Songs for this chapter are:

Plastic 100c - Sampha

2:30 - Propaganda and L's

Am I... - Andy Mineo

—••—

David packed his bags and ran away.

After the principal left him in the sickbay with the suspension notice, David knew he had little to no time left to spend in that school. If he didn't leave quickly, his mother would definitely come looking for him.

He didn't want to face her. He couldn't. He didn't want to torture that poor woman more than he already had. She needed to deliver the baby in her womb safely and give that child all her care — the care that he doesn't deserve. He'd been such a bad child to her, and he's made her cry too many times.

Worse off, he couldn't dare come eye-to-eye with his father or even his siblings. There was a probability that she wouldn't take him back to her friend's house. Instead, she would take him back home out of anger and disappointment — so he could get punished. He couldn't deal with any of the chaos that accompanied the current friction between him and his father.

He didn't want anything to do with any of his family members anymore. Instead, David had found new inspiration fresh from the well of his mind; he'd found a new path to walk on — a path that was most befitting for the abominable monster that he was.

People like him didn't deserve a family. Even if he craved the love of his family, he was by all means supposed to reject it. He was supposed to disallow himself from feeling the need to deserve such. So he would do his family the good of erasing himself from their lives forever.

He owed it to his mother, the woman who had already done more than enough for him. He owed it to his father, the man in whom he'd deeply hurt and caused a seed of hatred to grow within him. Lastly, he owed it to his siblings — for shattering the bond that they all shared in unity and completeness. By taking away a member of that siblinghood, he'd destroyed it all. He owed his family his departure.

So David rose from his sickbed a few hours after the principal had left his ward at the school's clinic — even though his face still hurt like crazy, his right cheek was grossly swollen, and his limbs felt like a heavy, cumbersome log of wood.

It was past closing hours, and the security officers at the school's gate were exchanging shifts meaning that the officers on night duty were stepping into the premises that start their work while the officers who'd been on duty throughout the day were changing their outfits to head for home.

Hence, the officers didn't have much of their attention fixed on the sick fellow who was currently tiptoeing past the gate. When David got to his hostel, he was glad he'd decided to go there to pack his things on second thought because the hostel's receptionist had a stomach upset, so he was in the toilet. Thankfully, he spent enough time in the toilet for David to pack his essential belongings all in a box.

David was an outcast, and everyone in the school despised him for causing the expulsion of Richard, Clara's brother. So no one cared about what he was up to when he came to the hostel to pack his things. They even shooed him away, hissed, and gave him scornful looks.

With tears and a heart full of shame, he left the school with his belongings even as his arms throbbed with excruciating pain. When he took a last look at the school's building, he shook his head, thinking of how his mother had enrolled him in school to become a better person but instead, he'd humiliated her name. He wiped his tears, knowing that this was the best thing he could do.

By leaving, he would no longer tarnish her image and drag her in the mud for trying to mold his life for the better.

***

Walking on the busy streets of Lagos reminded David of his job hunt at Obalende Avenue and how draining it had been. Now, just like that day, no one cared. The aura of the streets reeked of brutality as usual. Okada riders were the most uncouth set of people. As he walked on the pedestrian lane, the motorcycle riders in their harmattan-battered boots splashed droplets of mud on his clothes.

Even the street hawkers nearly pushed him off the bridge with their heavy trays full of commodities. He should have known better, though. The possibility of finding a new, safe place to pass a couple of nights would be more challenging than the possibility of a camel passing through the eye of a needle.

He was going to have to bear through the pain and hellish turmoil. It was the price he had to pay for choosing to depart from his family; the cost he had to put forth for his inability to stop making irredeemable mistakes — to suffer in a great manner was his payment.

So David wandered to nowhere in particular, like a nomad in distress, a soulless entity. And he covered many kilometers by foot — past several shops, schools, and roads that contained numerous potholes. His clothes were stained heavily with large circles of mud.

When the sunset began to cast a fiery red glow in the form of cumulonimbus clouds across the sky, David's limbs decided that it was time for a compulsory break. Several drops of sweat had dripped down his back and soaked his clothes during the exhausting journey. He'd been trekking for five hours now.

But he was still somewhere in the middle of the road.

The buildings by the side of the road mainly were companies and government-owned properties. There was no building that took the similitude of a house — somewhere he could rest. He kept looking, turning round, gazing intently at every building in sight. He took a few more steps that his weak limbs could permit.

Then he saw a bridge.

He looked beneath the bridge and saw no river or water body. Instead, there was another road that went on a downward, underground slope. David squinted his eyes and saw that a few people were sitting on the floor beneath the bridge — homeless people. He was about to join the bandwagon of the abandoned lots.

Finally, a place to pass the night.

With a sad smile, David pulled up the zip of his hoodie. It was about to be a cold and perhaps, long night away from home.

***

When David got to the shade beneath the bridge, however, he realized he was wrong to have thought that he would simply pass the night and look for somewhere else to stay the following day. He'd concluded that it would be one of his usual nights. Dusks that consisted of torment from his internal demons.

But tonight was different.

Across the other pillar from underneath the bridge, he saw a poster plastered against the wall — a poster with a very catchy headline. The blue colors of the notice poster beckoned for him to come closer, so he did. When the inscriptions were now in clearer view, he was intrigued by what he'd just read:

New Coordinator needed for Math Competition coming up on the 23rd of November.

N.B: No specific requirements are needed regarding age or educational qualification. Just have a good knowledge and passion for mathematics.

David laughed after he read the words on the poster. It was a weird job vacancy post. How could an uneducated or semi-literate person make for a good coordinator in a Math competition? From the surface viewpoint, the poster made no sense.

It wasn't supposed to make sense – to anyone.

But it was the perfect opportunity for David. David was a high school dropout, and he was only fourteen years old. Yet, he had a knack for mathematical related subjects. As he gazed absent-mindedly at the poster on the wall, he reminisced on the times when he would help his younger brother and Sindara with their math homework.

Alexander particularly despised math and every subject affiliated with calculations, so he was always a headache to tutor. Sindara, on the other hand, took deep interest in geometry and trigonometry. So David would always call her to sit beside him during his study hours to solve some fundamental math problems together.

This was the perfect chance for him – perhaps a likelihood at redemption even. David had already found inspiration concerning the steps he wanted to take to undo his wrongdoings. But this job opportunity seemed like the perfect route to take in achieving that goal.

Little did he know, however, that this seemingly harmless decision would change the trajectory of his life for the worse.