Chapter five: The Escape

In my past life, it wasn't that I couldn't escape from the guard, but rather I never realized his true colors. If I had known, I could have escaped.

Still, I needed to get out of this city to be out of the reach of the guard. And although it sounds easy, it's not, as we first needed a destination, food, and a mean of transport. The destination is essential because making a plan without a clear goal is foolish. Food is also important because at this rate, I'll die of dehydration or starvation soon, and transportation is necessary because it would take too long to escape on foot.

To solve the first problem, I turned to Kylian and asked him in the simplest English possible, "Do you like football?" He didn't take a second to enthusiastically reply, "Yes!" And I didn't take long to ask again, "Would you like to be a professional?" This time, he took a moment to consider my question, and after two or three minutes, he responded resolutely, "No, I don't want to be just any football player. I want to be the best." For a second, I was surprised by the determination and tenacity hidden in his words, but I instantly started smiling and said, "Well, let's escape the city."

In Nkhotakota, the city where we were, there is only one supermarket, and it's not too big. However, due to the poverty in the country, robbery attempts are very common, causing the supermarket to hire guards.

At that moment, Kyli (which is the nickname I gave to Mbappé and he didn't seem to dislike) and I were near the entrance of that place, specifically in a parking lot. The entrance was nothing spectacular, just a wooden door that led to what would look like a house if it weren't for the sign that said "boutique," or the two guards standing on either side of the door.

The plan we had devised was simple. Kyli would make a bit fuss by stealing one of the bikes from this parking lot, and at that moment, I would sneak in, take some food and water, and run in the direction of the meeting point we had agreed upon.

---30 minutes later---

The plan worked perfectly, not because it was a good plan, but because they probably didn't expect a robbery in broad daylight in the safest place in the city. All of this caused the guards' response time to be slow, and we had time to execute it. The only bad thing is that without a backpack to carry things, I could only steal two 1.5-liter bottles of water and a bit of food.

When I arrived at the meeting point, it was already noon, which alerted me that we needed to eat and quickly head towards Salaui (where I planned to look for Maldini) if we wanted to arrive before nightfall. "Hello," I said tiredly as I sat down next to Kyli and offered him some water and food. "I've already hidden the bike, when do we leave?" he asked curtly and a bit angrily. [It seems he doesn't like stealing], I thought to myself, wondering how he had managed to live in Malawi for so long. "Look, I don't like stealing either," I said honestly. "That's why when we become professional players, let's come back here, apologize to the owner, and give him the money back." Honestly, all of this seemed exaggerated to me, but I couldn't think of another way to calm Kyli's guilty conscience. "Do you promise?" he said as he offered me his hand.

"Promise," I said as I shook his hand.

After we finished eating, we quickly retrieved our bike and my ball from among the cardboard boxes where we had hidden them. Our journey to Salaui wouldn't be easy due to our physical limitations and the heat, but with determination, I started pedaling with Kyli on my back. We soon left the village behind and I felt a great weight lifted from my heart as we left the guard's domain. Quickly, I began calculating in my head and realized that at this pace, we would take about six hours of non-stop pedaling to arrive. There was nothing to be happy about, but rather many things to worry about, such as how we would find Maldini once we arrived at our destination, or if he would even help us. But I didn't take a second to stop thinking and started singing a little (something I do when I'm full of doubts).

"Hey," Kyli said suddenly.

"Is something wrong?" I said with a little fear, as Kyli doesn't usually speak unnecessarily.

"I just wanted to ask you something," he said with a little fear.

"Well, go ahead."

"Why did you help me and not anyone else?" he asked.

At that moment, many excuses came to mind that I could give him, but something inside me (you can call it intuition) told me to tell him the truth, or at least part of it.

"Because of your eyes."

"Eyes?" he said, not disguising his doubt.

"You know, Kyli, they say that the eyes are the reflection of a person's soul. In these months, all I've seen are the eyes of people lacking ambition, who have given up on being able to control their destiny, to go further, to succeed. But in the moment I saw your eyes, I realized that you deserved, at least, to have a chance to triumph." I didn't save him exactly for that reason, I was sure he was going to succeed anyway, but I didn't tell him a lie either. Maintaining your beliefs and ambitions in Malawi is much harder than you can imagine. It's not the things you have to do to survive that lead you to despair, but rather the things you see. You see humans at their worst moments, you see each person's struggle to survive each day and you come to see all and every sin imaginable. Even I, in my past life, couldn't avoid feeling desperate.

After that, we spent time talking about our passion for football, although we couldn't delve too deeply into the topic due to the language barrier. By the time I realized it, it was already around six in the evening and it was getting dark. This, coupled with my tiredness, made me realize that we needed to find a way to survive an extremely cold night sleeping outdoors.