The Harvest Of Hardship - S01 E12

Story 3 weeks ago

The Harvest Of Hardship - S01 E12

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 12

The sun was very high in the sky. It was so hot that the ground felt like it was cooking. Aunt Clara stood in the middle of the university square. Her yellow lace dress was very beautiful, but it felt very heavy now. She was sweating, and her head was spinning. She looked at Tobi. Tobi was her only son. He was her prince. But now, her prince was in very big trouble. The Dean of the school had said that Tobi must leave. He had said that Tobi must pay a lot of money or go home. Clara felt a great panic in her chest. It was a panic that felt like a cold hand squeezing her heart.

She reached into her big leather bag. She was looking for her bank book. She was looking for any money she had left. She began to pull out receipts. She found a receipt for a gold necklace she bought last month. She found a receipt for the very lace dress she was wearing. She found a receipt for a giant cake she bought for Tobi's birthday. But she did not find any money. She looked at her bank book and her eyes filled with tears. The balance was almost zero. She had spent every single Naira. She had spent all her savings to make Tobi look like a king. She had spent it all so he could have the best clothes and the best friends. But now, those friends were gone, and the money was gone too.

"Tobi, how can this be?" Clara whispered. Her voice was shaking like a leaf in the wind. "I sent you so much money. I sent you everything I had. Where did it all go?" Tobi did not answer. He just looked at the ground. He looked at the dust on his shoes. He knew where the money went. It went to the fancy dinners. It went to the expensive games. It went to the people who called him a boss but laughed at him when he turned his back. Tobi felt very small. He felt like a balloon that had lost all its air.

Clara turned around. She saw the tall buildings of the university. She saw the happy students. And then she saw Seyi. Seyi was still standing with his work group. He looked so calm. He looked like a person who did not have any worries. Clara felt a new wave of anger. It was an anger born from her own fear. She marched toward Seyi again. Her gold bangles were clinking, but they did not sound happy anymore. They sounded like a warning.

"Seyi!" she shouted as she got close to him. "You must help us! You are working for the school. You have money. And I know your father sends money for you every month. He sends money for your books and your food. Give it to me! I am your aunt. I am the one who took care of you all these years. You must give me that money so I can save Tobi. Tobi is family! You cannot let him be kicked out like a dog!"

Seyi stopped what he was doing. He looked at Clara. For a long time, he did not say anything. The other students stood back. They could see that this was a very serious moment. Seyi reached into the pocket of his clean white shirt. He did not pull out money. Instead, he pulled out a stack of papers. They were bank statements. They were papers that showed exactly how much money had moved into his account and out of his account.

"Aunt Clara," Seyi said. His voice was very quiet. It was so quiet that Clara had to lean in to hear him. "I have been waiting for this day. I have been waiting for the day you would ask me about my father's money. You see, after I came to this university, I did something you did not expect. I used the phone in the library to call my father. I called him in the other city where he works."

Clara's face went very pale. It went from purple to a ghostly white. She tried to speak, but her throat felt very dry. "You... you called your father?"

"Yes," Seyi said. He began to show her the papers. "My father was very surprised to hear from me. He was surprised because he thought I was very happy. He thought I had everything I needed. Do you know why? Because he told me that for ten years, he has been sending a lot of money to you. He was sending money for my school. He was sending money for my clothes. He was sending money for my food. He even sent a special gift of money every year for my books. He called it the book money."

Seyi pointed to a line on the paper. "But I never saw that money, Auntie. When I lived in your house, I wore Tobi's old rags. I ate the leftovers from the pot. I walked to school with holes in my shoes. While you told me I was a servant, you were taking the money my father sent for me and using it to buy Tobi's toys. You were using my father's hard work to pay for Tobi's lazy life."

Clara stepped back. She felt like someone had hit her. She hit the brick wall of the building behind her. The truth was out. It was not a secret anymore. The students around them began to whisper. They looked at Clara with fire in their eyes. They hated bullies, and they could see that Clara was the biggest bully of all. She had stolen from an orphan's father. She had lied for ten years.

"I know everything now," Seyi said. He did not yell. He did not scream. He did not even look angry. He just looked very tired of the lies. "My father told me how much he really sent over the years. He told me that he trusted you because you were family. But you showed him that family means nothing to you if there is money to be taken. You took the book money. You took the food money. You took my childhood."

