The Saturday ritual

I go to buy our ritual Saturday Hoummous and Zaatar from Amigos. Its early afternoon and they have run out of everything, including French sticks. So its off to Cherry's Bakery in Zone 4. A party of mostly American kids (or at least, kids with American accents) are playing in the garden by the Lebanese restaurant, gulping down fizzy drinks and eating suya-on-a-stick, celebrating someone's birthday. Inside the wakkis-esque shack, I order baba ghanoush and hoummous. I sit and wait, and play BrickBreaker on my crackberry. Nearby, a late middle-aged Lebanese guy sits next to a beautiful young Nigerian woman. She is perhaps 21 or 22. She looks over at me. Do I detect something doleful in her expression? Then she turns back to her table, and puts her hand on his leg. Their food arrives. The adolescent expats scream with fun nearby. Soon enough, my order comes and I pay. The birthday party's red plate 4x4's exit the compound in convoy as I walk to my car parked outside. Just beyond the gates, a tiny girl only in her underpants walks amidst the rubble of a demolished building. Its just another baking hot day in Abuja..