Jubilee City has changed over the years, with its constant demands of wanting more from those with little to offer. Much like my home in Molina City, they only wish to profit with no strings attached and not a single sound made by their people. The hustle and bustle of this broken civilisation fill every bone in my body with anxiety. Walking on the street corners felt much like home but with added danger and no one to turn to for help.
The orphanage on Elmer Road was my new home for three and half years, away from the safe arms of my older brother Brooker. As the youngest in the family, I’ve never travelled outside of Molina City. The world always seemed more striking in my eyes than it is to others, and the violence was perceived darker in my heart. Despite the change of scenery, the world looks awfully different from what I could imagine. Smokers lurk around nearly every corner of this city, with men charging high prices for drugs they cannot withstand and women giving themselves over to their sensual desires for profit in closed spaces.
I’ve come across a few bright faces while being in this city and grew to form a bond with each of them as time went on and eventually followed their ways of ‘survival’ of which soon derailed me from the truth I once knew from my mother. These bonds were shortly torn apart as I was swiftly taken away from the orphanage and placed in the care of an unfitting pair. The two constantly argued like my birth parents yet, the gentleman pursued the desire to raise a boy of his own hence choosing me to fulfil such a desire, but this was only the beginning of a frightful chapter to my life.
©️ Roderick Lukenge
References
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