Everyone in Ajegunle knew that the fastest way to get to the expressway was through Mama Chika's backyard.Everyone who lived there used that route.
There was one person who didn't use it.... Tunde.
Tunde was one of those people who made others feel tired by watching him.
While others took a shortcut through the path behind the old woman's fence
they would hop over the gutter and dodge her angry dog.
This shortcut saved them twenty minutes.
On the hand Tunde would walk all the way around.
He would pass by the workshop, with all its noise and smell of burning rubber.
Then he would take the road that curved like a question mark.
It finally opened up to the street.
Tunde did this every morning without fail.
This guy sef, his neighbour Emeka said one Tuesday, watching Tunde disappear around the bend with his leather bag hanging off one shoulder,
E be like say the man dey craze small.
Emeka was not alone in thinking this.
What most people did not know was that Tunde had a reason.
It started three years ago, the morning he was running late for an interview at a logistics company on the island, he had taken the shortcut like everyone else, in a hurry, not paying attention, and he had not seen the old woman Mama Chika herself struggling with a heavy basin of water near her gate, he had bumped into her, the basin fell, the water spilled across her wrapper and her good shoes, the ones she was clearly dressed up in for somewhere important, she did not shout at him, She didn't curse, she just looked at him with tired eyes and said quietly,
"No problem, my son, Go."
Those two words followed him all the way to the bus stop, onto the danfo, across the bridge, he got the job that day but felt no joy in it, he kept seeing her face, the quiet dignity of a woman who had every right to be angry and chose not to be.
He went back that evening with a new wrapper he bought from the market near his office, She had looked at him like he had three heads.
Na you be that boy?
Yes ma, I am sorry ma.
She had laughed, a real laugh, and invited him inside for rice and stew and a long conversation about her late husband who used to work in shipping, before he left, she had shown him the long road around, the one that nobody used and told him her husband used to walk it every morning because he said it was the only time of day that belonged completely to him.
Tunde never used the shortcut again.
Mama Chika died on a Thursday in February, Tunde heard this news from Emeka who had heard it from the pepper seller, Tunde stood at Mama Chika's gate for a time that morning, he did not go in, he did not leave, he just stood there.
The pepper seller called out to him from across the road. She asked if he was okay "Shey you dey okay?" she said.
Tunde said he was okay.. His voice sounded strange, it sounded like he was carrying something inside him.
Tunde walked down his road that morning, he walked slower than he usually did, he passed by the writing on the wall,he passed by a boy who was playing with a ball, The boy was completely happy, in that moment, he was not thinking about anything, this is something that only children can do, Tunde was very sad, he thought about Mama Chika as he walked.
Tunde looked at the sky.
God dey....He thought, E still dey.
He kept walking.
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