Okay, look at this one. Just take a good look at her. See her standing down there, the wind blowing her weave, her skirt swirling about her like Marilyn Monroe. She is no star, that one. She is no princess. She is not even the nymph of a man’s dream, any man for that matter. Well I like to think so.
Why am I angry? Who says I am angry? I just pity her. I pity the man that will marry her. I hear she has bleached her skin to the complexion that you are seeing now. I even heard that she used to stand at Jubilee Hotel in Warri before she came to Lagos and started forming posh for everybody. Ugly thing!
She is not beautiful, boss. You people will just see a fair skinned girl and start crushing on her. This one that used to be ebony dark? Yes, she bleached to get to that complexion, boss. Can’t you see her fingers? Wait let the breeze blow her skirt again, you will see her legs. Don’t you see the discoloration? Which fire? There was no fire, boss. Okay why is it that the fire only burnt her legs? Why not her face?
Wait you think I am lying? Do you know John? That guy that owns that range rover sport car now, that tall dark skinned guy that picked 20 million last week? Okay, he told me that he has had sex with her and her skin is nothing to write home about. He said he almost puked. He had to force himself as he had paid ten thousand for the night. What? Did he say it was bleaching? Is that a question? It is definitely bleaching. That is what these girls do when they enter the street.
See boss if you want to talk to a girl, let me show you fine fine girls around. I know one decent girl, from nice family. She is always going to church. She is even a chorister in church and her voice is heavenly. I have never seen her standing with a man before and she is never outside passed 7pm. Yes, she is very beautiful. Her name is Ngozi. That is the kind of girl a man of your class should be with. Not this thing.
You still want to go and meet her. Ha boss! All these small small boys will laugh at you. Many of them have slept with her and dumped her. You deserve better boss. Why do you deserve better? Is that a question? As rich as you are, handsome, tall, schooled abroad, own companies all over the place? You deserve a girl of class, boss. Not this street rat.
What! You have spoken to her before? Five years ago? She is why you came to Lagos? I don’t understand! She is your wife? But that cannot be true now. How can you joke like this boss? Hahaha… you are a funny man. You want to marry her or what? You are already married to her! Jesus! She is your wife! My God! Look at you and her at the altar! Why didn’t you say something now?
She is a nice lady, boss. She is always greeting everybody and always smiling. People can carry rumors! Ha! To think that John lied to me? All this boys in this area, they are all liars and crooks. Boss, please wait for me now. It has not gotten to that now. How will I get home now? What about the two million you promised to give me to start my business now? Boss it was just a joke now.
Aunty, good evening, please help me beg your husband now. You know I used to greet you and give you space to charge phone in the barbing saloon down the road. Why didn’t you tell me you were married to my boss now? I would have helped you get a better house than this one. Please help me beg him. Two million naira, please. Two million help me beg him.
MY THOUGHTS
Lots of people judge people by what they hear about them not by any evidence that they have witness themselves. The same people in some cases also share these false, uncorroborated stories about these people to other persons in the process giving the person a false reputation that can be destructive.
It is the same with information on social media. Lots of people spread information that they can’t defend if closely questioned and this has led to people believing false news and acting upon it.
It would be expected that with the proliferation of mediums of communication, information would become easy to access but it would seem that the more tools we create to disseminate information, the more fake news is spread all over.
This is my fourth exploration into society and the ills in it. In this piece, only one character speaks and from his comments, we get an idea of the story.
My aim is to place focus on the character's words, the source of his information as well as his motivation.
What I am saying in essence is that we should be careful about what we accept as truth and even when we accept them as true, we should be careful as to how we share them. We do not know who we may be hurting and in some cases it could be ourselves. Peace.
©warpedpoetic, 2018.