Those days were more fun than these days. There were no PS games, no social media and no Internet. For those who had TV, it displayed images in black-and-white or some other two colours! It was possible to convert a black-and-white TV to amber-coloured TV by using a translucent gum from the cashew tree to gum a thin amber-coloured polythene onto the TV screen. While that may seem like a complete waste of time to Nickelodeon children, it wasn't. It meant that you could watch something else but black-and-white images on the little box of a TV owned by your parents. Your confusion as to where the fun is in all of this is very much understandable, because you have not heard the whole story.
It was 1989 in Enugu, South East of Nigeria. Football was every child's favourite sport even though only one child owned a football at a time in the whole village. There were different types of football for different ages of boys. At Kalu's age at the time, what they played was the one called Felelee. It was made of rubber and was easily carried by the wind when kicked into the air. As such, playing with a felele was unpredictable. As a goal-keeper, you think you have the goal-post covered and suddenly the football changed direction and it is a goal. The next one is the one called Bladder, made of some kind of fibre. No one knew who named these things but the names were widely adopted. The last was the Original Bladder, which is the football everyone knows as football. Another interesting fact about playing football those days is that the owner of the ball can end the game any time he wanted without consulting any person and, one team never outmatched the other. The game ended when, for any reason, the owner of the ball got angry and took his ball away. Kalu always tried to own the ball because it ensured he had a place in one of the teams but he could not own the ball all the time.
Teams were formed in such a way that the teams are almost equally matched. Two best players would stand opposite each other and in turn choose one person each from the pool of players. It was only natural that the good players would be selected before the bad ones. Kalu was always the last to be chosen to play for any team, especially when he did not own the ball, and that meant that if the number of players were odd, Kalu would not play. There were two reasons for this: Kalu was overweight from all the pastries his mother gave him for lunch, and he was a bad player. As a result, Kalu was popular during lunch breaks but unpopular during football matches.
With time Kalu lost interest in football altogether . Football was the favourite sports in his school so the good players were everyone's favourite. Gradually but surely, Kalu found a way to make himself inconspicuous every time but lunch break when his classmates surrounded him to share his lunch he did not mind. With time, Kalu became borderline depressed because he did not have many friends in school. However, his feeling of being alone only lasted while he was in school for, at home he was still his mother's favourite and he had four siblings that were constantly in his business.
Kalu's school was about fifteen kilometers away from home. His father dropped him off on his way to work in the mornings. However, most afternoons, he had to take three buses to return home from school. He did not mind the distance but sometimes, he felt guilty having to spend the money his father gave him on the short distance of about two kilometers that led from his school to the bus terminal from where he would take the second bus. So, sometimes he walked. One afternoon, he had walked from his school to the bus terminal and found that there was no available buses going his direction. He stood there and while he waited, the most beautiful girl he had ever seen walked past on the other side of the terminal.
She had skin the colour of bronze and coal-black hair that was parted in the middle and braided into two plaits. She wore her school uniform, a white shirt with a bright red and brown checkered skirt and matching sandals. Kalu was transfixed on the spot where he stood and watched her pass. To behold her was to take courage. He suddenly wished that her bus would take forever to fill up and that his own bus would never arrive. When another bus blocked his view of her as she boarded the bus, he quickly ran and changed position to a place where he had a clearer view. He felt a strong urge to board that bus and follow her wherever she went. He had taken the first step when he remembered that he had no idea where the bus was headed and he might not have enough money to return. Or worse, he could get lost and have to appear in the dreaded national television where he would be eating biscuits as they announce him as a lost child.
Those days there was no better deterrent from wandering too far for children. But, I am no child, I am thirteen years old, he thought. As he debated these thoughts in his mind, the bus carrying the girl lurched slightly forward and began to move away. It was at that moment that the girl made eye-contact with him, smiled and waved. Kalu wanted to shout. He wanted to run and he wanted to stand in front of the bus. Anything to stop it from taking her away, but it was too late. She was gone.
Kalu stood there thinking of how he was going to live the rest of his life without seeing her again. He was certain that he had just missed a major chance for future happiness but this feeling made him all the more determined to find her again. From that day, everyday after school, he did not bother to stay back with his mates to play the usual football. Football is lame, anyway, he kidded himself. Everyday, he walked to the bus terminal where he had met the girl. Everyday, he went home more determined than the day before that he was going to find her. He wished she did not cover her blouse with the cardigan she wore. He would have been able to trace her to her school.
Kalu's mother was becoming increasingly worried about his weight loss. At first she watched his eating habits, but he was eating well. She took him to the hospital where they gave him a clean bill of health. Kalu felt better than he had felt in a long while except that he thought of nothing else but the girl on the bus. He spent the day thinking about her and writing her letters and he spent the nights dreaming about her, about holding her hands, about walking with her, about the dimple on her right cheek. He wondered many times if there was another dimple on the right cheek.
After standing at the bus terminal everyday for more than two years, he realized that he needed to do more. He convinced his father that he would like to be dropped off at that bus terminal every morning so he could walk to school with the rest of his classmates. His father could not have guessed the real reason for Kalu's request but he obliged.
The next day after Kalu started walking from the terminal to school, he saw a black SUV pull over on the other end of the terminal. He did not have to wait to see the person that stepped down from the vehicle to know that it was the girl of his dreams. He had imagined that scenario a million times but he still was not well prepared. Nothing prepared him for the grace with which he sailed towards him. The stakes were too high. Luckily for him, he did not have to do anything because she seemed to be walking straight to where he stood. He could not believe it. It turned out that she had been looking for him too.
"Hi," she said
"Hel-lo," he stuttered.
"That took you long enough," she said, "My name is Angie."
"Excuse me?"
"My name is Angie," she said again, smiling.
"No, I meant before that. You said something else before that," Kalu replied.
"I said, 'That took you long enough'," she replied still smiling.
Her smile seemed to calm him down a little. "Only 740 days. But wait, you remember me?"
"Of course I remember you. I admit you are much lighter now but you should have said 'hello' that first time around," she said, teasing him.
They could not stop talking that day. He walked her to school and she walked him back to his own school until both of their legs became tired. Getting to school early, being a good student, other people's opinion, all that faded in the presence of the connection they both felt. They were both sure of what they wanted - to be with each other but Kalu was young and Angie was younger to know what to do with those feelings. So they just did what came natural: spend as many hours together as they could.
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