Learning compromises

This was different, the tears just didn't stop
He had only given a suggestion; what he wanted.
He told his mother he didn't want to sit in her laps, on the bus ride back home.
It was uncomfortable.
And made his legs hurt.
So she told him to sit on the steaming engine, behind the driver's seat.

"It's too hot, I want to sit on my own.
It's just sixty naira."
He had grumbled
But not for long
His mother hit him hard across his cheek with her bare palms till he cried out.

"Stupid boy,"
She hissed and pulled him into her laps,
Threatening to hit him further if he didn't stop quivering.
So he muffled his cries,
And she looked out the window.

All she had in her purse was the fare for the ride back home.
She didn't need a selfish whiny child
If he thought she didn't wish to pay for his solo ride, he got it wrong.

She worked too hard for him all day long to afford his school fees.
Today had been another bad day.
Sales were plummeting in the palm kernel market.
Like the last few days in the past month had been.

It was a terrible life.
Like everyday of her life had been;
She hadn't been born with a silver spoon.
She had hated her life growing up too.
She really didn't want her son to have the same fate.
He needed to learn to show a little appreciation.