Chapter one

The dry harmattan wind that always dominated Decembers was torture to my skin, my siblings and I had to bath early behind wrappers that we hung on ropes to serve as doors and also wind breakers so as to get ready early enough before Baba Tosin leaves us behind, he was a disciplined man and his bus always dropped us off at school by 6;30 am sharp, most times we get to wake up the school gate-man to let us in. we were always the first to get to school and also the first to leave, last week I was a couple minutes late so the bus left me behind, I got chased to school by Mama Tosin when I went to her for bus fare, she flung her slipper at me, it hit me on my cheek leading me straight to the floor but i sprung up immediately because only a fool would wait for Mama Tosin when she’s upset. I was glad school would be over nextweek then till next year, I have small fears about my results, I wasn’t the brightest student in the house, come to think of it the 10 of us were pretty dumb students, except for Tosin maybe that’s because he had peace of mind being their biological son, but the rest of us were one sad case after another, my story as to how I was dropped off at S & T children’s home is still unclear to me, the only idea I have is that my real mother either died or left the country because she was raped, the older kids promised I would understand when I grow older,

‘’Musa, the scars on your body aren’t enough, stop scrubbing that arm and finish up’’
Nkechi said, she was my favourite sibling, a year older than me, she’s 11 and I’m 10 but we did almost everything together, people always teased us that we would end up married, disgusting! people don’t know its wrong for siblings to marry each other or they are just plain stupid. I carried my bucket over my head and poured the remaining water on my body, I let out a scream because of the chill, nkechi screamed too because the water splashed on her body after she had dried, the other kids did the same thing, each of them screaming,

‘’who are those animals playing on a school morning?"
Baba Tosin shouted, we all scattered to our room to get set for school, nobody wanted to be seen when he looked through his window.

Chapter two drops tomorrow. But if you can't wait follow @villagewords on IG