All his
seventeen years, the house was always full; sometimes Gabe would confuse the
twins Sara & Helena and Peter & Paul. Of course he would laugh it off
claiming that the mistake had been intentional but he knew deep down that he could
not tell them apart. He had too many siblings to keep track of each one of them;
every other year for as long as he could remember mother had a baby. May be it
would have been somewhat okay if father could afford to look after all of them.
He’d never know
since that wasn’t the case.
It did not help
that Tabitha was pregnant by one of father’s friends; mother had said that he
would marry her next year after she turned sixteen. Father’s friend would only
assume financial responsibility upon marriage as was the custom in Isia village
so they would have to stretch their resources until then.
He felt helpless
for not being able to protect her from this especially because Tabitha didn’t
know that she needed protection, that this should NOT be the norm.
Gabe always remembered
the vow he had made to himself all those years ago; the minute he was old
enough, he would open a carpentry shop and earn a living. He would not let
history repeat itself, Lord knows there were enough dead beats in his family to
last two centuries.
That was the
only way he would be able to create a real chance for the rest of his family.
Thinking about it brought tears that he blinked back, men did NOT cry.
He’d have to
leave Isia village, it was very easy to lose focus here. He had seen that
happen to even the best and he was nowhere close to that. Joining the cliques
was easy & assured money and he did not want to put himself to that test. It
was almost like the price for joining one was your ability to be/ stay sober,
there was always a high being shared forced onto them until they wanted
it on their own.
The cock crowing
interrupted his thoughts; he was hoping for at least thirty minutes of sleep.
It was too late now, he’d have to doze in class because he’d rather face the
teacher’s wrath for sleeping in class than suffer mother’s wrath if he didn’t do
his chores before school.
Morning was a
good thing though, a new day brought his dream closer.
Labels: #EndTeenPregnancy, #Twefugge, Drug Abuse, Entrepreneurship, Family Planning