My Journey[Episode 1]

I fell on my knees still crying as I held on to his leg,i kept on pleading with him not to close mama's shop,all this fell on deaf ears.

"Please Sir, wait till mama comes back ,she will pay you",I said still weeping. He looked down at me irritably and looked back at the boys almost immediately.

"Keep moving does junks out",he shouted as he forcefully kicked me away from his leg. Immediately the boys started throwing mama's pots and plates out of the stall.

I had come to open the stall on behalf of mama this morning,she went to buy tubers of yam that she was going to cook and sell from the big market in town. Since Papa died, mama had been the only one catering for Me and Efemini,my brother.Efemini works as a mechanic apprentice at Pa Lucas's shop, when mama wanted to enrol Efemini as an apprentice, all of the shop owners wanted money,So mama went to Pa Lucas's shop as her last hope,he was Papa's friend so when mama needed to enrol Efemini he didn't collect money.A small stall was given to mama in the market where she sells boiled yam, she pays for the stall every week, but lately sales had been really bad and mama had not been able to meet up with the payment, so the shop agent brought some boys over to throw us out of the stall and lock it up.
I was becoming weak but I continued to beg, the agent didn't even act like I existed,he acted like he didn't see me begging,i stood up immediately when I noticed that school students were making their way back from school, some of them were my classmate in primary school so I didn't want them to see me begging and crying,so I stood up and started dusting my cloths slowly,they walked past me some looking dirty like they have been playing all day,some with their bags on their head and some on their back ,The ones that knew me kept staring at me as they walked by,while others just chattered away.I was suppose to be one of them,i was suppose to be in school too but mama had no money, I thought as I stood there watching the agent lock the shop and leave.
I picked up all the pots an plates on the floor and put them right in front of the shop and waited patiently for mama to arrive.when mama returned I explained all that happened immediately her face changed.

"Go home with the wares,i will sort it out",she said.

I wanted to ask her how she would sort it out since we had no money,but I was to tired to even say another word,so I picked up the basket full of wares and went home.when I got home laid on the mat in my room just thinking of all that happened earlier,it was just so embarrassing for me,i felt hot tears rolling down my cheeks,i didn't even bother to clean it, I just let the tears flow till I slept off.

In the evening Efemini woke me up to eat,i was surprised I slept for that long and nobody woke me up earlier.As we ate in mama's room ,I noticed mama focused on her food without saying anything about her stall.

"Mama, have u spoken to the stall agent?" i asked as I put a spoon of rice in my mouth.
"Yes"
"so the stall will be opened tomorrow?" I asked again
"Yes"
"How did you do it,mama?"  I asked with a surprise look on my face,we didn't have money and the man would not just open the stall like that.

"Abeg Enohor, let me eat in peace,your questions are too much", She shouted.

I was surprised,this is so unusual, but I let it go becomes I didn't want to bother mama further.I cleared the plates after eating and we all went to sleep.As I thought of mama's outburst,i drifted into sleep again.