He Was Five, and So Was I
I met Destiny on a Wednesday. I remember because my mom made me wear the itchy green sweater that made my neck red, and he was the only one who said it looked like a superhero cape.
He had these crooked little teeth and brown skin that glowed like warm toast under the sun. A Nigerian boy with a name that felt too big for a five-year-old.
Destiny.
It sounded like something out of a book I wasn't old enough to read.
We became friends fast. The kind of fast that only happens in childhood, where you go from strangers to soulmates in a sandbox. We made up languages. Drew treasure maps no one could read but us. He once told me he wanted to build a time machine out of cereal boxes, and I believed him. Of course I did.
Back then, everything felt infinite.
Until it didn't.