The Salty city Predator

Chapter 2

With the sun up traders in the city are moving up and down as bees preparing for a busy day. Municipal workers are busy sweeping the streets and trying to tidy up the town just as it’s a daily routine in the city. Street urchins are carrying substantial dirty sacks busy navigating from one waste bin to the other sieving for anything of value from scrap metal to edible food something to help them get by the day before the city council empties these bins onto their trucks. The scrap metal will be sold to recycling dealers to buy some glue. The glue is in a bottle stuck to the lower lip and sniffs it as he wades though the dirt and it keeps off the filthy smell and softens the pangs of hunger from the rumbling stomach.

The garbage truck arrival is announced loudly by the strong smelly stench from the biodegradable waste it carries. The truck has five turn boys who are busy going through the debris some separating the degradable waste such as food and kitchen waste for the pigs while there are some try to salvage some plastic and scrap metal waste that the urchins may have missed at the industrial area to salvage their meager wages. The trucks stop at most garbage collection site in town. The town is now busy with the streets full of people walking helter skelter up down in all directions, and also the traffic is crazy this hour of the morning. Human-driven carts are busy ferrying goods for clients who made the early bus to town from upcountry or products for traders from one location to the other. Some of these charts are carrying beggars placing them at a strategic location for them also to make a genuine living from the mercy of onlookers. Other municipal officers are busy terrorizing the traders looking for any non-compliance with municipal bylaws to get a bribe all to subsidize their meager municipal salaries.

The city hawkers are busy trying to find a perfect spot to sell their goods away from any municipal officials. Some are busy trying to convince customers to buy second-hand tops on a temporary carton made stall at the now busy bus stop outside the shopping mall. The envious mall employee comes out of the mall and scolds the poor trades’ just as a rich man chasing the hungry poor beggars away from his gate. The beggars have nowhere else to beg, and they insist on selling their commodities because it’s the only source of their livelihood in the city. The angry employee from the mall under their manager’s or owner’s orders confronts some of them and starts wrestling them to get out of the mall’s corridor. He notices some of the hawkers are from his neighborhood in the city slum and is ashamed to wrestle them anymore he desperately walks back into the mall and informs the manager they are beyond him. The manager calls the council officials who answer the call diligently. One of the hawkers sets sight on the usual council officials who usually comes to answer such calls and immediately alerts the rest of the hawkers. The scene changes to a cat and mouse race the hawkers trying to secure their safety and that of their goods. Few of the hawkers fall victims especially the new hawkers and women. Their fate lies in the hands of the officials where they can get away with a bribe of all the money you have, sometimes you might part with some of your goods depending on what commodity you are selling, or end up locked for days in city municipal cells until you pay a fine and sometimes if you are not lucky all these fates might fall on you, and you lose everything. That’s the salty taste of business in this town.

Two identical twin brothers seated at a busy street corner dressed in tattered, dirty clothes and are deep in conversation as their skins consume the free vitamin from the sun. They are on top of the old council hall where they have a perfect view of the city square this busy hour dressed in tattered outfits and worn-out shoes.

Jimmy, I heard a strange dream last night I think it has a meaning. I could not sleep well last night each time I tried going back to sleep the dream would come back and haunt me again.

You have now turned spiritual tell me your dream oh great Pharaoh, and I will interpret it for you. Please tell me your dream or are you King Nebuchadnezzar if that the case you will have to give me some time to speak to God to know your vision and then interpret it for you, your highness king Geoffrey the first of your name.

“Stop bringing up your silly jokes am serious Jimmy.”

“I am sorry your grace I hope you are not offended,” he says while laughing.

“In my dream, there was a hen with two chicks identical in all aspects except one was bigger than the other. The hen broods over her two chicks, in the middle of the day, a strange animal which is half sheep and half fox approaches to strike her and her chicks. She has no chances of escaping with her two chicks. She instructs the chicks to run as she fights off the fox to give her chicks a running chance. The chicks had no option but to run for their dear lives leaving their mother in a grueling fight that all odds are struck against her.

 As the chicks run for their dear lives they go through thickets and bushes without looking behind this becomes the opportune time for a strange bird resembling the dove but with huge stature and the claws of a hawk to fly behind them and with its sharp claws sunk into the flesh of one of the bigger chick and flies away with the chick. The chick cries for help, and in pain, the other smaller chick is left stranded to follow the cry of the chick or to go back to see if the mother had outwitted the fox. But the cry of his fellow seemed more reasonable to follow because he could see him and hear him unlike the fate of their mother which was uncertain, and so the chick followed. Since the chick could not run and keep looking up to the sky, he follows the shadow the two made on the ground against the glaring sun. The hawk kept on flying higher and higher while the chick kept on screaming in pain and struggling luckily the hawk lost the grip, and the chick was free.

