Inception

Beginning

It was another morning, the sun's lazy appearance was nothing new in East Camaria. The dawn, the turning of the blue pigments to white in the sky and then the arrival of the sun. Everyone knew that order, every single person in East Camaria. 

The streets were busy, there's the traffic, the array of pedestrians, random juxtaposition of both the luxurious and outdated vehicles, the faces of the worried market women, the high and low buildings , the wavering smoke from vehicles' exhaust pipes and a lot more. It was the third day of the week , the Nightwalkers would have their show in the evening, the daring boy gangs would be perching bins and raiding houses as always, the men in blue would be roaming the town to seize defaulters. 

At the end of Dalian street, in an old house of feinting brown colour, 12th room laid Jason ,in somewhat a deep slumber . His arms were pointed in different directions with the remaining part of his body pointing in a direction towards the door, making him form a T-shape if his head were not paid attention .

"Jason ! Jason !! Get up boy, it's morning "

Jason rolled around on his mat, trying to sync the voice he heard with the familiar ones he knew - it was his mum! He struggled to get up, stretching his hands and yawning simultaneously. He didn't seem like he had a good sleep but his reactions proved otherwise. 

'Every family has that person who sleeps less. I am my own family's ' he mumbled as he left his room to answer his mum. He bowed his head humbly as the tradition in Nirra , his hometown . He raised his head and noticed the displeasure on his mother's face. He sat close to her and place his hand on her thigh , he also dabbed 'little Dave' on his chest and smiled at him. He was adorable .

Heria cleared her throat , held his son's hands and began, "You are a man now. You must think differently and work for both the family and yourself. You know what I mean..."

"But where is Maggie? he asked, giving his mum a stern look "And Maria? I'm still very young"

"There are lot of younger boys on the streets," Heria cut in "They fend for their families and for themselves. And about your sisters, they are female children who will start their own families. We can't always wait on them " 

Jason stood up defiantly , stomping around the room. His eyeballs became swollen and pregnant with tears waiting for a blink of his lashes to let them out. He held that blink, firm,in an attempt not to cry. He quickly browsed through his memory, bringing back the evils and infamous histories of the streets. He was disappointed his mother knew this and still wanted to push him to the streets. He walked up to a stool at one edge of the room, he had left some milk there previous night. The cup was empty, he made a volte face and look straight at his mum.

" I don't want to go there. The whites are not our friends" he protested

"You're not going there to become their friends nor to become their enemies. You are going there to survive and your survival is our survival. Please Jason" Heria pleaded, going on her kneels.

"No mum! " Jason quickly held her, "I'll do as you said . Just get up" 

Both of them hugged and tears flowed from their eyes. Jason eyes had came in sight with David. The innocent child smiled periodically, it was beautiful . The boy was barely two and had not eaten at that time. ' If we could be like this child. No worries, no struggles . Just some beautiful smiles' Jason thought. 

 He sat up and thought of how separation, struggle, distance and death has hit his family in the last few years. He wondered if they’d ever get back together again. That’s no possibility since his father is late but Maria and Maggie(his sisters) are, fighting to make a better life for themselves in their respective locations. Maria lives with their aunt who sells alcohol while Maggie, the eldest child of the family lives with her fiance, a baker and owner of Jelly bread. 

He roamed the room on his sitting position, his eyes helped him with that. He landed on a particular and smiled, then grimaced. On days when he buries himself in thoughts like this, he often sleep out most of the hours. His eyes were about achieving that aim by surrendering their nakedness to the shelter of their lids when his mum’s voice hit his ears again.

“Hope you kept the herbs?” his mum questioned

“For Mama Tali? Yes” he asserted

“You go this evening.”

“Alright ma’am.” Jason replied as he burst into laughter. He reminded the first time he took herbs to the old woman and she tagged it the sweetest thing that ever existed. The intensity went higher as he tried to think about it severally, 'old people and old sense of taste, fashion and everything' he thought and consoled himself with that.

 As the night approached, with the radiant sun perishing in the dark clouds and the breezes taking the atmosphere by storm, Jason, who just had his bath was dressed and set for Mama Tali, which everyone called her. The old woman had been without her son for years, while a lot of stories have followed the search and wait, none has been significantly wholly enough to make the news to be broken to the woman’s ears. Heavy hearsays that didn’t travel out of few inches outside the lips of the storyteller. Each with different plots, settings but same storyline and character- The search for Tali and Tali respectively. 

 A car honked loudly and had made him found the concentration which he’d lost in those thoughts while he journeyed. The sky was now dark and breezes reigned supreme, he could almost hear his mind cursing for being exposed to such highly concocted air, albeit in the light clothing he had tucked himself in. 

He heard voices approach him but the direction left him in confusion. He surged on and turned right to take the next direction when a boy of his age ran into him, colliding and bouncing back like two North poles of a magnet. They crashed on the floor with a thud. Jason moaned but had reached for the boy whose body was wet with tears, heart thumping and eyes rolling.

“H- he – heeeelp me! I’m being chased” Kammy had managed to find his voice. He rubbed his palms together and bowed his head, a traditional way to ask for mercy.

Jason said nothing, stood up and held his hands.

“Run as fast as you can. Follow me” he whispered as he dashed into thin air albeit, holding the hands of kammy.

They continued running without looking back at their predators. Jason forced open the door with a bang and shut it the same way in a split-second without caring if it disturbed the neighborhood or not. The next disturbance he didn’t care about was his heavy breathe, along with the boy’s, could destroy the eardrums of an adult. This continued for a while, eyes also rolling as they individually found it hard to break the silence. Throat clears, heavy sighs, periodic taps on various parts of the bodies; all these and more still didn’t help breaking the impasse.

“Erm.. what’s your name again?” Jason questioned with his eyes facing a different direction from Kammy's position. It was obvious he didn’t want to break his ego, being the one who first spoke.

“Kamelo Dinolo but people call me Kammy” Kammy had answered albeit, with a look away too.

Minutes passed before another word from the two boys but their ego shrinked has time fattened. Kammy had told Jason about himself all night, from being an orphan to having only one relative – His grandma to being a street boy who needed to feed himself and the old helpless woman. He seemed to be another boy who hated the whites and their ways – This delighted Jason as he’d just met another follower of his heart formed religion.

Kammy continued to tell of his world and dived into why he was being chased. He told him everything about gangs(who sought food in white kitchens and bins to survive) and Red gang, which he belonged and co-headed. He had came across two policemen while coming from his successful mission and had run into Jason.

Jason was now more interested in these talks, he paid attention and had lot of questions to ask. He’d sit back and cleared his throat before asking of them.

“what if one is caught?”

“You must not get caught Jay, you must not” Kammy stressed with a grimace he’d sent Jason, he looked back and forth in the light darkness and then whispered, “you could get jailed or punished severely, these people take it seriously”

“Then what’s the essence in doing it Kam?” Jason quizzed

“For survival my friend.”

Jason kept his silence then, he was ashamed he still sat home and waited for his mum to be fed. Hearing Kam seemed like a challenge and he didn’t want to be seen lazy. He yawned consecutively and said words that Kammy found hard to hear during those actions.

“What did you say” Kammy quizzed

“Sleep my friend, sleep. I hope my mum doesn’t know you are here. I will lead you out once it’s morning. You were lucky she was asleep when we entered.”

“Oh, I see. Thank you” Kammy replied as he laid back on the floor and was soon asleep.

Jason thought about taking a stranger in and letting him stay this long but he wouldn’t have left his fellow kinsmen in the ends of those bastards. He pondered what horrible thing they would have done to him and soon fell asleep while in those thoughts.