Chronicles Of A Runs Girl - S01 E17

2 years ago

Chronicles Of A Runs Girl - S01 E17

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 17

Midnight Shawarma

My phone wasn’t coming on. I paid the Okada man with all the money I had left. If I hadn’t taken a cab to Eko Hotel, or bought that expensive bottle of Coke, I’d still have enough money to get back home if by some extreme bad luck Johnny had been trying to call me, had come to Marocaine and not found me, and had gone back to the hotel.

I could walk the short distance back to the hotel but that would be asking for trouble. Enough girls have been arrested for prostitution just by walking alone at night. I didn’t want to add police bail to my financial problems.

As usual there was a queue at the Shawarma kiosk. This was good because it meant I could delay ordering till hopefully Johnny arrived. I took my phone apart again to see if I hadn’t dried it enough. A new phone was going to set me back more than I cared to even imagine.

Standing in queue, drying my phone, and looking around for Johnny’s face, I started to think of my life – the last few minutes of it; the madness, the mistakes, the hard choices, the poor parents, the constant brokenness. I felt like my life was coming loose at all its joints and the loose pieces were floating away from me and there was nothing I could do. I was losing control. I had lost control.

“Omoge, you dey cry?”

I looked to my side and there he was. I didn’t know I was crying. I flung my arms around him and buried my head in his neck.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” He gently pushed me off him to look at my face. “Why are you crying? I’ve been trying to call you since.”

“My phone is spoilt,” I said, and fresh tears rolled down.

“Your phone? Is that all?”

I nodded and started to laugh. I showed him the phone and told him how I’d spilled Maltina all over it at the Hotel.

“You silly girl!” I could see how relieved he was to find out it was only my phone.

“Let me see.” He took the phone from me and tried to take the battery out. I had to help him.

“But, how did you manage to pour Maltina on your phone? Your mouth dey lick?”

Even though he’s lived all his life in Nigeria, it still tickled me to hear him speak pidgin.

“You shouldn’t have tried to switch it on,” he said as he also had a go at drying the battery.

“If I don’t switch it on, how will you call me?”

“You have a point. But next time you pour water on your phone, or Maltina, just remove the battery and the sim card and put the phone in uncooked rice overnight.”

“Johnny! Rice?” I assumed he was pulling my legs as usual.

“Yes. It sounds funny, shey? But it works. The rice acts as an absorbent agent. I’m not kidding. Just put it in a bowl of rice, uncooked, make sure all of the phone is covered then wait till the next day.”

“Rice?”

“Omoge, have I ever lied to you?”

He sounded serious so my first instinct was to look around for uncooked rice. All around, there were young boys selling sweet, cigarettes, and condoms. Could they possibly have rice as well?

“What about Noodles?” I asked him.

He thought it was a joke so he laughed and I laughed as well. I kept looking for a rice seller then I saw the younger sister of the girl from Eko Hotel. My heart leapt. I quickly searched for her sister and the man. The couple were between two parked cars having what looked like an argument. I quickly turned away but not fast enough: the sister and I had made eye contact. Shit!

“Let’s forget the Shawarma and just go to the Hotel,” I told Johnny.

“Are you crazy? Make I forget my Shawarma?”

I looked and the sister was with the couple. She told them something then pointed at me. The way they all looked at me I knew it was only a matter of moments before they brought yanwa to me.

Someone who knew Johnny had seen him and they were now talking a few steps away from me. I wished I’d told him the truth about my phone. If these people come to cause trouble now he would know I lied to him and I would have a lot of explaining to do. For whatever reason, lying is always the first instinct with me, I’ve noticed this. Even when I don’t need to lie, I lie. Maybe it’s because I’m hiding so many secrets at any point in time and it’s always a safe bet to lie about everything in case I mistakenly reveal any of my skeletons. Anyway, this particular skeleton was now walking towards me.

The man caught up with his wife-to-be and struggled to hold her back. She looked at me as if she could kill me. He sister was standing beside them, arms folded across her chest, but I knew she was only waiting for her sister to start with me then she would join in and they would pull out my weave and tear my blouse.