Are You Really Going To Help Me

Being a busy day for Lanre, all her workers will be present at the beauty parlour. Lanre has six workers excluding Chidinma. Chidinma was more like a daughter to her. It was Lanre’s third day in Lagos after moving in. She was busy looking for an apartment because she has been sleeping in her beauty parlour. Then she met a young lady dressed like a sex worker. She was barely covering her buttocks. Her bosom was out for all eyes to see. Lanre did not like it. Mostly because she noticed the girl looked nervous.

***Flashback

“Young lady, are you ok?” Lanre had asked. But the young woman did not answer her. Rather she pulled away from Lanre. Lanre frowned. She was about to walk away when she heard the young lady sobbing. Lanre sighed heavily. Then she turned back to face the girl.

“Have you eaten? We can go eat together in a restaurant if you know any around here?” Lanre had said to her. The girl seemed weary of Lanre. She probably didn’t trust her. Lagos was definitely not a place to trust anybody, especially not when it is a stranger.

“I’m fine! I don’t want to eat”. The girl said. Lanre smirked. She bit her lips and slapped her hands against her laps. She was losing patience already.

“I am sensing that you need help and that is why I want to help you. But if you are comfortable with being a prostitute at this age, then you are one foolish child”. Lanre said to her and walked away.

“Aunty!” The young girl called. But Lanre did not stop. She did not even turn to look at the girl. She just kept moving and this left the girl no choice but to run after her.

“Aunty are you really going to help me? Will you help me?” The girl asked. Lanre then asked her if she wanted her to help her.

“My name is Chidinma. I lost my parents a few months ago and after their burial, my elder sister brought me here to live with her because I’m the last born. After two months of staying with her, she said I’m free loading of her and that I should start making money for myself. She asked me to dress up this way and wait here for a man with a Lexus 350”. The girl said.

On hearing this Lanre asked Chidinma if she was with her phone. And when Chidinma told her she had no phone, Lanre asked if she knew her sister’s number offhand. Chidinma acknowledge that she did. So Lanre called the sister after getting to know the sister goes by the name Pearl rather Chioma which is her real name.

Lanre told the sister she found Chidinma on the streets looking homeless. Then she told her she was looking for a younger sister and wouldn’t mind taking Chidinma in if Pearl doesn’t come out to the street. Chidinma at this moment had no clue what the outcome may be, but she hoped she doesn’t get to suffer at the end.