The Salty city Predator

Chapter 6

Geoffrey continues looking for his brother at his last joint which is next to the big slum market where mostly trader and other business people enjoy themselves washing their day’s troubles. Here all business deals are laid bare on the table. Some municipal officials usually come here to get free drinks from traders who need favors at the market. They discuss market politics and some complaint of the high market fee they are paying to the municipal council. They discuss how the market prices of specific products are going up and crazy competition at the market will force us to have a sitting and agree on a specific price some of them interject. Also at this time of the night beautiful women who are mostly young single and jobless mothers and college students are out looking for lustful clients to enable them to feed their young families or afford the expensive city upkeep. Some of these clients make them go through hell, and some even lose their lives in their hands. The screen showing of the Olympics pre-trial qualification where one of the city’s own was participating. Fred was one of the champions who came from the salty town and all the people in the joint collective cheers on as Fred wins the qualifying race and they shout in joy.

They all start discussing Fred’s past in the city. Fred was born and raised by the streets as an orphan he was the son of a homeless woman. It is rumored he was born at a street corner with no midwife the helpless poor mother ushered Fred into the world. Her groaning in pain as she lay on the ground attracted a crowd who came to witness the helpless woman. No one was ready to help the dirty street woman in her filthy rags well covered her legs. The crowd looked at the woman with a lot of disgust. A sound of a cry was heard from her rags as she lay helplessly, with her legs spread apart. No one was willing to touch the woman or even help the child until a fellow homeless woman came to the rescue her from the shame. She first took the child and wrapped the child with a cloth to make sure he was warm still the eyes of the onlookers curiously following her every move. After securing the child, she moved to look at the weak mother who was still sleeping on the street corridor. She woke her and showed her the baby she smiled and called him Fred in a soft voice and continued sleeping. The helpless street woman tried to support her up with her other hand to breastfeed her crying child. The new mother is too weak to breastfeed after days of hunger and with her pregnancy she had no strength left. The desperate woman holding her friend in one hand and the crying child in the other hand, she feels the pulse of the mother, and it gets weaker and weaker. The crowd continues growing larger a woman dressed as a Catholic nun struggles to make her way through the crowd and tries to resuscitate the woman on the ground. As all this is happening, some police officers are watching from a far distance thinking it’s just a mob delivering justice to a thief. They give the mob enough time to execute its mandate fully and only intervene when their victim is beaten to death or burnt to ashes this way the paperwork is less hectic. If he is still alive the officer has to take him through the system to the hospital and court, and nobody will waste time to be a witness in such a case, and the culprit walks free.

The Catholic nun tries to make the mothers pulse to be stronger by pressing her chest hard but the mother takes one deep last breath, and her heart stops beating. The crowd now gets static as her friend starts crying as she tries to wake her friend. She tries to place the crying child on the mothers to somehow wake her up to breastfeed her child, but it was too late. The nun tried to comfort the street woman trying to separate her from the corpse when she almost turns violent, and the nun picks up the infant and steps aside. “Sister wake up! Wake up!” she laments as she supports her sister to sit. The crowd watches the whole drama, and now two police officers make their way towards the center of attention. The street woman fled for her life as it is a custom for the street families to run from the blue uniform. The nun holding the child is left to tell the whole story to the police. The body is taken to the city mortuary to be buried in an unmarked mass grave of unidentified bodies. The nun is left to take care of the child and places him under the supervision of fellow sisters at the Jabari education center with Fred as his only identity. The sister will later struggle to explain to this young boy where he came from.

