HONEY AND CINNAMON

I turned off the car and studied the house looming in front of me. It was like a small mansion but a mansion all right. For someone that grew up in an orphanage and was later brought up in a modest sized house, I was intimidated by the one in front of me. 

Don’t worry, it’s just a house, it won’t bite, Lena, my fiancée said dryly

I laughed at that, I’m not scared it will, after all its just a house, I said intentionally repeating her words making her laugh. Come on, let’s go inside and meet the in- laws, I concluded.

I came down and went to open the door at Lena’s side for her to come down and we both went into the house. Immediately we entered, my sense was assaulted with the scent of honey and cinnamon.

I was known as trouble by the people on the street. Growing up on the street will make you tough because you cannot survive without being tough. I was with a gang. We called ourselves the spider webs, we were a group of five boys. I don’t even remember how we came about that name but I think we heard it from somebody and felt that the name would work and so we stuck with it. Since I was the youngest, smallest and cunniest, I was the designated thief most of the time. I was not in the habit of stealing big things I only pick pocketed little amounts of money. I was so cunning and an expert in the art of pick pocketing so I took a very long time before I was caught. Even though I was stealing the money for the use of everybody, I knew I dared not mention any other person’s name. I was 10 by that time. Since I was refusing to talk and was acting so tough, I was taken to a juvenile detention center. Sincerely, I do not know what they were thinking but I was very sure that they hated me so much and that I was going to die in the juvenile detention center because everybody on the street knew the horrors and violence that happened in juvenile detention centers and the punishments received for breaking even one of the rules set in place. The stories we heard made everybody, even the toughest street thugs around shudder. When I got there, I learnt that all the stories that we heard were true but fortunately for me, the manager was a good Christian man who did not punish unnecessarily but according to your faults. I was in the juvenile detention center for about two years before I was transferred to an orphanage. The orphanage was so different from the juvenile center in the sense that we were punished unnecessarily, fed meagerly and our other general needs were ignored because we were boys and the things available were not enough meanwhile the managers and staffs of the orphanage were becoming bigger and fatter while we were becoming thinner and thinner day after day. You’ve heard of how difficult it is to be adopted once you’ve passed the age of seven and for me it was very true especially given my background of being a street thug and a thief. Since I was twelve and had a shady background of being a very good thief, all the people that came to adopt me decided not to and adopted someone else. Having experienced that a number of times, I no longer held any hope of getting out of that hell hole until I turned 18 seeing that I had no other way to get out.

One particular afternoon, while we were all doing chores, one pretty woman and a man who was obviously her husband came into the orphanage. It was so obvious that they did not belong in the orphanage and it was not just their dressing, it was the way they carried themselves. Normally, when people came to the orphanage they were always frowning, naturally we did not blame them since we felt the same way; that they had nothing to smile about but this particular couple came in smiling and kept on smiling until they left. It was also obvious that their smiles were not forced but genuine because their smile reached their eyes, we were all fascinated by them. Another thing that I noticed about the pretty woman was that she smelled nice. Growing up in the streets, the smells I could easily identify was alcohol, cigarette and blood and so I did not recognize this nice smell but I put it in mind to find out. With the way this nice couple were dressed and the way they carried themselves, most of us hoped we would be adopted by them, it wasn’t that we discussed it but it was obvious from our faces including mine but when I remembered the number of times I had been dropped because of my background the hope I harbored quickly evaporated. 

The nice couple left the orphanage that day without adopting anybody and I was so sad and angry with the management of the orphanage because I felt that it was because of the poor state of the place both inside and outside and the poor state of the children that made them leave without adopting anybody. The main reason I was sad was because I still had hope that they would have adopted me and so as an outlet for my anger I started acting out. One advantage of living on the street for a period in your life is that you become so tough and most of us became experts at fighting. When I meant acting out, I did not mean shoving people or pulling their ears but causing serious damage to them. Even though I knew that the way I was behaving was going to my records and I was at risk of being sent to a tougher juvenile detention center, I did not stop my behavior. 

The nice couple came back the following week and the first thing I noticed was that the pretty woman still had that nice scent. I became disappointed and bitter at myself when I finally remembered the way I had been acting and the fact that it would be in my record and that if the nice couple were planning to adopt me, they were going to change their minds about it immediately. I also got to know that it was not because of the poor state of things in the orphanage that had them leaving without adopting anybody the previous week but that they had to go and pray and seek Gods guidance on who to adopt, that particular information stunned me. I was stunned because they called picking a boy a major decision. All the other people that came to adopt usually came to pick a boy to be their houseboy and some of them found us disgusting that they did not pick anybody but this nice couple came to adopt a boy to be their son. We all felt that the only thing we were worth was the role of houseboys or errand boys because that had been what was instilled in us from our arrival at the orphanage. 

Surprise upon surprise, when this nice couple were to pick somebody to adopt, they picked me. They told me that God said they should pick me because it was my time to be adopted. I was so happy because even though I knew nothing about this couple, I knew this was a new beginning in my life. When I got to the house that was soon to be mine, I finally learnt that the pretty lady’s scent was called honey and cinnamon and she had it because she loved baking. Till today, I’ve continued to associate that scent with home and joy. I was especially surprised to find that........

I became aware of where I was when I heard Lena calling my name quietly. I turned to her only to find to my dismay that my in-laws were looking at me with amusement. I started thinking of the right words to use to apologize because to me it was a big mistake to tune out when in somebody’s else house for the first time and a great sin when that somebody is my soon to be in-laws.

I’m so sorry, I apologized to them, I got carried away with the scent of your house which by the way is very nice and was instantly taken back to the first time I smelt it, even as I blabbed nervously I mentally put all thoughts of how wonderful I thought my parents were when they adopted me and how wonderful they still are out of my mind to think of at a later time when I would not be distracted and focused on my soon to be in laws