DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP

LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP – A Short Story.

 

I was welcomed by a mist of exhaust fumes as I stepped out of the Toyota Hiace bus I boarded from Lagos.

A unique scent saturated the air around there. It must have been that of harmattan giving way to heat waves with an unfamiliar twist. Heaved a sigh of relief when it dawned on me that I had finally arrived the city of Ilorin after a nearly six hours drive from Lagos.

Dead legs, as the ride was a long one, though not as long as my thirteen hour road trip from Calabar to Lagos. My right hand dived into the pocket and fished out my phone. Alas! It was 15:13:00hrs WAT of the day.

Feeling all stuffy and fatigued from the trip, I reached for my overused handkerchief in an attempt to wipe my face, as I try to gain some equilibrium.

The big question is… why was I at Ilorin? What could warrant this long distance journey?

First, I must appreciate my Nokia phone that stood by me through out to call Enene during and after the journey… the only reason for which I undertook the daunting trip.

She was having her National Youth Service at the time in Kwara state, having attended a private university, while I was an undergraduate of a federal university in fourth year, waiting for yet another long ASUU strike to be called off.

I had called earlier in the day to intimate her of my take-off from Lagos. I also called her intermittently during the journey informing her as I progressed, even though at some point network was completely unavailable.

Impatiently, I kept dialing Enene’s number. It wasn’t up to the fifth time before her voice came alive on the other end of the line.

“Hellooo sweetie, where are you? Have you arrived?” she said in a hush, sonorous and excited tone. I grinned with enthusiasm and a tentative sense of accomplishment at the sound of her voice. There was a certain mesmerizing quality, luster, and languorousness about this voice that I found alluring, arousing and soothing. It was the same voice that arrested my attention the very first time I heard it on that fateful night in March 2007.

 “I’ve just touched down” I said, raising my voice as loud as I could because of the noisy and crowded environment. “Hello hellooo, I can’t hear you well” she said. I raised my voice even louder but she kept on “hellooo hellooo” and then… network didn’t disappoint, as the line went off. The network was apparently bad. I tried to dial her number again but I was prompted by ‘number busy…’ on my Nokia touchlight phone— the one with a green screen.

Just as I was about to redial her number, her call came buzzing hard… you can guess the popular ringtone.

“Honimiii” I said as I picked up the call moving at a fast pace to a less noisy area. I proceeded to inform her that I had arrived safely at Maraba parking garage, which happened to be the terminus of the transport agency I travelled with. “Do you know the place?” I quizzed, and she answered affirmatively.

I went on trying to describe in detail how she could spot me, not forgetting to mention that I was standing right beneath a large worn out Coca-Cola billboard.

I also described my brown combat shorts, black T-shirt with a bold inscription of “The Godfather” in front, and my navy blue sling bag. “Alright!” She muttered with some excitement in a breathy voice that conveyed a childlike innocence and purity of mind. “I’m on my way” she said assuring, before the line went off.

The Waiting Hour…

While I stood there waiting for her to locate me, a couple of thoughts rushed through my mind like a slideshow on a power point presentation. Wow! I thought to myself… SO THE HOUR; THE MUCH ANTICIPATED HOUR HAS FINALLY COME.

A consistent backlog of long conversations on the phone made possible by MTN free night calls had culminated in this moment.

I recalled how it all started that fateful night on the phone; how we got along so fast, how we fell for each other, how we recounted similar life experiences, how we held ideals and worldviews that resonated, how I couldn’t stay a whole day without hearing her soothing voice, how I yearned for the day I’ll physically be with her, feel the texture of her lithe body and float on the cloud of her fragrance. She had told me in one of our many small talks that her preferred body lotion was Pears Baby, while her favorite deodorant and cologne were Nivea brand.

She was my gist partner; the one person in the world whom my vulnerabilities and secrets were safe with.

Our relationship made me realize the distinction between virtual and physical proximity; how some people share a physical space but mentally live in vastly different worlds, while some who are physically miles apart, share mental proximity–yet another paradox that pixelates the portrait of reality. I was grateful for the possibilities of mobile phone technology.

I drifted temporarily on the surfing board of echoes of past conversations that ended with banters like “yeye boy”, “yama yama boy”, “are you okay?”, “you are so naughty and silly”, “how many bottles of red wine have you had today?”

I was oblivious to the wide grin etched on my face while still looking out for my sweet heart, one so conspicuous that a young girl hawking pure water dashed towards me obviously thinking I called her. I shook my head in decline and she walked away a little disappointed.

Fifteen minutes passed, and then twenty minutes, and there was no sign of Enene. 

That was when I thought it wise to call her again to know the situation of her commute to pick me up. The phone rang through the first time and I got a “no answer” response on my end of the line. I sighed to a short-lived feeling of disappointment. 

