THE NAIJA HUSTLE

SEVEN

****** CHINEDU *****

The last three weeks have been the best in my life. From the onset I thought coming to Abuja was a mistake i just had to come because my two friends Emeka and Chidi were coming but since I met Silvia I know it was worth it.

I feel like my friends are jealous of me. Ever since we were young I was always the lucky one with women even Njideka would have been mine but I decided to allow Chidi have her because I saw that he liked her.

Now Silvia was a new adventure. I didn't really like but after she told me how much she made on a daily basis from her 'ankara' business i knew she will be my ticket to a better life.

The first morning in Mr John's house when Chidi went to drop the children at school, Emeka was sleeping so I needed to keep myself busy. I sat down on the couch, grabbed the remote and put on the television.

I was trying to figure how out this television that looked like a cardboard paper worked. The one's in the village looked different they were square, big and to operate them there were small buttons on the bottom of the television set. I was seriously thinking about how to operate this new version of Television when Silvia entered the parlor and sat beside me. She moved closer to me smiling.

Then she placed her hand on mine. I was very uncomfortable. "This woman is married" I thought to myself. Then she started talking, she talked alot, infact from the length of time she talked I could tell that her husband didn't pay attention to her at all, she was clearly desperate.

I really got interested in the conversation when she mentioned her account balance and money she made from business. I knew I had to play along, as they say in Nigeria "man must survive".

Over the next few weeks I basically played hide and seek with Silvia. We laid down a plan which was anytime her husband was not around she would tell Chidi and Emeka to do the house chores, but this chores were planned. She would tell her children in the morning to use the toilet without flushing and make sure to have 'fun' while doing their business in the toilet or tell them to hit the guava tree in the name of practicing karate so that the tree would shed leaves.

While my friends were busy with their chores, I too was busy with something. The whole experience was horrifying. She would call me by knocking my door three times and leave. That was our signal, I would have to go to her room and 'service' her. If it wasn't that she would tell every one that she was going to the market and would need me so I could help her carry load but instead take me to a hotel in town.

So on this particular Tuesday morning she had already sent Chidi and Emeka to do the chores which were perfectly executed by her children before going to school. I was in the guest room, lying on the bed waiting for the normal knock on the door. I waited and waited for what felt like forever

"This is not normal something is wrong" I thought to myself. I decided to go to her room and check up on her. I got to her door, I wanted to knock but something held me back, that feeling deep down when you know that something out of the ordinary was going to happen. I finally summoned up the courage to knock and when i did, at first I didn't get an answer like she was hesitant to open the door. She didn't open until I said my name, then when she opened I saw a different Silvia. Her eyes were red, her face swollen and her skin was pale. I saw alot of tissue paper on the floor and the fact that she was wearing a robe with pyjamas underneath which was unlike her. She once told me that she can never wear her night wear during the day,once she woke up she removed it because they made her look like an old African house wife.