. The place smelled very foul but Michael endured the stink and waited till she was asleep. After two minutes, she was fast asleep and snoring loudly but she was talking even in her dream which made Michael believe that she was still awake until he moved closer and discovered that she was truly asleep. He crept slowly towards the bicycle and removed her leg that was strapped on the bicycle on the floor gently.

"Stop! Thief!!" she shouted suddenly in her sleep and he ran back, thinking that she has woken up but he later realized that she was only talking in her sleep. He went back, got the bicycle and sped away from the place.

It only took him three days to know how to ride. Once he knew how to ride, he always took it with him wherever he went to beg for money but people refused to help him. At first, he didn't know why until a woman rebuked him in her anger when he begged her for money.

"You must be a thief or very stupid or you are both! Sell your bicycle and use the money to feed yourself if you are truly hungry!!" she spat on him and left. Then he knew that if you are begging people for money, people want to see you poorer than themselves else, they won't help you. So that evening, he decided to be keeping it at a private parking lot owned by a rich man on the street where he was sleeping. He made a deal with the security man there to be buying the man a packet of cigarettes every Friday so he could be parking his bicycle in the car park anytime he wanted. After he had settled the issue, he continued begging from place to place and every time he was making more money every day.

It's been three weeks since Pelumi disappeared. Her mum had cried bitterly till she couldn't cry any more. At first, she had held Rose responsible but as time goes on, she accepted that it was God's will that Pelumi disappeared. They went to the police station everyday but the policeman said that they couldn't find her and after a week, he told them not to come back to the station because their money has expired.

During those three weeks, Rose couldn't go out to beg because they were busy looking for Pelumi and they didn't eat much food either because they had no money. At the end of the third week, Rose left home around 4PM when none of them had eaten anything since morning without telling Pelumi's mum where she was going and went back home later in the evening with eight hundred and fifty naira after buying food that they would eat for the night. Pelumi's mum was very happy and she thanked her for bringing the foods. When they had eaten, Rose packed the plates and washed them.

"I'm going out tomorrow again" she said "You just stay here ma because of your leg. while I ask people for money. I will also look for Pelumi and I pray that God will let me see her."

"Amen Rose. "

"Take this six hundred naira ma, I will bring more tomorrow"

"Thank you Rose. May God bless you. May He be with you and protect you through all your journey. You are a good child" she said.

Early the following day, Rose left home and walked through the streets begging. "Hey, it's Rose!" said Michael as he walked up to her.

"Hey Michael!" she said excitedly, she was extremely happy to see someone to make her happy after three weeks of sorrow over Pelumi though she had only seen him once in her life.

"You look sad and worried, is anything wrong?"

"We are still looking for Pelumi" she replied sadly.

"Really? I've even forgotten. I'm so sorry about that" he said "have you gone to the police station to report?"

"Yes we have. They only made us pay and …nothing."

"That's bad" he sympathized "Have you eaten this morning?"

"No" she said "I think it is too early to be thinking about food now."

"No it is not. It's good to eat every morning before you step out" he said and led her to a canteen. He ordered for the two of them and paid. After they had been satisfied, they left the place and went out to beg together.

Later in the evening, they both went to the parking lot to see the bicycle. When he told her how he came to be the owner of the bicycle, she laughed till her stomach ached.

"Many slaps from a madwoman later made me the owner of the bicycle, can you just imagine that!" he said.

The security man walked up to them.

"Hey Michael, let's do business" he said. Both Michael and Rose instantly became interested.

"What's the business?" they both asked.

"Some boys came here in the afternoon. They saw your bicycle and they begged me to let them ride it that they will pay…"

"But they will spoil or take it way!" Michael protested quickly.

"No they won't" the security man assured. "I am smarter than those kids. I will tell them to leave their shoes or even phones before they could take the bicycle so it's easy. Besides I know them all; I know their houses and their parents" he said smiling.

"Mike that's a good idea" Rose said excitedly.

"Yeah I think so but how are we going to do it?"

"It's simple." The man explained "they will ride it for forty minutes and pay fifty naira"

"That's good!" Rose said, jumping up and down.

"Yeah, it's good" Michael concurred.

"We will share the money fifty-fifty." The man said. "Let's imagine that we make two hundred naira in a day, we will split it into two. That's a hundred for you"

"But I am the owner of the bike! I suppose to get more than you" Michael said

"Yes but I brought up the business idea. I'm the one who will be doing the hard work while you will be doing nothing. Moreover, you are sleeping here nowadays and you are not paying for that so I think I deserve it."

"Okay sir. I agree" Michael said, afraid that should he refuse; he might be sent away from the place. The park provided a better accommodation than sleeping on the street. There was a cozy corner in the place where he was safe from rain and the sun unlike the streets where he was at their mercy.

"Good boy" said the security man "We will begin tomorrow" he said and left.

