THE STREETWALKER (1)

Adet was deep in contemplation.

Seated at a remote corner of the fast-food bar with a bottle of an orange-flavoured soft drink and a meat pie, she had carefully watched the men come in, size up the tables and draw near the ones with the women they fancied and would take their seats, order for drinks and food, eat and chat; then they would pay and finally leave with most of these women in tow through the revolving door of the main entrance.

In this particular bar situated along a popular street in an estate in Isolo and not too far from the Ikeja International Airport, Adet knew most of the girls who frequented it and they knew her as well. The spot was near hotels where prostitutes were not openly accommodated so the men who lodged there knew they could come over to the fast-food joint and pick the women they wanted who like birds to a ripened rice field flocked around the place.

An unfortunate thing was happening to Adet these days. The men with catapults would sling their stones at every other woman but not Adet, making her feel like she was such a small bird they wouldn’t want to waste their missiles on. She had tried perching at the most strategic points but the men just walked by and she felt really insignificant. This was the core reason why she took the table today at the far corner and was just watching events and her mind was an open diary she was thumbing through with her thought.

Adet had analysed the fact that the women leaving the bar with the men didn’t have skimpier dresses or hotter bodies than hers. She hesitantly drew herself to the point she had been older than most, been longer in the business than the majority of them and was wondering if the lines had so etched in on her face that the men were obviously sighting them through the mask of make-up she wore. That thought suddenly made her seem like a civil servant who had sworn an affidavit to lower his age and though he was officially many years away from retirement, old age was bearing hard on him and the signs were showing at every point. Adet wondered if she should immediately resign from her trade.

Adet’s base was in a small hotel in the suburbs but she had the knack to venture out to bigger spots nearby and even far, like the Bar Beach area, where her sights were set on expatriates who were fond of stealing out at the weekend to have some fun. She once had a generous expatriate friend who lavished cash and gifts on her but she lost him when the construction giant he worked with completed their federal-government-sponsored project and he returned to his home country where Adet learned he was married with a wife and two children.

Then, Adet consoled herself with the fact that even in the market where she had helped her mother sell food items in her younger days, the tempo of business did fluctuate. It had been the middle part of the month. When money would be back in people’s pockets, business definitely would pick up and she remembered when this happened way back in the market, she had joined the not-too-good items with the fresh ones and sold to their customers and they weren’t rejected as there were no other items available in the trays.

With the serviette around the pie, she had bitten into it and then sipped her drink with the straw. Putting the bottle back on its spot on the table, her eyes had roved to the main entrance and she had noticed the dude ambling through it. A musical was playing on the television and she had pretended to gaze at it but the fellow coming into the bar never left her thoughts. For all the hours she had been here, she had seen him come in and go out with a woman and three different women, if Adet wasn’t mistaken, had been her count so far. And if he was looking for the fourth woman, she smiled within, he was more horny than her grandma’s he-goat. He must have swallowed a boxful of aphrodisiacs and was desperately doing things to reverse the turgidity of his phallus.

Adet’s gaze strayed again from the television. The fellow actually had walked in her direction right from the entrance and momentarily, their eyes locked. He smiled at Adet, drew back the stool opposite and put his buttocks down on it. Adet smiled back.

‘Hi,’ the young man said. He looked younger than Adet initially thought and his smile softened the sternness on his features. He was more appealing to Adet now and she was already willing to be his fourth partner that morning.

‘Hi,’ Adet replied.

‘I’m Ben, a fresh graduate who just ended my NYSC year. I just moved here this week to take up a job in a bank and thought I should use this weekend to catch a bit of fun.’

Adet got the message. She was dealing with a jobless graduate. He must have his fun at a reduced price and with his potential he could turn out a big player someday. ‘No wonder why,’ Adet thought and smiled again within, ‘he is acting like a dog escaping from a leash.’

While eating and chatting, Adet was looking around to ascertain if the first three girls Ben went out with had returned to the fast-food bar or the neighbourhood. Not seeing any of them around, she thought they might have been picked up by other men. All three of them? Then they had quite a lucky break that Sunday. Maybe Ben had with him the luck spell.

Adet finished eating and the twosome, looking like models on a catwalk, left the premises of the fast-food bar, Ben busy talking on his cell phone. He hailed a cab which they boarded and a few metres down the street they alighted at the front of an exclusive hotel. They crossed the street and approached the wicket gate.

The hotel was an imposing three-storey building with a high wall and a car hire stand adjoining it and the street. Adet had been here before with other men. Drinks and food were sold above the average price to ward off the average guests. If Ben was out having fun with funds garnered from his one-year stint in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme, Adet thought he was slightly improvident and seemed to have a wealthy background. When they walked up the tiled stairs and got to the suite he rented, Adet was alarmed.

Adet knew what the rooms and suites cost. There were moderately charged rooms on the first floor, and the second floor had expensive suites. Room 204 was a ‘Royal Suite’. For Adet, there was something uncanny for a job seeker to hire that place. She followed Ben inside being very suspicious.

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