Everybody’s Man – Chapter 5: African Folktales, Origin Story, Jackal Tales, Fabling, Pam, Free Short Stories
“Come on Alero, you expect us to believe that Femi sleeps at your place every night, but you’ve never shagged that.” Dayo laughed.
After Femi had left for work Alero decided to go out on a walk, but when she stepped into her room, she was reminded by the huge mountain of dirty clothes that she had nothing left to wear. So she packed her mess down to the backyard and went to work, washing them.
She had hoped that she would be alone since it was a weekday, but she wasn’t. Her
neighbours were either Jobless, on leave, or online workers, like her, because they all seemed to be around, and waiting for her.
Not long after she started washing, Chinyere came out to fetch water from the tap and started the unfortunate conversation about Femi
“How is Femi?” She asked.
“He is fine,” Alero answered.
“Madam the Madam, Femi remote control, the number one woman in his life.” Chinyere hyped.
“I’m serious. Femi and I are just friends.” Alero said, not skipping a beat in her washing.
“F R I E N D S, yeah, we believe that” Dayo chipped in. She was walking with Aisha. Aisha looked away when Alero glared at them but Dayo returned the glare.
Dayo had wanted a serious relationship with Femi, she had thought she would be the one to save him, fix him, but she was wrong. Femi did not want to be saved, nor fixed. And he did not want to have sex with her more than once either. She was bitter and she could not hide it.
“Dayo, Passive aggression only makes you seem pathetic,” Alero stated.
“Yeah, pathetic,” she laughed. “Come on Alero, you expect us to believe that Femi sleeps at your place every night, but you’ve never shagged that.”
“If you are not here to help me wash, then this discussion is useless,” Alero said, returning to washing.
“I’ll help you wash,” Aisha said.
“What?” She earned a triple shocked response.
“I like to wash. I just washed yesterday, I want to wash again.” Aisha said, nervously.
“What are you doing?” Dayo whispered to her friend.
Aisha avoided answering her by focusing on Alero.
She was suspicious, but she was offering free help. “Sure, come and join me.”
“Thank you,” Aisha said and left her friend to wash the clothes of a person she hardly spoke to.
Dayo was both suspicious and offended with her friend’s action, so she stormed off without another word, and Chinyere had fetched the water she came for, so she left, and it was just Aisha and Alero.
“Seriously, why are you trying to help me?” Alero asked now that they were alone.
“Nothing, I just see you around, and I wanted us to become friends,” she said.
Alero could smell bullshit from a mile away, and this time the bullshit was right beside her. But she decided not to probe further so she would not lose her free temporary helper.
“By the way, you and Femi, are you childhood friends, or related?” Aisha asked.
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