Donigspain - S01 E68

Story 2 years ago

Donigspain - S01 E68

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 68

I returned to Aba on Wednesday

the 16th of December only to see

several of our relations gathered

in our house. They were mostly

from my maternal side. I learnt

they had come for the traditional

condolence ‘keeping watch’ with

the bereaved. Their presence

though welcomed posed a little

discomfort to my type of person

who prefers being alone with

enough space and so I spent

more daytime outside the house

only to come back in the night to

lay my head until the next

morning.

I was sitting with a few of my

neighbourhood guys on

Thursday afternoon when our

discussion swerved into the

world of girls and relationship.

One of the guys named Timothy

prided himself of having many

girlfriends. According to him, he

has got so many female contacts

on his phone that he is even

considering sharing it. The other

guys were busy hailing him to

call out the numbers for them

and he did called out a few

numbers.

.

“E be like Spain no get moral dats

why he no just dey interested for

the matter,” Timothy had said on

noticing my lack of interest in

their jamboree.

.

His assertion attracted many

supporters and they all began

taunting me. One even said he

had never seen me with a girl

before and so believed I lacked

the courage and swag to

approach a girl. ‘Chai, me of all

people. Me wey be Ronaldo

Delima for woman matter. Which

girl be dat wey go give me ear

for 30 seconds and no go fall

yakata?’ I thought within but

they visibly saw me shook my

head many times.

.

“If you think say you get moral

oya see this number. We go like

make you prove yourself to us,”

Timothy challenged while others

chorused “prove am” in

agreement to the challenge.

“I no need to prove anything for

you guys but if una insist then no

wahala,” I said in resignation to

peer pressure.

“080656014** her name na

comfort,” Timothy added as he

called out the number for me. I

keyed the number into my phone

and saved it with ‘Comfort

Project’. Even though I had

accepted the number but I was

not anxious to prove myself to

anybody. I only accepted the

challenge in order to save myself

from further taunts. I left them

after a while. I had called Mike

and informed him of my return

to Aba and he instantly made up

his mind to come back on

Saturday.

.

A friend invited me to their

church’s tarry-night programme

which was scheduled to hold on

Friday the 18th of December. It

was not in my character to go to

just any church’s programme

and more importantly a night

one at that but I accepted based

on the discomfort I was

experiencing at home. I was able

to convince my parents about it

even though they were skeptical

at first but my well crafted

storyline did the magic. We left

for the church programme

around 8:45pm on that Friday

night. My friend had wanted me

to help out with any of jazz band

or piano in the musical

department but I declined. My

spirit had suddenly grown cold

on arrival at the church. All I

prayed for was for the

programme to be finished on

time so I can have a good sleep.

‘Thank God they have a spacious

compound. That means I will kill

time with MTN free midnight call

till the end of the programme,’ I

concluded.

.

At exactly 12:30am I went

outside into the church’s

premises and chose a very

secluded corner where the

blazing voice of the pastor from

the mega speakers will not

interrupt my calls. The first

person I dialed her number was

Ifeoma. It rang for a while

without her answering the call.

Next was Nasa but her phone

was switched off. I called

another male friend of mine and

we spoke for a few minutes

before he told me he needed to

call his girlfriend. I was about

switching off my phone for the

night when I remembered the

number I collected from timothy.

Since I needed company I dialed

the number and waited as it

rang. It was picked after the

third ‘beep beep’ sound exclusive

to the MTN network.

.

“Hello,” said a tiny voice from the

other end of the line.

“Yea, Hello Lovina. Sorry to

disturb you this night just that I

needed to get you informed that

I will be submitting the

assignments to the lecturer this

morning. Just try and pass yours

across to me as early as possible.

Goodnight and thank you for

your time’ I cunningly said in

quick succession.

“Wait! Wait!! Wait!!! I think this is

a wrong number,” the tiny voice

ignorantly corrected.

“What do you mean wrong

number? I collected this number

from David earlier today and I’m

sure I typed it correctly,” I

insisted while faking surprise.

“Please check the number again.

You’ll see there must be a

mistake,” the owner of the tiny

voice suggested.

“Ok, let me check it. I’ll call back,”

I said before disconnecting the

call.

I knew exactly what I had done. I

had in few seconds marketed

myself as an important student in

the tertiary institution with the

statement enclosed in bracket

(I will be submitting the

assignments to the lecturer)

as well as passed the impression

that I had wrongly called her

number instead of the original

person I had intended to reach.

.

I waited a few minutes before I

called her back. This time she

picked up the call at the first

beep. It was a good sign that my

tactic of placing her in

anticipation of my call worked.

“Hello, oh my dear I’m very sorry

to have inconvenienced you with

my carelessness. I made a

mistake with a number,” I had

apologized immediately she

answered the call.

“No problem, hope you have

briefed the person because I

think it’s an important message,”

she inquired.

“Yea, I did and I must also thank

you for your patience. Most

people would have rudely cut off

the call,” I feigned appreciation.

“You’re welcome,” she replied

jovially.

“Before we say goodbyes may I

know who this good Samaritan

is?” I asked with a little flattery.

“My name is comfort. I’m from

Enugu state but my parents stay

in Aba,” she answered.

The last word was all that I

needed to hit the ‘jackpot’.

“Ohh really? Wow! Can you

imagine? Hmmm, it’s really a

small world indeed. My parents

also live in Aba. In fact, I was

born and bred there before I

gained admission into ESUT; your

home state university,” I shouted

while pretending to have been

surprised by the scripted

coincidence.

.

She as noticeably happy with the

development which got her more

interested in getting to know me.

I introduced myself fully and she

did same. We talk for over two

hours while I continued playing

out my calculated schemes.

The

chat ended up with an

agreement on a blind date. We

scheduled it to hold on the 20th

of December because I lied to her

that I would be returning to Aba

later that day after I must have

submitted the assignments to

the lecturer. Unknown to her, she

was talking to someone who is

presently in the same city with

her – just two kilometers apart.

Sunday is the day I will come face

to face with her. Sunday is the

appointed day to unwrap the

parcel.