Lekki Sisi - S01 E03

2 years ago

Lekki Sisi - S01 E03

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 3

A crowd gathered in front of the man selling clothes. The shoe seller, the man who had set his buttocks right in front of my mouth got annoyed that his space was being encroached by his neigbour’s customers who were selecting shirts and blouses from the sack and trying them on.

‘Abeg make una comot for my front.’ He gestured. When they didn’t move away, he shouted again and they stepped away from his sack.

A lady emerged from the back and pushed her way to the front, snaking between two women who were admiring a shirt one of them had picked. They almost lost their balance in the process and pounced on her ready to push her away. She apologized quickly but didn’t move away from the space she had created for herself right in front of the heap of fairly used clothes. Her hand went under the heap and she pulled out a beautiful flowery shirt.

The shoe seller was having a hard time attracting customers. A woman stopped in front of his sack, looked at the shoes briefly and continued walking. He called out to her but she kept going. Two ladies, giggling, bent down and began to check the shoes. One held up a pair of black heels.

‘How much you call am?’

‘1000 naira. We just dey open bail.’

She hissed. ‘This shoe for 1000 naira. You go sell.’ She dropped the shoe as they both moved away.

‘Come nah. How much you won pay.’

They didn’t respond and after a long look at his wares, he said, ‘Eight eight hundred. New new open here.’

My eyes drifted to a blue KIA pulling off in front of a bus that had a wooden slab inscribed ‘ife/ilesha’ on the roof of the bus. A lady, plump and fair skinned in a black gown and red high heels got down from the car. I was just wondering where a young beautiful lady could get the money to drive a car like that when her eyes found mine and she waved.

‘Tinuke!’

‘Tola!’

She squealed in excitement and ran to meet me. We hugged. Her skin was soft and tender and her face glowed. She helped me with my luggage. We dumped it into the boot and got into the car.

From where I sat in the front, I felt a pang of envy as she drove out of the corner into the express. Where did Tola get this car from? Her boyfriend must be rich to have borrowed her his car.

Tola glanced my way briefly before returning her attention to the road. ‘I’m so happy to see you.’

What would it look like to sit behind the wheels and cruise the streets of Lagos. ‘Tola, you look so beautiful.’

She smiled. ‘Na God o. He has been so faithful.’

The traffic was building up. A danfo bus swerved out of his lane into ours and when Tola slammed the brake, we were both jerked forward.

‘Jesus! What is wrong with this people. Can you imagine that nonsense? That’s why I hate coming to the mainland.’ She shook her head and I chuckled.

The traffic brought us to a complete standstill. Tola touched my cheeks. ‘Chei! I have missed you. We promised to stay in touch but see the way we lost communication. Thank God for this job you got o. I can’t wait to hear the gist of everything that has been happening in your life.’

I laughed. ‘Yeah. So many things to catch up on.’

She pointed to the back seat. ‘There is fried rice and chicken in the back seat. We can get ice-cream on the island. I’m sorry, no homemade meal tonight. I had a busy day.’

It was then I realized I was starving. I reached for the pack and opened it. The chicken took a larger size of the container and the rice was so small it could not satisfy my neighbour’s five year-old son

‘This car is really clean.’ I said, biting off a chunk of the chicken. ‘It’s portable too.’

‘Yeah. When my fiancé brought the car to my house, I was so excited. It has been serving me well.’

I stopped eating and stared at her, stunned. ‘This is your car?’

She rolled her eyes playfully. ‘Yes. Where did you think I got it from?’

‘’Wow! I thought you borrowed it to pick me up. This is really your car?’

Tola chuckled. ‘Yes girl, this is my baby.’

‘Your fiancé must be rich o. For him to have paid for this car.’

‘Wale didn’t buy this car for me. Every dime came from my pocket. He only helped me purchased it since I knew close to nothing about cars. It’s not like he didn’t want to help but I wanted to do this myself. You know, I wanted to pay with my own hard-earned money.’

‘What exactly do you do for a living?’