"Michael we can even buy more bicycles once people start patronizing us" Rose said as they walked to where she lived with Pelumi's mum "Let's assume that we make one thousand naira each day…"

"That's impossible" Michael said "Last week Friday; I only got one hundred and eighty naira."

"It's not impossible if we believe and work hard" she said. "Within two weeks, we should be able to buy another bike and that one too will generate money for us" she said as they reached the house. The big house was built by Lagos state government. It is not really a house; it's just a large hall where homeless people can be sleeping in. Mostly beggars and jobless people live there. It had no room; the whole building was built in form of a big hall where people just sleep on the floor or on mats. They walked to the far end of the hall where Pelumi's mum was.

"Rose, welcome" she sifted on the mat and indicated a place for her to sit on. "How was your day?" she looked at Michael "Who is your friend?"

"His name is Michael" Rose replied. "I met him on the day Pelumi got lost and I was looking for her"

"Okay" she replied "Welcome. Where are your parents?"

"His parents are dead" Rose said.

"O my God, so sorry to hear that" she said.

After forty minutes in the place, Michael left the place while Rose saw him off. "Michael, why do you need money?" Rose asked suddenly in the middle of their discussion.

"Because I want to go to school" he said

"Me too. I want to go to school so I want to save enough money so that when I start, I won't drop out. I want to become a doctor" she said.

"I want to become a space scientist. I want to travel to space inside rockets!" he said excitedly. "Rose I can't just wait to be inside the moon and other planets! O God, someday I would be!"

"Yes, Michael! Let's work together! Let's work harder and enroll in a public school as soon as possible. Let's say within the next three months?"

"Rose three months is too long. Why not two months?"

"But can we get enough money to buy books and all that within those two months?" she said "Think about uniform, notebooks, registration fee etc."

"I know but …okay! I have a plan" he said jumping up and down.

"What is it?" she asked eagerly

"The two of us will work together" Michael said "instead of walking from place to place, we will stay in a place and entertain people. Rose, you told me that you love singing, remember?"

"Yea but I'm shy and can't sing in front of people" she said sadly.

"Rose you must not be shy! This is our lives. This is your talent so you shouldn't be silly, bring it out. One of the nuns told us that we should discover our talents and develop it. She used the example of a deaf and dumb handicap who was a gifted artist. His pictures brought him a lot of money in the end and he was able to pay huge amount of money to a professional doctor who operated him and cured his problems of deaf and dumb!"

"Wow! That was so inspiring! It's amazing Michael!" Rose exclaimed "Okay, if I would be singing, what would you be doing?"

"I will be singing with you and playing the piano"

"The piano?" she asked "do you know how to get one, let alone how to play it?"

"At the motherless home, we were taught how to play some musical instruments and I loved piano because it reminds me of my mum. Who she was and why she hated me so much to drop me off like an unwanted rag"

"Okay piano man. Where will you get one now?"

"Children's pianos can't be that costly. We can buy one with the money we will make within three days. It will be good Rose!"

Rose too was excited.

Four days later, they bought a piano at the cost of two thousand eight hundred naira. It used cell battery so there was no need to get it connected to a power source. It was big enough and when they got to a street corner where there was not much noise, they sat down and Michael told Rose to sing. While he played, she sang "twinkle, twinkle, little star" and he played to it.

"Wow! That's lovely!" she exclaimed.

"I told you. Now you will also dance when we are singing so that people that are far away can see you and be attracted to us"

"I don't know how to dance!" Rose cried helplessly.

"God!" Michael said, exasperated "Okay, we will learn how to dance okay?" he said and she nodded "before you go home tonight, we will learn how to dance together"

"Okay!"

Later in the evening, they started learning dancing till she was able to dance quite alright. They both sang and recited poems and danced to them while he played the piano. "Whoa! Whoa!" said the security man enthusiastically as he came up behind them. "Who taught you these little kids all these?"

"Don't you like it sir, mallam?" Michael asked, afraid that he wouldn't like it.

"Wallahi, talahi sumobi lai la si lao wa I like it baje!" he cooed. " Chai! It's gudu!!!"

"Thank you!" Rose and Michael said excitedly as they hugged each other.

"Are you going for a funeral or why are you learning how to dance?" he asked.

"Aw Mallam, people don't dance at funerals. Actually we have a plan..." he quickly told him their plans.

"Wow! Allah, you this small boy you get am for ankali" he said.

"Thank you!" Michael beamed with happiness.

"Wait! This is how you are going to do it. This piano speaker is not loud. I have a radio that you can plug it to make it louder. The radio is using battery as well so you buy my radio and I sell am for you"

"But mallam, we don't have money anymore! We've spent everything we have on the pia…" Michael said.

"Okay, you go pay am later." The mallam said.

"How much will you collect?" Rose asked.

"One thousand five hundred naira only I buy am so I go sell am for eight hundred naira, gaskia".

"Okay mallam, thank you. We will pay you as soon as we make the money." Rose said.

