Coffee Beans

I wrote this in 2013 randomly. It's about a young girl stuck in a toxic relationship. I never quite got to completing it.

Amina received the cash payment gratefully, managing to flash a smile to the paying customer even with the pain in her jaw. She muttered a blessing and the customer smiled, walking away contempt with the bread loaf as she sat down back on the orange plastic chair in front of the table containing the goods, fanning herself slowly with the rolled up newspaper she had found earlier in the week.

With the cold weather settling in she would be sure that there would be a rise in profits from the business and she couldn’t help but be happy, in spite of everything she had been through. She watched as cars drove past, bicycles were ridden by traders and other people with their small businesses called customers to them, promising great profits and bargains.

She slipped her dainty dark feet out of the tattered flip flops she had bought a long time ago and let the bottom of her feet to massage the soft earth beneath them, taking a deep breath and trying to find peace within herself.

Anytime now she knew Abu would come along to disturb her peaceful day, probably half drunk from visiting the local pepper soup joint and having a few beers with his good for nothing construction co-workers. They would make fun of her and demand several things without feeling the need to pay, and her being helpless wouldn’t be able to stop them from snatching loaves of bread and wasting them right before her.

She let out a sigh and slipped her feet back into the slippers before shuffling to the small kerosene stove she always had by her side and using the matches to ignite it, preparing for the afternoon’s portion of customers.

The laughter of young girls hit her ears and struck her heart greatly as she knew she would never be as free as them. Snatched away from the safety of a loving household at a young age and thrust into a dirty, wicked, despicable world she had learned a lot of things the hard way, especially living under the same tattered roof as Abu.

Her eyes wandered above the table as she placed the kettle filled with cool water on the fire and spotted the girls who were laughing. They held large notebooks to their chests and shared private jokes, enjoying the spoils of young life and education while dressed in casual outfits meaning they probably came down from the local school.

Before they could spot her she averted her eyes to another direction and heard the approaching footsteps, looking up to see the same girls asking for the price of cups of coffee and loaves of bread. Amina gladly told them, feeling like she had to cherish this moment talking to people who were probably more literate than anyone she had ever met. She admired their manicured nails and their well-styled hair and the crease-free outfits they had on, with makeup on point and eyes waiting for her to fill their orders with gold earrings glimmering in the sunlight of the coming afternoon.

‘’ Here is the money, please hurry up we have to get back to lectures,’’ The one on the left said, looking impatient from her facial expression as Amina grabbed the money and nodded.

‘’ I will not take a long time, please be patient,’’ She pleaded, and the girls nodded before walking away to sit on a long wooden bench near the umbrella of a recharge card seller. How she wished she could snatch a five hundred Naira card and call home, how she yearned for that kind of luxury.

‘’ Fine girls, how are you today?’’ The familiar leer sent Amina into a short panic before she tried to keep calm. Her eyes skilfully moved to the side, catching a glimpse of George, one of Abu’s friends from the construction site.

‘’ Abeg please,’’ the girl that had asked me to hurry up hissed while giving dirty looks to George.

‘’ Ah, see this one doing shakara like she’s above every other person. Please, you’re never going to get a husband with that nonsense attitude so drop It,’’

‘’ Did I tell you I am interested in marriage? Carry your drunk self far away from me and my friend,’’

‘’ Your father did not bring you up well, do I look like your mate? I am well enough to pay your whole bride price, then when you’re living with me you won’t dare open your filthy mouth to talk nonsense. Just because you are doing your studies at the university, what is that?’’

In that moment Amina had finished making the coffee and had set the loaves of bread out, as the friend of the girl who was arguing with George pulled her up and towards the stall, leaving George following both of them with his eyes trained on their backsides like the prude he was.

‘’ Let’s leave here before this illiterate goat opens his dirty mouth again,’’ She said with an annoyed tone, causing her friend to rush with her coffee before giving a smile.

‘’ You and him will probably get married one day, all this fighting and arguing is just love forming o,’’ The other friend who was lighter skinned commented, earning a hiss.

‘’ You’re not serious,’’ She warned her friend, then turned back to me with a small smile ‘’ I don’t know how you do It with your business here, but at least you are fed at the end of the day right? The coffee was very nice, I will recommend it to my other friends,’’ She promised before they both set off, walking at a fast pace.

George had sat down under the shade of the recharge card sellers’ umbrella and was chatting away, probably waiting for Abu himself to show up. The recharge sellers’ radio was cranked high and naked children gathered to dance with a lot of laughter. It warmed her heart to watch them having fun and appreciating life.

She turned her attention to the little boy tugging at her faded wrapper and then picked him up with a smile, placing him on her lap.

‘’ Kwekwe, how are you? Are you hungry?’’ Kwekwe nodded, eyes big and looking hopeful but seeming to be small orbs on a large head. Kwekwe was one of the barely clothed kids that weren’t supervised, left to roam about. Some of the kids were homeless and some had parents who sent them into the busy place to beg for food or find anything that would get them something to eat.

Amina had found Kwekwe trying to steal one of her loaves of breads but looking curiously at the jar of coffee on the small table and had felt sad when seeing the way his bones stuck out. He was like a living dead person, and had filled a part of her heart.

‘’ Don’t worry, I will find you—,’’

‘’ Find him what?’’ A bitter voice came out almost as an animalistic growl as she felt her body go stiff, breathing becoming uneasy, as she was afraid to look into the bloodshot eyes of the man she had to call her husband.

Abu.