THE NAIJA HUSTLE

NINE

A NEW HOME

Finding yourself in a new environment and living with new people can be a challenge but what happens when you live in a strange place with friends you don't seem to be friends anymore?

CHIDI

Sitting in this bus that's taking us to a new place I felt happy and relieved, first because we were finally going to live in our own house and second I knew I didn't have to wash those toilets in Mr John's house again because honestly the smell of those toilets still gave me nightmares.

Thinking of Mr John I wonder what his reaction will be when he gets back from his trip and discovers that we have felt, I'm sure he will be furious mostly because he's free labour is gone.

I was still deep in my thoughts when the bus suddenly stopped and the conductor yelled " We don reach Lugbe oo, if you know say you dey stop here better come oo. If not na kuje you go see yourself next".

My friends and I didn't need a second invitation to get down and once we did, we quickly went to yet boot to get our bags. The good thing is that we were the only ones with large bags so we just took our bags from under the sits where they were stashed. Then in no then at all the bus zoomed off. Then from there we were on our own.

I looked around and saw that the bus had stopped us in front of a pedestrian bridge which was packed with people crossing to either side of the road. We tried to talk and think about our next step but it was almost impossible to communicate because of the noise in this place and the pedestrian bumping into us and to cap it all off the honking of cars behind us driving through the express way. So we decided to go and find shade and a quiet place to stay where we could think effectively.

It was another hassle finding a place to sit and and rest. We had to walk a distance in the process we walked through a motorcycle park and a small market.

When we finally a tree to stay under Emeka started complaining of hunger and tiredness. At this moment I was tempted to remind him that it was his idea to leave without any concrete plan on what to next and where to stay but decided that it was best to keep quiet.

If I really wanted to be honest , it really was Emeka's fault that we were stranded here because of his impulsive decision to leave Mr John's house quickly but I didn't want to mention that because I sensed that it will lead to a fight.

Emeka carried himself sense of authority, he had a new aura about him like he was incharge and Chinedu also changed also be became more subtle and quiet which was very unlike him but I guessed that it was the pregnancy issue with Silvia that was weighing him down.

"Omo like this now na to find hotel wai we go crash this night" Chidi said,paused for a second or two then continued " Abi una get any other idea" This Chidi's new found confidence was beginning to irritate me but he was right though we didn't need to find a hotel.

I never really understood the importance of communication was until I found thirty minutes gone in a conversation with a motorcyclist trying to know where the nearest hotel was and how much it costed to get there. He was difficult to understand, he spoke mis-using the pronouns 'me and I ', saying things like "Oga where I dey go" or "I go carry me go that hotel". At first I thought he was referring to himself and I asked him "Wetin concern me with where you dey go". Also he interchanged the letters p and f in words so instead of saying fifty he said 'pipty'. We were still trying to decipher what the motorcyclist when u passerby saw us and decided to help.