💰 ABUJA 💰

I couldn't believe my eyes after all our planning, anxiety and excitement we were finally in Abuja.

Now in Abuja after a long night journey, we came down at the final bus stop which was at the motor park because we didn't know where to go. We stayed at the park because it was still early and honestly we were stranded.

Then the security man who had been staring at us for a while approached us and asked us,

"Senior men ahah una no dry go house". I looked at him contemplating if to answer or not because he called us "senior men" and i knew i had not reached that level in life when Chinedu answered "Oga we no get anywhere to go". He looked at as for sometime as if he was trying to ascertain the authenticity of our story.

Then he said "Wait oo so you mean say una come from where una come from no get plan where you go stay. You no get uncle or aunty wai una fit stay with". When we said we didn't have a place to stay, he smiled like someone who was just awarded a contract. Then he said he can show us a house which was vacant in the estate which he lived in when he was not an duty but first since he was on duty for the next two weeks so we will have to stay in his house for a while.

On getting to this man's house late at night as we had to wait for him to finish his shift for the day, it was noisy from the buzzing sound of a generator. We got inside to find a light skinned woman in wrapper and white blouse sitting on the floor surrounded by four children- two boys and two girls.

The woman who I believed was was Mr John's wife, we later found out was the security man's name, told the children to stand up and welcome their father, which the children did shouting "daddy daddy daddy" like they had not seen him walk through the door intially. "How are you my children" he replied.

Then he introduced us to his wife Silvia, who immediately offered to give us food, but Mr John stopped her telling her that we were not hungry. I looked at this man, in my head at that moment I could think of a million and one curses to lay on Mr John, who told him we weren't hungry but I had to control my mouth and remember the fact that he offered us shelter.

To make matters worse he told his wife if we eat the food will make us wake up late the next day which I thought was the most ridiculous thing I've heard all day.

The next morning when I woke up, Chinedu and Chidi were not in guestroom which we offered to sleep in. "Chinedu, Chidi " I called but I didn't get a response. I quckily got up from the bed and went to the sitting room where I found Chinedu chatting and laughing with Mr John's wife Silvia.

I greeted them and asked where Chidi was and I was told that he went to drop off the children in their school.

"Ahah no be yesterday we come here, how Chidi come know where the children school dey" I asked.

Chinedu then looked at me like I asked a very annoying question then said " We gave him the direction, he will find his way". Then Silvia pointed to the dinning table and told me that the bread, tea and 'akara' was for me, I should eat if I was hungry.

I had taken the food that was left for me and was munching it down when Chidi came back. I asked him how he knew where the children school was and more importantly what Mr John said regarding showing us around.

He sat down on the oval shaped dinning table beside me and said " Men Mr John been tell me say en go show us around when en come back from work this evening and as for the children them know road na kuku escort I been dey escort them".

I looked at Chidi and it baffled me the way he loved speaking pidgin English when he was with us. Infact a stranger would assume he didn't know how to speak English properly when actually the opposite was the case because he graduated our secondary school as the best in English language and Literature-in- English.

I was still talking to Chidi who had joined me on the dinning table when we heard laughter and giggling from the sitting room from Silvia and my good friend Chinedu. Chidi looked at me and I did same. At this point we didn't need to say anything, we knew our friend's history with wooing women and hoped that Silvia will not fall victim to Chinedu's dubious ways.

Later in the evening when Mr John came back from work he told us he would have postpone our house hunting for a while because he had a very busy schedule in the upcoming days and he will not be free. While he was still talking I couldn't help but notice that his wife was smiling like this was the best news she had heard all day.

***

It had now been three weeks since we had stayed in Mr John's house. It was a hot Tuesday afternoon I suspected that the dry season was approaching. I sat on my small bed which looked like a boarding school bunk shirtless thinking about how we had been converted from house guests to servants except Chinedu who Mrs Siliva was fond of and took everywhere she went like a handbag.

I remembered how just because Chidi and I felt indebted to Mr John and his wife for being so hospitable to us since our arrival, we decided to help with some chores around the house and from that we were full time 'house boys'.

Every morning we had to mop, wash and run errands mean't for children. Well except for Chinedu of course who was exempted from doing any kind of work for reasons I didn't know yet. I thought matters couldn't get worse until one faithful Tuesday morning when I was told to go and clean the toilet. I entered the small toilet which was covered with white tiles.

