At Dawn

Dan stared out into the night, wishing he had a place where pain was a different version of what he felt everyday. He wished he had a home, no matter how unwelcoming. His stomach rumbled and reminding him of something he was all too aware of. The last meal he had was a day ago but he was used to the hunger pans. In fact, Dan consoled himself with the fact that his body had become accustomed to long hours on an empty stomach. His friends called it a survival technique. They slept out in the open, in dark alleys.

His friends were a couple of years older than him. They made him do all the hard work and run more errands than fair. They were all he had and he would rather die than branch out on his own. Dan therefore, did his and most of their part without complaint. Someone had to keep the family together, he consoled himself. He sniffed away at his tube and did his part.

Dan and his friends usually worked at the garbage site. They collected recyclable plastic and paper and sold to some guy who they didn’t care where he took it. The arrangement worked most of the time but sometimes the buyer didn’t come for days. They had to beg for food at times. When begging didn’t work, they resulted to harassment, mugging and shoplifting. The authorities were always after the gang. They had a right to. Dan’s family was not the most law abiding entity. They had to do what they had to just to survive another day.

Trouble and tragedy were always sniffing in Dan’s way. One night in town, a mugging almost went terribly wrong. The victim was a plain clothes policeman. When they came upon him, he whipped out his pistol and fired at them. Luckily no one got hurt. Two months later, Alex and Ben were lynched by an angry crowd who cornered them after snatching a mobile phone and a handbag from a couple near a bus stop. The two were older members of Dan’s gang.

Aged fourteen, Dan saw a bleak future for himself. Everyday he asked God what he did to deserve the kind of life he had. He wondered what kind of mother would let her child rot in the streets. Why was the world so cruel to him? Where were all the good Samaritans? Did anyone even notice he existed? No answer.

The day the government resolved to round them all up and absorb them to the youth service and the education system, Dan saw light at the end of the tunnel. He read opportunity in the initiative. He never imagined going to school at all. He never thought he would. Now, he actually had a chance at life and he was going to take it. When the officials came to take him and his friends to government training institutions he was ecstatic. He ended up at a children’s orphanage. There, he would be fed, clothed, schooled and accommodated. He woke up at dawn the next morning rested and warm. It was the dawn of the first day of the rest of his life.

--------------------------------------------
Signed: Dr. Mwas
--------------------------------------------