HE CALLED ME "AUNTY"- by olivia dokubo

My job as a marketer takes me from one place to another all the time, i get to interact with all sorts of people, which can be fun, interesting, boring, and sometimes annoying. I boarded a bus today , that was around 3 in the afternoon and there was so much traffic and school pupils everywhere.When we got to a school bus stop, a little boy entered , he should be around 11 or 12 years old, from his uniform I could tell he was from the popular government craft school in port harcourt .He greeted everyone and I was shocked because the students from that school have the reputation of been rude,disrespectful and noisy,he just sat behind me and was very quiet only humming to the music from the radio.he recited every advert aired on wazobia fm with so much familiarity.
When we got to a junction,there was so much traffic we couldn't move,there was an italian tiles and furniture shop very close to the bus stop,they had transparent glasses so everyone could see what they displayed.The little boy suddenly shouted ''omoh eehh see bathtub, na to just enter dis place thief every single thing inside,waka commot'' . I was flabbergasted, I didn't understand why he thought stealing was the best, I decided to ask him ''why you go won thief am''.
he grinned ''aunty you no go understand,na dis kin thing big people dey enjoy na''.

I still didn't understand why he used the word collect instead of buy, i wanted to know, i was curious,why would stealing become the best option, and so i said ''if you work hard become big man you sef go fit buy am,no need to collect am '' he laughed and said '' na which time me go come become big man,get money to buy all this kind thing sef,na to collect am easy pass oh'' And i was shocked that this little boy would argue so strongly why''collecting it'' was better than owning it rightly.He didn't even believe he could work hard enough,earn honest money to buy the things he desired.This boy would be in the junior secondary level in high school and he had already made up his mind that ''collecting it'' was better.I couldn't say anything until he alighted "aunty bye bye"he said. I didn't know the elderly woman sitting close to me was listening to our little interaction, she told me "my dear,no be ur pikin,make u no worry too much for am,worry for the one wey you go born"But she didn't understand why i was worried,i felt i had failed to explain to that little boy,how much honest work pays,he had gone on with the mentality that "collecting" was okay,I should have at least told him that getting a bathtub shouldn't be his priority now,his books should be.I really feel guilty and i can't forget that he called me aunty.