Dear Steemians,
YOU ARE ABOUT READING A TRUE LIFE EXPERIENCE, SO GRAB A COLD DRINK, SIT BACK, READ AND ENJOY.
Lilian was sitting on the chair in the parlour with a sad face, her eyes were wet and you could see that she must have been sobbing even though she knew she was at fault. Her phone has just been seized by her aunt due to the fact that Lilian was too young to receive calls almost every minute from male folks. For Lilian, she had nothing to do with them. This was the time when etisalat gave you back every minute of call you receive so the more the calls you receive, the more the bonus. Lilian was a gregarious girl who would give any guy who asked her contact because she wanted the bonus. At this age Lilian was ignorant about a lot of things, All she did was read novels and browse the internet. Facebook and 2go were her best companion as she has just finished secondary school and was always at home. She would spend all her time online chatting with people she has never met, receiving calls from people she knows she would never have the chance to meet and making inspirational quotes and interesting articles on these sites.
" Lilian" her aunt called out, she quickly stood up and rushed into her aunt's room. She sat down on the bed as she saw her aunt sitting on the bed. She knew her aunt was ready for those long talks. "Lilian my dear, I'm doing this for you to be a better person, decent girls don't share their contacts to the world." she felt ashamed because her aunt was right and the fact that she even made her contact public on Facebook weighed her down even more. "I would change. She muttered. "Well, I would give you back your phone but if your phone keeps ringing every minute again, I would take it from you and smash it." As she was about taking the phone from her aunt, it rang. It was a message, Lilian became scared as she thought it was one of her 2go male friends texting as usual. "You see what I'm talking about? " her aunt complained. " if I open this message and it's from those good for nothing boys, you are not getting back your phone." Her aunt opened the message and it read thus :
**"Hi young woman, My name is Ayomide. I've been going through your profile on Facebook and your articles are very captivating and to think that you're very young to have written all that.. Please can i be your mentor?"**
Her aunt smiled and said "This isn't bad. This person means good" She gave her back the phone and warned her to be more careful. "God bless whoever has sent me that text" Lilian prayed in her heart, at least my aunt can now see that I'm also making use of the internet properly, she thought. She decided to call the person to say thanks. She dialed the number, it rang and became busy. She dialed again and it was the same thing. Then she got a text message. It was from Etisalat. Someone has just transfered airtime worth of N1,500 to her. She screamed and jumped up in amazement. Her aunt rushed out to know why she was so excited. "Someone just transfered N1,500 airtime to me". While they were still trying to figure out who did, her phone began to ring. She picked up and was terrified as the other end of the line was male. "hello Lilian" the voice echoed. But she couldn't even respond. "Lilian" the voice came from the phone again. "Oh! Hello" she replied. "how are you? My name is Ayomide, I saw your call but decided not to take it. I know you don't have airtime so I transferred some to you,hope you don't mind?" By this time her aunt was already dressed up to leave for her charismatic renewal meeting. "Thank you very much. I am very happy right now and I would enjoy your mentorship" she joked. The call continued as he started asking lots of questions about her. By now her aunt had already left and Lilian was left at home. She enjoyed talking to the person on the other end of the line. They continued talking and laughing until they reached the limit of minutes. He called again and they continued then he asked if she doesn't want to further her education and she explained how she wants to but can't afford the form. He requested for her account details. Lilian didn't even own an account yet. he then told her to send that of anybody she trusted which she did. While she was still talking on phone with ayomide, the person got an alert. Ayomide had sent a huge amount of money.
This was a period when those who used internet banking, Atm cards were the wealthy ones, a period when all the common man knows about banking was that it opens from Monday (8am-4pm) to Friday same time and you can withdraw and deposit money only through this process. Anyone who could do otherwise was very wealthy.
She thanked Ayomide and with tears in her eyes, she asked him why he was doing all those things for her. They became very close as they talked on phone everyday and chatted till late hours at night. He would tell her to always read her books and her bible and that whenever she needed anything, she shouldn't hesitate to call him. Before she goes to bed, she would go down on her knees and thank God for this new friend in her life. In the morning she would glow in smiles as her countenance was a very happy one.
That year she bought the form, sat for the exams but couldn't beat the cut off mark for law. Ayomide became her best friend. He was the first she would call to tell anything be it good or bad and he was always there for her. He would advice her, console her, pray with her and rejoice with her if the news was a good one. She later left the house for school as she started doing a pre-degree programme. All these while Ayomide was still in touch with her. He was still sending her money to buy books, foodstuffs and other things she needed for school. She started falling in love with this Stranger. Though he didn't seem a stranger to her anymore. Each time she requested to see him. He would always reply "You don't need this now. Face your studies". She became more curious. She wondered why he didn't want her to see him. Her friends have advised her earlier on that he was just a crippled wealthy man who was looking for a young girl to groom and then take as wife but she has dashed away this thought. Right now she considered it, what if they were right? What if Ayomide was really crippled.
She decided she was gonna ask him.
To be continued......