The boy grew into a tall, slender and robust teenage boy. At the center, the number of children increased and it’s after the death of Jabari when the Catholic Church took over and continued his charity work fully depending on donors. At teenage kids experience a lot in their bodies and mind as raging hormones are produced as they mature. Most of the young teenagers at the center succumb to peer influence and run away back to the streets trying to find their roots and identity. Some cannot stand the strict rules and compulsory mass every day. Fred just like other children at the center escaped and went into the streets where he was welcomed by cold long cold, lonely nights for the first week. He started going hungry after all the food and little money given to them for tithe and some sweets at the orphanage, he had saved were exhausted, and he went for days hungry. The thought of going back to the center kept crossing his mind, but his ego could not let him kids at the center would laugh at him, and so he decided to look for other street kids to show him around since he was new. He met a kid begging on the way to the market way and asked him for help he was unfriendly at first but Fred insisted. The young boy promised to take him where they spent the night if he agreed to go to another part of the street and beg as he was doing and hand over all his collections to him. He was a fast learner he observed the street boy, and within minutes he had mastered the art and started earning. Fred was enthusiastic about this new venture and got some few coins he had never gotten in his hands at any one time for he had spent all his life at the orphanage. After some hours of begging the young boy came for him and tried to talk Fred out and tried to convince him to go back, he could not survive on these streets. The young boy remembers his first day, and since then he has seen many others, but they never were as enthusiastic as Fred is. Fred quickly handed all the coins he had collected to bribe the kid into silence they dual went to a shoe cobra where they gave him some of the money they had raised in exchange of some few cans of glue. They now continue on their journey as the boy explains to Fred the street ways and his life experience. He also narrates how the tribal clashes in the north of the country left him orphaned, and he had to flee from his uncle’s home where his aunt treated him as her slave, and there he joined the streets. He shares some of the glue with Fred he declines the offer. The boy explains that the glue is the only thing that enables him to survive the cold, hungry nights. The two pass by some few garbage bins with no luck but they get lucky by the waste bin next to the bakery where they find some loaves covered by molds. The boys quickly peel off the fungi and feast on the bread and continue walking.

The journey of the dual ends at an old empty train terminus where most of the street families live. Coaches from old dilapidated trains lie here and serve as houses to these families with each having an alpha male whose permission has to be sought before you get accommodation in any of these coaches. Young girls who attempt to try the street life are always lucky with first-night accommodation but have to endure r**e by all the male occupants of that coach. Life here is never a walk in the park. It can only be equated to trading between one forms of b*****e to another. Helpless young boys like Fred and his host sleep outside on the seats meant for passengers who would board the train. Here any of the alpha males from the coaches are free to bully any of the small boys. Some of these young boys may be taken into the coaches for accommodation to serve as errand boys for g**g members of that coach. There is also an overall king who occupies a hall that served as the station's office. He is the most supreme and ultimate ruler of the streets. He is law and order in this violent society. If anyone acquires anything that might be precious and has nowhere to sell it’s all brought to him because he rules over the black market. His throne is surrounded by men who have risen the ranks and now qualify to surround the street king. Most of these men surrounding him are champions of illegal underground fights that are conducted every fortnight each g**g sends a fighter for representation. This is a bare knuckles bout and has many victims who are disposed into the sea after they die fighting. He also has links to brothels in the city where girls in the coaches go to earn a living. The king has access to guns and conducts and plans almost all the robberies in the city. He is also the right-hand man of the most powerful d**g lords in the town his army of thugs is contracted occasionally to eliminate any threat to allow the smooth running of the trade. Small gangs are also permitted to operate in the city under only one condition they must send the king his cut of the loot. The kings lend his guns at a fee and is a beneficiary of the rot in the city. These guns are safely transported across the town by the young boys outside in the dirty sacks disguised as sacks for carrying plastic and metal to sell to recycling dealers. He also has an understanding with the law enforcers where he sacrifices any g**g that does not follow his prerogative and gives it away to the police. The king rules the streets with an iron fist whoever wants to sit on the throne has to challenge him in a fight to the death in the ring. The transition from one king to the next happens after death in the ring or gunned down during a robbery. The king also controls the city prison and ensures drugs and other contrabands get to the prisoners at a cost. Members of the public also access his service if any of their relatives is convicted and needs protection in the prison walls at a fee.

