“Within a few months, I was taken into another foster home. That didn‘t last. I was disruptive and disrespectful. They had brought me in to help but I proved more trouble than it was worth. I went back to the orphanage after just three months and it got worse. Like some of my older ‗brothers‘, I began to sleep with the older girls, smoked and drank. In the next foster home I fared much better. My new father was the principal of the new school I enrolled in. Under him, I finished my form five at fifteen with my complete papers.”
“That was fast. You must have been a brilliant student.”
He looked at the mirror on the opposite wall and noticed the wry curve to his lips. “That principal whipped me into shape, Mr. Akintuyi. He was a good mentor and influence but had to take up another post in a different part of the country. I went back to the orphanage and with no visible future; I soon reverted to my wild ways. I got into another foster home, but a traumatic experience there when I was almost eighteen made me run away. I had just gotten into university then with my whole future mapped out…” The waiter interrupted to top up the wine glass before Gladys.
“Anyway, I got to Lagos soon after, luck smiled on me and here I am today. But let‘s not dwell on the past, I don‘t mean to make this a pity party.”
“Don‘t say that Edward. It‘s part of who you are and I‘d like to hear more.”
“Still I‘m sorry for burdening you with all that baggage about my background.”
“You forget that I grew up without a father myself and that has its own baggage.”
He looked at her with a new respect. Many girls he met often didn‘t know how to take his being an orphan but she had taken even more in her stride. He squeezed the fingers in his one more time before draining the bottled beer in front of him.