In the Loving Arms of Servitude

11. Welcome to Lagos II

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"Hello! Please excuse me..." says a young man with a backpack and glasses on, as he approaches Uju with a gleaming smile on his face. He is putting on a blue polo-shirt and some slightly faded blue jeans. His haircut is very modest but sharp. And the blemishes on his seemingly bleached skin are being exposed by the wide opening at the top of his black velvet loafers. This guy's stance is quite humble as well; a bit too humble to be real, as far as Uju is concerned.
It is almost as though he is deliberately trying to give her the impression that he is harmless; that he couldn't even hurt a fly.
"Good evening" she responds.

"Good evening to you too... ", he smiles again, more radiantly this time. Then he continues, with a very refined almost American accent,
"... uhmm... please I'm looking for a place where I can get a cab to Surulere. Do you have any idea where I could get one?... Or are you new to Lagos as well?"

At this point, Uju is beginning to smell something fishy about him. So she replies, with a plain expression on her face,
"No... I live here actually. I'm just waiting for my dad who's over there, buying a few things from one of the shops. And... uhmm... I hardly ever visit Surulere. So... "

He cuts in,
"... Oh.. Do you live around here?"
Ignoring his question, Uju points to a man by the food stand currently drinking greedily from a can of soft drink about twenty metres away,
"... I think you should ask that bus driver though. He must know Surulere very well."

Then he responds with another gentle smile, as though aware that she has already caught his act,
"Okay... No problem. Thank you so much... Stay blessed!"

"You're welcome... You too!" Uju replies, with a similarly gentle smile.
Afterwards, the guy walks away peacefully like a spurned prophet.
Upon turning sideways, Uju discovers that both the zips of her purse and ghana-must-go bag are wide open. Someone must have stealthily tried to search them for valuables while she was speaking with John Doe, who seems to have already vanished into thin air. Then shaking her head, she sighs in amusement. If only they knew what a wretched state she was in, they wouldn't have bothered wasting their time trying to rob her. Afterwards, she chuckles again at their mistake.
The thief behind her must have been so frustrated, finding only a bunch of raggedy clothes in her ghana-must-go, and a measly twenty naira note wrapped around some chewing gum in her purse. Apart from the two hundred naira Mummy gave her for lunch, Uju didn't take another dime on her trip. She had nothing to take really.

"Hello! Good evening. Are you Obianuju?", a deep male voice echoes at her from a short distance.

'Hehe!!! Which kind 4-1-9 be this again wey con still know person name?' she wonders, as she looks up to see who called her.

"I'm Mr. Balogun" he avers.

Then in shock, Uju echoes whilst struggling to lift up her ghana-must-go, "Oh! Sir!... Yes, sir!.. Yes, I'm Obianuju!"

This man looks much younger than she had expected. He is tall and corporately dressed in a sky blue shirt and well-ironed black trousers. He is a bit light skinned, and has a thick black beard that almost totally engulfs his entire face. His shoes as well are ebony-black, glossy and nearly spotless, with very thin soles that make almost no noise while he walks. Truth be told, Uju has never seen any man looking so sharp.
Thereafter, Mr. Balogun walks up to her and takes the ghana-must-go from her hand "OK then. The car is that way. Just follow me." Then lifting the bag with one hand, he leads her toward his car.

'Wow! Such a kind man. It's almost too good to be true.', Uju wonders, sighing subtly and then looking up to heaven, before finally following him. What other choice does she have anyway?