"The bicycle I get am for three hundred naira today" mallam said as he gave Michael a hundred and fifty naira. Michael thanked him and he and Rose continued their planning. "One more thing Michael. In the North, we call some children alumajiri. They ask people for money and they put on the same cloth and carry plates" he advised. "Buy cloth the two of you too. It will make you two look good."

"You mean we should get the same cloth, like a uniform?" Rose asked.

"Yowa ! You get am!!"

Michael and Rose thought about this.

"It's a very good idea but right now we don't have anything to buy that. Maybe later then ?"

"Yeah, that's good" Michael agreed.

The next day, Michael and Rose decided to go to the area where people usually pass and they set up there. Michael was playing while Rose was singing and dancing. Soon, people started watching them but nobody gave them money. They changed songs and Rose even danced harder, it only attracted more people but none of them gave them anything. There were times when people clapped and cheered during their performances but there was no money. A woman came in the afternoon and hissed at them "You little devils, go to school and stop wasting your time on the streets!"

DEJECTION.

"I hate this!" Rose cried as they reached the parking space. She flopped down on the floor and wept. Michael too felt very bad and felt like crying but he didn't because he believed that boys don't cry "It was just so pathetic!" she cried "Nobody even gave us a dime. My legs are aching and . . ."

"Rose it's okay!" Michael said gently "We'll try again and again and again till it work out"

"I'm not doing again!" she said. The security man came to them. "Chai! Flenty money I don come? You get flenty money, ko?" he asked. Michael told him that nobody gave them anything. The security man also felt sad. He told them to try again and in a different place. He told them that he would lend them some amount of money to buy white shirt, black trouser for Michael and black skirt for rose and bow ties for the two of them.

"E go work wallahi tallahi" he said encouragingly.

The next day, they boarded a bus to a park in Ikeja. When they got there, people were in the park with their friends and families; some were having picnic while others simply set down or were walking around. They started singing. Soon the people surrounded and started watching them. Rose first sang "let it shine" with Michael playing the piano and backing her up. "Please everybody join me and let's sing the chorus together!" Rose said and all the people joined them and they all sing the chorus:

"This little light of mine

I'm gonna let it shine

This little light of mine,

I'm gonna let it shine

This little light of mine,

I'm gonna let it shine!

Let it shine!!

Let it shine!!

Let it shine!!!

The people clapped and cheered for them happily. "Bravo! Keep it up!!" shouted a boy. "You kids are really talented!" said another woman.

Michael and Rose bowed and smiled at the crowd. Michael spoke.

"Please help us with any amount of money that you can spare. We are orphans but we want to go to school, we want to be educated. We don't want to be beggars on the streets. Please help us to build our future. God bless you too as you do"

The people were moved by this speech so everybody started giving them money. A man even dropped five thousand naira! While people were giving them money, they started singing "We are the world" by Michael Jackson and USA for Africa.

"We are the world;

We are the children,

We are the ones to make a brighter day

So let's start giving.

There's a choice we are making,

We are saving our own lives,

It's true we make a brighter day,

Just you and me!!!"

Later in the evening.

"Wow! We made nine thousand eight hundred and seventy naira!" Michael exclaimed. He hugged Rose and they both jumped up excitedly.

"Wetin I dey shout for?" mallam asked as he came to them, smoking his cigarettes. Michael showed him the money they'd made." Yeeeh! You go steal am?!" he asked, surprised.

"No" Rose replied laughing "People gave us – everything!" she declared triumphantly.

They returned the money the mallam lent them and even gave him extra to buy his cigarette. At the end, the money remained seven thousand eight hundred and seventy five naira. "Now that we have money" Rose said "Let's buy a bicycle and start buying books and pens for the school"

"Yeah but we cannot go to school now because once we start schooling, we may not be able to go out again."

"It's true. We will wait then." Rose agreed.

An hour later, they bought food and took it to Pelumi's mother. They gave her one thousand naira. She was very happy and she prayed for them. "How I wish Pelumi is here tonight to see how well you are taking care of me" she said. "It's okay" Rose said "I believe that she will come back one day and we will all be happy again – together."

"Amen". They left the place and went to the parking space to sleep.

THEY FOUND PELUMI.

Rose and Michael were playing on a street three days after their first successful outing when people began running and rushing off to a place down the street. At first, they didn't bother to go because sometimes thugs may be fighting and people will be rushing there to see who wins as if fighting is a good pastime but when someone began crying and somebody else (a lady) was screaming hysterically, they stopped singing and looked at each other.

"Michael, what's wrong?" she asked.

"I don't know" he said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Why is that woman crying?" she asked, afraid.

"Maybe she saw something." Michael said.

"Like what?" Rose asked frightfully.

"Rose, c'mon! I wouldn't know why. Alright, let's go and see! I bet you want to know what's happening over there"

They packed up their instruments quickly and the little amount of money that they were given and they followed the crowd down the streets.

