Teni Johnson

TWO

Aero Contractors Nigeria Limited,
Local Wing,
Muritala Muhammed Airport,
Ikeja,
Lagos,
Nigeria.
She had a print out of her e-ticket in her hand. The queue was getting shorter and she waited patiently till she got to the attendant's desk. The big sign that read "Aero" over the attendant's head was sliding off. 'teni. hated the local airport... It had a nasty wet shoe smell; she hated most airports. She probably just hated all airports.
"Good morning miss"
The attendant said looking at the now frustrated teni.
She handed the print outs to her. Not once reciprocating the smile that was plastered on the attendants face. The guys who had searched her luggage had tumbled over everything and she was still pissed.
"put your luggage on the scale please...
is that the only thing?"
Teni nodded. She hated those kind of questions. Why would any reasonable person want to ask that when it was so obvious it was her only piece of luggage. It was the smallest size of a set of rolling boxes for crying out loud she was waiting for the next stupid question: "would that be hand luggage?" But instead she heard:
"Enjoy your flight"
"Thank you"
She was relieved that was over. Collecting her boarding pass and her hand luggage she walked over for a security check. The cat whistles, annoying side comments and unnecessary stares bothered her a lot but she couldn't do anything about it. At least not here. The woman who searched her was big and disgusting. How do you get a job touching other women's sensitive areas? When the whole process was over she was quite thankful she could leave.

__________________________________________________________________________

Emotan Hotel,
Central Road,
G.R.A.,
Benin City,
Edo State,
Nigeria.
Teniola walked up to the receptionist's desk with a fake smile.
"good evening... I have a reservation
here for room 212"
The receptionist was a dark, tall male that had the name tag "Ose" written quite boldly on his chest. He typed on the computer for a while before he asked for her name without looking at her.
What is my name?
Teni tried hard to remember the name in the file that had been given to her. Ose looked up at her to make sure everything was ok. She was taking too long.
"Your name please"
He reminded her.
"My name...sorry...Ofure Eremosele
that's my name"
I think.
He looked at her strangely then continued typing.
"Yes you have a reservation here miss Eremosele
take the elevator to the third floor. It's the room
at the end of the hall; presidential suite."
She nodded but didn't leave. Ose stared at her. What was up with this girl?
"the key?"
Ose tapped his head at his own absent mindedness and gave her the key. His eyes followed her until she disappeared into the elevator.
Many thoughts filled teni'is mind as she strategized and drew up a plan in her head. She had just a day to spend in Benin before she had to get back to Lagos. The elevator stopped with a ding and irritated her thoughts; which was often in different languages.
The presidential suite was nothing much. Just a mini sitting room with comfy chairs, a flat screen television and a glass table in the middle. There were two rooms, each across the sitting room, opposite each other.
On the glass table was everything she needed for this job; a new phone and sim, a pack of disposable gloves, a pen knife, car keys, a new wig, a new pair of coloured contacts, black clothes and black plimsolls. There was also a return ticket to Lagos.
The only fun fun she found in her "erases" was the fact that she got to play dress up every now and then, always changing identities and hair and contacts and clothes and names and the fact that her tracks were always covered and she always got new things every three days at least. The down side was these new things hardly lasted because they were to be destroyed as soon as an erase was over. Daddy had connections all over the world so everything she needed for an erase was always provided at an arranged location and when she was done all she needed to do was put them back at the location to be destroyed as soon as she exited the place.
Sleep came immediately she lay down. It was only then she realised how tired she was. It had been a long day and she had an even longer one the next day. She needed this sleep. She had been erasing all week and needed a real break.