The average man has enough for himself and his family to live on and be satisfied with, the rich on the other hand has enough for himself, his family and others when they come around, and then there's the poor, who struggle to make it through each day with petite jobs, having not enough to even go round the family, how much more others. Sadly I do not fall under these classes; just as there's a class above rich so also there exist a class below poor, whose primary aim is to have something to eat just to survive, that is make it throught the moment; survival here is strongly based on dependence, on, in most cases the poor and the average, and in rare cases the rich and above.
When you are this poor, your name is sometimes unimportant, you are only used to make foul jokes and examples: "I won't want to be like Daniel, man that guy is so poor his sneakers has lost their soul", the class clown would say and his audience would laugh out loud, "what does it mean to be rich?", Mrs Vivian , who tought on socials and morals would ask, and a student would answer - "having enough for yourself and for others like Camren, my best friend", he would say and the entire class would applaud him laughing, the teacher included. And then she would ask, "what does it mean to be poor?", another would stand up - not having enough for even yourself, just like.....", the girl would hesitate to say a name, and someone would help her, "like daniel", he would say, the entire class would laugh uncontrollably, including the teacher who would seem to try to keep the place calm.
I was just a kid but these things hurt, at night while I slept on the floor in the one room apartment my parents were able to afford, I would cry hoping for a change but it never came; it gets so bad I sometimes ask myself why I was ever born. The neighbors, would treat us like shit, we were oppressed by people who had even a little more than us, but could afford to the twist law in their favour, this lead to my dad loosing alot of his property. To make matters worse I wasn't the only child they had, I had an elder brother and a junior sister, whom my parents were still trying to cater for and send to school.
Growing up wasn't easy but then I grew up to be rich, and those who mocked me turned out poor, I met some on the way with my car drove passed mud water, to generate a splash big enough to mess up their clothes. When they see me they are amazed to see what I have become.
Lol, I really wished that's what happened, but life ain't no fairy tail, it doesn't always have a happy ending. I am older and nothing has changed, it's all the same, my parents died, my older brother joined a bike gang, and my younger sister got married; actually sold to an older drunk fat fuck! And me I inherited the one room apartment we all use to stay, still struggling to pay the rent every year, I am honestly now considering a bridge, but let's see how this year goes.
If you still havent picked it up by now, I am Daniel, Daniel Larkson, I am currently 25 years old, unmarried and unemployed, I dropped out of school, due to my family's finicial status, I have no achievement what so ever.
It's 10am and am still on mat, another morning another day, now to put something in my mouth, I walked to the bathroom, placed the bucket under the tap turned it on as I prepared to run, and rushed out closing the door so I wont get wet; the tap has been bad for almost a year now, so that's how I have been bathing for awhile, the problem isn't turning it on, but off. As careless as it splashes it stills takes a while to get the bucket filled so before I take off my clothes, I turn it on, take off my clothes and go in to put it back off, take my bath and then brush my teeth with a solution I cooked up online, which I honestly find better than most toothpastes.
After taking my bath I select a cloth to wear, this is one of the easiest things to do among my routine, cause I have just 4 shirts fit to wear out, 2 belonged to my dad, 1 of the others was my mom's, and then there is mine a previously red shirt, faded so much so I am not sure what color it falls under; but that's what I am going with today consendering the fact that I am going to look for a construction site where I could work, it's been the fastest source of making money I know.
I got out of the apartment strolling lifelessly around the city in search of a construction site or anyone in need of a service. I had walked for almost an hour, and not a construction site on sight, "theif! Theif!", a woman yelled, I looked back to see, a man on a black hood running with a lady's woman's bag, I immediately started running after him.
He ran across the street, into a store, I followed steadily behind, "stop him!", I yelled as we made our way through the store, he kicked down some drinks stacked up as he ran with the woman's bag, I jumped over them, carefully dodged the ones that rolled far from the pack and then continued chasing him, we got out through the back door, and I jumped on him. We both fell on the ground, I picked myself up quickly and struggled to pin him down, up close he was way bigger than I imagined, the black hood must have hidden all this muscle, before I could say a word or retreat I had recieve a solid blow to the face which sent me off him, I fell to the floor, trying to gain conciousness, before I could do that he was already up and walking to where I was,"wai...", before I could complete a 'wait' , a kick followed, straight to my empty gut, a cough of blood followed suite as I rolled on the ground holding my gut with both hands, "fool!", he added about to kick again when I held his leg still crawling on the floor, he looked at me for a while and withdrew his leg, "why chase a theif when you know you don't have the balls to face one?", he asked checking the ladies bag, "junk! There's nothing in here even; rubbish! Why don't you be a good little theft catcher and give this back to the owner", he said and dropped the woman's bag on my head.
