She smiled

Curious - Who Am I

   "Chloe! Chloe, it's time to go to work," called her father as he headed toward the front door.

It was the holidays, and all Papa Joe's children worked in the office. Papa said it was his way of introducing them to the business and trying to develop their work ethic. He was a stickler for things like that. Learning the trade was not likely to be the critical interest of a six-year-old, but she still had to go.

Chloe spent most of the day playing with neighbours and other workers' children. Many of them went to work with their parents during the school holidays.

Often the kids played close to the busy road. It was easy to take the uncalculated risk. Chloe knew Mama Joe had instructed her otherwise. The girls played skipping robes on the busy road and only moved at the horn of an ongoing vehicle.

The boys played with old worn-out tyres or a pre-determined fighting contest. The winner would be crown, a short-lived leader of the street gang.

Others make circles with hands clapping games accompanied by folks' songs. Chloe enjoyed playing with sand, which was the epic game.

Girls would draw lines on the sands and hops in between the space until a winner emerges. Chloe preferred playing with the boys, and she returned to the office dirty.

Whenever she was not taking a risk like the other kids, she watched other from afar. On the streets, little children like herself hawked a good deal of produce. They would be calling out for potential buyers along their route. Items ranged from food, snacks, such as boiled groundnuts.

Boiled groundnuts were one of her favourite meals. Papa Joe allowed her groundnuts if she behaved herself in the office — other hawked soaps and washing powder. The kids were hunger looking, tired and unhappy.

Two of such children took her attention. She imagined in her head; they were sent out by their wicked stepmother. Images of little Cinderella and her stepmother played out in her mind. The kids appeared unkempt and had no shoes.

The older child wore an old slipper stitched all over while the back was chipped off. Tattered clothes were trademarks of street kids, yet they had to sell their products. "They even seem to live on the street," Chloe contemplated. She would imagine herself in their shoes.

At home, Chloe would imitate the kids by hawking her toys to her siblings, and they would laugh at her. She wanted to experience what it would be like to hawk on the street. Mama Joe reminded them that all fingers were not equal. It privileged her children to have all they wanted. Other kids had to work for every single meal; at times, she had to beg them before they ate. Her mother's words sounded like a distance lighting frequency to the ears of Chloe, the picker eater.

Papa Joe's factory was a vast building situated in a noisy residential area, inhabited by the middle-class families. Mokola was the first area with a layout ward, created by the colonial administration. It lies in direct connection with the University of Ibadan campus and Bodija to the East.

It was about an hour drive away from home. Towards the West is Dugbe, Agugu and Yemetu, leading to the slum area of the city. The street to the factory had a significant intersection zone to several regions of the city. The major crossway gave access to the city's main university teaching hospital: the famous Agodi garden, the beautiful botanical garden to the North and the busy market.

The southern part of his factory was "Sabo" the Northerners speaking parts of the city. Chloe's interests from Sabo was the Northern sweet called "Taba-Taba and Dankwa." Taba-Taba was a sweet savouring coloured hard sugar sweet. It left a trademark on the eater's tongue based on the colour of the delicacy eaten. Dankwa was a healthy version made of roasted and blended peanut and cornmeal.