When they got there, they saw an abandoned old building and people were going inside the building and others that were outside; especially the women were talking and crying. Michael tried to listen to the heave of conversations that were rising and falling all around them but all he heard was something like "a girl….inside" etc.

"Rose, stay here, I'm going inside the house now" he said and squeezed his way through the crowd and went into the house. When he got inside, the rooms smelled very badly to the extent that he covered his nose with his hands as other people did. He passed the first room and came to the second one.

The door to the room was opened so he went inside to join other people that were there in the room. Inside the room at a corner, a young girl was lying on the floor. There were wounds all over her naked body and flies and worms were going in and out of the body. She looked as if she was sleeping but she was dead. The girl looked hundred percent like Rose. Though Michael had never met her before but he knew immediately that it was Pelumi.

"Pelumi!" Rose screamed behind Michael and he turned around, he didn't know that she was following him. Rose bent down on the dead body and cried.

"Rose…" Michael couldn't hold back tears too and he cried as she was wailing on the dead body. Three men in dark suits came in; one of them pulled Rose up and led her outside while Michael followed closely behind. The two men put a piece of white cloth on the body and carried the body outside.

When they reached outside, people cried when they sighted Pelumi. They put her inside a waiting ambulance and it drove away. A policeman came to where Rose and Michael were standing, crying.

"Do you know her?" he asked.

"Yes sir!" Rose cried

"Was she your sister?"

"Yeah"

"What happened?" the crowd that gathered over them asked eagerly.

"She was missing about two months ago. We searched everywhere for her but didn't find her. We reported at a police station but nothing happened. So since then, we didn't hear anything from here or her whereabouts till now that I'm seeing her dead!" she cried harder. A journalist and a cameraman were videotaping all what Rose was saying. People that were there were looking pitifully at her.

"Where are your parents?" the policeman asked and Rose led him and the journalist to Pelumi's mum.

She fainted when she heard the news. People tried to console her but she was too devastated to listen. All the while, she was shouting her daughter's name and saying "Please let me too die!"

Pelumi was buried the next day at the public cemetery in Mushin. The Local Govt. paid all the expenses for the burial according to Nigerian constitution regarding such cases. It was later rumoured that she was kidnapped by a rutalist when she got missing two months earlier and taken to where nobody knows and kept her locked till he later cut some parts of her body and later dumped her at the place where she was found and he/she ran away. It was the smell that attracted people to the place where a woman found her.

The Lagos state commissioner of police said on the TV that before the end of the month, the criminal would be apprehended and that he/she would be brought to justice. He admonished the people not to harbor criminals and that they should report any criminal activity in their area to the appropriate authorities in order to save more lives and properties.

UNICEF said in a live broadcast that what the criminal did to the innocent girl was inhuman and that God will not let the culprit go without being punished for the crime and that when the criminal is caught, he or she will suffer more than the girl did before they kill him or her legally.

Throughout that week and even a couple of weeks later, Rose stayed with Pelumi's mum and was consoling her every day. She refused to eat and take her bath, instead, she was busy crying and calling her daughter's names every time. Michael too was not far from them, he bought them foods, and gave them money but none of them were able to eat because they were too sad to eat.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Throughout the campaign and election, Mr. O. Abrahams had been afraid that should he fail to become the governor, it might wreck him financially and even politically because he had taken risks he shouldn't have and had applied for loans that may be his doom. At the beginning of his race, he had set the boundaries and told himself that he wouldn't spend more than he had set aside for the race but things changed overnight and his major opponent suffered a heart attack so he became the most popular among other contestants and that was when he became blind and reckless to his previous decision not to spend beyond his budget.

In a bid to get more money to finish off what he had started, he approached many people that he had once sidelined. His wife was among those people. She was a very rich daughter of a multi billionaire who had refused to support his campaign because he had refused to make his daughter the first lady should he emerge the winner. The reason had been that though they've been together for almost twenty years and blessed with a child, the relationship had been sour and sparkless and his wife became worse over the years to the extent that they didn't even use to greet each other every day and the thought of making such stranger his First lady made him shudder and cringe.

Thus he didn't include her in his plans but few months before the election, he became broke and desperate. There was only one hundred and twenty million naira he needed and no hope of getting it anywhere. He approached his father in law and he agreed to make his daughter the first lady.

Fortunately, he won the election with a landslide.

PELUMI'S MUM.

Two weeks after her daughter's burial, Pelumi's mum called Rose and told her that she would be returning back to her village.

"I thought that you are from Lagos?' Rose asked.

"No I'm not" she replied sadly

"O my, then how did you come to Lagos then?" she asked

"It's a long story."

"Please tell me then" Rose said.

"My father was a very rich man. He had many farmlands and as a result, he married many wives. My mother was the fourth of the six wives and each wife gave birth to at least 6 children so we were almost fifty children excluding those from his concubines.