Fred has just been acquainted with the surroundings at the railway station, and all the kids look at him with unfriendly eyes. They try to harass him, but his friend protects him and warns them, Fred is given rules that must be followed. Each kid at the station is sitting on his dirty sack. The sack is a very crucial item during the day it’s used to store anything of value and at night everyone uses it as both a mattress and blanket by entering into it and sealing it tight from inside. The boy that brought Fred is summoned via a whistle from afar coach and Fred is left alone sitting on an empty dirty dark sack belonging to his friend. The others now get a chance to harass the new boy as it is a custom here. Fred is stripped of his pullover and shirt and fight over ownership he is left with just his trousers on, and some boys are giving him some blows and kicks as they try to take off his shoes. As he is being tossed around a huge dirty man comes, and all the kids timidly go back to their spot on their sacks and pretend as if nothing has happened. Fred knows that he has been rescued he is taken to a dark corner by the substantially dirty man. The man unzips his trousers which is the only remaining possession from the orphanage. The man curves the n***d boy into a position where he helplessly defiles him and leaves him on the ground and walks away. Fred tries to pick himself up with a lot of pain from all over his body especially from his anus with the thought of even defecating being unbearable.

He put his trousers back on with a lot of struggle and now his friends comes and helps him to his sack he hands him the glue and says it will take all your pain away. Fred finds no fun in the sniffing, but his friend insists until he gets it right. He sniffs for some few minutes and gets airy, and the numbing pain slowly drifts away, and that’s how he was introduced to the street life. He now remembers the cozy life at the orphanage and if given a choice at this moment he would hurriedly run back there but it was too late. He has been initiated into the street and baptized with hell fire on the first day. His friend brings him a sack to shield him from the cold night. The following day his friend gets him some worn out t-shirt most likely thrown away by the one who might be downing his shirt and a sack to start their days hustle through the cities bins looking for scrap metal and leftovers. He struggles to limp as he is shown the prime areas where you can quickly get the precious commodity around the industrial areas of the city where they even find some rag to serve as Fred’s sweater from textile waste. Days turn into weeks and weeks into months, and now the orphan has fully adapted into the street life and cannot trade it for being at the center under the nuns with their rules and many masses in a day. He now knows how to deal with the bullies, rapists and now glued to the glue.

After a few years of survival on the street, he made friends at the station and discovered a new way of earning a living by pickpocketing and snatching and running with any valuable commodity from anybody in town. This new model required one to be clean and be able to blend in with the well up city folk. He also has some fighting skills and sometimes steps in the ring to compete in underground matches at the station where people place some bets. Fred enjoyed this line of work more he would make more than five successful runs every day and made a name for himself. He had incredible speed and prowess of dodging cars on the highway without getting hit. With his new way of living, he could even afford decent clothing and respect among the street community. He too really enjoyed the running and the crowd chasing him as fun and enjoyed it with zeal.

One day as he was busy in his work spotting his meal ticket of the day he saw a pregnant woman and a man helping her, they are just coming out of a parking lot. This man looks built up and with an athletic body cannot abandon the helpless lady to catch chase him. Fred as usual moves close behind them and carefully snatches the woman’s purse and cell phone and runs. The pregnant woman shouts as the husband runs after the thief. This is quite a secluded place it’s a perfect pick for Fred no mob is expected to form and race after him. The husband goes after Fred consistently, and the distance between them gets shorter and shorter. Fred takes turns and lanes towards the mainstream traffic on the major highway, but the man is still in hot pursuit. Fred as always dives on to the now busy road and dodges vehicles at near miss situation and cross to the slums ready to take a rest but when he looks back the man has struggled to cross the highway and is still running after him. He runs into the slums with an intention to confuse his pursuer with the multiple identical shelters. He makes haphazard crazy runs around the temporary shelters and crosses the slum river towards the center of the slum and completely loses his chaser.

 When he is confident and cannot see the man and decides to start walking and look at his catch. He goes into an illegal den of liquor owed by the area chief. He gets into the shack to grab some breath and hide until the coast is clear. Members at this joint are all acquainted with Fred for he finds them playing a game of cards and happily joins them as they continue drinking. Most of them are waiting to go hunting for cash at night by mugging drunkards and hardworking citizens who are caught up late on the streets. From nowhere Fred feels a grip on his shirt and by impulse delivers an uppercut to the man by impulse and continues running but drops the phone he had snatched. The man did not expect the blow and picks up the phone. The g**g surrounds the stranger ready to confront this guy and probably steal from him after a proper beating to teach him a lesson. They all surround the man who is not intimidated by their number, and no one ever stands against the lions in their dens you must be ignorant of the ways of the jungle. They all thought this must be a new cop in town Fred is usually chased by crowds and are determined to give Fred a good head start, they all go for the man who easily blocks their blows and easily beats them one by one. They all run across the river including Fred was way ahead towards the slum market. Fred knows the man after him must be a military man or a fighter no-one survives that uppercut in fights at the underground ring at the station and a man who easily puts down the best thieves in town must be exposed to some martial art training.

