One morning Bistro decided to pay our Sooney an unexpected visit. Bistro was the filthiest street kid out there, he was not like Nindo, and he was not like the boys of Sooney. We had changed and Bistro did not like it, he did not like it at all.

“You beggars have allowed this punk to change you,” he said, pointing at Nindo. “He only knows how to talk, there is nothing he can do better than that. Whaaa! Whaaa! Whaaaa!”

This particular morning Nindo had not spoken all morning and we all thought he would take all of Bistro’s tongue lashings. We all thought he would endure the verbal abuse, since he had learnt to do it so gracefully when faced by the city’s mongrels.

Bistro had decided to leave Sooney Bridge in pursuit of brighter horizons. He was older than us and smarter than us, at least when it came to stealing people’s stuff. That was our main way of making money before Nindo came, we were nothing but Bistro’s dirty thieves. We used to split up in three’s. One team would go steal at Shoprite and the other team would go steal at Spar.

As much as we hated doing this, we had no way of making it at the Moodey Bridge where the old beggars lived. It was rough there but sadly there was a time when you had to answer the calling to go and be a thorough hobo. No kid’s stuff. No calling for mommy. That is where you realised that you were in this for life.

Maybe that’s why Bistro was so bitter. Inside he probably still longed to be a child of Sooney Bridge. That is just what I think.

“You idiots are starving because of this guy, can’t you see? Sunny, look at you, your bones are sticking out. Sies! I feel for you guys, really I do. All you do is eat up this Nindo’s stories that won’t get you fokol!”

“Bistro, what is your problem with us? What does it matter to you if we don’t eat or if we do? You left us here and now you tell us that you feel for us? We are fine,” Nindo said.

Bistro knew that we had changed and we would no longer be his domestics. We had adopted Nindo’s belief in talking when there was something you wanted. There was nothing wrong in talking about your problem to someone. Maybe they would help or maybe they wouldn’t, but at least they would know.

We had lost a lot of kids because of stealing for Bistro. Some kids we never even saw again. Some were caught and arrested, taken to these juveniles where their freedom was taken away. We still wanted our freedom, which is why we realised we had to find another way of getting by.

This is actually where Nindo’s ‘Golden Child’ nickname came from because he came at a time where we were not sure of where we were actually going with this. How we would get by without Bistro. Would we be able to fend for ourselves?

Nindo came and changed everything really. He was able to stand there and talk to someone about the Sooney Bridge, how many were we, why we were there, why we couldn’t be elsewhere. After saying all of this, a person would either tell him its nonsense or the person would give him money and some clothes on some occasions. In this way we were hurting no one and stealing from no one.

“As you can see we don’t need you Bistro, go away and please don’t come back here,”

Bistro, seeing he could not turn us against Nindo, decided to leave.

We all got the feeling that Nindo did not want to talk to Bistro but only spoke because he had to. Most of us could not even stand up to Bistro, we were scared of him. But Nindo wasn’t.

Nindo was torn by thoughts of his mother and the tribe. He spoke to us and told us he had decided to leave the next day for Boredo. He had to go back to his people. He was not born to open his mouth, just to beg.

“Sunny, you know me. I would not do this if it were not something that had to be done. I love you guys but my family, they need me. Tomorrow morning, I will ask for a lift from the trucks going out of the city. Surely someone will be generous enough to help me return to my people.”

It was hard to accept, though we knew that we had no choice, no word in the matter. He had made up his mind a long time ago and we knew that it was only a matter of time. We told him we would walk him to the garage to find a truck. We now were going to lose someone who made us forget that we were less than society. We would now remember that we were the forgotten. The ones overlooked by everyone. It was sad but it was true. Nindo had a home to go to and we were the children of the Sooney Bridge.

***

Tell us: Do you think this way of life will work for the Sooney Bridge kids without
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