My father was a typical farmer so he used his large family to work on his farmlands. Though there were schools in the neighboring villages, my father didn't send any of us to school. He hated school and he usually says that going to school is a waste of time. We were all very happy in the big family because there was enough food to feed everybody and enough money to buy cloth during Egungun and Sango's festivals.

One day, my father called me and told me to ask him for anything that I wanted. This surprised me a lot because I've never enjoyed such privilege before and I considered myself lucky to be chosen among the multitude. I told him that I will go and think about it and he said okay. When I got to my mother's room, I told her what my father said and she became very excited. "This is an opportunity for us to get some money. His other wives have been manipulating him and …. Just tell him you need money" my mother said. I went and told my father what she said. He gave me enough money then that my mum used for her father's funeral party.

Meanwhile, my father had done the same thing for a kid from each of his wives. Others had not been better except one who told her son to beg my father to send him to school. My father hated school but he sent the boy to school nonetheless and even paid all his school fees in advance.

When I was twelve years old, my father died. His properties were divided among his wives so that each wife's children can inherit the property without cheating through their mothers but there was not much left behind because towards the end of his life, my father ran into debts and used most of his farmlands as collateral but he was unable to pay back those debts and when he died his lands were seized and sold to pay off the debtors and it was only a piece of land that was left for the whole family to inherit so at the end, my mum and all the six of us inherited a piece of land that is not as half big as this hall.

When we were unable to survive with the little things our father left behind, we the children left home and travelled to different places to work. At first, I stayed in the village, doing menial jobs for people but it was not enough to see me through my life. I wanted to become a successful woman and be known all over the country so I left my village and came to Lagos. Then I was nineteen years old; vibrant, beautiful and full of life but naïve.

When I got to Lagos, I started working in a canteen and the owner was paying me five hundred naira monthly. I decided to go to school but the work didn't allow me to have enough time to do that and besides, I was too old at the age of nineteen to start Pry 1. So I gave up all thoughts of going to school and decided to make enough money through business.

I was still pursuing that dream when I met a sweet mouthed young man. He talked me into believing that he would take me to every part of the world should I accept to be his girlfriend. Then I was still a village girl and naïve to the cunning ways of some unscrupulous men. I believed him and allowed him to sleep with me.

We continued our relationship for a very long time during which I believed that he was the one for me. He bought me cloths, and gave me gifts, including money but where are those things today? One day, I discovered that I was pregnant so I told him. He said that there was no problem that he would accept the pregnancy and marry me but that was the last time I saw him. I went to his house where he used to take me to but I was told that he has no room there that he just used to sleep anywhere he sees.

I wept and cursed myself for being such a stupid girl and I vowed that I would take care of my baby, send him/her to school and let him or her become a very great person in the world, possibly the president of this country even if I have to go into slavery to do just that.

I met your mother when I was pregnant, then she just gave birth to you. Your mother was an NCE graduate then. I think she was in teaching in a pry school then. I met her at an occasion. We became friends and she told me not to worry that very soon, she would help me. I moved into her one room apartment and we started living together. She told me that she was an orphan and that the motherless home that brought her up sent her through primary and secondary school education. She said she sponsored herself to the college of education and that someday she would go the university and become a better person. I loved your mother and admired her greatly because she was a very brave woman and she was diligent too.

Not long after I moved into her house, her heart disease began and she died on the sickness after three months. Then you were just a year old and two weeks later, I gave birth to Pelumi. I didn't know any of your mother's families so her funeral was taken care of by the Local govt. council"

Rose was already crying.

"I wish your mother had lived few more years, she would have been able to take proper care of you and you would have been a very different person. She would have sent you to school and give you the best that money can buy but obviously it didn't happen that way."

"Do you know anything about my dad? Did she tell you anything about him?" Rose asked eagerly.

She shook her head.

"No. I don't know anything special about him except that he travelled abroad while your mother was still pregnant. She told me that your father was a very handsome young man and that he has a very bright future that one day, he would come back to this country as a very great man. That was all except…" she was lost in thought. "She had a diary. It was a book where she used to write everything that she does inside. I'm very sure that there will be things about your dad in that book."

"Do you know where the book is" Rose asked, her heart was beating very fast. She didn't know who her mother was neither did she have any of her pictures of her but seeing her mother's diary will answer a lot of questions on her mind.

"I'm so sorry Rose. The last time I saw that book was when I packed out of her house and that was over nine years ago. I didn't think that the books were important because I didn't know the value of books since I was not educated." She said apologetically and Rose cried.

Before now she thought that she might be able to know something about her mum and possibly know something her father but all that were over when she learnt that the books were gone.

"I'm so sorry Rose. That was very bad of me. I was careless with it whereas I should have taken care of those things when I left the house for the last time."

"It's alright ma. What really happened to your leg?" Rose asked the question that had always been on her mind since childhood.

