The Pink Clouds
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Episode_16??
The vehicle moved de-ep in to the slummy area before it finally arrived at where the women live. The houses the area were built close to one another with little space between. The place was so noisy with little children running up and down. Beside the narrow road, were women selling sorts of foods. Some of them were frying akra (baked beans), yam and potatoes; while others were rusting corns on stove filled with red burning coals. Behind the women were tiny shops that were filled with all sorts of things.
About ten minutes later, they arrived at their destination. It was a very big building divided into segments. Each segment has 2 rooms and is occu-pied by at least one family. They were 20 segments all together, and there were five toilets situated opposite the building for the residents. With 20 families living in the building, it was filled with noise with many children doing all sorts of things, and it was almost impossible for a family to have a privacy.
Richa-rd began to imagine how living would look be like. He knew diseases can easily spre-ad there with such crowd. But no matter how worse living there will be, he thought is still better than facing his sister. They walked down from the tricycle and headed towards the big building. “This is where I live,” the woman working in the restaurant revealed. “Oh is not bad,” Richa-rd replied. “In what type of building do you live with your sisters?” She asked. “Well, our parents used to have a house before they died and we used to live there before my sister got married,” Richa-rd replied. “Do you mean you live in your parents house?” She asked. “No, we live in the house my sister’s husband retented. Our house is not occu-pied by anyone,” Richa-rd so explained. “That means you are quite rich since you even own a house,”. “Not really, the house is the only thing we inherited from our parents,” Richa-rd smiled. “Okay, I think I will go home from here,” the other woman said. “Is okay, I will meet you later,” replied the woman working at the restaurant.
They arrived at her section and were about to enter when her neighbour c@m£ out. “Mama Ruth, do you have a visitor?” The neighbour asked. “Oh yes, he was the boy I was telling you about,” Mama Ruth replied. “Oh dear, how are you feeling now?” The neighbour asked sympathetically. “I’m feeling much better now,” Richa-rd replied. “I hope you would recover soon,” she prayed. “Oh thank you ma’am,” Richa-rd answered.
After they were done talking, they walked into the House. It has a very tiny living that almost half of it was filled by the 2 small sofas in it. The sofas were old and worn out. Some p@rts of them had even torn. Opposite the living room were two small doors to the rooms of the house. “plea-se sit down,” Mama Ruth instructed and Richa-rd sat down on one of the sofa. He looked at the wall and noticed her family ph0tos hung on the wall. Some of the ph0tos showed the childhood pictures of some are children, while other were recent ph0tos of them. He looked at the the most recent picture and discovered she had five children with her eldest son older than him. He wondered how all them live in such a small house.
Suddenly, one of her daughters c@m£ out of the room. She was very tall and had her hair trimmed and dyed pink. She wore a short go-wn that was almost transparent, and herl-ips were painted red to match the red go-wn she was wearing. Richa-rd was so surprised at her appearance that he couldn’t st©p looking at her. “What are you looking at?” She asked when she noticed him. “I’m sorry,” Richa-rd replied. “plea-se Suzan, don’t you know that he’s my guest,” Mama Ruth interfered. “Whatever,” she said and is walked out.
“I’m so sorry about that,” Mama Ruth said. “Is okay, I don’t mind at all,” Richa-rd replied. “The two of them have wasted their lives, I just wish their siblings are not going grow up and be like them,” Mama Ruth said. “Why do say that?” Richa-rd asked. “I just happened to unlucky in life. My husband is an alcoholic, he only shows up in the night,” she explained. “My eldest son is burglar and his younger sister who just left ha-rd ly stays at home,” she continued. “That must be very had for you,” Richa-rd said. “Yes it is,” she replied.
Around 2 pm, the rest of her children c@m£ back from school. They boys were wearing a yellow shi-t and green trou-sers as their uniform,while the girl was wearing a blue shi-t and a blue shi-t. They were two boys who happened to be twins. They were four years older than their younger sister who was 8. Their mother used all the money she earned from the restaurant to pay for their school fees. “Good afternoon mum,” they greeted their mother as they walked in. “How was school today?” Their mother asked. “We got flogged by our teacher again for coming late,” one of the twins replied angrily. “I’m sorry I delayed your breakfast, that won’t happen again,” Mama Ruth said.
“I didn’t get flogged,” the younger girl said smiling. “Shut up Ruth, no one ask for your opinion,” the other boy intercepted. It was then that Richa-rd realised why she was called “Mama Ruth,”. The three of them walked into one of the rooms and changed into their personal outfits.
By the time they got back to the living room, their mother has alre-ady prepared their lunch. It was a beans porridge on three little steel plates. “Good afternoon,” they all greeted Richa-rd as they sat in the centre of the living room to eat. “Good afternoon,” Richa-rd answered. “What are your names?” Richa-rd asked. “My name is Ruth, his name is Alfred and over there is Michael,” the girl said she pointed out who was who. “Oh that’s really nice,” Richa-rd smiled.
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⏩ 2 months later, Richa-rd has gotten much better and Mama Ruth had worked really ha-rd to get him a work in a poultry farm a cleaner. He usually sleeps with the eldest son of the family and one of the twins in the living room. The eldest usually comes home very late at night after everyone had sle-pt. He usually carries a weapon with him. For that reason, Richa-rd was scared of talking to him. Around 5 am, Richa-rd was waked by Ruth’s mother as usually. She also wakes Ruth and her two twin brothers, while the rest of family were left slee-ping. Mama Ruth is a well devoted Christian, she usually wake them up to pray.
