It was another busy morning in the village of Ilujinle, children and women had their calabash with them as they journey along the path that led to the only stream in the village. Farmers had their hoes and cutlases with them as they set out to their various farms to prepare their land for the coming planting season. Emaka as usual had his bottle of locally brewed gin under his arm as he swore at the villagers.
Deborah watched these scenes every morning, it’s always the same everyday she said to herself as she looked up at the beautiful morning sun then she wished that she refused to remain in the village when her aunt urged her to come with her to the city.
“This whole place is a nightmare “, she remembered her aunt words.
“You will get a good life in the city”, her aunt had promised
“You might even get a rich man to marry you, you won’t have to worry about a thing”
She had such high hopes for her life in the city but all her hopes were dashed.
Six in the morning and the traffic was already near it’s climax. Cars were honking here and there and the city was already alive.
It was another day and Deborah had to worry about meeting another man who would treat her as though she was nothing but a piece of object to be used and abused.
She had just woken up from her two-hour sleep since she got back from the hotel where she met her last client.
Luckily for her Chief Festus wasn’t the rough kind of man. She never gets pained that she had to offer herself to Chief Festus and he pays well too. Madam Ceci also knew that.
The bang that came on her door next told her everything she needed to know. Madam Ceci was where for her own share of the loot Deborah brought home. It was as though everyone wanted a piece of her.
“Debbie!”, she screamed her name so loud that even the dead could hear and turn in their graves.
“No tell me say you still dey sleep”, she asked in Nigeria pidgin English.
“I’m not asleep. I’m just trying to find a dress to wear”
“Na soso big big grammar you dey always speak. Open this door before I break am down oo”
“Calm down!”
“Na me you dey tell say make I calm down. Na because say Chief Festus don like you na”
Deborah opened the door and Madam Ceci forced her way through the door as though she was being chased by an army of hired assassin.
Madam Ceci found a way to the nearest thing closest to a seat that she could find. She had such an obese figure that from banging on Deborah’s door to rushing into the room, she had to gasp for breath and find a place to quickly catch her breath.
Deborah couldn’t help herself but chuckle at the sight of it.
“Wetin dey make you laugh?” Madam Ceci asked as though she didn’t know.
“Nothing” Deborah answered admist a stiffled laughter.
Madam hissed, still trying to catch her breath
“Where my money?”
It was the audacity that irritated Deborah. Everyone felt that you owed them something. Money that you didn’t work for but still expected a share of it.
Deborah went ahead to give her ‘her cut’
“This thing small oo”
“That’s what you get because I didn’t get enough from Chief this time around “
“Na lie you dey lie”, madam Ceci protested but she knew she wasn’t getting more than that from her what she had already gotten.
“Ten thousand naira is small for this jobless woman. She should be lucky I still give her that much” Deborah thought to herself as she slammed the door after her.
She was fuming with anger and she secretly wanted to find someone vent all her worries on. A tear rushed to her eyes but she quickly pushed it back l. She didn’t know why she did that but she did it any way
“Mama, going to Lagos will be the answers to our prayers”, she had told her mother when Aunty Bimbo had encouraged her to join her in Lagos.
“You dont have to go to Lagos before you become successful”, Her mother had argued.
“I doubt if anyone can make it in this village of ours”
“I don’t think this is what your father would have wanted for you”
“My father would have wanted me to be very successful and do what is lawfully needful to become successful”
“I still don’t think you should go.”
“Mama, please. I beg you. There is nothing that would make me happier than going to Lagos right now and besides once I start earning, I will take care of you “
“It is not just about the money, Deborah”
“What is it then?”, Deborah quizzed.
“I don’t trust Bimbo. She has always had a way of finding illegitimate ways of making money. I can’t guarantee that she will let you make money in honest ways”
“Mama, you just want me to stay here with you”
She had left- without her mother’s knowledge. She snuck out if the house very early that morning to the park. Aunty Bimbo had given her the directions to her house in Lagos.
Aunty Bimbo who she later knew to be called Madam B turned out to be the most despicable person she had ever met. It seemed to Deborah that Madam B had forgotten that they were related in any way and treated her in the most dehumanizing way possible. She made her sleep with more than ten men everyday. Starved her and locked her up for days if she dared protested.
Eventually, Deborah accepted prostitution as a profession and a way of life. It wasn’t until Madam B died of a totally unknown cause that she started putting the pieces of her life together.
She found Madam Ceci on one of her several escapedes around town. Madam Ceci wasn’t as evil as Madam B was. It was easier to be free with Madam Ceci than it was with Madam B. She planned to make more money and leave Madam Ceci’s brothel as soon as she made enough money. But five years down the line and she hasn’t made enough money. From paying rent to Madam Ceci to sending money to her ailing mother and her struggling siblings. The needs were just unending.
“Come back home” Her mother had urged her once on phone.
“I can’t. I am working”
“What is that job you are doing?”
“I’m working hard. Don’t bother yourself with the details, Mama.”
Her mum was well aware that whatever job it was that her daughter was doing, she wasn’t going to like it so she never bothered to ask anymore.
Deborah knew that despite the fact that she told herself that she was still in the business of prostitution because she needs more money, the real reason is that she can’t see herself doing something else. The only thing she knows how to do and the only job she knows how to feed herself with is this prostitution. Her only goal was to leave the shackles of brothel managers like Madam Ceci and become independent and do what she wants to do on her own terms.
“I’m in this for life and I know it ” Deborah said to herself as she got herself ready for another day as a woman in the street.
The Pen Creative World 