Chapter Sixteen

A middle aged woman who was in her mid-forties, who by name was Lynette stood at the front of the mirror admiring her beautiful body with a nice gap tooth to complement her beautiful face when she smiled.  She was a mother of three children who although was a rogue in her earlier years still struggled and hoped to give her children a better life than she had. Her life as a single mother was not an easy one and all these years she had stayed alone without a long term intimate relationship with a man. She ought to have lived a better life if her parents had enough money, but life didn't throw such an opportunity to her as some were given such an opportunity on a platter of gold.

When she started her business, of owning a small restaurant which is still thriving, she leaped for joy fully aware of the fact that it will put an end to prostitution in her life. After her mother had gone out Lovelyn sat on the floor, as her mind went down memory lane of the long years of pain that her mother suffered, her mother Lynette who was a sex worker at a time in their lives would leave them all day to themselves as most times she came back at the middle of the night after a whole day Job of sleeping around with men. Lovelyn sometimes would come home with her siblings after school to see her in bed with a man. One day she brought a man home, whom she said was to spend some time with them. Lovelyn felt uncomfortable with the new development but had no choice than to comply with her mother's new resolution. The man whom Lovelyn suspected was one of her mother's lover went on with the indecent act of bringing different ladies, to the room whom he slept with and eventually squandered money on them of which Lynette discovered was her money. On one occasion Lynette had caught him but had decided to ignore his actions, until he finally made away with a sum of money that was her's. Growing up for her wasn't easy although she appreciated the support of her mother in putting her best that they had food on the table, the loving tenderness, attention and cravings given to a child by a mother had always been in her but was never given. They barely had a proper talk without ending in a fight which was becoming unbearable to her nowadays, and the persistent pressure from her mother to thrive to fend for herself was the push that led to a resultant effect of being among the street rogues. Her stomach began to rumble, she was hungry and felt a need to eat. She opened the wooden door which made a creaking sound as she made to exit. She walked down the crooked path passing uncompleted buildings, her pace stopped as a cry of a young girl came to her ears. She made a move to  continue but the faint cry of the girl came again. She decided to trace  were the sound was coming from and arrived at one of the buildings. Her eyes caught sight of a young man caressing the bosom of a young girl who was about twelve years old of age, Lovelyn's heart skipped as she felt angered. She slowly stepped back to avoid the attention of the man. She looked around for something to hit him, but could not find anything. She moved away from the position they were at the moment and went to one of the uncompleted buildings and found a wooden stick, walking back hurriedly to were they are. She tiptoed and looked inside the building, the man unaware of what was going to happen continued to molest the young girl who at the moment began to feel weak. Lovelyn hit him with the wooden stick causing him to stagger for sometime, he clenched his fist as he moved forward to give her a punch. Lovelyn hit him once again heavily which caused him to fall down.

Alarmed by the sight she immediately picked up the girl by the hand and walked very fast. Lovelyn looked around for a while to observe if the man was out of sight as she took a deep breath and stopped. 

"How did you know that man?" she questioned looking at the young girl who was shabbily dressed with a  brown coloured hair that looked unkempt.

"He sent me on an errand, and he asked me to follow him there which I did."

Lovelyn listened to her attentively and then spoke.

"Don't ever go on an errand for strangers okay."

The girl gave a nod signifying that she understood her.

"So were do you live?"

"I live at one of the wooden shacks with my family beside the market."

"Okay then let me take you home."

Lovelyn followed her to were she stayed, and ensured she was safe before going to the bar. The pains in her stomach increased, the thought of the food sold at the restaurant beside their house came into her mind. She was definitely very hungry and needed to eat something to avoid the pangs in her stomach. She went to one of the kiosk owners across the street and purchased a bottle of soda drink and a snack. The previous incident that had just occurred came into her mind as she felt pity for the young girl. 

 Time had been far spent and the bartender had told her the other day to be prompt. She gulped down, the cold soda drink which made her teeth to chatter for sometime. She shook the cold feeling off and hurriedly ate her snack as she began her journey to the bar. Her footsteps came to a halt as she was at the bar waiting patiently for the bartender to come. The loud sounds of men, who drank their beer and laughed in loud voices boomed. She was conscious of her environment, the bartender came out as he walked towards the direction of   were she stood, immediately without hesitation she greeted him. it took him a minute to organize himself properly before talking to her as he understood the reason for her visit and sort for the best approach on how to get her understand the risk involved in telling the boss the truth about Segun who had lost his life as a result of the raid carried out by some security officials who searched for individuals involved in criminal activities. It had affected their sales drastically on the substance they sold, and the boss had begun to suspect that something wasn't right. Lovelyn looked up at him as he drew one of the chairs and sat down. 

"Would you have a drink?" He questioned as she pulled a chair close to him and sat down. Lovelyn could not specifically think at the moment on what his reply would be considering how things had been going lately. She had not met the boss although she had been working for the bartender for sometime now. All she knew was getting the substance distributed properly without any mishap. The bar tender studied the bar and then made to speak, as he cocked his head low to avoid unnecessary suspicions by people around.

"Yes he is dead but we definitely cannot stop selling, the boss cannot find out that sales are dropping, you have to get someone to replace him." He paused as lovelyn drew closer to him to speak,

"I am glad you haven't stopped me from being involved but it's been difficult getting someone to replace Segun, and things are seeming to be quite difficult as security officials are making it difficult to penetrate the streets."

After a while of contemplating on what next move to make, she heaved and opted to be given sometime. The bartender turned and looked at her like one who was aroused from a nap.

"I will only give you a few days to get a replacement, and do that quickly." he said firmly