"I lost my right leg when you were just three years old and Pelumi was two. I was desperate to send both of you to school so I decide to work round the clock if that's what it would take to give you both education. I was employed by the Lagos state government under the ministry of environment. I was one of the sweepers on one of the major highways. I was sweeping the road one day- that was seven years ago- when a bus driver lost control. It was too late before I saw the vehicle but I ran nonetheless and that probably saved my life though my right leg was crushed by the erratic vehicle.

I was rushed to a hospital and my leg was amputated. I was entitled to an amount of money from Lagos state government but despite the fact that I begged and filled many forms, there was nothing. The only thing that they did for me was taking me down to this place. They promised to process the money for me so that I can survive but up till now, I've not received a dime for that purpose. The government simply didn't pay the money. Never believe the Nigerian politicians because they are the best liars in the world. They didn't even think of how I will survive with two kids and without leg. All that they were good at is promising without fulfilling.

I'm now tired of Lagos. I wished I never come here in the first place, it would have been better for me. I would have gotten married to a farmer and bear his children and I might have been lucky enough to send them to school but I wouldn't have been able to meet a wonderful woman like your mother, she was the best person that I've ever met in my life and the only why I don't totally regret coming to Lagos. She was kind, compassionate and generous. You have her heart Rose and I can just imagine what you will look like when you grow up. You will look exactly like her."

Rose felt happy to hear all the good things about her mum. A thought suddenly came to her mind.

"Do you still remember that house where you and mum lived?"

"Of course I do. It's in Isolo. What's on your mind Rose? Do you want to go there?"

"Yes ma" Rose replied without hesitation.

"Why?"

"We may be able to find the books or at least know what happened to those books."

"I doubt if we will ever know anything about them" she replied.

The old man looked at Rose and then Pelumi's mum. "Of course I remember you" he said to Pelumi's mum "You were the pregnant woman that was living with Elizabeth then…"

"Who is Elizabeth?" Rose cuts in.

"Your mum -that's her name." she replied. "This is baba, the landlord."

"Is this Elizabeth's daughter, her baby?!" baba exclaimed. "O my, my! How time flies! Ehen, ehn! I've been looking at her, she looked hundred percent like her mother! How are you my child?" the old landlord asked.

Rose curtsied.

"I'm fine sir. "

"I can see" he said and faced Pelumi's mum. "Why are you here today? What do you want?"

"When I packed out of this place then, I left her mother's books behind in her room sir. I didn't take them with me so I'm here today to ask if you still have those books…."

"Alas!" The baba said regretfully "I kept them until he came to ask for them"

"Who came?!" Rose and Pelumi's mum asked at the same time.

"He was a young man. He said his name is Oromidayo and said that he just arrived back into the country and that he didn't know that Elizabeth was dead. He begged me if I know your address but I said no that you didn't leave any forwarding address when you left except that you didn't go with all Elizabeth's books. But then I've already packed the books inside a sack and kept them in my room until he came. He asked me if I knew what happened to the pregnancy that was in Elizabeth then I told him that she gave birth to a baby girl.

At last I gave up the books to him because I never thought that I will see you again and it would be wrong to keep Elizabeth's things from him because he seemed to be very close to her when she was alive. That was six years ago."

"Baba please can you describe the young man for me?" Pelumi's mum asked

The old man closed his eyes to remember.

"He was dark in complexion, tall, has long face with small- pointed nose like a white man's. He was good looking. He was robust a little bit." The old man said.

"Thank you baba" Pelumi's mum said and they left the house.

"The person that the landlord described must be your mother's fiancée- your father except that she told me that he was slim."

"But he could have added weight over the years. " Rose said helpfully.

"O true. That's true." She agreed. "But that still didn't say much. How are we going to get in touch with him when he left no address?"

The following day, Pelumi's mum left Lagos and went back to her village. Both Rose and Michael saw her off to the bus stop. They talked till the bus was ready to move then she took Rose into a very warm embrace and said: "Rose, I have no doubt that someday you will make it and become very great but no matter how great you may be, find your father. You will see him. I strongly believe that. Goodbye."

"Goodbye ma" Rose said and cried. Michael hugged Pelumi's mum and waved her off. They watched with sadness as the bus gathered momentum and sped away.

"The truth is, we may never see her again for the rest of our lives" Michael said.

"Yes but I'm planning to visit her village someday when I've made it" Rose vowed solemnly.

DANIEL.

The crowd clapped as Michael and Rose danced and sang "Together", a song from a movie by Walt Disney channel. After the performance, they held each other's hands and bowed.

"Bravo!"

"Good job!"

"Keep it up kids!" the crowds cheered.

"Thank you everyone. Thank you!" Rose said breathlessly "My name is Rose, he is Michael. We are orphans. We want to go to school and become great tomorrow so we need your help. Please sir, please ma, we don't want end up on the streets as beggars or bandits so that's why we are begging you to help us. God bless you!"