After they were done praying, one of the twins started sweeping the house, while the other twin took out the dirty plates and dishes that were kept in the corner of the living room and starter washing them outside. Their mother measured some beans in plastic bowl and washed it. After she was done washing it, she put it in a transparent container and gave to Ruth to take it for grinding.
They usually take their food for grinding to a house that was located some few streets from them. The grinding usually takes place with the help of a grinding engine. Ruth carried the container on her head and head out. “Let’s go together,” Richa-rd said as he went after her. “Okay,” Ruth said as she st©pped walking waiting for him to cover up the distance between them.
They started walking together as soon as he got to her position. She let go of the container on her head without holding it. It balance so well on her head without showing any sign of falling. “How do you managed to do that?” Richa-rd asked the little girl. “Do what?” She asked as she turned to look at him. “To let go of things on your head without holding them?” Richa-rd explained. “Well is so simple,” she giggled. “Who taught you how to do it?” Richa-rd asked. “Nob©dy,” she responded. “Do you mean you taught yourself?” He inquired. “Absolutely” she smiled. “That’s great, you look smarter than most kids of your age,” Richa-rd smiled. “Of course,” she laugher.
“So, what do you want to be in the future?” Richa-rd asked. “I don’t really know,” she replied. “Haven’t you ever wished to be like one of the adults you have met?”
“I would like to be like my teacher,”
“Why do you want to be like your teacher?” Richa-rd asked.
“Because she is so nice and gives us sweet. But if you make her angry, she really knows how to deal with you,” she explained. And from that moment, she continued to talk until their arrival at the place.
When arrived their, the found a queue of containers brou-ght by other kids. The kids were pla-ying with one another close to some banana trees. When is time for one of them, the person Will run to engine and his or her item will be grinded. Ruth placed her container in the queue and wanted to join the other kids in the game when Richa-rd held her hand.
“We are going now,” he said.
“Really?” She asked confusingly.
“Yes we are,” he replied. He took her container to the front of the queue.
“Hey, is my turn,” the little who was on the line said. “Sorry, we are in a hurry,” Richa-rd smiled.
After their beans was grinded they headed home. “Wow! You are home so early early today, what happened?” Her mother asked.
“I was helped by Richa-rd , that’s why I arrived on time,”
“That’s really nice,”
“Yes,” Ruth replied.
“Go and get re-ady for school,” her mother order. “Okay mum,” she said as she ran to go and take bucket.
Her mother took the beans paste they grinded to a small kitchen that was outside the building. The kitchen was built of zinc metal sheets. At around 7 am, mama Ruth had finished preparing some Akara (friend beans past) for them with some porridge. After Ruth and her brother ate, they left for school.
?At around 8 am, Mama Ruth and Richa-rd set out to the poultry farm. They took a taxi out of the slum to the centre of the city. They deviated from the highway and took a slim road that led them to a very big street. The street was very quiet and was made of up hvge buildings. Their car moved to the end of the street before arriving to the end of the street. Finally, the poultry farm was located there. It was a very hvge building fenced with a wire. One can see everything in the farm because of the wire fence.
They walked to the gate of the fence and it was opened for them. As soon as they arrived, they were approached by an old man.
“Good morning Sir,” Mama Ruth greeted him.
“Good morning, how is your family?” He asked.
“They are okay,”.
“Is this the boy you’ve been telling me about?”
“Yes he is,” replied Mama Ruth.
“The poultry farm owner had a fight with the man securing the farm, you can work as both a cleaner and a guard?” The old man asked.
“Your salary is going to be doubled,” the old man continued.
Richa-rd bec@m£ extremely happy because he found it extremely difficult to live with Ruth’s family. But now that he would start working as a guard, he can find a place to sleep.
“I would love to accept your offer,” Richa-rd smiled.
“That’s nice, you will be provide with food three times a day from the madam’s house, you don’t have to worry about food, just take care of her animals,”.
“That will be really nice,” Richa-rd smiled.
“Okay, now that you’ve known each other, let me go because my restaurant is waiting for me,” Mama Ruth said.
Richa-rd was taken around the farm and shown how each system works. The farm turned out to be bigger than he was expecting. It was very green with flowers at almost every corner. It was divided into 3 sections. The first section was a three sto-rey for egg laying chicken. Richa-rd was told that the chickens hvge amount eggs that are distributed throu-ghout the city for sell. The second section was a 2 sto-rey building for broilers. The upper p@rt was for incubation and growing of young chicks, while the lower p@rt was for the big once.
The third section was a hvge single floored building. Only Turkeys were reared there.
“I’m going to be the only one sweeping all these places?” Richa-rd asked shockingly.
“No, there are about 10 worker here, you are the 11th,” the old man laughed.
“Thank God,” Richa-rd laughed.
He took Richa-rd to small room where he can will be slee-ping in the night. It was a tiny room with a small ceiling fan running slowly above it.
“I will be leaving now, call me if you nee-d anything,” the man announced.
“Okay, I will,” he replied.
Story _Continues✔