Clara tried to say something. She wanted to say it was a mistake. She wanted to say she was saving it for him. But the look in Seyi's eyes told her that it was too late for lies. The "Solution Man" had solved the biggest mystery of his own life. Seyi did not ask for the money back. He knew it was gone. He knew it was wasted on Tobi's expensive life. He just folded his papers and put them back in his pocket.

"The harvest of hardship is a very strange thing, Auntie," Seyi said. "You gave me hardship, and I learned how to work. You gave Tobi everything, and he learned how to fail. Now, the harvest is here. I have my life. Tobi has nothing." Seyi turned his back on her. He walked away with his friends. He had a meeting to go to. He had a life to live. He did not look back at the woman who had tried to bury him in chores.

Clara fell to her knees. She looked at Tobi. Tobi was crying now. He was crying because he knew he was truly alone. A few minutes later, the men from the school came. They were the security guards. They told Tobi that his time in the luxury dorm was over. They told him he had one hour to take his things.

Tobi and Clara worked together to pack. They did not talk. They just threw the dirty clothes and the broken toys into the trunk. But when they got to the gate of the dorm, the guards stopped them. They said Tobi could not take the expensive bed or the desk. They said those belonged to the school. Tobi was left with only one small bag. All his other things were gone.

They had no place to go. Clara had no money for a hotel. She had no money to take Tobi back to the village in style. They walked away from the beautiful part of the university. They walked past the green grass and the bright lights. They walked toward the edge of the school, where the buildings were old and the roads were made of dirt.

They found a place in a nearby slum. A slum is a place where the houses are made of old wood and rusted metal. The air there smells like smoke and dirty water. They found a tiny room that cost very little. The room had no bed. It had no fan. It had no light. The floor was just hard, cold dirt. There were cracks in the walls where the wind could blow through.

Clara sat in the corner of the dark room. She was still wearing her yellow lace, but now it was torn at the bottom. She looked like a queen who had lost her palace. She was too tired to cry anymore. She just stared at the wall.

Tobi sat on the dirt floor in the middle of the room. He felt the dust getting on his skin. He felt the hunger in his stomach. It was a hunger that felt like a sharp knife. He looked at the small bag he had brought. Inside the bag, there was a small plastic sack of raw beans. Seyi had given it to him a long time ago as a joke, or maybe as a lesson.

Tobi pulled the beans out. He looked at them. They were hard and dry. He knew he needed to eat them if he wanted to live. But then, he stopped. He looked at the beans, and then he looked at the empty room. He looked at his soft, clean hands.

"How do I make them soft?" Tobi whispered to the empty air. "How much water do I need? Do I need a fire? How do I start a fire?"

Tobi realized something that broke his heart. He was a university student. He could speak big words. He could play expensive games. But he did not even know how much water was needed to cook a simple bowl of beans. He did not know how to survive for one day without someone else doing the work for him. He was a "hand-fed baby" who had been dropped into a world where no one was holding the spoon.

The weight of his own helplessness fell on him like a mountain. He thought about Seyi. He thought about how Seyi could cook a whole meal with just a few sticks and a pot. He thought about how Seyi could fix a pipe or a light. He thought about how Seyi was probably eating a hot dinner right now with his important friends.

Tobi looked at the raw beans in his hand. He felt the first hot tear run down his cheek. Then another one followed. Soon, he was shaking. He sat on the dirt floor in the dark slum, surrounded by the smell of trash and the sound of loud people outside, and he started to cry. He cried for the money he wasted. He cried for the mother who lied. But mostly, he cried because he was a man who did not know how to live.

The harvest was finally here. For Seyi, it was a harvest of gold and respect. For Tobi, it was a harvest of hunger and dirt. The hardship had produced two very different lives.

Clara spent all her money on Tobi’s lifestyle. Was she a good mother, or was she just being proud?

Seyi revealed that he knew about the "book money." How do you think Clara felt when she realized her secret was out?

Tobi is now living on a dirt floor in a slum. Do you think he deserves this, or is it too harsh?

Tobi has a bag of beans but does not know how to cook them. What does this tell us about the way he was raised?

If Seyi walked into that slum right now, what do you think he would say to Tobi?

The End of the Road or a New Beginning?

The truth is out, the money is gone, and the prince is now a beggar! Tobi is sitting in the dirt, crying over a bag of beans he cannot cook. Aunt Clara’s lies have finally caught up with her. But is this really the end of the story? Can Tobi learn to survive in the slum, or will he give up? And what will Seyi do with the truth he has found?