The Sponsor

Fred

If you told Josh that today was the day he was going to run away from the rehabilitation facility he wouldn't have believed you. He woke up like he usually did at 4am. Took a shower, brushed his teeth and dressed in clean grey overalls. By 5am he was at the facilities chapel having his morning prayers. 'Continue like this and you will end up a priest,' he told himself with a smile. It was one of the things he had taken up to show his minders that he was reforming.

By 6am he was waking up his recruits. He made sure they had a shower and a change of clean clothes and they headed for breakfast. He had a simple glass of orange juice and fruit salad.

"You never tell us anything about yourself Fred," a recruit asked. His group was getting better, more engaging, even though angry most of them had stopped cursing. He could feel the green overalls coming.

"There isn't much to say. Beside drugs my life is pretty boring."

"What do you plan to do when you get out of here?" The emaciated lady in his group asked.

"Not much, perhaps finish college, perhaps help my dad run his company."

"Your family has a company?" everyone on the breakfast table looked at him with wide eyes.

"A small kiosk really, nothing to write home about." He continued after feeling he might have said too much.

After breakfast was cleared he went to the kitchen and cleared his dishes. At 8am he freshened up and headed for his first session with his recruits, who were starting to feel a lot like friends.

"I took powder in Nairobi and I woke up in the Aberdare Ranges with only my underwear," one of them was narrating and everyone was breaking with laughter.

"You see my missing teeth. I didn't have money for powder and the dealer said since I have nothing he can sell. He will sell my teeth instead." Another one said with a gummy grin after taking the green rod.

Fred almost went to his second session laughing though he was on edge. He was wondering why his green overalls were taking this long. 'They will come, his counselor insisted, be patient they will arrive when you least expect them too."

But when did he least expect them too, today, tomorrow, a month, a year. He mused in his favourite bench while looking at the photos his mother had left him. It was during this musing and looking at the photos that someone touched his shoulder from behind. He turned, his eyes grew wide and his mouth formed an 'O' it was Josh.