The Tuesday of the following week was a day following other days of sweat and hazy skies. There were no cottony clouds or balmy breezes, only a wall of humidity nearly thick enough to swim in. It was minutes past 5pm, but the evening was just as bright as midday, and Yvonne winced as she stepped out of the air-conditioned interior of her colleague’s car into the stultifying heat of the outside.

“Thanks for the ride, Jide,” she said as she shouldered her bag and turned around to face the man behind the wheel.

“You’re welcome,” Jide said. “We’ll see tomorrow, then.”

“Sure.” She slammed the door shut and the man drove off down the street, away from the junction.

Yvonne started down the bend that led to the close where she lived. A dark-skinned, aquiline-featured woman hugging a fractious baby to her emaciated bosom was seated on a well-worn wrapper spread out on the ground at a corner of the street. A few flies buzzed over her shabbily-clothed figure, and a small, round bundle wrapped in sparse clothing summed up her entire earthly belonging.

“Madam, good ef’nin oo,” she hailed Yvonne, revealing her tobacco-stained dentition in a wide smile. “How work?”

“Fine.” Yvonne began rummaging inside her bag. Ever since Lent started, she’d started the habit of giving the beggarly woman alms every now and then. She fished out a twenty-naira note from her purse and handed it to her.

The money disappeared inside her grubby fist. “Thank ma.” The discoloured teeth were on full display now. “Goh’ go bless you.”

Yvonne nodded, thinking about all the things she wanted God to bless her with. An air-conditioned car, for starters, she thought as she swiped at the line of perspiration that had dewed over her upper lip. Her gait was evidently tired as she approached the gate of her compound.

“Long day, huh?”

(more…)