Richard J. Ronayne

Novella

Phenix Publishing Ltd

Nation-X Project

Dozens of my stories are currently being illustrated for release by Phenix Publishing Ltd for their Nation-X project, a multi-year project for 4-8000 word educational novellas.

This series was designed for young adults and high schoolers across Chinese and American schools, harnessing anthropomorphism to help digest mature, dark or joyful topics, whilst reflecting life, and exploring real social issues in an exciting and educational way.

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The Poverty Industry
By Richard Joseph Ronayne

CHAPTER 1: Welcome to the Devil’s Horn
Badur Jazz was sitting in his father’s limousine, listening to another lecture about what he needs to do to fulfill his destiny of inheriting the richest man in the world’s legacy. The smoky black Maine coon cat was dressed in his private school uniform, chewing on the end of the maroon blazer’s sleeve, whilst staring out of the window unlistening.
“Boy!” his father, Zebo Jazz shouted. “Not even the President of Nation-X dares to ignore my advice, what arrogance you must possess to pay me such disrespect.”
“I am sorry, papa. I am just so hungry; it is distracting me. Can we stop for some food?” Badur attempted to dodge.
His father sighed and tapped on the privacy window separating them from the muscular wolverine driving. “Gulo, stop the car.” 
Gulo immediately parked the car at the side of the road. “Get out,” Zebo commanded to his only son, who knew better than to hesitate when his father was angry. “Find some food for yourself, and call Gulo when you are done. I will see you at home,” Zebo said, so angry he couldn’t even look at Badur as he climbed out the door that Gulo had opened, quickly shutting it behind Badur before he could respond. He reached into his black suit jacket, and gave Badur one hundred dollars, before climbing back into the limo, which quickly sped away. 
Badur stood alone, and took the street in, quickly wishing he had waited a little longer to infuriate his father’s wrath, so that he could have been dropped off anywhere other than the slums of Sand Hill City. Everyone and everything around him appeared to be in ruins, as the desert surrounding the city looked like it was reclaiming the area, and the people who lived there.
“Excuse me, where can I get some food?” Badur asked a huge monitor lizard that was walking past. The monitor lizard slowly looked him up and down, unnervingly licking his lips the whole time before walking away without answering.
Uncomfortable, Badur walked across the street before looking back to see if the lizard was watching. He was, in fact he was talking to a tall cobra and pointing straight at Badur.
Quickly turning away, he walked away down the street in search for a decent restaurant. He quickly realized that the monitor lizard and cobra were walking after him. Fear suddenly overcame him, as he walked faster, pulling out his phone to call for his father’s forgiveness.
He walked straight into someone, knocking his phone from his hands, as her basket of vegetables spilled across the pavement. “I am so sorry,” Badur began to say, before he was punched square in the face, and sending him to the floor.
“Watch where you’re going kid!” the stranger said. Badur looked up at a silver furred Afghan hound that was clearly his age. She had tightly braided half of the hair on her head backward, as the other half, dyed red, flopped down the other side. She was wearing heavily ripped jeans, with an equally worn black leather jacket. She was the most beautiful girl Badur had ever seen, totally different from the snooty girls at his private school. “Well kid? Are ya gonna help me pick all this up or do I need to hit you again?” she threatened.
“I am sorry, of course,” Badur said, hurrying to help her. “But we are clearly about the same age, so instead of ‘kid’ you could call me Badur,” he tried smiling at her, as she rolled her eyes. “And what would your name be?”
“Tazi!” a hissing voice suddenly shouted out. “There you are, you worthless maggot, we’ve got you now,” the cobra that was following said, with the lizard cracking his knuckles next to him.
“Tazi,” Badur thought aloud, immediately going red in embarrassment.
“Shut up, kid. Tazi Khalag, you better remember it, because you owe me for these vegetables. Now get out of here, so I can fight these guys without distraction,” she growled at him, rolling up her sleeves to face down her challengers.
“Stay where you are, Badur Jazz. We know exactly how much you are worth, and we think our boss would like to meet you,” the cobra threatened.
“Shut up, Caydon! I’m gonna enjoy whooping your butt finally,” Tazi said, punching him in the chin, then standing between him and Badur.
“Ah! Frank, get her,” Caydon cried out to the lizard as he lay on the floor, wiping the blood from his lip. Frank pulled out a pistol from under his trench coat.
Badur’s quick reflexes threw the half empty vegetable basket at him, as he grabbed Tazi by the hand, and pulled her around a corner and down an alley way to get away, ignoring the strange growling noises coming from back around the corner.
 
