Ezichi and Abeo

Ezichi is a eleven year old girl. She lives in Nigeria with her parents and her little brother Abeo. Her dad works hard for the poor family, he is almost never home. Ezichi doesn't know where her dad works, she just knows he works. Her mom, Maargin, doesn't have a job, she's at home, doing things like cleaning, cooking and taking care of the children. 

It's 6 am and Ezichis mom wakes her and Abeo up. "I don't want to gooo." says Abeo whiny. "You have to, you have no choice." Maargin drags Abeo out of bed and hurriedly puts him in clothes. "What are you doing standing over there Ezichi, get dressed!" Yells Maargin angrily.                        

When the children are dressed they walk outside, making their way to the factory. "Why does mom never bring us to the factory?" Abeo asks. "She's busy." Ezichi answers. "Busy with what?"  "I don't know, just busy." "I'm tyred." "Yes, me too, now shut up." Abeo is angry that his sister talks to him like that. He doesn't like it when she's moody, but she's almost always moody.   

They have arrived. In front off them stands an ugly square building made out off brick. Above the big green door is a sign which says: Haruna Textiles. Ezichi and Abeo walk through the door. Inside are big dangerous machines and lots of children. "You are late." A short middle aged man comes up to them. "At the end of the day, you'll have to do double the time you wasted extra." "Yes sir." Ezichi walks to the machines with Abeo holding her hand, but the man pulls Abeos hand out of Ezichis and sends him the other way.        

Working in a factory is dangerous. If you make one wrong move, the machine can hurt you badly. If you aren't fast enough, the machine can hurt you badly. If you make a mistake, the machine can hurt you badly. The air in the factory is bad also. Almost every child who works in a factory like this one, will get lung problems. But not only lung problems, there are high changes they'll get mental problems, grow problems, and other health problems.          

Ezichi and Abeo don't go to school. None of the children in this factory go to school. If they would go to school, that would be at the expense of the money they earn by working at a factory, which will cause the poor families to not be able to affort important dialy needs anymore. But if the children won't go to school, when they grow older they will not be able to work a good payed job and will have to send their children to work as well. So it's a loophole and there's nothing they can do about it.

By the time Ezichi and Abeo are done, the sun has already settled. They walk back the same way they came, but this time even more exhausted. "Hello, my children." A man suddenly stands in front of them and hands them a piece of paper. "You where at the right place at the right moment!" The man looks excited. "What is this?" Ezichi asks. "Oh, of course! You can't read! Well sorrow no more, because you just won a trip to Paris!" The man almost jumps in the air from excitement. Ezichi and Abeo look at each other. They don't believe him. "I swear it's for real! Go on an adventure in France!" Abeo grabs the paper out off the mans hands and the children walk home. The man waves them goodbye as he disappears in an alley. "Can we go?" Abeo says begging to Ezichi before they enter the house. Ezichi knows she shouldn't take these kinds of things from strangers, but she does really want to get away from this place. And what could go wrong? They could get lost. But would that be any worse than working in a factory all day long? Maybe it would even be better! "Yes." She says. "Yes, we'll go to Paris."

The next day, instead of walking to the factory, they walk to the airport. They've never been on an airplane before. Surprisingly the tickets work and surprisingly they could go onboard without a supervisor.                                                                                                                                                                    Before they know, they arive in, what they think is, Paris. "HELLO PARIS!" Abeo yells out loud. "I'm afraid you're in the wrong place little boy. This is London." Says an old man passing by. "HELLO LONDON!" Yells Abeo to correct himself. "Hey, sir?" Ezichi taps on the old mans shoulder. "Could you tell us where we can work?" "Work? Ha ha ha! Kids don't work! The school is over there." He points in the direction of a grand looking building. Ezichi and Abeo look at each other. "I knew this was the right decision!" Says Ezichi. "No more working!" They walk the school in to be greeted by a friendly looking teacher. "Hello, kids! You don't look like you belong here, are you new here?" "Yes, we just flew from Nigeria to here because we didn't like it there." "You what?" They explain the whole story to the teacher, who seems very surprised. "You are some lucky little kids, but i'm going to have to send you back." "What? Why?" "You can't move to a different country without your parents knowing." "Why not?" "Follow me kids, I'll bring you back to the airport so you can go home."         

Ezichi and Abeo are incredibly disapointed. They hoped to find a new life here, in London, but that didn't happen. They're back on the airplane and look at how London slowly fades away in the distance. As they land back in Nigeria, they remember what the teacher said before the plane left, "And remember kids, come back when you're older!".