A few minutes would idle by before I started getting a little worried and nervous. I dialed her number the third time and it finally went through to my delight. “What’s up?” I inquired, to which she responded “I’m on my way, I’m in a cab, I’ll soon be there.” I could hear the sound of heavy traffic at the background as she spoke to me, “I’m still waiting,” I muttered before I hung the call.

I heaved a sigh of relief and waited. In order not to be taken unawares, my eyes hovered in all directions looking out for my brown sugar.

Waiting Hour cum Mind Tricks…

 

Another ten minutes strutted past and I was about to call her again to know her position when I caught sight of a girl from a distance alighting from a taxi. The girl wore a blue jean skirt, a yellow blouse and a pair of casual leather slippers; she also wore a long hair extension and held a phone in her left hand.

My heart skipped at the sight and I almost went berserk. The girl walked as if towards me, then she turned and headed right. With a surprise look on my face I rushed to approach her to tell her I was the person she was looking for only to discover at a more scrutinizing glance that she was not Enene… She didn’t have the facial resemblance in the picture sent to me via e-mail. 

Besides I reasoned that she would have walked towards the Coca-Cola billboard I had earlier described, had she been the one. 

I also immediately recalled how Enene had told me earlier on, that she wore a black skirt, a yellow ‘flowery’ blouse and a pair of smart shoes. I reassured myself with those words.

Suddenly, I began to notice a lot of girls in black skirts, the only difference however, was that they were neither wearing smart shoes nor yellow flowery blouses.

A couple of them wore yellow blouses that were not flowery. I began to panic in my mind as I reasoned that perhaps my angel could have been one of those girls, but maybe for some inexplicable reason she had not exactly described what she actually wore.

At this point, the only way I could assure myself that I was not in a dilemma was to call her once again to ascertain the situation of things.

Amidst the panic and impatience of dialing her number I mistakenly dialed the account balance enquiry on my contact list, it read: YOUR XTRA-COOL BAL IS MAIN: N108.93. PLEASE NOTE THAT MTN TREASURE HUNT PROMO HAS ENDED WITH EFFECT FROM FEB 3RD 2009. THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING MTN.

I sighed briefly at the realization that the N750 worth of airtime I loaded as I was leaving Calabar the day before had been depleted to 108.93 Naira. That however wasn’t my major concern.

I exited the account balance window on my phone and was dialing Enene’s number when I saw a girl walk towards me, also wearing a black skirt, but this time she also had a pair of smart shoes and a yellow flowery blouse on; her hair was thinly braided though not extended beyond her neck. My heart skipped as I took a second look and her face was familiar. Our eyes met and there was an instant connection. I called out “Kedei” deliberately not calling her Enene which was my pet moniker for her.

With a mixture of surprise and excitement on her face, she responded in a whispering and uncertain tone “Owai?” and then it hit me like an hurricane, she was the one, and all I could hear in my mind was FINALLY!

Just like a movie scene, I saw myself move towards her in unmeasured steps. Our eyes were fixated on each other as we collided in a tight hug.

The whole world suddenly came to a standstill, The sound of traffic thinned out. The noisy chatter of commuters and passersby evanesced, and you could hear the sound of a feather drop. The highly anticipated moment had arrived, albeit more surreal than I imagined.

Suddenly the hot and sunny weather metamorphosed into a cloudy and dim weather, accompanied by intermittent sparks of lightning. We had been carried away in the euphoria that we did not immediately notice little pellets of rain. Heaven had sanctioned our rendezvous.

We quickly came to our senses when the rains increased in its intensity. Not minding the rains I drew her close and planted a kiss on her forehead which she rather received reverently. We then scurried away from the rain, squeezing and holding hands until we found shelter.

I couldn’t stop staring. Her picture didn’t contradict her actual looks in 3D. She had the demeanor of a sophisticated medieval ladylove; an epitome of a classy woman, an illustration of decency, graceful in her gait, with a certain allure that lay on the borderline of sexy. 

She reciprocated my gaze with long occasional glances piercing through my soul with intense admiration as we exchanged seemingly endless pleasantries.

Just as it was about time for me to whisper captivating words I had carefully curated in her ears…I realized my eyes were itchy and blurry, even though I tried so hard to fight reality… it dawned on me when I found out I was in bed, in my room in Calabar, and my eyes suddenly met the rotating fan hanging from the ceiling, as if contemplating a free fall on me.

It now occurred to me that I had been dreaming. 

Wow! checked the time and it was 05:10 AM.

However, I tried to convince myself that what I had been through was not one of my recurring lucid dreams, but the more I tried the more the reality hit me with a vengeance. I made an attempt to induce myself back to sleep so that I could continue from where I stopped but sleep eluded me. I laid still replaying the dream in my mind until dawn.

Alas! A long distance relationship only lasted in my dreams.

© Owai King Ibe