A Story Of Deceit

Episode 4

All through the night,I couldn’t sleep.
Although,I did sleep a little but I felt I had slept enough and the sun deliberately refused to rise. Earlier,when I informed my mother about the ‘job’ ,she just smiled and nodded’,she just didn’t say anything,I didn’t know if she was happy for me,I didn’t care either.

The day had begun to get bright,I stood up immediately,brushed my teeth,I won’t say how,I took my bath and brought out a sack where my few clothes were kept,I brought out a skirt and shirt I reserved for special occasions. I had finished preparations but the day wasn’t still bright enough to leave,I’d have kept myself busy with breakfast if there was food,I sat on a stool tapping my feet on the ground and complained about the sluggishness of the sun.

I didn’t have a wrist watch or phone to check the time,as soon as the sun had risen,I woke my mother to tell her,I’d be on my way. She wasn’t really awake so she nodded, ’again！’, since I talked about the job all she did was nod,I know I said I didn’t care but I was really beginning to feel that she was not happy for me,I wore my sandals that was way smaller than my feet and left the house. I walked as carefully as I could to avoid stains from the muddy village ground,afterall,I was not late. I would have loved to see Dayo that morning but his house was in the other street where the direction of my mum’s shop was,Soji’s house was in the direction of another street,I had to go to work,I couldn’t risk my new job over stopping at Dayo’s place to see him. Morever,it was my first day,when I gained Mr.Soji’s trust by being punctual,then I’d probably default sometimes and stop by Dayo’s house.

I walked for approximately an hour and there it was,the finest house in the village,it was a bungalow,it was one of the three or four houses that was painted,it was also one of the very few houses that had a gate without support from blocks,stones or sticks. I made my right hand into a fist,brought it closer to the gate ,the whole place seemed quiet,I didn’t want to disturb,so I knocked gently. I knocked gently for a while,there was still no response,I was getting tired,I knocked a little harder,still no response,I was frustrated,passers-by looked at me like I was abnormal,some even said, ’you go knock tire’, Indeed, ’I knocked tire’, I looked to the four cardinal points for help,I found none in the east,north or south till I looked in the direction of the west and saw a guy about my age or older coming,I thought he’d pass by till he stopped at the front of the gate,looked at me and knocked hardly,he had knocked only twice when we heard, ’who be that？’, then I thought,who would I say I was？ ’,Mr. Soji didn’t ask of my name when he came to my shop,if he did,I’d tell the voice what my name was,then he’d relay it to Mr.Soji.

I twitched when I heard the squeak of a tiny square part of the gate open and we saw only the head of the voice,[B] ’who una dey find’, the aged man with scary eyes asked,’I dey find baba Soji’,the guy besides me said, ’you nko？’ ,the man asked me, ’eh me？,I’m fining Mr. Soji too’,I replied[B] ,’wetin una dey……’, he didn’t complete the speech,he was cut short my Mr.Soji ’s voice,’ Shola,wetin dey happen for there？ ’[/B] ,he asked, ’na persons say dem dey find you oga’, he replied, ’make I see their face’, Soji said, ’yes sir’, Shola answered and opened the gate. ‘Ah ah’, he said,as soon as he saw our faces,he was familiar with the boy too, ’I no know sey,una will come early’, he said with a suprised look, ’that means una are serious’, he complimented, ’good morning sir’ ,the boy and I chorused, ’morning jahre,the thing is be say other people have never come so una go sidon for here,Shola will give una bench so that if you people have plenty,Shola will carry you people go the farm’, he assured ,’okay sir”, I said, ‘no problem sir’, the other boy said, ’ehen,wetin be your name？’, he asked me, ’Uwa,Uwanah’, I answered, ’okay,you nko？,he asked the boy,’my name na Bola’, he replied,okay na, ’make una wait for other people’, he reminded us again. He went inside and Shola brought out a bench for us,we had barely sat down when Soji came out again and said, ’make una come inside,sun dey’, I was moved and touched at how how kind he was, I nearly said, ’don’t worry sir’, but the other guy just stood up and moved towards the entrance of the house, so I followed too. When we entered,he offered us a seat, he didn’t offer us breakfast,I was feeling a little hungry but I was still grateful that we weren’t outside,I marvelled at how neat the house was,it had a beautiful carpet unlike our house which was sand(mud) filled,I saw a bulb with bright light,which looked like a small cup that glowed,I saw a big television which seemed like a box and I sat on a sofa for the first time in my life,Bola just stared at me like I was strange,I didn’t even want to talk to him either so I stared back. The day was going as well as I expected until others came and Bola and I were asked to join them,I heard their voices earlier but I was scared to take a peek through the window as I didn’t want to damage anything, ’there would be at least two or three girls with them’, I said to myself with hope but we came outside and behold, ’only boys？！’, I nearly screamed out in fright, I would be the only girl in their midst, ’how was the ‘job’ going to be？