Fuel Station.

As a guy with two kids and a baby mama at 31, Life at that point held me by the wall and screwed the shit out of me. For a complete year, my woman ran the house through her small unit plantain chips buisness where because where we lived had a shortcut and people daily plied that route that held my own side of my rented apartment that housed all of us. She capitalized on that traffic of people everyday and sold freshly fried unripe plantain chips and people patronized. One thing though, this woman, my woman, very understanding and tolerant. She never for once made me feel less of myself because as i stated earlier, she ran the house and fed myself and our two girls.. Never complained for once.. Then one morning, i got tired of the whole thing and really felt less of myself because you know, (as i said before). So That particular morning, i made up my mind that I'd travel to lagos and go search for a job, a job of any kind or anytype. As God would have it, my woman wasn't home that morning, she'd gone to somewhere in town. I went into the room, packed a few clothes, found her purse where she put it and hit the road. I just knew i was going to Lagos, but the part of Lagos i was heading to, no idea at all. Another thing, how will i do it, i didnt know anyone in the big city so to say. But it was too late a thought by the time as i was in one of these rickety (tricycle) that looked like it had withstanded a tsunami the day before.. What an unsmooth ride to the park that Maruwa..

How much be Ajah" i queried the bus conductor who was standing by the bus entrance with his eyes blazing red. "one thouson" he retorted and then looked away. On the high side though but then not even this bus fare would stop me. It took like a moment or two and i ound myself a window seat and sat by it and waited for the bus to fill up and move. While i was waiting, i let the events in the park take me on a journey that entertained my idle mind.

One lady was trying to pay for food she had bought in a styrofoam (take away pack) when a kid approached her and begged her for alms. So in between that and trying to remove money to pay for the meal in her Aba made Lacoste bag, the kid somehow knocked the packaged food off of the table where it was placed and it took a very free fall and the content hit the earth! (spilt milk i said to myself). I looked at the lady and what i saw was touching, the kid was as frantic as the bystanders, he was on one knee on the floor and his hands on his heads almost close to tears. But this lady asked him to stand up that it was alright and that mistakes do happen then she asked the Mamaput to resell a fresh one and also sell a seperate portion for the kid and then as she was leaving, she handed the kid a clean one thousand naira bill. Wow!

Across the road, i saw a group of students trying to cross the road to the other side of the road, about six of them.. Then a Nigerian police cop who was trying to cross the road to join their patrol van that parked at the far end of the road signaled to the students to wait, he then joined up with them and wslked to the middle of the road signalling to oncoming vehicular traffic to slow down and when the traffic came to a halt, he slowly asked the students to cross the road and after they did, he joined with the patrol van and they moved. Wow!

Then my eyes traveled to a store in that park and i saw a figure, let me say i saw someone who i later came to know was our driver chai, the number of sachet ethanol (all those satchet alcholic drinks like seaman, action bitters and the likes) he had consumed damn!!! Because from time to time or everytime my eyes traveled to where he was, he was either on the verge of tearing-to-consume a new satchet or he was finishing up a previously opened satchet.

In one of the food shacks at the park, one mamaput was dragging with one agbero, he ate and didn't want to pay and the woman self no wan gree, they were really dragging it out but i didn't know how that one was sorted as our Bus moved while i was really enjoying that scene. E too pain me.

Then we moved and them the reality of the journey ahead complity engrossed and enveloped me that my mind tuned back in to the life i was in before i got to the park and right before our bus moved. I have never been to the island all my life, i lived in Ogun state mainland, not that i dont visit lagos, there's a particular market in lagos mainland when that time i was still selling weed because ofcourse i sold weed for on the short run, So that like brought me to agege Lagos evert 4 days because that was where i got my supplies from as a dealer in wholesale quantity. But then i had never been to the island or habour thoughts that i need to go there so to say. I didnt have anyone i knew there, but i always believed that as a street guy, I'd survive.