The chick is now left at the mercy of gravity as the other is watching the whole incidence. The chick tries to use its feeble wings to slow down the gravitational acceleration to no avail the claws of the hawk had done enough damage that could not allow usage of its wings and so the chick fully complies with free fall. He lands on the ground near the sea and is badly hurt; the other chick arrives at the scene to hear the last groans of the now dead chick. As the chick weeps for his siblings a huge duck c**k approaches from the sea wading on the water like a duck“(He stops).

Then what happened next did the fox catch up with the other chick did the mother escape from the half sheep and half fox creature. Tell me.

Your loud, stupid snoring woke me up that’s what happened.

Leave dreams to children and women focus on surviving in the city no wonder you have been chicken-hearted of late, and you have given up. That chicken story is inspired by the glue you over inhaled last night. Why did you keep on asking mum to tell us of who our dad and you knew it always made her mad?

I thought I had the right to know at least I would approach him, and maybe he could have rescued us from the cruelty of this city. I thought it was mums pride and ego that left us to die on these streets. She kept telling us tales of how he and dad loved each other and how the wealthy family could not allow their son to be married to a peasant girl. She claimed that she was forced to leave when her five months pregnancy revealed their affair. So if you had joined me, we could be in our father’s house and not in the streets as we are today.

I knew mum could not tell us for she always excitedly spoke of dad and each time it was like opening her deep wounds once again. But after you kept insisting I once eavesdropped in a conversation between mum and her friends. She didn’t know how to explain to us that our father was a son of one of a wealthy man in the city. Our grandmother threatened to kill mum if she did not abort. She made all the arrangements with her family doctor and gave mum the money to pay the doctor after the operation. Mum took the cash and freed and here we are. I tried to listen more but mum was so conservative in her story and she did not disclose any tangible leads. Let’s leave that argument for another day and focus on our prey. We are predators look at all these victims we have to choose the one we wish to devour just like a lioness would do. Look at that man in a grey suit. Looks may be deceiving maybe he has nothing just going to a job interview his worn-out shoes speak of the number of offices he has knocked while searching for a job to no avail. That the best, look at that old fat lady from the city bank’s teller machine. I think she is going shopping in her handbag lay our meal ticket for a few days till our next hunt.

 How I wish she had gone through with that abortion. Look at the lives we live you claiming to be a predator. What kind of a predator are you? You look for the weakest victim rather than the strong and healthy one like real predators. A predator that is afraid of its own prey and runs away timidly as the prey is chasing it. We are more of scavengers than predators. I thought the victim should be afraid of you and should run away on sighting you. A real predator should hunt only once and rest for the week before the next hunt. We pursue every day risking our lives. One day the prey may catch up with us, and we will be judged and executed according to the laws of the streets. That means we are already guilty and we keep breaking the law by merely breathing. According to jungle rules, there is no one time a predator is left to the mercy of its prey. We cannot be predators, but far from that, we are mere mice at the mercy of the hawk. One day we will eventually be caught in the claws of the eagle, and the hunter becomes the hunted, I only hope that day is not today. We should join the gangs like other street kids do at our age we should be dealing with guns not stealing from poor victims but stealing from the rich. The more we steal from the poor we become poorer and we have to steal again every day as a routine to eat. All the others have joined groups at the station.

A good predators looks for the fattest prey that is more food at minimum running effort. They acknowledge us as predators.They fear us at least no one is walking close to us they try to avoid an encounter with us. I hope you do not mean what you just said? You want us to join the gangs? Remember mum’s last words and her dreams for us. Now you are educated you have a chance to live a good life and have a family out of the streets and give them an experience that we always dreamt of. You are an intelligent man with your education unlike me, and the rest of the street kids remember you were the best in the city that year. Someone might look at the history books and give you a scholarship for college. We cannot join the gangs all those who have joined the robbing business die every day like flies some convicted for years in maximum penitentiaries.

I meant every word. They might give me a scholarship do you know how many jobless graduates are hunting for jobs in this city. Why should you risk your life for a handbag that may be having nothing or if you are lucky a few days meals? This is no life brother we live like gazelles fearing getting caught by the police of municipal officers and also being stoned to death by anyone who walks on these streets. Look at us! Mum left us in the arms of this cruel world. Starving is a vocabulary to the ears of many but to us is our daily tongue. All we worry about is where we will get just a bite and glue to be alive hoping for better tomorrow. Mum told us education is the key but it too expensive we could not afford it, and our doors of success will remain entirely shut. Let us join the firing squad and rob banks, and maybe I will afford college.

The heart of every man is like a massive forest inside a cave only the lord can understand its wants I hope he can configure yours. We have no choice that’s what we are enough of this conversation lets hunt. Look at those two huge women they are headed for the supermarket, and they are coming from the bank that means they have some extra cash, you take the brown one on the right wing I am taking the other one. Remember you are to snatch first, then after you have snatched, I will snatch. Because I am more experienced and older than you are, and so if no more arguments lets rock. Remember after securing your prey we head back to the gallons by the sea.