The run has now gone for up to three hours Fred’s body is almost giving up the lactic acid has accumulated in all his muscles. Usually, no one ever dares to follow him into the slums because theft and mugging is an everyday occurrence here and for this man had a lot of guts. Since Fred was near the market, he rested for a while to give his adversaries time to catch up not to miss an acrobatic stance he will never forget it’s one of the best getaways Fred pulls in the market. The man catches up and slows down after seeing Fred waiting for him thinking it’s a trap, then Fred runs into the busy market. Carefully dodging all the selling stands and jumping over stalls and the whole market was used to this scene and all stop what they are doing to enjoy an acrobatic show for free. In the middle of the market, he jumps to catch a pole that supports the roof of the market. Fred swings around the pole just like a monkey as he climbs up and drops to hold a post that serves as part of the market roofing which he turns and maneuvers across the rest of the market and frantically swings in a way it propels him onto the wall of the market where he climbs out of the market and runs towards the sea. The man follows each move that Fred performs he mistakenly steps on some products being auctioned, but he amuses every one by perfecting Fred’s pole movement and almost misses by inches to land on the wall of the market. Fred is amazed at him climbing down the wall of the market and run towards him. Now Fred runs as he contemplates giving back the purse to the man, but he remembers he has a reputation to uphold. He runs towards the high cliff on the shore next to the waterfall where the biggest river empties its water into the sea. At this time his body is thoroughly exhausted and almost gave in, but he is going for a dive that only the most experienced swimmers can do it at a fee to entertain the tourist. Just as he thrust for the jump for the dive the man successfully snatches back his wife’s belongings and Fred dives into the sea from a height of 84 Ft. with nothing and takes a swim to another part of the shore.

The following day as Fred is lamenting of a terrible day he had yesterday he goes to sit at the old rail station enjoying the sun with a packet of cigarettes and a few rolls of w**d they smoke one after another. Some of his peers join him, and they all share the cigarettes as they talk of their street business and the catchy story of Fred’s escapades. A man in a suit greets them from behind, and they all look timidly reply he seems like the detectives who come to see their king from time to time. Good morning Fred I have been looking for you since I could not catch you yesterday. The rest of his friends’ walk away thinking that he is being arrested. The man introduces himself as Captain George from the navy. I am the national coach for track races and am here to make you an offer. I know all about you from the local detectives they tell me you are the hell of a racer with stolen goods if by any chance you are interested I can turn you into a great athlete. I will give you only today to decide tomorrow at 5:00 am let us meet in the stadium next to the navy training camps for some trials and ask for Captain George it’s your choice.

That day Fred could not think of anything that would come between him and his freedom and being a champion on the streets. This could be a trap and he might be planning to arrest you his mates would tell him. This was another chance trading one type of s*****y to another, but it was worth the risk. But this man could easily arrest me anytime his prowess in martial art was unmatched. The following morning Fred was early for the trials and thanks to his athletic talent and the captain he joined the camp. At the camp, Fred was trained but was not easy for George, he had a lot of discipline issues, but he was determined to break the wild stallion for he always saw himself in Fred for he too was an orphan on the streets and someone took him and saved him. Fred soon picked up the pace, and after one year he won some few local marathons and qualified to represent the country in the Olympics where he broke the record and flown the country’s flag up high. Fred broke record after record on all world stages including the world cross country championship. Fred also won world athlete of the year award and became a legend in the racing world, by winning the world athlete of the year for two consecutive years. He is the favorite of all time among the street families he now has a foreigner as his manager, and he is rarely in the country.