Life's Journey

The street boys

After feeling better, she left the station going back to the streets as she refused to be accommodated after the torture she and her sister faced at the orphanage, Monica's house and with Madam Chichi. She kept on roaming about the streets keeping it in mind never to steal again but she still needed to eat as she begged for food. She went to a convenience store standing at the entrance asking for food but there was no reply so she decided to move on when she saw a couple of boys running out of the store with a man shouting, "thieves, thieves!!!, they robbed my store". People rushed to the scene as they thought the man was referring to Barka. Misunderstanding the situation, they pointed at her, not wanting to get tortured again she ran away following those boys as they were chased by the crowd. She continued running and suddenly, she fell into a big ditch where she saw the boys feasting as they celebrated their win. Confused, she called on the boys' attention. The boys freaked out as they saw her then quickly, one of them threatened, "if you tell on us, consider yourself dead, b***h". Afraid, she quickly responded saying," I promise I won't so please don't hurt me", she said as they heard the baffling crowd wondering where they went. After searching for about half an hour, they lost interest and went to their respective homes. The boys then asked Barka to leave but after finally getting accommodated by kids like her, she didn't want to leave. She begged them for her to stay but they threatened, "if you don't leave, we will release our dogs on you". Knowing that they had no dogs Barka also decided to make threats of her own. " If you don't allow me to stay, I will go back to the crowd telling them that I know where you guys are". Feeling threatened, they agreed to her demands allowing her to stay but Barka still had to watch her back as one can't make true friends by threat. The boys welcomed her in introducing themselves as Henry and Oliver calling themselves the street boys. They gave her food and treated her like their sister as Barka continued to threaten them with that same old threat and everytime she did they would get pissed off.

Barka was so annoying as she was always hungry eating everything in their hideout. The boys were always annoyed as one day, Barka was really hungry and instead of going to take food herself, she called Oliver who was busy planning their next operation. She asked him to get her some food and he got pissed off. He yelled at her saying, "why can't you go get it yourself, do I look like your servant. Ever since you came here you have been nothing but a burden on our heads making the same stupid threat. Why don't you go out on the streets working, maybe you'll finally see the hard work we do!!!". Barka got scared quickly apologizing to the angry boy when Henry came out saying,"instead of apologizing to us, why don't you join our team and we can become a gang". Barka was confused with how he said 'gang' but she still agreed to it with how sorry she felt. Then they brought out a paper showing the map of the whole neighborhood. Some shops and houses were marked 'X' while some weren't. Then the two boys started planning something and after they made a plan they told Barka who was confused about why they needed a plan to work. Even though she got even more confused, she still went along with it and they all set out. She went with them to the house of the girl whom she stole from. The boys kept on going closer to the house but she stopped them cautioning and telling them about what happened to her when she came to the house but the boys didn't care and just went on with their plan. They went around the house acting normal when Oliver lifted up Henry to one of the windows of the house. He quietly removed the windows net then they went for the burglary as he grabbed it and started shaking it. The burglary got weak and after it removed as they gave it to Barka who was in charge of keeping watch while they work. Henry then jumped through the window as he landed in the kitchen of the house. He took as much as he could throwing them all out to Oliver who put them all in a bag. After taking literally everything in the kitchen he decided to explore other rooms when he heard the voice of a woman. Quickly he jumped out the window and they all ran away with what they had stolen under the people's noses. After they got home Barka couldn't help but scold them because she knew the penalty of the crime they committed so the boys decided to use that opportunity to narrate how they began living a life of crime. Henry volunteered to speak for the both of them."As far as I can remember, I was in an orphanage where I got adopted at the age of eight years. A rich assembly man, Bori, adopted me. He never liked children but only did it so as to help his status. Whenever I did as much as sneeze during his phone calls, I would get beaten like a goat. He was a womanizer. He brought so many women to the house which was how I got corrupted seeing different women as some were naked while some were half naked. There was a time when Bori was busy in his room with the girls when he got a phone call. His phone rang so I decided to go give it to him in his room. I knocked on the door, he opened up but looked very annoyed. I gave the phone to him, thinking I did well, I smiled happily as a slap suddenly landed on my cheek. I held my cheek looking up to Bori as tears rolled down my cheeks."How many times have I told you not to disturb me?" Bori said. I just couldn't control my anger and screamed out loud to the top of my voice as Bori got pissed off. He finally had it with me and kicked me out of the house and told the gate keeper never to let me in. I suddenly got humbled and begged the gate keeper to let me in but I was brutally rejected. I waited for about five hours then it started pouring. I had to accept that I was now homeless. I left his house trying to get back the orphanage but it had been so long that my mind was so foggy, I couldn't remember anything. I spent two days searching for the orphanage but I had no luck so I just decided to give up and focus on how I was going to make a living on the streets. I lived a tough life on the streets as I was trying to change my fate but as I kept on trying life just kept on throwing in new obstacles at me. I just roamed about the streets and while roaming about, I would see a woman with tattered hair, torn clothes and a foul odour telling me to come to her. I never listened to her as she would tell me everytime I see her and a day came that while I was roaming she told me to come. I decided to go meet her but while I was approaching her she suddenly screamed and chased after me. While running I stumbled on a road where I saw an oncoming car with the woman still chasing after me. Just as the car was about to hit me I felt someone push me from the road. The person was Oliver. He told me to be careful of the woman because she was mentally ill so we introduced ourselves. Oliver introduced me to this job and then the rest was history", Henry narrated.

Barka shook her head as she too has faced similar things and she finally understood that the boys were only trying to have a life. She joined them wholeheartedly and they became a gang of thieves trying to make a living for themselves.