Tola opened her purse and brought out a card. It read, Bradnet Solutions. Tola’s full name was at the top corner of the card and under the name I saw, ‘Head. Business Developer.’ I wondered how such a job brought so much money.

It was almost 11p.m when we finally got to Tola’s apartment. My eyes widened when the gate opened to reveal a beautiful duplex.

‘Is this where you live?’ I pointed at the duplex

She grinned. ‘No. My apartment is behind.’

She pulled up in front of a small bungalow behind the duplex and turned off the engine. ‘Welcome to Lekki.’

‘How much do you pay for rent?’ I was already thinking of how to get my own apartment. This was the kind of life I wanted for myself. A posh car, an apartment and money to do whatever I wanted.

‘One million naira.’

My eyes widened. ‘What?’

‘How many bedrooms?’

She opened the door. ‘Babe, I’m tired jare. Let’s go in and you can see for yourself.’

Our house in Akure, I mean the one my mother built was thrice the size of Tola’s apartment. One bedroom, one kitchen, one living room, one toilet and bathroom, 1 million naira. This was ridiculous. Still I liked the house. The walls were painted green and the windows had thick colourful drapes. The sofa was soft. The floor was tiled. Clean toilet and bathroom. Water ran everywhere in the house.

When I settled in the living room, I picked the remote from the table and turned on the TV. I kept scrolling from one channel to the other unable to decide which program to stay with.

Oh God, this is what I want.

‘Tinuke, I’m going to bed.’ Tola joined me on the sofa wearing a short silky night gown. ‘I’ll be flying out of Lagos to Abuja with my boss tomorrow for a meeting with a client. I should be back home before midnight. Wale will be taking me to the airport tomorrow morning but we can drop you off at your new place of work. Where exactly is it located?’

‘Somewhere in Ajah.’

‘Oh. Can I have the address?’

I showed her the mail my boss had sent to me.

‘That’s cool. We will take you there before heading for the airport. I’d advise you turn off that TV and go to bed. You need to rest.’ She took the remote and turned the TV off. We walked together to the bedroom, giggling.

All I saw when I entered Tola’s room were shoes and bags and more shoes and a wardrobe full of clothes. We talked until after midnight and when Tola fell asleep, I returned to the living room and for a long time stood there. I was too excited to sleep.

The next morning I stepped out of the house to find a black jeep parked behind Tola’s car. A man opened the door and climbed out. I literally froze at the sight of him. It was like seeing OC Ukeje or Joseph Benjamin- my Nigerian actor crushes- step right out of a movie. Where did Tola get this fine guy from?

‘You must be Tinuke.’

His voice was like gentle crystal waters. He had a beautiful accent too. A mix of American and Nigerian. I slapped myself out of fantasy when I heard Tola’s voice behind me. I turned to see my friend grinning from ear to ear as he hugged her.

‘My beautiful princess.’ He said, staring into her eyes. He took the small box from her hand. She moved quickly to the car, twisting her waist while flapping her fingers.

Wale laughed. ‘Shakara woman.’ He faced me. ‘My name is Wale. Welcome to Lagos.’

My throat was dry. I nodded and smiled.

When we settled into his car and he drove out of the compound, Tola leaned towards him.

‘Have you met my friend?’

‘Of course I have.’ He glanced at me from the rear mirror.

‘I need to properly introduce her.’

Tola told him how we had met at the orientation camp and were posted to the state capital. We rented a room together and were hardly away from each other. The talk shifted to other things. Work. Their colleagues. Wale’s siblings. I was almost forgotten at the back seat.

I stared out the window admiring the tall buildings that lined the road and memorizing the names of cars that passed by. How can someone say money is evil? It was impossible to be sad when you live comfortably in one of the houses on Tola’s street and drove a car like that of Wale.

My phone rang. Kunle.

I hissed and rejected the call. Tola looked at me, puzzled. I forced a smile.

She returned her attention to her fiancé, who was explaining something to her and then she roared with laughter. That laughter irritated me. I got out my ear piece and with Lauren Diagle’s I will trust in you playing, I returned my attention to the window.

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