Finding You

Chapter Two - Weak

"Matt what do we do? " Eliza asked tears were rolling down her cheeks as the watched Davida sleep. 

" I don't know. I didn't know this sort of thing could happen" Matt replied and kicked the wooden wall next to them.

"But it can't be permanent right? "

"I don't know" Matt's reply released the waterworks of emotions from Eliza and she started to mumble.

"It's all my fault! I was the one who told her to keep quiet... If I hadn't she would be able to talk now... "  Eliza said sobbing.

"Hush... It's not your fault okay... Besides I'm sure she'll be alright in no time. " Matt said trying to reassure her. He looked helpless as he'd never had to deal with a woman crying before. The Eliza he knew was strong and would not relent no matter what. But now, he felt guilty. He had caused this.

He didn't want to take the twins because they would have been too much trouble. But Eliza persisted and refused to leave without them. He'd told her and the twins not to speak or make any sound. Who knew that would cause Davida to become mute.

"Matt... I'm sorry I forced you to take them with but I couldn't leave them alone. It would have been wrong." Eliza said as she recognized the expression Matt was making.

"It's okay let's just get things done. " Matt replied and sighed as he turned to a corner of the small dilapidated wooden structure he and Eliza had recently acquired in the dumps. He fished out a dirty shirt and put it on after pulling of the shirt he had on.

"I'm off" He said and left the house. As he walked through the rows of wood structures he kicked scraps of debris that could be found practically everywhere. He sighed again and increased his pace as he climbed up the garbage dump.  It had small hills of debris and at some point, he found himself stepping in some disgusting leftovers and unidentifiable goo. He didn't even want to know what it was.

After they ran away that night, they had always had to keep an eye open as they slept. When the bus finally stopped in Lagos, they felt relieved. But it was also that day Davida became mute. Matt attributed it to the trauma from being told to keep quiet as they made their escape.

Lagos was a bustling city,  Matt swore he had never seen so many people in one place before. The people, the lights, the smells, the sounds, all these were new to them. Davida had climbed up Eliza's neck at any sudden sound. David though had let his eyes wander, taking in the sights.

He had been intrigued by what he saw. He fell in love with this place, but he wasnt in the position to enjoy the sights or mix with those clean people. They found shelter in the dumps. Where they could gather scraps of metal to sell and if they were in luck they would catch the trucks from the rich areas, there were always clothes in those.

Matt despised the rich, they had that protective bubble around them and didn't know the struggle that the poor had to go through, daily. Those rich people were arrogant, they looked down on others. Matt's hatred stemed from when he witnessed his mother humiliated by her boss. His mother had worked as a laundry woman for some rich family.

One day, her boss's daughter had been angry for some reason and she kicked over the basin his mother had been washing in. When the woman came in she refused to listen to his mother's explanation. What she said stuck in his head like a broken record playing :

"You imbecile... Slut... Shut up... Look at these clothes, do you think you can ever afford them. I'm telling you just one top from that basin can feed your disgusting family for years... Look here, look at me,  you will always, I repeat always be poor...  Disgusting monger... Get out from my sight!"

He was just seven then but he resolved in his heart as they were thrown out of the gates, that when he grew up,  he would protect his mother; he would become so rich he would trample down on those people that had hurt his mother. Sadly though he was years late and his parents had died in an accident.

But he had seen a shadow of his mother in Eliza, he cared for her and had promised her the same in his heart. That was why he had readily accepted to take the twins with them. She was his only weakness.