A Story Of Deceit

Episode 5

The farm land we were taken to was huge,it was still filled with grasses, so we were all asked to clear before cultivation would take place,I actually thought that, being the only girl,Mr. Shola would give me special treatment but he did not,I worked from morning till when Mr. Soji left in the afternoon ordering everyone to be relentless and gave assurance that he’d be back soon. Immediately he left, some guys there mumured about the fact that we were not given lunch break,I complained within myself too because I was very hungry,I hadn’t eaten all day, while Bola and some of the guys there stared at me with pity,I pretended like I didn’t notice and continued working till they concluded that I had to rest
Some even said I was beautiful,hardworking and polite,though I can’t remember how they constructed the words, ’beautiful,hardworking and polite’, they asked me to drop the cutlass I was with,most of them introduced themselves to me and I also introduced myself to them. At some point a few of them complained that since we all received the same amount of money,we all had to work but I had more supporters than opposers, who made mockery of the small portion I cleared earlier and said it made no difference,I was offended but I concealed it and showed gratitude instead.

Shola returned a while later and commended the job we had done, then he posed a question, ’Una go dey collect una money everyday or una go wait till month finish’, ‘today’ ,everyone said immediately like it was arranged,I also chorused ‘today’ with them because saving per day would be better than waiting till the end of the month,I had a list of things to buy. Shola gave us a token each that day of what would be our salary,if multiplied by the number of days in a month. I was happy,my first salary was earned legally,the day’s work was over and we were dimissed with instructions not to resume at mr. Soji’s house but at the farm land the next day.
It was still bright,little sun shone from the sky,I was with no purse or bag to keep my money,I didn’t have pocket like the boys so I held the money tightly enough to suffocate it, if it had life. I bade all the guys farewell,even those who didn’t support me earlier,I was about to leave when Bola called me, he was smiling too,I was perplexed,I only saw him smile at Mr. Soji’s house,he frowned at me before,what could have made him smile？, ’yes’, I answered, ’my name na Bola’, he said, ‘I know’, I replied, ‘so which side be your house’, I almost asked him to leave me be but I recalled the compliment I was given earlier and decided to be nice. ‘My house is like this’, I said and pointed towards the direction of my house, ’make I follow you？’, he asked, ’no,thank you,no follow me’, I said, ’you fit go by yourself？’, he asked again, ‘is it you that brought me here？’ ,I asked, ‘no na,I just feel sey you go like to waka with person’, he said calmly and I thought,maybe he had good intentions,going home would be boring but I still declined, ’no,maybe another day,thank you,you hear’, I said,he tried to persuade me but he noticed I was getting angry,then he stopped, ’okay na,we go see tomorrow’, he said, ’okay,bye bye’, I said and waved at him,he waved back too,he went in the direction of Mr. Soji’s street where some of the guys were waiting for him,then I thought , ‘Mr. Soji street has good boys ooo,I have not seen any boy from our street working,they will sit at home and wait for food’. It wasn’t my business,I was now a big girl who made her own money and I would stop by a canteen to eat on my way because I was literally starved.

I finally got to our street after walking for an hour as I did when coming that morning,my legs were aching me,I would stop at the nearest canteen then maybe go to my mum’s shop, I walked faster as I inhaled the aroma of food that drew me closer to a canteen by the road side,I was very close to the canteen but it seemed like it was far away so I ran in a stylish way till I got to the front of the patched white cotton that was supposedly made to seal the canteen, I went inside,luckily for me,there were no much customers which was why I was able to see Dayo and Bimbo by the left side of the canteen, I blinked my eyes twice to see if they were really there or I was imagining things because of hunger.

It was really Dayo and Bimbo and not a figment of my imagination, the scene was really annoying, Bimbo sat down,she was wearing,a gown I had always seen on her, so I needed no one to tell me how short it was,I can’t remember what kind of pepper soup they had on their table but I remember Bimbo feeding him like a three year old infant,I was more than angry,perhaps as angry as my mum was when I spilled that beer,she was seducing my Dayo,I had to do something, I yelled, ’Bimbo！’ ,the few people there stared at me,while she turned,saw me and said, ’Uwa,how you dey na？’, I had not said anything when she turned again and continued feeding Dayo, I became more furious, Dayo didn’t even act like he saw me,I was way more intelligent than Bimbo,why would he be with her？ ,’oh,probably she’s blocking him that’s why he didn’t see me’, I consoled myself, I was about to look for a sit when I saw Bimbo lips moving closer to Dayo’s lips in what seemed like a kiss,I didn’t know whether it was a kiss or not but there was no way,I would let anything happen between then.

I wasn’t close enough to stop them,Bimbo would probably ignore me if I called her,then I did something which wasn’t foolish to me then but thinking of it now,it was. I repeated my mother’s actions in the shop the other day,I removed my sandal swifly,held it on my left hand to prevent hitting either of them,my intention was to throw it in their direction to stop them and probably gain attention but my left hand didn’t seem to agree with my intentions because wham！,I threw the sandal and it landed on Dayo’s head, ‘Who did that？’, Dayo asked in anger while I looked to the floor to check if it could open for me to enter.