This is the story of two people brought together by fate. One single wrong dial of an unknown number led to a lifetime of love.
Elizabeth wasn't an outdoor person. She loved to stay home and play games, or spend her time sleeping. She was my cousin, and I cherished the time we spent together. When I started living with my cousins, I noticed that she was so much different from her siblings _she always kept to herself, but I tried to change that. I tried to encourage her to take a stroll in the evening, and she heeded my advice.
As of then, we barely knew how to use phones, and all did was to chat on 2go, but as time passed, I discovered another way to have fun with the little phone she had.
"Lizzy, let's try something." I suggested one day as we were on our evening stroll. "Dial any random number on your phone, and let's see if someone is actually using it."
"How did you even come up with this? What's your point?" She asked me, surprised that such thoughts crossed my mind.
"Well, I've been thinking about it. If I dialed any number that comes to my head, would there actually be someone that uses that number?"
"So what happens if someone uses the numbers you come up with?" She asked, still not getting my point.
"That means I'm a genius." We laughed at my statement, but we decided to try it anyways.
The first few times we tried dialing strange numbers, most times people with different languages picked, and when they called back, we'll say it was a wrong number. It was fun while it lasted until we made one call. The call that changed everything in the life of Elizabeth.
That day, we weren't even intending to call random strangers like we used to. Her mother had told her to call one of her uncles. We memorized the number, but when the time came to call the man, we missed one number. We couldn't go back to ask her mother because we feared she'd scold us since it had been long since she told us to call him. Elizabeth suddenly said she had remembered the number, and she dialed but the person that picked up the call sounded so different from her uncle. She quickly said it was a wrong number and ended the call, but it didn't end there.
Later that night, the person called back, and she apologized and said it was a wrong number, but the guy asked for her name and out of fear, she ended the call.
He called her back but she couldn't pick up because she felt he might have ill intentions towards her. Two days passed, but he kept calling and since we didn't know that a person's number could be blocked, we kept rejecting the calls. One day, I decided to pick up and scold him, but after screaming at him to let go and stop calling, he said he wanted to speak with my cousin. She hesitated for a moment, but they spoke later on.
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Weeks passed and I had already forgotten about the incident, and we had stopped calling strange numbers altogether as we didn't want the harassment to repeat itself. What I never imagined was that Elizabeth had kept in touch with this stranger.
I walked in on her one night, she was on a call and she spoke our dialect. I wondered who it could be because I knew very well that she rarely made friends. The call lasted for so long and I eventually slept off while waiting for her. The next day, I demanded answers. She didn't want to open up at first, but she eventually did, and from the smile that radiated on her face while she spoke, I knew my cousin was hooked. Hooked by a stranger she has never met, and to top it all, he was from one of the many communities in our village.
Some months later, Elizabeth barged into my room breathing like she had been chased.
"What's wrong?" I asked her.
"John is coming." She replied, sounding so out of breath.
It took a while for me to understand her, and when I did, my eyes widened with shock.
"Are you crazy? How could he come here?"
Elizabeth's parents were pastors, and very strict ones for that matter. The only boys that ever visited the house were either youths from the church, or their son's friends and we the ladies were not given the privilege to be friends with them.
Now, if a grown man were to show up at the house, we'd have a lot of questions to answer, and we weren't ready for that. I wanted to yell at her and tell her to cancel the appointment, but the look in her eyes showed she wanted to meet him. I came up with an idea to meet somewhere far from the house, and we made an excuse to go on an evening stroll when he arrived at our rendezvous point.
Elizabeth and her online boyfriend spent their first date in a school building because we couldn't risk bringing him home, and we couldn't take him to a hotel as we feared that someone who knew her parents might see us.
Strangely and luckily for her, the guy didn't complain. He only said he was happy we got good home training. He gave us money, and lots of goodies that we still couldn't take home. We smuggled in the ones we could hide, ate some on the way, and sadly, we disposed the rest.
As months turned into years, Elizabeth and John's love waxed even stronger. Elizabeth got into the university and it became easier for them to meet. He supported her through school, and supported me as well. I was the only witness to their relationship.
One evening, Elizabeth called and said John wanted to come see her parents. She was nervous about it because she had no way of telling how her parents would react.
"Lizzy, you're not a child anymore. Your parents can't control your actions anymore, and this is your life. You've known this guy for over 5years, and he's still interested in meeting your parents. Most guys would've ditched the girl by now, but he didn't. Instead, he has supported you, and has made you very comfortable. Introducing him to your parents is only right. They have no choice but to accept that you're a grown lady now, and you'll be responsible for your actions too."
After our conversation that evening, she decided to bring him to the house. She came home and told her parents about a friend she wanted to introduce to them. One week later, John visited the house for the first time since the 5 years they had been dating.
Her parents immediately took a liking to him, especially Elizabeth's father, and since John knew so much about history, the two spent time discussing the war and how good the world used to be. It was really nice to see them chatting away.
Some months later, John proposed and she accepted. They got married, and now, they are blessed with beautiful kids.
In the end, the one phone call that was a mistake, ended up in marriage.
It wasn't a regrettable mistake after all.