I finally got up and took the bag to the woman whose bag was stolen, and saw her reporting to a cop, "is he the one ma'am?", I heard the cop ask, acting vigilant and ready to hit me on the head with his stick, "here", I said giving the bag to her, "oh my God, thanks dear!", she said excited, "my daugher's letter was in there!", she added "well done comrade, I didn't know we still had such good citizens in this part of town". So I did all that for a letter and a good citizen speech!, I should have just let the theif get away, they probably would have found the bag in a dust bin or something; I just wasted my time and energy.
"Young man!", the woman called, "would you like a meal?", she asked, in my mind there was an out burst of joy on hearing those words, "....uhh... ok", I replied, trying to act like I didn't need it, even though it felt like we should fly to her house this instant.
We began to walk to her house together, "so what do you do?", she asked, "uhhh....I..uhh...I am an engineer", I said with a hand on my head, "interesting, so you are one of the big boys", she added, "yeahhhh...uhhh..where's your house?", I asked noticing the distance I had walked, "it's just up ahead", she added as we continued walking.
My tummy rumbled endlessly, it felt like we were walking to heaven; literally because I know there's light at the end of this, "we are here", she said to my amusement, "finally!", I exhaled silently, "I know, we would have boarded a cab, but am trying to save up enough to send my daughter to school", she added, "oh", I replied not really intrested what she was saying, all I wanted was the food she promised.
We got into her house; a pretty nice bungalow, neat and nicely decorated, "do you stay alone?", I asked looking around, "no I don't, I live with my daughter", she replied while I walked around the house, I soon got close to a picture of a man I recognized, "that's my husband", she said on noticing my intrest in the picture, "where is he?", I asked, "he's dead!", she replied, "so sorry about that", I said as I turned to another picture, "is this your daughter?", I asked looking at a little girl's picture, "yes, that's my daughter, Karen", she replied. Enough with the pictures back to why a came here.
"Let me go cook up something for you to eat", she added, "what!!", I exclaimed aloud quite frustrated, I can't believe she just wants to start cooking now, "what's wrong?", she asked, "I..you..nevermind", I replied, "please make yourself at home", she said and walked away, I sat back down on one of the chairs frustrated, and my mind began to travel.
"hello mister!", I heard a voice and opened my eyes to a face directly in front of me, "woah!", I exclaimed in shock, "sorry! I didn't mean to scare you", the little girl said smiling, "I am Karen!", she said excitedly looking at my face, I looked back at her puzzled as I heard some one raising her voice in the kitchen, I couldn't pick out what the person was yelling about, all I could pick out was that it was a female, "and you are?", Karen asked, "Daniel", I replied, "Dan ni el", she pronouced slowly, "nice to meet you dan ni el", she said smiling with her incomplete set of teeth; "So you don't even know his name!!", I heard the same voice roar in the kitchen, "it doesn't matter Gaby", the woman whose bag I recovered said as she came in with a tray of rice in her hand, "he recovered my bag from a theif", she added as she dropped the bag on the table, the female who had been shouting stopped, I raised my head to see her face and to my greatest surprise it was Gabriella, the same girl who was asked to define 'poor' back in school, and refused to mention my name, "Daniel!", she said staring at me surprised, but not half as surprised as I was, "Gab riella", I said slowly and softly as I stared at her face.
She's grown alot, she looks so much better without her glasses, "see!, you know him even", the woman said, "oh my God!", Gabriella said still staring at me, now smiling. She seemed quite happy to see me; for me it was more of shame, I regreted following the woman home, I regreted chasing the theif, I regreted waking up this morning, I should have just died on the mat.
Once hungry me had lost his apetite, "we have a lot of catching up to do", she said and walked away swiftly as I stared at my food, "how did you know Gabriella?", the little girl asked, "let's leave him to eat sweetie", her mom said as she pulled her away. I stared at the food and was lost in thought again; my belly rumbled angrily.
I began to eat; her cooking was really nice; that! Or I had not eaten any good food in a while. Shortly after Gabriella strolled back in with her food in a plate on hand, "so how have you been?", she asked and sat down adjacent to where I was sitted, "I have been ok", I replied, "you just disappeared, gone, lost in thin air, just like that, no one heard from you", she said.
How would I be heard from, is not like am important or anything, "so what have you been doing?", she asked, "you know! Just hanging around", I replied, "I mean like what you've been doing to earn a living", she explained, "well....ummm, just...", I stammered ashamed to say anything, "he's an engineer!", her mom interrupted walking in with Karen, they seemed to be going out, "really!", Gabriella said excited, "yeah", I said softly trying avoid eye contact as I stared at floor, as though my pride was missing, "wow that's so cool!", Gabriella added, "leave him alone to eat?", Karen said to her with a whiny voice which made us all laugh, "mommy may I ask a question?", Karen asked pulling her mom's hand, "go on sweetie", Karen's mom said as we all looked at her, "If you are an engineer, then why are you dressed like this?"
To be continued....
Share