The two boys head for the two victims with their hearts pacing and panting just like a lioness after spotting a fat gazelle among a herd and snatch their handbags. The two women start screaming attracting the attention of a crowd of people who respond by chasing after the two urchins. This makes two different people being motivated by two different things. The crowd is driven by the act of justice and compassion for the two helpless women while the urchins are motivated by the power to stay alive every step they make means life for them.

The crowd gets bigger and bigger, and the two urchins run with more and more pace. They dodge vehicles, people, charts and any barrier on their way along the busy traffic to secure their escape. This only buys them some time but doesn’t bear any fruits the crowd keeps coming after them, and the gap between them gets slimmer and slimmer. The elder one gives the younger one the handbag he had snatched and tells him to keep running.” Let me stay behind to distract the crowd,” he tells him as he starts to slow down. The crowd keeps throwing stones at them as they try to catch up.

“No I am not leaving you behind we will die together remember we are twins; born together die together. “ You should not sacrifice yourself for my sake I am hopeless in this world let me do it, the other one replies as he too slows down.

For once in your life, please don’t be stubborn and listen. Go! They receive some stones from the large mob behind as others miss the target. (And he starts slowing down as the other brother runs after some few convincing rocks giving him a good head-start.) The crowd almost catching up with him and after making sure his younger brother had a good head start he continues running this time with renewed energy in another direction to conceal his brother who safely gets inside a municipal waste bin and holds the lid in place and safely waits for the storm to calm.

 Some stones from the angry mob hit the elder brother, and this makes him slow down, but as he runs, he spots the city police pickup and runs towards it. The crowd still throwing stones at him he heads for the truck and jumps into it. The car was transporting remanded prisoners to court they are guarded by two officers and Jimmy holds on to one as the vehicles halt after receiving some blows from the stones of the perusing crowd. With the group still on his pursuit, they all knew the boy was cornered. They demand the young boy from the officers who have a tight schedule to make it to court.

What has the poor boy done that the whole city is after him? Asks the confused officer trying to loosen the grip the young boy has on him by pushing Jimmy away out of the pickup not to risk the security of his prisoners.

The crowd shouts that he is a thief; he has stolen a woman’s handbag in the city square.  

Where is the handbag and where is the woman. (The crowd start looking at each other) Since there is no victim and no evidence against him, the boy is free. Who among you is willing to write a report against the boy get in the vehicle and let’s go to the station? The officer asks.

{The crowd shouts in disapproval.} The group tries to reach for the boy and deal with him, but the officer attempts to shields him, but the crowd is too strong for him. The boy receives some few blows, and the officer pulls him into the vehicle where the other officer help him manage the crowd by shooting into the airs. If any of you has a case against this boy, let’s go to the city police station within twenty-four hours and we will process the charges and prosecute him in court. There is a public uproar the officers struggle to contain them to no avail and the driver throws an explosive anti-riot canister, and the crowd is dispersed by force, and the vehicle takes off.

 Jimmy is now safe in the hands of the police and the truck proceeds to court where jimmy is hand cuffed together with the remand prisoners for the whole day. At the court they are driven into a holding cell. There are too many and the other inmates are summoned one at a time before the honorable judge. Some are taken to the open court but others are taken to the judge’s private chambers. One of the inmate offer himself to give Jimmy an orientation of the whole legal process in exchange of tales of the lad’s city after him. Those in the open court hearing are either here for their preliminary hearings or cannot afford the justice system. Those going to the chambers most likely are willing to entice the greed of the judge and can afford their freedom. Those men you see in suits are the lawyers the just bid for their stomachs and the judge in his black gown and woolen white cap is the master of this legal auction. There are some peculiar guys always moving up and down these corridors of justice with funny dressing code and always in communication with the support staff of the courts especially the sweeper. These are scavengers of the law the act as a go between a judge and us who cannot afford the top notch lawyers. We refer to them as legal brokers they mostly work outside the courts in hotel and homes of these judges and always eager to broker a deal. Many of the inmates are released on bail others are acquitted. The boy and a few other remands are taken back to the station where the he is booked into a cell.

The other boy waits for hours in the dustbin until when it’s safe to get out and run to the gallons not knowing what is happening to his brother. This makes him sad as he looks at what his brother died for. Just a few days’ glues. The sun is lazily setting and the metallic bin is sitting bare at the full glare of its rays. The heat inside the bin is unbearable. But the thought of his brother keeps coming to his mind. Maybe he is somewhere with a mob condemning him to death by the ways of the streets. He could not rest and kept wishing he was left behind to help his brother. He also could not believe his brother could give his life to save him this feeling made him guiltier for his brother’s life. He was tempted to go and look for his brother, but if he is spotted and caught by the angry mob, his brother could have died for nothing. He has to wait for the cover of darkness for fear for his life his mind is wholly occupied with what might have happened to his brother.