House 32

Adeyinka skipped the gutters that led to the address Bimbo had sent her the night before. She found it slightly amusing that Bimbo would even refer her to a place like this. It was true that she was desperate for a place to stay but she was not this desperate. The place was very close to being a ghetto, it was actually ghetto in comparison to Parkview estate, where she grew up.

She would have turned back to go home but she remembered how she had stormed out of the house angrily that morning after father had once again questioned why she had the air condition running all night especially since she wasn’t the one footing the electricity bill, and found her way to House 32. House 32 itself didn’t look so bad on the outside and it held promise of a better interior. Bimbo had told her the rent was a hundred and fifty thousand naira per year, something she could easily afford.

The landlord, a bespectacled man whose visual impairment suggested intelligence rather than disability, took her around and listed the facilities in the house which justified the cost considering the neighbourhood. Tiles. Running water. Water heater. Kitchen. Ceiling fan. Wardrobe. Everything is there.

“I’ll take it”

“Total package is one eighty but rent is one fifty”

“Alright sir”

Adeyinka tried to hide her excitement as she thought of all the ways in which she could finally make the place hers. She began to make a mental note of all the things she needed to get. Curtains. Shoe rack. Moping stick. Buckets. Study table and chair. Light bulbs. A carpenter to build her a bookcase that would be the centerpiece in her living room, she needed to display her epic collection of African stories. Achebe. Adichie. Nwapa. Soyinka. Tutuola. Rotimi. Ayobami. Unigwe. Wainana. Afenfia ….. had Bimbo returned her copy of Mechanics of Yenagoa? People and never returning books until you nag them about it.

“Can you hear me?”

“Sir?”

“I said where is your husband, he needs to be here to sign the necessary documents”

For a moment Adeyinka considered telling a lie. Bimbo had told her most Landlords would be less inclined to renting out to single women and she needed to come up with a story. Bimbo had told her landlord her husband was in Canada to get her apartment and so whenever her boyfriend Richmond came around, the wife of her landlord took it upon herself to embarrass him. Adeyinka didn’t think she could stand any of that kind of drama so she said: “I am not married.”

he would have asked how it was but she was tired of questioning something as senseless as patriarchy. It was exhausting.

"I do not rent out to single women. You know how it is with you people".

She wanted to ask how it was but she was tired. Tirrd of questioning something this senseless.