CHAPTER 2: My Nana Is Your Nana
“Get off me!” Tazi shouted, as she pulled her hand away from Badur’s. “I would hit you again if you didn’t act so quickly. Impressive for a posh boy!” she backhandedly complimented as they continued running, only stopping when there were several blocks away. “We’ve lost them.”
“I need to call my dad, oh no! They have my phone!” Badur suddenly realized.
Tazi looked Badur up and down. “You won’t last two minutes out here by yourself, kid. Come on, follow me.”
“Um, thank you? Where are we going?” Badur asked.
“Somewhere safe,” Tazi briefly explained, as she led him through more back alleys until they arrived at an abandoned apartment building, or it at least looked abandoned to Badur.
They climbed through the smashed doors, careful of the glass that covered the floor, and, ignoring the elevator with a half-opened door which revealed that the lift was stuck halfway up the door, climbed up the stairwell, passing endless litter, and the homeless who were hiding in makeshift carboard shanties. Most the apartment doors were ripped off their hinges, or boarded over, as they travelled up ten stories to the top floor.
Tazi knocked strangely on the furthest door down the corridor, as Badur held his handkerchief tightly to his nose. The door opened to darkness as Tazi lit a candle from her pocket and continued inwards. “Hello younglings how is nana?” she seemed to say to no one.
Badur, heard movement and the giggling of children out of his sight, in the darkness. “Don’t worry, they’re harmless. They don’t speak, but nana likes to have them around to keep her company, and they help me look after her,” Tali explained, realizing that Badur was frightened.
“I don’t see them how many are there? Are they your siblings?” he asked quietly.
 “No, they’re just kids from the street, abandoned by their families. There was about fourteen, last I counted,” Tazi answered, as she knocked on another door. “Nana? It’s me, Tazi,” she said as she walked in.
Badur followed behind, to find an old African elephant woman, who groaned heavily as she moved her overweight body in a broken bed that was clearly too small for her. “Oh, precious Tazi,” she said in a kindly tone, as her large smile spread across her face. “Welcome back, my sweet child. And who is this shiny young man, you didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend?”
“What! No nana! He’s just some posh kid I ran into! It’s his fault I lost the vegetables for our dinner tonight, but he did help me get away from the stupid vulture’s goons who pulled a gun on me this time,” Tazi defended, a little too offensively.
“Oh my, a gun? You two have had quite enough adventure for one day, I should think. Tazi, darling, don’t worry about the food, we ate yesterday, and the children will find some scraps from somewhere, they always do,” she laughed, breaking into an awful sounding cough, as Tazi ran off to get her some water. “I know you, young man. You better stay the night as well, it’s too dangerous for the world’s richest son to go wandering around the Devil’s Horn. Tazi will help you get home in the morning.” Badur and Tazi started to complain. “Nana has spoken. That is the end of it,” she said powerfully, before another coughing spree kicked in.
Tazi moved some junk and debris off the floor to make space in her bedroom for Badur to sleep on. “It’s not quite the luxury you’re used to, sorry we haven’t got any spare cardboard for you to sleep on,” Tazi teased.
“What is wrong with your Nana, Tazi?” Badur said, concerned about the kind old woman.
“She’s not really my Nana, she got me out of some trouble I was in with the gangs a few years back, then she took me in when nobody else would, and I’ve been here ever since,” Tazi’s face furrowed sadly. “She’s dying. It won’t be long now.”
“Can the doctors do nothing to help?” Badur pleaded earnestly.
“What doctors? Look, rich boy, you don’t know what it’s like for people in these ghettos, and the Devil’s Horn is the worst of them all. There are no doctor’s here. No medical facilities. No pharmacies. We can’t afford health insurance. There’s nothing!” she replied, as if she was blaming him.
“I am sorry, Tazi. That is called a medical desert. I had no idea,” he said solemnly.
“Is that so, well what do you call it when people can’t afford food, water, warmth? What do you call it when people in these conditions are vulnerable to obesity, mental illness, homicide, teenage births, incarceration, child conflict, drug use and suicide?” she growled, unimpressed.
“Deaths of despair,” Badur slipped, immediately scolding himself and flinching at the expected assault from Tazi. But it didn’t come. He lowered his arms, and saw she was crying.
“That one I know,” she said through gritted teeth, as he dared to catch her tears. She looked fiercely into his big fiery orange eyes. “Suicide, drug overdose and alcohol related deaths. That’s why my parents aren’t here.”
He stared back into her auburn eyes and held her until she fell asleep on her cardboard mattress. Badur didn’t sleep, and when the sun came up and glared through the dusty mold ridden windows, he had made his mind up. 
He snook to the front door and put all his money on the floor where it could be easily found, when he heard movement in the darkness. “Please tell her I’ll be back as soon as I can.”


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