People gave them money generously. People dispersed and they started counting their money.

"Five thousand, eight hundred and seventy naira altogether" Rose said.

"Thank God" Michael said enthusiastically.

A boy with a guitar that was strapped on his back walked up to them.

"Hi" he said.

"Hey" Michael replied." You know how to play that?"

"Yeah, it's mine buddy." The boy said proudly.

"Play and let's see you." Rose said

"Then you will sing a song" the boy said and Rose sang while he played.

"Wow!" that's very good!" Michael said excitedly. "Join us and let's make money!"

"No, I'd rather stay alone" the boy said

"Why?" Rose and Michael asked sadly.

"Because…don't worry. Thanks anyway" he said and wanted to leave

"Hey wait!" Rose said quickly "We can be great together-the three of us here. You and Michael will be playing while I will be dancing and we will share the money equally, no cheating"

"Why should I agree to your terms? Why should it be equal? I must take more than you guys or I leave." The boy said

"Rose let him go, please!" Michael whispered so only Rose could hear.

"Wait Michael…" Rose begged. "He is good, can't you see? I'm having an idea of the three of us becoming great celebrities…."

"Rose he is proud and greedy…."

"Michael that's mean. You shouldn't be calling him names "

"I'm sorry but what I said is true."

"Hey, what do you think, you are wasting my time. Should I go or I should stay?" the boy asked impatiently.

"Stay" Rose said quickly before Michael could speak.

They all sat down on the mat inside mallam's office at the parking space. They were eating and planning how to start working together.

"For every amount of money that we generate, I will take forty percent of it so the two of you can share the rest. After all, I am older and better than the two of you combined together."

"Okay." Rose quickly agreed. "What's your name?"

"Dan" the boy said.

"Daniel?" Mallam asked.

"Yes but just call me Dan" Daniel said rudely.

They bought a white shirt; black trousers and a red bow tie for Dan like themselves so that he could perform with them the following day. Their performance on Dan's first day with them was better than what Rose and Michael's performance used to be. He played the guitar and sang many new songs to the approval of the audience.

Later that night Dan asked Rose and Michael the name they call the group.

"Name?" Michael asked "We never call it any name."

"Well we are a band and we need a name, we ought to have one." Dan insisted.

"It's true Michael, We should have thought of that long before now" Rose said "Hmmm….what about Kids Angel? I think it's good."

"That's bullshit" Dan clipped Rose' wings.

"That's childish." Michael said, exasperated.

"Okay what about The Awesome Kids?" Rose asked excitedly. "I Love that!"

"Still bad" Michael said.

"Okay listen" Dan said at last "I've gotten a name for us all and that's what we will be called hence forth 'Dan Voices' is the name."

"No…no…no! " Michael said angrily "How are we going to be bearing your name?"

"Michael wait!" Rose begged.

"Leave me alone" Michael shouted angrily "He wants everything for himself! Why can't it be Michael's or Rose voices? You see? He is a cheat!" Michael said and walked away fuming with anger. Dan moved closer to Rose.

"Rose let him go if he wants to go" Dan said "yesterday when you were not there, he was telling another boy that when the money that the two of you are saving reaches twenty thousand naira, he would run away with t. …"

"Dan stop! I trust him; Michael cannot do something like that. You don't have to be so mean about him you know"

"But is it true that you both are saving money together?"

"Yeah but…"

"That's it! If you don't trust me then you will see. He will tell you stories when it's time to share the money. Why are you saving the money anyway? Don't you know how to spend money? I can help you with that you know?"

"We are saving so that when we have enough we can go to school." Rose replied.

"School?" Dan asked scoffing "Do you think it is easy to go to school? You guys can never make it. You will never get enough to take you to school so stop trying because it's wasting of time. You are already years years old and by now your mates are already in secondary school but you will have to start from kg1! Wake up, it's too late. You would be fifty or hundred years old before you finish your secondary school education" Dan said seriously.

"No Dan. It's never too late to do what's right. We will go and I know why you are saying all these; it's because you hate Michael."

"Rose don't be stupid like Michael. Forget about school. Make money and you will send graduates and even professors on errands."

Rose thought about this for a very long time. It made sense. Dan was right.

"Let me discuss this with Michael. It's true, we are too old to start from the beginning now maybe we should quit" She conceded.

Immediately he left them, Michael decided to walk away as far as possible from them. Since Dan joined the group, things have been going very wrong. He hated the way Dan use to do things but he wished that he would leave them alone and let them continue the way they were before he came to join them.

"Hey you come here!" a thug said beside him on the dark street. The thug was smoking Indian hemp so that the little light flickering from the hemp showed part of his face. He then discovered that the street where he was is the hiding place of thugs, robbers and pickpockets. He became scared because all the money they had been saving was in his pockets. He thought about running but he knew that the thug would chase him and nobody can save him from his hands because almost all the people on the street were thieves, thugs, touts and pickpockets and if they catch him, they will give him the worst beating of his life. So he decided to obey.

