FORBIDDEN(ONE)

For a long while he just stood there and watched. He just stood there like he was numb .His eyes fixed at her gaze. He was trembling because this was the day that he dreaded most in his life. He knew he had to say something to avoid any more confrontations like this one. He wanted to hold her but he wouldn’t dare because he was too scared.

    

  She was indifferent and after locking each other in an eye combat which lasted for a minute but seemed like hours, she turned to leave and didn’t look back.

    He couldn’t move as if his foot was stuck on the ground. He didn’t want to stop her but ‘Say something…anything before she leaves’ his inner voice told him but then he couldn’t bring himself to utter the words. He had regretted his actions and wanted to ask for forgiveness but the question he kept asking himself was, would she be able to forgive him?

     Rob had a difficult childhood. His parents were both dead. They had died in a motor accident and he was left with nothing. No siblings, no money. His relatives didn’t care about what he did or ate. They refused to help him continue with his education. His parents didn’t have much, the little they had; his greedy relatives had shared it among themselves. When he tried to protest, one uncle said to him ‘Get away….when I was your age, I was fending for myself and two girlfriends.’ 

    

    Rob didn’t have any reason to stay in a family house where he was treated like an outcast so he moved away at the age of fifteen to do something with his life though He had nowhere in mind to go to. He had to do so many things to survive.

It was difficult at first but he was very intelligent and charmed people with his good looks. He always kept his hair short and had thick bushy eyebrows and a dimple on his chin. He was young but good-looking and that attracted people to him…most pitied him and gave him money. He joined a group of homeless who slept in an abandoned ware house.

   They could get up early in the morning, go to the market and help the market women arrange their goods and foodstuffs then get paid or be given food to eat at times. They also helped people who came to the market by carrying the things they bought to their cars. He did everything humanly possible to survive and pushed the thought of going back to school out of his mind because that was an unattainable goal at that moment. He was an introvert in high school so he couldn’t make friends, because of his plight however, he was forced to open up to his new friends. They felt sorry for him and like him; each had a story to tell.

 

    He lived in the warehouse for a whole year till he was picked up by a woman he had helped at the market place. He first encountered the woman when he saw her struggling to hold some foodstuffs that she had bought and since she looked very tired, he offered to help her, she declined and moved away. He watched on and she dropped her purse unknowingly which he picked up and followed her. When he approached her, the woman became angry but he didn’t utter a word. He just handed over the purse and began to walk away.

     She was bamboozled because she had been rude to him so he might as well made away with the purse which contained a huge sum of amount. She called him back and offered her apologies then gave him some money which he didn’t accept. She was shocked at his behavior especially after she asked why he didn’t want to accept the money and he told her ‘I’m sorry but I only take money that i have worked for.’