Prose: Urenna

Urenna stood by the roadside. She was tired as she had been standing for almost four hours. The night was rather slow. She blamed it on the time of the month. It was mid month and the middle of the month was always a bad time for business. Disposable income would have decreased considerably from the end of the previous month. But what did hunger care about such things? Indeed her stomach must be fed first before all else.

A draft of cool night air hit her as she manned her corner. She inhaled cigarette smoke along with the night air. Not so fresh. She hated cigarettes. Nasty, filthy things! But in her line of work she had no choice for the men and women she worked with liked their tobacco. Cigarette smoke reminded her of all that was said to be bad and evil. She had been brought up amid the chaos that was her childhood by a strict catholic, Mr. Ikechukwu, the district catechist superintendent. No, Mr. Ikechukwu was not her father. How she wished that was the case but the catechist was just that, a catechist; who had warned her and her peers about the dangers of alcohol and cigarette smoke when she was younger, not so many years ago. If only he could see her now. Urenna laughed inwardly.

A car appeared from around the corner and Urenna changed position. She stood facing the road, perpendicular to the approaching head lights. This position gave the occupants of the car a profile of her body, her precious asset. Then as the car moved closer, she turned away and gave a view of her backside. At the last moment she turned again, facing the car while bending to greet the occupants giving them a winning smile and a view of her significant chest. The car drove by and slowed down to a stop. Ope o!

Urenna walked briskly to the car – a black Honda – to ward off the other girls. Na me get this one! She said to herself. She got to the car in time.

“Hi!” she said to the front seat passenger.

“Hello!” the men in the car replied.

She took a look into the dimly lit interior of the car with its dashboard and stereo lights offering very little illumination. There were three occupants, the driver, the front seat passenger and another at the back. She hesitated. Inasmuch as she really needed to get customers for the night she was not sure she wanted three men but she waited to hear what they had to offer.

“What’s your name?” Front seat passenger asked.

“Jessica”, Urenna replied with a sweet smile.

“Hmmm...Jessica! That’s a nice name,” front seat passenger said.

Idiot.  If only he knew that half of the girls along the street had christened themselves Jessica!

“Awww, thanks!” she said in her most American-movie-flavoured accent.

The inside of the car smelt nice. In fact it smelt like these men might have some good money.

“So you look very nice,” front seat continued. Urenna flashed a winning smile.

“Oya! How much?” the driver asked impatiently.

“Depends of what you want. Is it all night or short time and for how many of you?”

“If it is more than one person, I am available!” a voice rang out from behind Urenna.

Vultures! Urenna thought. They would not allow someone to progress. She recognised the voice as Blessing’s. Well to be fair to her, Blessing had sometimes involved Urenna in some of her prospects. Urenna had sometimes returned the favour but she needed to be sure of what was going down.

“Erm, how much is all night?” driver enquired.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Erm, Ikoyi.” Driver responded.

Hmmm....these Ikoyi boys! They may have money but were not to be trusted and were quite stingy too! She paused and then asked them to put on their inner light.

“What for?” driver asked.

“So I can see your faces na! How do you expect me to get into a car with three men I don’t know?”

Driver and front passenger consulted each other briefly and turned on the car’s inner lights.

Mscheeeew! Urenna cursed loudly. These were not men but small boys barely out of their teens! Driver whom she was sure was a Yoruba boy because of his dark skin and looks seemed like the oldest of the lot and he could not have been more than nineteen. The quiet one at the back in glasses she was sure was seventeen or even younger. No way! These boys, children of rich parents sure had money but had no respect for it and quite ironically would want to pay the barest minimum for the services that women like her offered. Mba! No! She recalled what happened to one of the girls who had followed two of these Ikoyi boys in their car and had ended up in a BQ with four waiting boys! Poor girl had had to scream, shout and claw her way out of there! Cheapskates! Instead of them to have been upfront about how many they were, then she would have gone with two other girls at a bargain price. But no, these small boys wanted to have their cake and eat it.

“You are small boys! I don’t do small boys!” Urenna shouted, moving away from the vehicle.

“Ah! What do you mean?!” passenger seat retorted.

“Come first, we will pay you good money!!” driver added.

Urenna laughed. “Blessing o! Come and see the small boys wey wan fuck!”

Blessing moved in for a closer look. She laughed, “These ones neva finish secondary school o! Hahaha! Now run along to your mummies and go return daddy’s car.”

“Mscheeew!! Ashewo!” driver lashed out.

“Ehn thank you! As you get home please call your daddy for me! I will fuck him for free sef!” The ladies laughed as the deflated boys zoomed off to try their luck elsewhere.

“No mind these small boys jor! When you come reach, do finish, dem no go wan pay you complete money. Their wahala too much!” Blessing ended as she walked back into the shadows.

Urenna sighed. She hoped she would get a customer soon. It was getting late and the odds were rising against her. She hoped for a customer that would take her home. Those ones were preferred as she got to sleep in a bed as against standing for long and sleeping on the road or in smelly taxi cabs. She looked at her cheap watch. 2am. Sigh. Even a couple of short-time customers would make sense now. She waited impatiently.

A jeep cruised by ever so slowly. She took position and waited for it to stop. It drove slowly as the occupant eyed the ladies of the night, taking them in.

“Oga stop now!” Urenna called.

The driver did not stop but zoomed off. Alu! She cursed.

She waited a few more minutes and was just about to resign her fate to an unsuccessful night when a car appeared. It was a Toyota Camry, one of the new ones; very sleek, very shiny in the poor street light. She hoped it was not a driver because these drivers were funny. They were not so much better than her but they tried to appear better off. But not all drivers though, some were nice and kind like that Tony. He had been very nice to her, sometimes just visiting her without wanting to have sex. They would gist for a couple of minutes before she would chase him away for scaring away potential customers. She had even given him a couple of free rounds. She liked Tony; small sha. And she missed him. His oga had been transferred to Abuja and she had not seen him in months.

The Toyota stopped right in front of her. The driver rolled the window down and the cool air from the air conditioning hit her face.

“Hi!” Urenna said, turning on the charm.

“Good evening” the driver responded.

They conversed for about a minute and Urenna said her goodbyes to Blessing and got into the car. She thanked her stars as the sleek car pulled away. She would definitely sleep on a warm soft bed tonight; and if she did well she would probably get a performance bonus in the morning. Her customer did not look like or sound like the stingy type. In fact he looked “safe”. She thanked her stars again and crossed herself as the car picked up speed and headed towards Lekki.