The Carnivorous City by Toni Kan

Author:Toni Kan [Kan, Toni]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781911115250
Publisher: CASSAVA REPUBLIC PRESS
Published: 2016-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

She was gone by the time he woke up the next morning and she made no mention of the previous night as they had breakfast together after dropping Zeal off at school. She was unusually quiet and he assumed that she was thinking about having spent the night curled up in his bed.

After breakfast, Abel watched CNN then went upstairs to read and listen to music. He didn’t have anything planned for the day. He just wanted to laze and catch his breath.

Santos sauntered into his room a little after 10am.

‘Bros wahala dey o,’ he said as he came to sit beside Abel on the couch.

‘Wetin happen?’ Abel asked, suddenly apprehensive. Lagos had that effect on him. It was a city always looking for ways to upset one’s plans, like a garden blooming with anxiety.

Placing a finger to his lips, Santos whispered even though they were alone.

‘Today is Iyawo’s birthday. I just remembered now.’

‘Are you sure?’

He nodded. ‘Yes. I saw it on her Facebook page and on her DP, see.’ He handed Abel his Blackberry.

It really was Ada’s birthday. Abel handed the phone back to him.

‘Go and bring out the car. We need to buy her cake and a gift.’

He showered in a hurry and they drove out to Victoria Island. There was a cake shop behind the Zenith Bank branch on Ajose Adeogun, Santos told him, and they drove there. Abel bought a cake and then they drove to a gift shop on Sanusi Fafunwa where he picked up a birthday card.

‘What kind of gift do you think she would like?’ Abel asked.

‘Iyawo likes bags and dresses,’ he told Abel. ‘And I sabi where Sabato dey buy clothes for her.’

It was to a nondescript shop, tucked in between two houses on Akin Adesola, almost adjacent to Adeola Odeku, that Santos led him. It was the kind of shop you would never walk into unless someone brought you. Its location was not susceptible to serendipity.

The owner was a dark, heavily built woman of indeterminate age. Her clothing and gait suggested youthfulness, but her face was creased with lines etched by the passage of time and something that seemed like trauma. Abel could not put his finger on it but he surmised from her forced gaiety a need to keep up appearances as well as a stratagem for fleecing you.

‘Na my bros wife,’ Santos began. ‘Today is her birthday and Oga Sabato no dey. This is Sabato’s big bros.’

She greeted Abel with a smile as wide as a saucer and asked what he wanted. He told her a bag and a gown would be fine.

‘I have this lovely tan bag. A Burberry. It just arrived,’ She pulled open a drawer.

Abel wasn’t sure what she meant by tan. The bag was light brown but he took it from her. ‘And the dress; I take it you know her size? Something black would be cool.’

‘Ada is a size twelve and I have the perfect LBD for her.’ She flicked through gowns on a rack and pulled out a black dress with a plunging neckline.

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