TÓDÙN

38

TÓDÙN

In a very high pitch, enhanced with all the energy I have been accumulating from school,  I announced my arrival at the market and called out to people to buy my oranges. It was the early hours of the day, mum had gone to an occasion   organized by one of her friends and it is my first time back at the market since I arrived from school. With my waist purse tightly buckled around my waist, I moved swiftly around the market, wedged myself between the wheel barrows of Hausa mallams that help people with their loads and sometimes I sat down to attend to customers who had stools to spare.

I watched the hustle and bustle of the market and thought about my dream to live outside this environment, where I have to struggle before owning anything. "Everything is just too costly." That was the complain on the lips of almost every buyer, sellers would not give lesser prices because they too bought at costly prices and all this is the fault of a government that is not capable to take care of it's citizen. With the scorching sun making me uncomfortable, I boarded a bus to the motor park

I placed the basin of orange on my head again and hawked as I walked around the motor park trying to sell to tired passengers and those who were interested in purchasing for their families. Today is a good day, I whispered and smiled as I recounted the sales while trying to find my way out of the motor park. A little distance away from the motor park, I heard a car honking behind me and the driver called out my name. I stood, glued to the ground at the recognition of the voice. I prayed for the ground to make way and swallow me from the web of embarrassment I was about to be caught in, but it didn't happen. I looked ahead trying to figure out what to do but the car seemed to move forward and park right beside me.

"Todun, that's you right?" Kunle asked me with a smirk on his face. Is this supposed to be funny, I thought as he got down from his car and opened the door for me to enter. My leg went jelly and I would have fallen down in embarrassment if not for the oranges on my head. Having them fall down and struggling to pick them up as they rolled around will be greater than embarrassment. I turned to face him to say something funny at least to calm my own nerves than calming him but the light appearance of disappointment on his face made me stop. How I wish I told him earlier.

"Kunle, I can explain." I said as he raised his hand to help me with the basin that was still placed on my head. "Oh, sorry." I said when my hands touched his as he brought the basin down. He waved me to enter the car and I stretched my hand forward to him to place the basin. He started at me for a few seconds and placed it on my lap.

"Kunle, I am so sorry, I should have told you this in school." I said in a shaky voice about to give way to the tears trying to role down my eyes. Instead, he ignited the car and parked at a safer place by the road side. "Aren't you going to say anything." I asked in desperation. Having him sit beside me and not uttering a word was almost driving me insane.

"What do you want me to say?" He asked staring hard at me, while I looked away not having an answer for his question. "I clearly don't have the right to question anything you do because we all go through our personal struggles but I wasn't wrong when I said you were trying to  fit into a place you don't belong." He answered and I stared at him feeling irritated by myself.

"What did you say? Are you trying to judge me now, even without listening to anything I have to say?" I asked him confused at his conclusion. "I" I placed my hand on my chest. "Trying to fit in into where I don't belong? I couldn't and thought about what he said over and over again.

"I am not, I am just wondering what and what else you are hiding from me. Everyone now seem to have something in their cupboard." He shrieked and hit the steering.

I took a deep breath in and out as I thought about how to process my words before saying something."The thing about my Mum owning a boutique and Dad abroad..." I paused and looked  right at him. "They are not true." I sniffed trying to hold back the mucus in my nose. "I had to play along with Remilekun because I could not bring myself to tell them what my Mum does for a living. You know what they can be like, if they find out? I asked looking at his face, disappointment very visible at every facial movement he made.