Stanley O Ayodeji

Damage Limitation Stanley O Ayodeji 1. Painos

Oak Tree Farm is a housing estate you would not want to come across accidentally. It should be avoided at the best of times, never mind when things have deteriorated ? like the hopeless, delinquent locals who are better off tethered to leashes within the pebbledash walls of dated maisonettes. It is the season of goodwill, seven days before Christmas. The estate has exploded in an angry cloud of overturned vehicles; the secondary school sits slumped in a pile of smouldering ashes after a respected local Rastafarian, Leroy, is falsely arrested on suspicion of manufacturing a new drug. You do not pick and choose the environment you are born into, unfortunately. Bored kids need occupying. Dads are absent or unknown; useless mums are too preoccupied with everyday living, pregnancy, alcohol and making ends meet on the dole, to care where their kids are. So when left to their own devices there is little choice for youths but to fail at life so miserably. After ambushing the new guy ? as ill-luck would have it his family has just moved into their best mate?s former house ? the youths take to the streets to preserve borrowed liberty for a while longer. Wouldn?t you do the same if you had just killed someone? They are lucky to be born with three career choices: prison, the local asylum, or death. All they need to do now is take their pick. No rush. But can salvage appear in the form of Uncle Leggy who arrives at No. 142 Round Close Court to look after his sister?s three good boys when she is admitted to hospital heavy with child, or is life simply a case of damage limitation? Youths like this serve very little purpose. Some would argue they serve no purpose at all.