When Yejide gave the man the money, she begged for her life to be spared and fortunately for her, he let her go. She wasn’t still herself even after she left the hotel that day. She couldn’t wait to get back home to tell Dupe about her encounter. As she arrived at her compound later that morning, she quietly walked into her flat, shutting the doors behind. She sat on her bed, sighing in relief but almost in tears. In a period of twenty-four hours, she had given herself to a man who cheated her and almost sent her early to grave. All through her reign as a prostitute, she had never had such encounter. She stayed awake, just sitting up in bed until she heard Dupe open the door from outside.
“Dis one wey na me dey always meet you for house. Wetin dey happen?” Dupe said as she walked in but Yejide didn’t respond.
“Yejide! This one that you’re looking like they stole your money. What happened?” Dupe said again as she walked over to Yejide and sat on the bed beside her.
“Dupe! You no go believe wetin happen. They did not only steal my money oo. You for don dey mourn me.”
“Ahn ahn Yejide! Wetin happen now?”
Yejide sighs as she tells Dupe about her encounter with the young man she met the previous night. When she was done narrating, she paused and waited for Dupe’s response;
Dupe burst out into laughter before talking.
“Na so you keep your face like shit? Cheer up now. Wetin don happen don happen. But thank God you’re okay sha.”
‘I know….” Yejide was about to say something before she was cut short by Dupe.
“Bet come oo. So you still no collect the money? You messed up oo”
Yejide looked at Dupe who said it with all seriousness.
“Dupe! I’m saying I was about to die and you’re talking about money. If I die, who go use the money?”
Dupe just laughed and stood up from where she was seated.
“You’re funny oo” Yejide said, while watching Dupe who didn’t even look like she was a bit affected by the story or even scared that it may have happened to her.
“Ahn ahn, wetin now. No be true I talk. Okay if you live without the money wey dey buy your food, pay your bills, explain how you wan survive.”
“Ahn ahn, you’re acting like you haven’t seen worse. God go provide now.”
Dupe laughed as she continued, “Ashewo, God know you?”
But as she saw the look on Yejide’s face, she kept a straight face and apologized.
“Sorry, I don dey go.”
Dupe who had taken off her clothes with a towel wrapped around her body left the room for the bathroom with Yejide still sitting down on the bed. Yejide kept thinking about the situation she had found herself in earlier that morning. She didn’t even report to the hotel management nor did she say a word to any other person because she was scared and thought it would also be embarrassing if people found out that she was the cause of the incident since she was a prostitute.
After about a few hours, around the hour of their normal departure time for the streets, Yejide still hadn’t gotten dressed. Dupe was almost done dressing up and Yejide hadn’t put on her outfit yet. She sat on her bed feeling very worried. Dupe saw this and sat down close to her before saying;
“Yejide, C’mon girl. All because of what happened yesterday night. It has only happened once now. Don’t worry, nothing will happen okay? Na dis small tin dey make you tink like dis. Nor worry.”
Yejide only looked up and smiled at her friend. She knew she was trying to cheer her up but she couldn’t stop thinking about it. She later opened up and told Dupe that she wouldn’t be going out with her that night. Nobody stressed it, so Dupe got dressed and left the house without Yejide.
Into the night, around 11:00pm, Yejide who had been sleeping woke up panting really hard. She had a worried look on her face with her palm resting on her chest. She had been sweating in the darkness and hotness of the room since there was power outage and she and her roommate couldn’t afford to maintain a generator. She relaxed back on the bed and whispered to herself that it was just a terrible dream. She had just dreamt about Dupe getting into some sort of trouble. She almost called Dupe but refused to let what she called her anxiety spoil everything for Dupe. She managed to fall back to sleep and had a less disturbing sleep throughout the night.
The next day, Yejide woke up at around 10:00am and decided to do the house chores. Dupe wasn’t back yet and Yejide didn’t expect her to be back at that time either since she normally returned home past midday. She finished her house chores and even met oga Lucas when she was on her way to the bathroom. They both greeted each other and oga Lucas made his funny remarks as usual before waving her bye as he said he was on his way to work. After Yejide was done with taking a bath, she went into her flat, put on some clothes and took the leftover food from yesterday to go warm it up in the kitchen. She put the food on the stove and went back into her room to do a few things before siting down on the bed to use her phone. After a few minutes when she had completely forgot that she put something on the stove, one of her neighbors from outside her flat which was coming from the kitchen shouted;
“Na who dey cook oo? Your food don burn finish.”
At the point, Yejide jumped when she got back to her senses and realized that she had just allowed the only cooked food they had to burn. She dashed out of her room and into the kitchen to meet mama ejima (a nickname usually given to a mother of twins).
“Mama ejima. Thank you oo. I don forget finish.” Yejide said as she entered the kitchen.
“No worry. I don commot am. Pele.”
Yejide thanked her again and left for her room with a kitchen towel tied around the hot pot of rice in her hands. As she got into the room and dropped the pot, a call immediately came in. She looked at the caller id and saw Rita, one of she and dupe’s friends who were into the same business with them. She picked it up and greeted themselves. Their conversation was as thus;
“Yejide! You never hear?”
“Rita wetin happun?” Confused Yejide asked.
“They have arrested our girls oo. Just yesterday night for prostitution they say.”
“What? Including Dupe?”
“Ahn ahn Dupe no be the same? She dey there na.”
“Oh my……so how you con escape?”
“Me I no go yesterday. I heard from a source.”
“Do you know what police station?”
“Yes I have the address. I’ll text it to you.”
“Okay thank you.”
“Wetin you wan do?”
“I want to try to get her out of there now.”
“Ahh okay good luck sha.”
“Yes please don’t forget to send me the address.”
“Okay no problem. I go send am now. Bye bye.”
“Yeah bye”
To be continued…..
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