34th Street.

Mr. Ike leaned forward as a passerby stuffed fifty naira into his hand. ‘Today is going to be good’, he thought as he mentally calculated how much he had in his hand. He shifted his weight to his bad leg and leaned helplessly on his left crutch. At six thirty am, he had already made three hundred naira and he had five more hours’ before he had to return home. The day was indeed going to be good as he sighed, thinking of how much longer he was going to keep up this tirade.

Mama Segun wiped her forehead with the back of her palm as she fried the last set of puff-puff to be sold that morning. The sun was coming out with a nasty heat and she wasn’t ready for all of it. She had been feeling nauseous all week and had made up her mind to see her mother before she went to the market. It was her turn to go to the market today. It was her turn to see Baba Segun today. Her mother had long told her that it was not her place to complain of whatever happened to her; Baba Segun went home for his father’s burial six months ago and brought back a yellow wife- Sade, soon to be mama someone. So much for plans, msheww.

Chuks sighed as he tried to no avail to convince his customer that his goods were not only pure gold but original. He had nearly got that young girl, he thought, had he not called that awfully low price. It was too good to be true, she must have felt as she stole one more glance before walking away. He knew his customers would come at night, when there was no one watching them so that their final possessors wouldn’t know that he was the previous owner. Until then, he would make hay while the sun shined.

Iya Farida scrubbed furiously the empty container of dettol before dumping it in a big bowl to join its other contemporaries. Today, she had a mix of morning fresh and dettol containers. Farida had gone to get the contents from Waheed. ‘Omo oshi, omo rada rada, ni bo ni Farida wa?’ she shouted into the air. She ought to have been back an hour ago, but the sun had gone down an hour ago. She did not want to drag Farida into her shady business, but she had no choice. Her arthritic back had been giving her serious pain and all she could do was sit down for long hours before moving in rheumatic pain to the sound of her unlocking bones. She wanted the best for Farida, her only child.

Farida turned to her side, backing Waheed on the bed. What had started out as an errand had become an affair between herself and Waheed. Unfortunately, his own idea of love was sex. She couldn’t blame him as his ignorance and razness on the things of love knew no boundaries. She had learnt two months after she started running Mami’s errands that he stopped school at primary five. ‘There was no point’, he said, ‘My teachers were not interested in teaching and my father needed stable hands.’ She knew it was a lie because his father died when he was in primary three and left him a fortune. ‘Oya otito’, he said, waking her from cloud nine, ‘your mother will be looking for you’.

As the night crept into 34^th street, Iya Farida opened her shack while sixteen year old Farida helped her to fry the meat. Customers started pouring in to the shack. Amongst the constant last were Mr. Ike, Chuks, and Waheed.

‘this government don hard no be small o’, Chuks sighed as he drank his first bottle of Star.

‘ehen’, Mr. Ike replied, ‘how business’, he asked with a sneer, downing Gulder.

Chuks would not be sidelined so he continued, choosing to be oblivious to Mr. Ike’s taunts. They knew that he sold pilfered goods. ‘don’t they know the masses are suffering? Cant they see the scars are too much to bear?’

‘I agree with you o jare, Shuks’, Iya Farida said, ‘In those days we could get free medical treatment and nobody will die just like that, humphr’.

Waheed winked at Farida and everyone wondered why Iya Farida could not see the chemistry between the two. Mr. Ike swore that if he ever saw Chidinma with a boy he would chop off his leg just as his was chopped by a machine in his former place of work. They paid him off, giving him crumbs as medical bills though he knew that someone up the ladder had devoured the real amount. Even with the reputable company’s letter of recommendation, he hadn’t gotten a job so he opted to begging out of hopeless hope.

‘It’s true sha. In other countries, if you see the huge sum they pay as pension ehn, you go melt.’

‘I saw you at Boundary today. How was work?’ Chuks guffawed as Mr. Ike’s face crumbled. Just then, Mama Segun crossed to the shack to greet Iya Farida. ‘Egbon mi, e kale ma, bawo ni ara yin?’

‘Mo wa pa, aburo mi, se alaafia ni? I am fine my sister, how are you?’ she said as she eyed the now distraught woman, ‘kilode? What happened?’

‘Mo ti lo yun fun Baba Segun. I am pregnant for Baba Segun’ She said near tears, ‘he promised me my children will go to good schools but the man cannot even afford Segun’s upkeep. What am I going to do with three children? Imagine the man telling me that it was the government’s fault his poultry business folded up. It was his love for women and I’m just a victim!’

Farida was eavesdropping on the conversation. It dawned on her that she had been having unprotected sex. What if?

‘Farida! Come and serve our customers drinks o before you sleep away your life!’ her mother called.

They all drank in silence, comforted by the sound of the generator from Baba Ijebu’s house. Iya Farida’s generator could not come on today so she had no music to entertain. They all noted in silence the fact that though they lived lies, it was here they could confirm the truth without photo shop.

This was life at the 34^th street.