“Ta ni yen?”
“Your future daughter-in-law, Mummy.”
She smiled, exposing her decaying teeth, and patted him on the back.
“Well done o.”
Now the whole neighborhood has heard that he is going to marry one fine girl. They do not even know that she is rich too. Her daddy will give them somewhere to live, because he will not want his daughter to suffer in one “face me, I face you” apartment. He will even buy them a generator so that when the light goes, his child will not die from the heat. The only problem is, some of these girls who live on the island, they don’t know how to cook. But his mother can always teach her. Treasure will learn how to make beans the way his mother makes beans.
It is too hot to be outside, changing tire after tire, but he cannot afford to stop. He has made ₦5,000, but he will give some to Sammy, some to his mother. He turns his back on the sun and uses his shirt to dry his face. This heat can kill a person. But he must work in it. Thank God all this will change soon.
III
Treasure watches Patience and Bebi from the corner of her eye as she responds to the messages on her phone.
Bebi is refusing to go to sleep. This is what she does when her parents have gone out; she shows herself. She whines until you want to throw yourself off the balcony. It is past Bebi’s bedtime, but it is clear she will not shut up until she gets her way.
“Oya, do you want me to get your ball?” Patience asks.
The whining stops. Patience opens up her arms, and Bebi climbs into them. She is too big to be carried, but Patience still tries. The two of them head down the winding staircase to the first floor, where the playroom is, leaving Treasure free to roam the walk-in closet, deciding what outfit would best fit an autumn theme. Treasure fingers the pearls in the safe; she lifts them and places them on her neck, admiring herself in the mirror. They suit her. They seem to glow as they rest on her solid, dark skin. If she could, she would wear pearls every day. She searches for the matching earrings and puts them on, smiling at her reflection. Her followers would love this. A simple selfie would suffice. #nomakeup. After all, who needs makeup when you have pearls?
She cannot hear them in here. It is almost like being in another world. After she posts her selfie, she picks up the clothes thrown on the floor. As she folds them, she thinks about the ones she will wear and when.
When she gets to the playroom, Bebi and Patience are watching 101 Dalmatians again. Bebi barks along with the dogs. She cannot tell that they are not real. Treasure watches as Patience barks with her, getting Bebi even more excited. She walks in front of them, interrupting their view.
“Patience, take her to bed abeg.”
Patience’s eyes widen and she tugs at her ear, coercing Treasure into touching her own ear, where the pearl dangles. Treasure shrugs and turns, heading back to the dressing room. Can you blame her for forgetting? It is light and gentle. It feels as though it is a part of her. She removes the earrings and walks to the safe. It has locked her out. Is the number 3214 or 3124? She takes a gamble and it opens for her, allowing her to return the pearls. She closes the closet door behind her, and it disappears, giving the faint impression of being just a part of the wall.
IV
It is amazing how many hours in a day you can lose to Instagram. In the mornings, Treasure drags her feet because she has spent the night planning her captions for the following day. The photograph is three-quarters of the work, but you can’t afford to take a caption for granted. She has to come across as wise but lighthearted, wealthy but down-to-earth, no-nonsense but kind. Balance is key. It helps if you include #blessed, so your fans know that you are aware you have a lot but you are not taking it for granted. And even that you must not use too much. It is exhausting, and it is not even her day job. But someday, when she has more than ten thousand followers, she can hang up her hat and focus on what is really important.
“You put the location!” Patience cries.
“What?”
“In your post!”
Treasure opens the app and locates her latest post. There she is, drinking tea from the finest teacup the house has to offer; sure enough, the tag identifies the estate they live in. She quickly edits the post. There! The location is gone.
“You have to be more careful.”
“Calm down joh. It was only a few seconds. And it didn’t even have the road name or house number, just the estate address.”
Patience frowns. They are almost the same age, but Patience has the disapproving face of a much older woman. She is always judging and shaking her head. This is why her Instagram page has only forty-four followers, and forty of them are her family members. She is boring and dry. Most of the pictures are just close-ups of her face sporting the same big, crooked smile.
“What if someone saw?”
“No one saw.” She tries to distract Patience with, “Do you want me to take a picture of you? Maybe with the Fendi?”
“No oh. Abeg.”
“It’ll help you get more followers.”
“Will they pay my salary?”
“They can, when you have enough followers and you become an influencer.”
Treasure shows her all the influencers she follows, girls who have made it in life, who are traveling every other week and can afford to buy long human hair. @Sumbo4Life is in Dubai eating at a restaurant that has no floor! @Gbemi4.0 is sporting the latest iPhone and swimming underwater with it. @AmakaDoesntDisappoint has just revealed an engagement ring the size of a kidney stone. She cannot compete with these girls yet, but someday . . .
She does not notice when Patience shakes her head and walks away.
When she looks up from her phone, she realizes it is past the time for her to start making lunch. The kitchen is large, airy, a pleasure to cook in. And today she is invested because she wants to take pictures of the food before it leaves the kitchen. Monday is beans-and-dodo day. It isn’t the most attractive meal in the world, but it will get you the right type of attention from the men. There is nothing that screams wifey like a well-cooked Nigerian meal.
And the men have been messaging. Some of them are rude, some offensive, some a little obsessed with her. In front of Patience, she rolls her eyes and sighs. But she enjoys it, all of it. She even enjoys the insults she gives some of them, especially the ugly ones. Some guys have liver—they have nothing to offer her, not even a fine face, but they want to talk to her. She humors them in between her tasks. Now and again they send her money, which she accepts. It is not proper to send money back, and it is not her that will offend people up and down. So, she gives them her account number and says thank you. When they ask to see her, she tells them she is abroad, but maybe when she comes back. She engages them, just enough to keep them coming back for more. For all she knows, one of these men could be the key to her future. She is not like Patience, who is satisfied with her small day-to-day tasks. She is a #queen.
V
@Sho4Sure is scrolling through Instagram when Treasure’s post comes up. He sees the estate—Pious Estate, Lekki. Moments later it is gone, but not before he has taken the screenshot. He tells himself only he has seen it. Only he was meant to see it.
“Can I come?”
He looks at Sammy. The boy is growing up fast; he is almost at his shoulders. It is only when you look at Sammy’s face that you remember he is still a small pikin. But he will want to know women soon. And there are a lot of bad examples where they are from. It is best he sees how real courting is done.