The Danfo had been stuck in the same location for 40 minutes.
Tunde checked his phone again, 4:47pm, The interview was until 5, He closed his eyes, opened them again and gazing out the window at the one section of the Apongbon bridge that was now a car park, Ahead of him, behind him, beside him vehicles everywhere, engines running, tempers rising, horns talking to each other in a language that had no solution.
A woman in the back said, "Driver, what are you going to do about this one now?
The driver responded without turning his head, "Madam I no get two eyes, wey face front and back at same time".
Tunde took his folder and got out.
He didn't have a plan, He only knew that sitting inside that bus was like he wasn't trying, He let his tie come undone a bit and began to walk along the bridge between the cars, ignoring the looks, ignoring the heat sitting on his shoulders like something personal..
He had been seeking for employment for eight months, Eight months of printing out CVs and ironing the same two shirts, taking them to offices and giving them a smile at the reception desk, who were looking through him as if he was made of glass , This interview Femi Coker and Associates, Broad Street, was the first one that had called back in six weeks, He was not going to miss it because of Third Mainland logic.
He got off the bridge and flagged down an okada.
"Broad Street. How much?"
He scrutinized him, as if reading the message in his tie, in his folder, in the quiet desperation behind his eyes. "One thousand."
"Oga abeg."
"Eight hundred. Final."
He got on.
The okada threaded through streets Tunde didn't recognise, it turned left where he was expected a right turn, and headed into a hallway of buildings so close together that the walls almost touched, he held onto the seat and trusted in the process.
They came out on a street behind CMS and Tunde almost laughed at where they'd ended up. He'd been coming to Lagos Island for years and this street had never existed to him until now.
Here," he said, "drop me here.
He checked the time. 4:58.
He ran.
With chest heaving, he was trying to breathe normally as he walked into the building at 5:01, The receptionist looked up.
“Good evening i am Tunde Alakija, I have a 5'0 clock interview".
She checked her book. "Sit down, Mr. Coker is a few minutes behind.
He sat down, sighed so loudly that he felt embarrassed immediately
The man that finally called him in was older than he thought, he looked to be in his sixties, reading glasses, a certain quietude born of many years of being able to do nothing more than not have to prove himself......Femi Coker himself.
They talked for forty minutes. About the job, and other things as well, About where Tunde had originally come from, what his old firm had been and what he felt was the issue with corporate law in Lagos, Tunde stopped performing answers somewhere around the twenty-minute mark and just started talking. The man across from him wasn't filling a vacancy. He was having a conversation.
At the end, Mr. Coker walked him to the door.
Here's the truth, but it is a hard truth for me to admit," the man said. There were 3 candidates today, the other two were here before you.
Tunde nodded slowly. I got stuck in traffic on Apongbon, I'm sorry sir.
Mr. Coker smiled, In it there was something that he knew, I almost turned down a job interview because of that bridge in my first job here in this city, i walked 4 blocks in the rain to look for a shorter route, I nearly gave up." He paused. "The ones who find another way are usually the ones worth keeping."
He put out his hand.
“we will be in touch with you by Friday.”
He shook it then walked out into the evening air, and stood on the pavement of that Lagos street for a moment, the city was loud around him, Generators, hawkers, a bus conductor screaming a destination.
He had come the wrong way and arrived exactly where he needed to be.
He smiled, straightened his tie, and started walking.
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