"My mum sent me on an errand and she said I must hurry up because she is waiting for me. I can't come, I'm sorry."

"Are you crazy, are you mad?" the thug said angrily with his bass- devilish voice. "Before I open my eyes, come over here or I will break your legs if I catch you" he said "Run and dare me but once I catch you, I will kill you here and right now. "

Michael considered his options and decided to surrender so he walked up to him with shaky legs.

"God saved you" the thug said. "Bring all the money in your pockets now! If I find one naira on you after when I search, I will kill you."

Michael started pleading as he emptied his pockets.

"Please sir!" he cried "This money doesn't belong to me alone….take mine and leave Rose' please..."

The thug slapped him hard twice and Michael tumbled and rolled on the floor. The thug dipped his hands into his pockets and removed all the money he found there, not even leaving a dime behind.

"Now stand up straight!" he commanded and Michael stood up straight, his nose bleeding from the slaps. "O boy you are injured. Alright, I have a younger brother like you at home so I will take of you. I think I have ten naira in my pocket" he searched through his pockets and fished out a crumpled and torn ten naira note and gave it to Michael while he pocketed all the money he collected from Michael which was over ten thousand naira. " Use that ten naira to buy robb and rub it over the nose okay? Now say thank you sir!"

Michael cried and he slapped him very hard again. "What do you suppose to say?! Say thank you Mr. chairman!!"

Michael quickly complied.

"Tthhhhaaannkk yyyyou Mr. Chairman". He stammered and cried.

"Now go. Don't look back, if you do, I will set my dog on you and it will bite you"

Michael walked away, crying bitterly.

When he got back to the parking space, he had stopped crying and thinking of what to tell Rose. She and Dan were already practicing songs and dances for the next day. They stopped when they saw him.

"Michael where have you been to?" Rose asked

He said nothing.

"Ok. I want my own money. Michael, I want to use it for business. I'm not going to school anymore."

"There's no money again" Michael said

"What?!" Rose shouted. "We made this money together, Michael where is mine?"

"I've been robbed…" Michael replied sadly "Rose please try to understand, it's true that I've been robbed…

Dan laughed and Rose became extremely angry.

"How dare you Michael? You are a common thief and a liar. So all this while, you've been planning and thinking about robbing me? God exposed you!" She started crying.

"Michael, where is her money? Talk before I beat you black and blue now!" When Michael didn't say anything again, Dan grabbed his cloths and kicked his legs from under him.

Michael fell heavily on the floor. Dan sat on him and started punching him all over his body. Dan was thirteen years old, two years older than Michael and heavier so Michael couldn't put up a fight. Rose didn't say anything or do anything. She felt cheated so she thought that Michael deserved what he got.

When Dan was tired of beating Michael, he stood up and said "You are no longer part of this group. Next time I see you, I will collect her money from you" he said and walked away. Rose stood over where he was lying down on the dirty ground.

"I will take the bicycles with me" she said "After all we bought the second one together and now that you don't want to give me my money, I will take the bicycles"

Rose and Dan walked away, taking the bicycles with them.

Three days after he had been sent out of the group, Michael decided to start begging alone. He lost interest in music and everything but he begged for money anyway so that he could survive. It was hard for him to get enough money to eat, let alone save some. Most people ignored him while others gave him dimes to get rid of him following them.

Two days later, he went to a Pry school that was very close to the parking space (where he now resides permanently). It was owned by the state government so he decided to go there and know how much it would cost him to enroll there. The teacher he met told him that registration and PTA fees altogether was two thousand five hundred naira. Michael thanked him and left with strong determination to get the money ASAP.

BROKEN HOME.

It's been six years since Mr. And Mrs. Lawrence married each other but they've been unable to give birth to children. This is the only problem that the family has. Mr. Lawrence was a senior lecturer at Lagos state University at the department English and he made millions monthly from his lecturing jobs because he was lecturing at about two or three more private schools. His wife was a banker. Also a senior in rank among bankers and would be a manager in a couple of years to come. If money could buy a child, they would have given everything they had in their savings just to get a child of their own. They wished bitterly that they never give up their first son whom they couldn't find anymore. It seems that was the only child they were destined to have in their lives and they've given him up.

Mrs. Lawrence cries every time she thinks about him and wished she could have him back but if wishes were water, it would have flooded the whole world without leaving a space. Her husband was sympathetic and stood by her through all the pains and regrets of having no child. He suggested that they adopt a child but she bluntly refused.

"You know what Lawrence; I need some time off alone." She cried one day.

"No, no please don't do that. We've been apart before and I don't want it to happen again so please stay and I'll find a solution to this problem…"

"I'm sorry, just let me go. I don't feel like I used to feel for you anymore and this child issue is weighing me down every day and it is as if God is intentionally punishing us for giving up our son."