Chapter 14

Some say that adulthood is a scam, because it is filled with challenges, but I disagree, because I believe that being an adult is adventurous, it is the moment you begin to discover yourself, knowing that possibilities are endless. Those were the thoughts I woke up with at 5am. The night was a short one, because I had barely closed my eyes.I needed to be out of the house before Sir Mohammed got up and discovered I was hiding in his house. Usman woke up, got up from his bed and followed me to the door. He opened the door gently and told me where we should meet later. I took my second shirt with me and headed for the tap outside to take a quick bath and also defecate in the open sewage.

I had to do everything as quickly as I could before people started to come out from their houses. I got dressed and took a walk to the nearest bus stop.I noticed that there was a church service going on at The Throne of Grace church, so I decided to join the service so as to while away time until the sun came out. Although I had stopped attending church services since I finished secondary school, the moment I spent in church on that morning healed my troubled mind. It was filled with praise and worship songs, prayers then sermon.I decided that I was going to start attending the early morning service because I woke up that morning feeling confused and not knowing the direction at which life was taking me, but the few momentsI spent in fellowship with God gave me a renewed sense of hope.The church service ended at 7am, the day was bright enough for me to walk around without fear, so I went back to my area where I grew up. I and Usman had agreed to meet on Shomolu avenue which was next to Kosofe road where Usman and I lived. On my way back, I stopped at Obalende market to check on Beth but she was not there yet so I proceeded to Shomolu avenue. There was a tree on Shomolu avenue where some of us that grew up in the neighborhood hung out . Getting there, no one was out yet because it was still too early, it would be evening before they got back to join the rest of us. As soon as I got there, Usman showed up and ask me to follow him back home so we could get something to eat and for me to take a little nap in his room because Mr. Mohammed was already out to town and his wife would not come to Usman's room, so there was no way anyone who have known that I was in Mr. Mohammed's house.

Usman brought a plate of rice , which was supposed to be his breakfast for us to share. After we were done eating, we had a brief conversation about what I was going to do next, then napped until noon. Noon came, then we went to Shomolu avenue. Before we got there, the snooker board had been opened and our other friends were already there. Although nobody knew I had left home and Usman didn't tell anyone, I was in all honesty, terrified. All my life I had lived with a family member or other , so being out there all by myself was something I wasn't sure would end well. The thought that what if I fell ill came to mind,I wondered how I would cope . How long would I continue to Sneak around Sir Mohammed's apartment without being noticed. I strengthened my resolve to survive because returning to my Aunt's house was something I was never going to put into consideration.

Leaving home was really tough on me, I didn't have money at all on me and I only left home with two shirts and two trousers but I was determined to walk my way around life and succeed on my own. Even though I didn't know what the future holds, I promised myself that I must make it in life and create enabling ground for my unborn children to thrive and not have to pass through what I passed through to survive. To ensure that I made it in life, the first decision I made was to ensure that I wouldn't mingle with bad kids, because if I did, and I got into trouble, no one would rescue me. A life of crime was also not an option for me because I believed that if I have to indulge in any form of ilegality, someone will get hurt. Harming anyone was never my thing, so I decided to stay clean.

To write my name in gold, I made up my mind that apart from taking steps to grow, I must be kind to humanity. With deep thoughts I realised that there were many kids out there like me who couldn't tell their stories to anyone, but were enduring and hoping that better days were ahead.

Even though I was desperate for success because I wanted to change my story to a more blissful one, I didn't think I was going to achieve anything without a university degree, because all I grew up to know was that only people with degrees succeed in life and become rich in no time. I had seen examples because I had the opportunity to spend my childhood in the area dominated by working class people, (The middle class).

Everyday as we hung out on Shomolu avenue, almost everyone was talking about how they have gotten admissions into higher institutions and how they were making preparations to resume lectures but there was no way I could have participated in the conversation because there were no plans in place for me. Right at that moment the most pressing need I had was shelter because sooner or later, Sir Mohammed would find out that I was in his apartment and it was not going to be funny, knowing the kind of man he was. Mr. Mohammed was over six feets tall, dark and even though he was in his sixties you could still see his built chest and rippling muscles. He could tell stories and even crack jokes, but whenever he got angry he was a different man, his children would call him , "Mohammed the policy man", behind his back.

The first week away from home, my family had not bothered looking for me, even though Usman's dad and my Aunty were neighbours, he had not found out that I had been living under his roof for the past week. Sometimes when we didn't want to go to Shomolu avenue, we sat under the guava tree near his window and he would come out to share with us, stories about his childhood. Some were funny while some were ugly and even though I picked up a few lessons from him, I didn't like the part of him that chose to spend his gratuity and monthly pension on himself alone and his new wife after Usman's mum passed on. Although Usman lived with his dad and stepmom, he wasn't so different from me, because he and his brothers also had to do everything by themselves while their dad concentrated on his new wife and her kids whom he adopted.