The market at Oyingbo was already loud by 7 a.m, the kind of loud that made you shout even when you were standing right next to someone. Adaeze balanced a tray of fried akara on her head with one hand and held her phone to her ear with the other, weaving through traders setting up their stalls....
"Aunty, I don tell you say I go pay you next week now," she said into the phone, her voice sharp with irritation...
On the other end, her landlady's voice crackled back, "Adaeze, na so so promise you dey give me since, rent don pass one month o!"
"I hear you ma, na next week, I promise."
She hung up before the woman could respond, sighing as she dropped the tray onto her small wooden table by the roadside, her friend Nkechi was already there arranging tomatoes into little pyramids on a mat.
"Wetin dey happen na?" Nkechi asked, not even looking up from her tomatoes.
"Na this landlady again, she no go kill me for this her rent matter."
Nkechi chuckled, shaking her head, "You know say na so Lagos be, everybody get their own wahala they dey manage behind their smiling face."
Adaeze sat down heavily on her stool, arranging her akara tray for display, "That is just the thing sha, everybody dey pretend say things dey fine, but na only God know wetin person dey carry and face"
Just then, a customer approached, a young man in a crisp white shirt, clearly on his way to work somewhere important, he smiled at Adaeze, all charm and confidence.
"Good morning o, fine woman, give me akara two hundred naira own."
Adaeze forced a smile, packing his order quickly. "Good morning sir, here you go."
As he walked away, phone already glued to his ear, laughing loudly about some deal he was closing, Adaeze watched him disappear into the crowd.
"You see as that man dey shine," Nkechi said, following her gaze, "Big man like that, wetin him sabi about person wey no fit pay rent?"
"Nkechi, no be so life be? everybody get their own behind the scenes, maybe that man wey just buy akara now, maybe him sef dey struggle for something we no dey see."
Nkechi paused her tomato arranging, considering this, "this na true talk sha, my cousin dey work for one big company for Victoria Island, big grammar, big car, but the man dey owe person money wey e no fit pay, na only for Instagram e dey show shine shine face."
Adaeze nodded slowly, her mind drifting back to her own situation, she thought about her mother back in the village, who believed Lagos had swallowed her daughter into prosperity, who called every week asking when Adaeze would send money for her younger sibling's school fees, she never told her mother about the nights she skipped dinner just to save enough for transport fare, or the mornings she woke up before dawn just to make it to the market before the good spots got taken.
"You know," Adaeze said quietly, "sometimes I dey wonder if anybody really know person wahala, we just dey show the world our own good side, and keep the rest for ourselves."
Nkechi reached over and squeezed her friend's hand gently, "that's why we get each other now, no be so? even if I no fit solve your rent matter, at least you fit talk to me, better pass keeping everything inside."
Adaeze managed a real smile this time, the tension in her shoulders easing slightly, "That one true, thank you, Nkechi."
As the market continued to buzz around them, traders shouting prices, customers haggling, the smell of fried food filling the air...
Adaeze packed her tray once more, ready for the day ahead, whatever was happening behind the scenes of her life, whatever struggles waited for her at home, right now she had akara to sell, a friend beside her, and a small piece of honesty shared between two people who understood that everyone, no matter how put together they seemed, was carrying something heavy behind the smile they showed the world.
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