I never thought that a time would come when someone as insignificant as me— A poor person like me had the slightest hope to be useful in a way. All this time, I tried so hard to please my father and mother.
They worked non-stop at wherever place that offered and hiring.
No matter what boorish the job was, I gave it my all, spending hours upon hours mastering a skill necessary for said jobs. If my employer wasn't satisfied still, I pushed myself harder.
Harder and harder so that they wouldn't throw me away. I mean, who would feed my jobless parents if I don't work?
I forced that notion over and over in my mind, and fortunately, solely because of this, I could persevere. Though this didn't mean I was exempt from harsh treatment of upper-class people. In Neo Africa, the 'hierarchy' in such society is quite apparent.
Educated people looked at us—the poor people of the society—with a callous expression and incredulous gaze. Because in every way possible, we were inferior to them.
Had I still been working, they would surely be chortling with glee at having found such easy prey.
To the rich, we were nothing but human garbage being looked down upon. Even so, the money I collected so hard was nothing but a spare change for the wealthy. They could easily pay taxes, while we struggled to make ends meet and pay it.
At one point, my parents had to go out and beg at the corner of the streets while I was working. Night or day, they went there and asked any passerby to kindly spare them some money. My parents were old and wrinkled, their constitution desisted and prevented any employers from hiring them.
Such was a life I lived in back then... until a certain little girl approached my parents and donated quite a sum of money.
"...Who gave this much money to us?" was the first thing I said when they came back home one day with a ludicrous amount of cash in their hands. When they said it was from a little girl, I dithered for a few moments, not wanting to believe them.
Whose rich daughter was it?
This little girl came back to them again, but at that time, I tagged along as well.
"Oh.. Um! I don't have money on me today... Haha... Tabetha didn't give me any, but anyway! I have some food from the banquet just now!" the dark-haired girl said with a bright smile.
She handed the food packed in polystyrene container to my mother and went off someplace else hurriedly. This happened a few times in a week from that point onward. The little girl, on the day she didn't have any money to spare, would donate all sorts of stuff to us. Her donation was not limited to just food. I even wondered which rich family she belonged to, but I didn't dare to ask.
"Oh, Ava! You are at it again," said a blonde guy about sixteen-years-old.
He caught the little girl, Ava carrying a stack of foods in polystyrene containers in the cover of night. Unbeknownst to them, I run into the duo and quickly hid in an alley. It was dark enough that they wouldn't notice me if I just stayed still.
"Good timing! Can you bring these for me? Hehe."
"Hmm?" The blonde guy raised an eyebrow. "Actually, Ava, I already went out of my way to give the couple some food a while ago. So..."
"Feeeeeh?! Why didn't you tell me?"
"I kinda forgot... Haha."
"Meeeanniieeee!"
Regardless, the obstinate girl went over to my house (she knew about it after my parents told her) and gave the food anyway. Those two turned and went back where they came from— and I wasn't sure why, but, I was somewhat eager to find out which rich family these two came from, so I followed them.
"...No way."
They halted in front of Gheele's palace and went inside! The guards didn't bother to bat an eye at them as if the duo was apart of Gheele Folami's family or something. Flummoxed, I returned home with the news, and a few days after that, an announcement was made by Gheele Folami himself.
It was long, but to summarize it, the announcement goes like this:
"I want volunteers for a project, and I will accept anyone tested to be suitable for it."