DARE

SHELTER

I didn’t stop scoring goals, in fact, the only thing greater than my desire to score goals is my hatred for my parents. I left the house two days to my 16th birthday, I left in the middle of the night and I don’t regret this. After roaming the street for a few days, I came across some guys playing football in a church. I watched them for a while and was happy when one of the guys was tired, and I was invited to play in his stead. After playing for just 5 minutes, I realized that I was playing with guys that play just for fun and don’t have the skill set to play semi-pro football. By 6:32pm after I’ve scored a couple of goals, and it was getting dark, we called it a day, to stop playing football was bad enough but realizing I’ve got nowhere to sleep was even worse. I hung around the church compound for at least 30 minutes before a young man came out of the parsonage to lock the Church gate, I tried to hide behind the church bus, but he had seen me already.

“Good evening sir”

“Evening, Christi”

“Sir my name isn’t Christ…”

“Yes, I was watching you today, and you played like Cristiano”

Ew, Ronaldo, as a Messi fan, I can't stand being compared to Penaldo, but that was not my main concern.

“Why are you still here wouldn’t your parents be worried”

“No I am an orphan and my Uncles threw me out of the house” I lied

“Sorry for your loss” he looked at me with pity

“I don’t like taking in strangers, but I wouldn’t sleep well knowing you are out on the street” I didn’t know what he was aiming at

“Can you sleep in the church this night?”

“Yes sir” I said even before he was done speaking“Ok let me get the keys a pillow and a blanket.”