Then as the bus moved, i paid very close attention to details, like for example i kept shouting at the driver that i was going to ajah last bustop and i didnt know the place so he wont take me past my bustop, i kept reminding the driver every ten minutes that i was goung to Ajah last which is 'Ilaje' bustop and i didnt know the place.... I did this severally that at one point the driver guy had to tell me to shut up that hesheard and that with my multiple callings of "ajahlast bustoo and i no sabi the place" therewas no watge could forget!! I said okay and then kept quiet for like 20 minutes or so before i resumed absentmindedly

"driver, na Ajah last bustop i dey go oo and i no sabi yhe place"

As the words rolled off of my lips, driver found a spot by the side of the road, parked, looked back and shot me one evil look.. and said in yoruba.

"Baba weyrey ni wo chukwudi yi o"

"you are the father of a mad man you this chukwudi"


Yeee, i thought after he said that, he was gonna evict me from the bus by handing my bus fare back to me, but he just blurted out, looked at me two more times and hit the throttle! We meuve..

Driver no know say when i dey high school, na around 5am class captain dey wtite my name down say i don make noise

bros how far na, we dey follow ur story, nice one.

bishop212:
bros how far na, we dey follow ur story, nice one.

Ah thanks alot

Omoh Lagos, i mean the island ni o and probably some selected parts of the mainland are very much entitled to claim Lagos, you see all those downtown underground lagos like mushin etc, na just affiliations, while in the bus, i saw so many beautiful Lagos scenery for example when the bus got to the popular third mainland bridge, i was wowed i mean on both sides of the bridge laid a very infinity stretch of the ocean first time ever I'd see a body of water so vast and stretched across the accommodating space below the bridge.. I also observed tiny boats and cruisers lining either left or right either going or returning from a morning of fishing on the ocean.. I imagined the life the fishers lived under that bridge in the ocean and envied it a bit, but it could never be me.. Another thing i realized about third mainland was that as we transported along, there was this foul smell in the air and i thought probably that's how sea water smelled. Soon we approached the popular lekki toll gate, the one where some youths became victims of the end Sars movement that went viral, omoh, i said a quick RIP to the souls that flew that day.


And then, we arrived!


"Driver, na Ajah last bustop i dey go oo and ino sabi the place" said the driver mimiking me after about two hour of very peaceful driving oo.. Then everybody in the bus blurted out laughing as it was funny.. I kept my cool and let their laughter subside and I threw another one in, i asked him if i should start announcing like i did previously since he's making fun of it now, He said no! that the thing keeps ringing in his head and he doesnt want to forget okay alrighty then i said. Finally, i was at my designated bstop. (ilaje).

I alighted, and adjusted myself and then let the environment envilope me. I guess Ajah last bstop is like a market as when i alighted, there were so many people in that park, people dealing and selling, peoole coming and going, generating sets vibrating and their noises deafning, transport services anouncing their designated routes via strategically placed speakers etc etc.. Such a rough atmosphere. Then i jolted back to the reality, or let me say my reality.. U checked my time and it said 3pm! Now the real problem was, i didnt know a soul on this island, but i always believed that as a street boy, I'd survive. So i joined s tricycle that was going somewhere, somewhere i didnt know so to say.. The ride came to a stop at road 5a abraham Adesanya, i alighted and started walking in a direction my mind picked and just kept going, with my bag strapped at my back. I just kept walking and walking and by this time it was getting late.. Say around 6pm. I was getting tired now then i saw another street and i said, let me go through here and then find somewhere i can rest my back. Like i was tired and getting hungry by now. I followed my mind and entered the street, then i walked past some guy in a black hood, he greeted me first and then i responded and the way he sounded his greeting, very warm then i turned back and ran up to him and then told him i was new in lagos and had no where or no one to hang with. The guy looked at me suprised and i could see he was a bit worried about ehat i just told him.

He looked up at me and then asked,

"so where you wan crash tonight like dis? Omoh, all these streets wey dey this hood, dem get nightwatchmen and if them jam you for night na wahala o"