The Music Deal (Episode 15)

Read Episode 14 HERE

She said she had a lecture by twelve. She bid me goodbye as we left the shop after the rain to different directions. If I knew what was going to happen next, I would have held on to her, maybe for a few more days. She called me later to tell me she was in school. She asked for my whereabouts and I told her I was at home. Doing what? Putting finishing touches to a new song I had just composed.

“Take it easy Kofo,” she said.

“Nothing good comes easy,” I said.

“That’s one of the reasons I love you,”

“What’s that?”

“You’re resilient and you have taught me to be too,” she said. I was touched. “And I’ll continue to love you no matter what happens.”

“What do you mean by ‘no matter what happens’?” I said. She waited a few seconds that felt like eternity.

“I mean even if they don’t like your songs like I do,” she said, “I’ll still love you and believe in you. Because I didn’t love you because of the songs but because of who you are.”

“They will like it, have a little bit of faith.”

“Maybe you’ll teach me that too?”

“I will,” I said, “happily.”

I called her early the next morning to ask when she would leave for Lagos. She would be leaving by nine. I asked her if she would like me to see her off. She said I should not worry myself. If I could see the future at the time, I would have done my best to prevent her from travelling. By nine, I called her and she was on her way to the motor park at Iwo Road.

Few minutes later, she called me that she was in the bus, at the Park. She would call me when she gets to Lagos. About thirty minutes later, I called to know her whereabouts. She was still in the bus but it was almost full, two more passengers.

I called her number thirty minutes later but it was unavailable. Maybe their bus had left the areas with network coverage. An hour later, it was the same reply from the network provider. Two, three, four hours later, it was still the same reply.

It was then that I realised that even though she had come to my house and lent me twenty thousand naira, I knew little about her. I knew none of her friends and had contact of nobody to call if I find it difficult to reach her. I called Peter’s number to ask if he had been in touch with her but his number was also unavailable.

I was worried. Has something happened to her? God forbid, has she been involved in an accident? I called her number and Peter’s continuously for six hours but the network  providers just kept the same unwanted reply ‘the number you’re trying to call is currently not available, please try again later.’

Later, the reply changed to ‘the number you’re trying to call is currently switched off, please try again later’ for both numbers. I was confused, what could be happening?

Few hours later, in the evening, when I had expected a message from Peter to tell me the address up to no avail, I was even more confused. How was I going to travel the next day if I didn’t know where to go? I lost motivation to pack my bag and returned to sit on my bed. And that voice whispered into my mind: what if these events had not been accidents but planned incidents? No it can’t be. I sent a text message to the two ‘Please call me when you get this message. It’s urgent.’

When I woke up the next morning, I had no missed call and the only message I had was my service provider telling me to subscribe to a caller tune. I called OJB’s number as a last resort but it was also switched off. I went to the bathroom, cleaned myself and prepared for my journey. Not to Lagos, but to her house, if it was ever her house.

To be continued