AJ Cities Play free

The ladies' man in the box room

Tiny: Babatunde Olaoye

The smallest room, the emptiest pocket and the busiest door on June 12 Street. Nobody can explain it, least of all Benny.

Money talks, my brother. But it never listens. I listen.
Tiny
Lives
The box room ("Room 9"), Iloro House, No. 3 June 12 Street
From
Ilesa, in Osun State
Height
Six foot four, in a room you can touch both walls of
Owns
One good shirt, one bottle of cologne, a lot of debts
Visitors
At least one a day; sometimes two at once
Owes
The landlord, Benny, Chuks, and AJ for the iron

Babatunde Olaoye came to Lagos from Ilesa with a bag, a smile and no plan. He is the tallest man on June 12 Street and lives in its smallest room, so the street calls him Tiny. The room is the box room of Iloro House, the old storeroom by the back door, which the landlord rents out and calls "Room 9" so he can charge for it. Stand in the middle and you can touch both walls.

He has no job anyone can name: a little DJing at naming ceremonies when somebody lends him a speaker, modelling "for a brand that is coming", photographs for other people's pages. He owes the landlord, he owes Benny, he owes Chuks for food, and he borrows AJ's iron. He has one good shirt, washed every night and worn every day, and one bottle of cologne, used a drop at a time.

And yet somebody knocks on the box room door every day. They bring food, take him to church, buy him phone credit and sit with him on the veranda. Tara refuses to lie for him. Mr. Akin keeps count. Danger says his lines are cheap verses. Benny, who can sell anything to anyone, has studied him for a year and still cannot work out what he is selling. Tiny's own explanation is simple: he listens.

In the game

Tiny is not in the game yet. His box room is behind Iloro House, by the back door.

Tiny's Story

Babatunde Olaoye, the tallest man on June 12 Street, lives in its smallest room, so the street calls him Tiny. He came from Ilesa with a smile and no plan. He owes everybody in Iloro House, and still has a visitor every day. Then the money runs out, and somebody at Prizm starts asking what he hears.

  1. 1Room 9In a house with five older sisters, the boy who interrupts does not eat. Babatunde never interrupted. He ate very well.
  2. 2The Power Cut"Money talks, my brother. But it never listens. I listen."
  3. 3The Shirt"That one I'm not counting," said Mr. Akin. "That one is counting you."

Also on June 12 Street