18.
In school, everyone was slowly buying the little android phones that were springing in Lagos. People said they were cheap but price was relative depending on one’s ability. Esosa had once tried to convince her mother about owning a phone, but the idea had been quickly dismissed because Ofure was concerned about completing the house rent before the irksome landlord came banging on their door. And so Esosa without a phone, had only the luxury of begging her course mates for a phone for a few minutes. She enjoyed android games and the distant world of social media that she was yet to understand. In church, some of the girls who had well to do parents came to Sunday school classes with android phones. One of them, Benita, whose father owned a factory, had an iPhone. Esosa’s eyes would get lost watching Benita take pictures with her phone. Sometimes, she would imitate the girls who pouted or stood in awkward positions for selfies. She had no phone to take pictures with and it troubled her greatly. The world of the sixteen-year-old seemed to have rocked from the sockets of sanity as her thought slowly became pregnant with thought of owning an android phone.
Soon, the sight of a phone became the hook that caught her attention. If she saw anyone holding a phone, she would walk over and stare through the person’s shoulders. It was this addiction that brought her to the world of Evans, a young man who had just moved in to a vacant one room apartment in their house.
When Evans noticed that the girl’s fancy, he played along. He let the girl feed her curiosity by watching him press the phone and sometimes, he made her day by letting her play games.
‘If you come to my house, I will show you how to use an android. I will put you on Facebook and let you watch videos on YouTube. Who knows? I can buy you a phone.’
Esosa knew what the man meant. She was young but she had grown up watching many of her childhood friend in the ghetto get pregnant and elope with poor strange men. She understood things her age should not grant her. And so, when Evans gave her this offer, she withdrew her attention. But the addiction was too strong to ignore and soon she began to convince herself to act in a way she deemed smart.
Her mother always came in late and her father always wandered around aimlessly. He never had time for the children. Plus, nothing bad was going to happen. Evans could not possible start a relationship with her knowing that both of them lived in the same house.
And so, one day, she defied the odds and her brother’s lingering gaze and went into Evans one room apartment to watch YouTube on the man’s android.