"Do you want sun screen?"

"Sun screen? There nothing to screen."

"It will help prevent burns."

"What is left for the Sun to burn? As you can see I'm a black man."

She looked at me and smiled. "So you sure you can't get sunburn, skin cancer and all?"

"From where I come from, this is no Sun. So it's not the Sun that worries me, it's the cold when I stand in the shade."

"Where are you from?"

"Nigeria."

"You have a Jamaican accent."

"Jamaican accent? That's probably from the Jamaican toothpaste I used."

She laughed. "So how do you pronounce your name? Afro..."

"It's Afo-la-bi. But to make it easy for you, just call me Afro nappies."

She laughed. "You remind me of a former colleague. He is Jamaican and a little taller than you. But you are just as cheeky as him."

"Well, I'm always at your service."

She glanced at my left hand and shook her head. "You just broke my heart."

I smiled and looked away.

We were at the main entrance of a Prestigious Flower Show in London, and I was on ticket scanning duties. She was my supervisor for the day and had introduced herself as Kate. She was a lovely-looking white lady.

We had five lanes at the entrance and mine was the fifth.

I was manning a special lane which was close to the ticket office.

It was the lane for those referred from the other lanes to the ticket office, either because the scanner could not scan their tickets or didn’t have a ticket, so they had to pay/buy one.

Occasionally when the other scanning lanes were very busy, I would motion to some people come over to my lane to ease the traffic at the gate.

But I also had to be extra vigilant so that people without tickets and who were standing at the ticket office didn't sneak past me.

Kate moved up and down the lanes to the gate and back, to ensure everything ran smoothly.

It was all about customer service so it wasn't hard work for me. Besides, I never failed to compliment the people whose tickets I scanned. Most responded with smiles, some complimented me back, and a few decided to play deaf and mute. Well, it's all good, it comes with the job.

It was the second show of the day, which started at 3 p.m. Soon the number of people coming into the venue reduced.

Kate came over to me. "Control wants me to discharge three of the people scanning by half 5, which is 10 minutes from now."

Basically, longer hours meant more pay. "Okay, you're the boss," I responded.

"But I want to keep you here longer than that, because you are good."

"Your wish, my command."

"How long do you want to stay?"

"As long as you want."

"Can you stay till half 7?"

"I'm all yours."

She looked me in the eye, "Not with that ring on your finger."

I smiled.

She asked, "How long have you been married?"

"Over 10 years."

"She's lucky."

"Yeah, me too."

She stared into my eyes for a brief moment. Then she smiled and slowly walked away.

It was then I noticed that from the back, she is what a friend of mine would term "ẹṣin lòmó yẹn."

In other words, she had the backside of an African woman.

Oh Lord, lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself.

Signed
Olumide Holloway (King Olulu).