A GRADUATE IN THE STREETS
263 Words
Episode 4: A Graduate in the Streets
By the third day, the bread route no longer felt strange to Zayyanu. He already knew which kiosks paid quickly, which women tried to bargain too much, and which streets had loyal customers.
Musa watched him closely. “You learn fast,” he said, handing him a few more loaves to manage. “No be degree we dey use here, na sense.”
Zayyanu smiled faintly, but inside, a storm brewed. Every time he passed a group of men in suits or saw someone with a laptop bag, something inside him tightened. “This wasn’t what I planned for my life,” he thought.
Back at home, Faruk was beginning to smile again. The boy even offered to help carry bread after school, but Zayyanu refused. “You focus on your books. You won’t end up like me.”
One evening, after their bread run, Musa said, “There’s a small business seminar tomorrow. Free. They dey teach how to grow street hustle. Make we go.”
Zayyanu hesitated. He almost said no. But then he remembered all the interviews that never came. The friends who stopped calling. The promise he made to himself that night under the fanless ceiling.
“I go follow you,” he finally replied.
That night, while Faruk slept, Zayyanu opened his file again. He removed his degree and looked at it for a long time. Then he folded it carefully, placed it under the mat, and whispered to himself,
“Maybe my path is different. But I’ll still rise.”
- Writer
