Sometimes, you sit around waiting for that phone to ring and other times you dread for it to ring. When your phone beeps, it can either bring smiles to your face like a love struck teenager or a frown on the face with the force of a tornado.
My experience was worse than both of yours. I woke into a realization I had no airtime on my phone. The text message came so late and the venue of the interview was not clearly stated. I rushed out of my house into the next street to wake someone up in a nearby kiosk. The Muslim brother was not back from the mosque. I scrolled through the message again and couldn’t imagine I was offered the position of an admin officer in a company this big. Levels were changing gradually but I needed to be sure. I had ironed the skirt so well and the shirt was perfect. The combination of a powerful career woman was glanced at many times in the mirror before dawn. I can imagine what my office looks like. I have started calculating my interactive measures at work. All I was doing was to present myself as the best the company had ever had. The only problem I had was I had no shoes. It took ten minutes for Musa to come to his kiosk and I gallantly purchased in the tune of a hundred naira. I called the office and the description was given. With three buses to go through I would be there before eleven o clock but I need to beg Nike for her shoe first else the dream of working in chevron is no longer a reality..............
Her heart was racing like a raging storm as she stood staring blankly at the ceiling like someone who had just had an encounter with a ghost. It was all spinning out of control. Her once perfect life now seems like another person’s fantasy. It was all falling apart, she had hoped for this day not to come. A time when she will have to face it all. A time she will hear that voice from a place that now looks like a lifetime away. A voice that tormented her day and night for days unending. It was like a dream, or more like she was in a trance and she was saying a silent prayer for someone to wake her and say “hey what’s up with you? Wake up!” It was at that moment that the phone rang once again. At first, it sounded like it was from a play where she was a spectator and she wanted to ignore it but the obstinate manner in which the phone kept ringing brought her back to reality with a jolt. She picked the phone like a zombie. She was silent for a while because her voice seemed out the window at that moment. She however cajoled herself back and managed to speak into the receiver in what sounded like a whisper.
Emmy: Hello!
Lola: Hey girl, it’s me Lola. Are you alright?
Emmy: Oh Lola. Uhmmm …. Am okay!
Lola: Emmy, have you……….
Emmy: Yes, he… he (she broke down into tears with her voice cracking)
Lola: Ah! Ah! Sweetheart please calm down and talk to me.
Emmy: I…..I…..I tho….ught the nightmare was over. He swore he won’t come back.”
Lola: Hey! Now I am getting confused, who?
Emmy: Its Frank, he is back and….. (At this point she was talking fast).
Lola: Ehmmm! Slow down Emmy, I wasn’t talking about Frank, now let me understand, talk to me, what does he want? (Emmy could feel the agitation in her voice).
Emmy: He…… he called, he wants custody of Tosin.
Lola: What! You don’t mean it?
Emmy: Yes Lola, it will kill me………… I thought it was over, I have built my life around that boy, and I can’t let him go back to that monster…….. I can’t ……. Lola I… I ….
Lola: Sweetheart, breathe please.
Emmy: But you are privy of what happened in the past, you were there from the beginning of it all.
Lola: I know darling! But at this point, you have to calm down and think, let’s reasontogether. Have you told mama?
Emmy: No. You know the doctor said we should avoid anything that will upset her. It can trigger another episode. Besides, I just finished talking to him on phone when your call came in. my mind was in a state of quagmire.
Lola: Good! (heaves a sigh of relieve) please don’t tell mama for now, don’t even mention it to Shade, you know how she is, if she knows then the whole world knows and so does mama…..and we don’t want that to happen, do we?
Emmy: Alright I won’t.
Lola: Aha! Where is my superman?
Emmy: He followed the neighbour’s kids to the park. They went for Cynthia’s son’sbirthday party.
Lola: It’s strange that you didn’t go with them. I know the way you dot over that boy.
Emmy: I had this nagging headache and also piles of laundry to do, I told them to go ahead. Tolu went with them so they are safe.
Lola: Oh my poor darling! Please take some Aspirin and hold on for me I will be coming over. Give me like 30 minutes. I have to tell Isa to get me a cab. Deji went out with the car this morning.
Emmy: Thank you Lola, I will be home.
Lola: See you.
As Emmy dropped the receiver, she was taken aback to the one call that turned her life into a living nightmare in just a split second.
She was in Tosin’s room sorting his clothes out for laundry when the phone rang. She wanted to ignore it at first because she was not in any mood for any chat at that moment. She almost succeeded but the persistent shrill of the phone ringing could not let her focus. She made her way to the sitting room reluctantly cursing beneath her breath as she almost fell down when she tripped over some of Tosin’s toys.
Emmy: Hello.
Frank: Hi Emmy.
Emmy: Hey! Who is on the line? (with hesitation in her voice).
Frank: Come on lollipop (that’s what he used to call her) don’t tell me you have annihilated every memory of me?
Emmy: Fr…. Frank is that you? (Fear crept into her mind as her heart sank).
Frank: Yes lollipop it’s me, we need to talk, how can I see you?
Emmy: How did you get my number?
Frank: Come on, you know me; I always get what I want.
Emmy: So, what do you want? I don’t think we have anything to talk about. I thought you swore never to have anything to do with us in your life? Am sorry you can’t see me.
Frank: I think you will want to hear this.
Emmy: Then say it over the phone because I can’t stand you and you know that!
Frank: Emmy! (She could hear the firmness in his voice at this moment) I am filing for custody.
Emmy: (she felt the life draining out of her face, she felt like the carpet was being swept from under her feet) Please Frank don’t do this to me I beg of you, I thought you were gone for good? You swore to disappear from our lives.
Frank: Yes I did…. But things have changed. I want my boy.
Emmy was saying a silent prayer “Oh Lord! Let this be a dream, someone please pinch me”
Frank: Are you there?
Emmy: Ye… Ye…. Yes, I am.
Frank: I want to be in my son’s life.
Emmy: Your son? (Scuffs), when did you realize you have a son? , have you for one day in your atrocious life been a father to him? Do you even remember his name? Eh? Tell me…… (Getting really upset)
Frank: You can’t stop me; my mind is already made up.
Emmy: I swear on my life, if you come an inch close to my son, I will shoot you myself. (She was stomping her feet on the ground at this moment like someone hitting a mortal enemy).
Frank: Ha ha ha.
Emmy: Get off my phone and don’t ever call this number again, do you hear me? (Hervoice was really harsh and high at this point)
Frank: Emmy, Emmy, listen…….
She dropped the phone and it all became a blur.
When she got out of bed that morning, she was full of life and had so much hope but all seemed lost by virtue of that phone call from Frank. A conversation which lasted just a little above 2 minutes drained the life out of her.
That is what that little lifeless thing occupying a corner of your room or which you carry about with you (in the case of mobile phones) without any hassle can do to you when you get a call. It can bring you so much hope and on the other hand take that hope away in a split second. It can bring you joy and at the same time bring you sorrow (just like in the case of Emmy and Frank). It can cause you grieve or it can bring you comfort (In the case of Emmy and Lola)
That beep from the phone and the accompanying conversation, always brings about swing of emotions.
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