14/10/2020
BABY CARRIER
"Madam, Se ti gbo Yoruba?" The unknown woman asked.
In this piece she'd be referred to as Iya Yoruba.
Olanma had just stepped unto the road where she was supposed to board a motorcycle or Maruwa and she held her baby in front of her with a carrier.
She stood, looking up and down the road, shifting her weight from one leg to the other and sometimes tapping impatiently. She was almost late for work.
From the left side of where she stood, Iya Yoruba also approached with her little son; whom she was obviously taking to school. She eyed Olanma and her baby surreptitiously, but the latter was quick to catch the glance. Iya Yoruba walked past Olanma and then took a spot by her right, also waiting for a means of taking her little boy to school. Once again she eyed Olanma who because she was still looking up and down the road, still caught the woman's stare. Olanma knew the woman had something to say and then, unable to hold it anymore, Iya Yoruba began...
"Madam, se ti gbo Yoruba?" Iya Yoruba asked.
"I don't understand Yoruba." Olanma said.
"Oh, OK, you don't hear Yoruba" Iya Yoruba repeated, paused a bit and said "You see, if you are going to survive well in this land you need to learn a bit of Yoruba."
Olanma stood, not listening to but hearing the woman talk.
"Sorry Madam, but it would have been better you back this baby"... This time, she caught Olanma's attention who looked at her, waiting for a lesson on why it would have been better for her to carry the baby on her back.
She knew one thing about carrying a baby on the back is that, it makes them sleep soundly, but whenever she had to go somewhere, she preferred holding her child in front of her because she would be able to see whatever is going on with her baby.
Yet again, Iya Yoruba said " It would have been better you back this baby".
Now, Olanma's patience had grown quite thin but with all the decorum she could muster she politely said "Don't worry madam".
" I am not worried". Iya Yoruba replied.
Now, she said the wrong thing to a woman who was running against time and feeling angry about it. Olanma vented the aggression against the ticking clock on the meddlesome woman.
"If you are not worried, then why are you being such a busy body?"
"Ah, madam, it is for your baby's good o".
" Look here madam, she is my baby and I know what is good for her, I choose how to carry her, so why don't you keep your advice for those who are interested in it because I am not!
Their small tiff drew the attention of other road users who came around to know what the problem was. Just then, Olanma's friend arrived on the scene and on getting wind of what really happened proceeded to lampoon the woman and some of the supporters she had garnered. Some stood saying in acquiescence; "Babies should be carried at the back, not the front"
"Do you all reason from your anuses?" Chiugo, Olanma's friend asked.
"Where did you carry your pregnancy, in front or at the back?" Chiugo asked again.
"If you are too idle that all you do is engage yourselves with other people's affairs then you're in for a shocker, because you'd die of frustration. So you'd better take a hike and if you won't, then sit on this" Chiugo said while shooting her mid finger in the air.
The 'back- the- baby" advocates were stunned into silence.
"I don't know, why these people have refused to think progressively. If you're on transit and you carry your baby in front, won't the baby be safer?" Olanma asked rhetorically.
As though waiting for a quarrel to happen and subside before showing up, a motorcycle rider came through. Iya Yoruba wanted hailed him first but disagreed with him over the cost of the fare. Olanma called him, negotiated with him and they agreed on a price. As she got on the motor bike, she looked back at Iya Yoruba as though she was saying "This is what poking your nose in my business can bring you".
The End.