I looked it the water closet itself and I saw greenish fieces smeared on its side, like the person that used it couldn't just sit in on place and do his business like a normal person . As I looked at it, many questions flooded my head first why what fieces green, what did the person eat.

I tried to be fast and wash the toilet so that I wont throw up everything I had eaten. So I quickly poured the detergent into the toilet and started scrubbing. It seemed that the more I scrubbed the more the smell kept increasing. It was like a mixture of rotten banana and spoilt rice that had been in a dustbin for days.

" This is torture" I said to myself, then I started humming Eminem's song Till I collapse to muster up enough courage to finish the dreadful task I had at hand.

When I finished with toilet duty. I went straight to the kitchen to get something to eat. I walked as fast as possible so no one would see me because I felt I smelt like what I just finished cleaning and it made me feel uncomfortable.

In the kitchen I ran into Chidi who was washing his hand like someone who had just finished eating.

" O boy how far now, you don finish with the toilet bah" he asked. I just nodded in affirmative. He was quiet for a while, I just hoped he hadn't smelt the stench on my body. Then he told me how hard it was for him in his own part of the work.

As I was listening to Chidi talk nodding at intervals to show him I was still listening, I opened the pot to see one of my favorite soups -egusi. "Atleast something is going my way" I said to myself.

The rest of day was without much drama. I decided to go and take a siesta and when I woke up Mr John was already back from work, I knew because I heard him shouting from the living room. Who and what he was shouting at like that I'm not sure I wanted to know.

I stood up from my bed and looked at the blue clock that hung on the wall and saw it was only 7:30pm. Looking at that clock gave me joy because I thought that at least now that Mr John came back early, he will surely show us the house he wanted to show us tomorrow. With that excitement I laid back on the bed looking at the ceiling imaging how the house he was going to show us will be.

The very next day Mr John woke us up and told us to meet him in the living room like it was an order. On getting there I saw two duffel bags packed. He told us that he was traveling to return next weekend. Then he gave us money which I found strange because we were guests in his house. Then Mr James just carried the two bags outside and entered the green taxi parked outside, leaving us there with his wife Silvia

As soon as Mr John left, his wife Silvia told Chidi and I to go and clean the house and wash the dishes. I stood there motionless at first wondering why this woman who we decided to render good gestures to because her husband was housing us was ordering us around. I looked at Chidi to see what his reaction will be but he did nothing.

Then I told her "Ma with all due respect we are not your house boys oo this chores are meant for your children not us"

To my greatest surprise this woman shouted on top if her voice repeating the orders again. Only then did Chinedu said " Guys just go and do what she told you to do. You should be grateful that she has allowed you stay in her house this long".

I looked at Chinedu with shock. The way he said Chidi and I should be grateful like he too wasn't a visitor. To make matters worse Silvia distributed chores Chinedu was not included and when I asked why the answer I got was " how is that your business" then she looked at him and smiled.

I felt betrayed, Chinedu had betrayed us how could he betray us like this. At moment I'm not sure I've had the urge to beat someone up the way I wanted to beat Chinedu. The only thing that stopped me was Chidi told me, he wanted to talk to me inside and the fact that Chinedu would probably 'whoop my ass' in a hand to hand combat.

I just walked out to meet Chidi in our room. As I opened the door and saw Chidi pacing around, pounding his right hand to his left fist. I was scared to talk first because I wasn't sure who he was angry at and so I won't be at the receiving end of an unnecessary beat down because I said the wrong thing.

The only thing he said to me was " Bro I have a plan we are leaving this house tomorrow". The fact that he spoke proper English made me quite scared.

Translations
"Senior men ahah dey go house"-
(Senior men aren't you going home)

"Oga we no get anywhere to go"-
(Sir we don't have anywhere to go)

"Ahah no be yesterday we come here, how Chidi come know where the children school dey"-
( Wow isn't it yesterday we came here, how does Chidi know where the Children school is)

"Men Mr John been tell me say en go show us around when en come back from work this evening and as for the children them know road na escort I been dey escort them"-
(Men Mr John told me that he will show us around when he gets back from work this evening and as for the children they know the road, I was basically just escorted them)

Another chapter finished wow this was long.

I really want to thank everyone for your support.

Please comment tell me what you think will happen in the next chapter.

Your observations and feed back matter to me alot, so tell keep them coming.

Please read, comment, vote and share. Because all these encourages me to continue writing and chase my dream.😁😁