Gidi Hustle

Yawn…, the young conductor rouses and checks his time… it is 5:45am. Gosh, are they late! What kind of life is this? He wakes his older colleague (driver) and tells him they are running late. The driver quickly rises and they both rush to the bathroom. S**t, Iya Risi and her children are already in the bathroom. The conductor rushes to the toilet while the driver goes to the wall, both to ease themselves. The driver shouts to Iya Risi in the bathroom to hurry up as she isn’t the only one there. “o wa wo mi jade” (come and pull me out now) says Iya Risi. The driver, getting really upset starts out to insult her when the conductor begs him to shut it and apologizes to Iya Risi while begging her to hurry. Fifteen minutes later, she comes out with her children murmuring. For lack of time, the driver and conductor go into the bathroom together.
Iya Risi takes her children in and orders the elder child to dress both herself and her siblings while she goes to wake her lazy husband working as a bricklayer in a house being built on their street. She begins to dress up while thinking of how she hoped the akara woman would sell early today so she could get some food for her children before they left for school. Thirty minutes and 50 naira akara later, she walks her children out of the house just as the driver and conductor drive their danfo bus out. She turns left towards her children’s school while the danfo bus goes right. The conductor watched her go but his mind was actually wasn’t with her for he was praying that he made enough profit today.
Some hours and about 20 rounds later, the conductor whose throat was sore from shouting the same thing over and over again (“mile 2-wharf” to and “osho! Oshod!! Oshodi!!!” fro) stopped a boy selling pure water. The boy, not having sold much all day rushed to the bus. He gave his conductor his change and ran back to the side of the road. He prayed that he would sell the bag he had on time so he could go and get another one. He thought about his ailing mother and his little sister whom he had to drop secondary school for so she could finish her primary education, looked up to heaven and prayed. At that very moment, a woman rushing to enter a bus hit him and almost knocked him over. The woman got into the bus first before she looked back at him to apologize. She tried bringing out her purse to pay the conductor but it was too difficult as the load she carried was too much and her wallet was too deep to find. She decided to leave it, thinking she would pay just before she got out of the bus. The conductor spoke to her rudely but she was too happy to be offended as she was carrying some goods she had been waiting for for so long. Now, she thought, I would be able to give this money to my husband to pay for the house rent this month.
At her bus-stop, just before she got down, a school girl in her uniform stepped on her in an attempt to get down before her. She shouted after the girl but the school girl was too much in a hurry to hear her. The young teenager was petrified at the punishment she was going to get from her mother. See, this young s.s.2 girl, due to peer pressure, was dating a guy much older than her and in his final year in the University. She had gone to pay him a visit after school and had lost track of time. What beating she was going to get from her mother today!!! She thought. Of which, she hadn’t seen her period this month and it’s already the 28th… At that point in time, an okada man who was obviously high on “igbo” and “paraga” breezed past her, the lady behind (dressed in a flashy manner) had her pants pulled down such that her butt crack along with half of her butt was out in the open.
The lady, however, hardly took any notice of it because she was very angry at her boyfriend whom she had just found with another woman in his house. She got down at her bust stop and crossed the road, all the while wondering if she was ever going to marry as most of her friends had been married. Lost in thought, she almost got hit by a Camry 2.4. The man in it seemed young but was married; however the woman beside him was not his wife. He looked to the damsel on his side (unaware that he had almost hit a woman) and thought of the fun he was going to have at the hotel he was going. The lady, on the other hand was thinking of the clothes she would buy for her friends party after she had collected the money for the night. When the car stopped in traffic, she looked outside the window at a handsome man in his Toyota Tundra driving alone. The man looked at her, she smiled; he smiled back and turned away. As soon as the traffic cleared, he drove off and all he could think about was how he would surprise his wife with the things he had bought for her in order to celebrate the contract he had just been awarded. Oh, he couldn’t wait!
He could smell the aroma of his favourite soup from the gate of his house. His wife was truly an amazing woman. He smiled as he saw his son rush out to greet him, his mother following not too far behind. His ears almost went deaf as she screamed when he told her the news. He settled on the dining table to eat with his family and thought how wonderfully favoured he was to have such success both in marriage and business. Life indeed was good.
At 12 midnight, while all was asleep, each with their issues, problems and dreams, the streets were finally at rest and Gidi town could finally be at peace. That is until the rise of dawn. Then it would be a new day, a new hustle.