Shoes in the Dust | Chapter 1

 

Chapter 1: Ajegunle Streets

Emeka balanced the half-flat football on his knee, eyes squinting in the hot Lagos sun. The street was alive — hawkers calling out, okadas weaving through potholes, kids like him barefoot, dribbling dreams on dusty streets.

His mind wandered back to the days when he was too small to kick a ball properly. Back then, he and his parents slept on a threadbare mat in a one-room shack near Boundary Market. His father, Okoro, had always promised him “Better days will come, my boy. You’ll see.”

Emeka believed him — and somehow, Okoro kept his word. One day, he got a job with a local politician. A few handshakes, loyalty here and there, and suddenly they had a proper house. A gate. A car that coughed to life but still ran.

But now Okoro was gone — buried two years ago after an illness no doctor could explain. The house remained. The money remained — but so did the ghosts of Ajegunle. And for Emeka, only one dream remained: football.

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