"Hmmmm.... Emeka, is this where you live? Shay you told everyone in the village that you had made it in Lagos with a very big mansion and plenty cars... What's all this nau??" he queried.
"Nna, shun that thing! Lagos is hard!!", he sat down on the carpeted floor. "I cannot come home to my people and tell them I haven't made it in life. This is where I live and this is where you will live too."
John looked for more subtle ways to express his disappointment but the thought of staying in such a slum terrified him.
It was a one room apartment. The mini mattress covered half the room with the closet taking a portion of the rest... It was almost empty and the low voltage supplied by the bulb allowed John a better view of the room.
He wondered how Emeka could have been in Lagos for almost 10years and yet achieved so little. This Lagos no resemble green pasture o. Na black pasture. He felt like calling Chukwudi and twisting his ears!
But what went wrong?, John wondered. Perhaps, Emeka's problem was spiritual or perhaps, Lagos never favoured him.
He prayed silently that Emeka's bad luck doesn't rub off on him.
"Oh boy! Go and take your shower outside... I bought bread and akara for you on my way back from work." Emeka's words interrupted his thoughts.
John took an uncomfortable shower in the bathroom made of rusted corrugated iron sheets. The place smelled! Sure it was the bathroom for the whole neighbourhood. The hard knock on the bathroom 'door' confirmed this.
"Who dey dia? I won baff o", it was a woman's angry voice.
"Hold on. I'll be done in 20 minutes.", Johnny replied, most politely.
"20 minutes ke? Shebi na your papa get the bathroom? Breeze e don enter your brain. You won born pikin for inside dia abi?", the woman shouted in thick Yoruba accent.
A sorcerer did not need to tell Johnny to hurry his bath. He went back to the room and got dressed quickly too. It was cold.
Hurriedly, ate his meal and went to bed.
Lagos. He had just gotten a feel of it. In his heart, he wondered how he was going to blend in this angry town.
