₦airaland Forum

rachealfst, nice one. I just bought 5 of your books on Okadabooks platform. Keep doing your thing.

Nice one Larry Sun. I just bought 6 of your books on Okadabooks. You are a great writer, keep doing your thing.

carloz685:
I just have to ask was he talking to you... Where you asked to comment..
Dude go get a life and Bleep off someone's back...

Don't mind the dude. I wonder what he is looking for in Literature section.

Yes, I want to motivate writers that have been consistently publishing novels/short stories over the years. All you have to qualify for this is to have at least 5 books on Okadabooks. That's all. Give me your pen name, and the list of your books, and I will buy them all. Deadline is 7pm tonight, and I need 4 authors that qualify for this.

If you know any authors that qualify for this, please drop their names here. Thanks.

Update- I have bought books from the 4 authors. Thread closed.

meobizy:
I think you should find Nnedi Okoroafor online and ask.
In this forum writers consider themselves lucky if they make 5,000 NGN from a story.
Most are content with nothing other than an 8,000 member thread view.
Your inquiry and what a lot of people here are happy with are worlds apart.

lol. Okay. Thanks.

Hello guys...I want to know if there is a way a Nigerian fiction writer can earn (consistently) $500 monthly? That is about N170,000. We have a lot of talented writers in this section, but through my research I found out we writers rarely earn decent income from our works. It is so sad.

I feel there should be a way for writers to earn something decent from their works consistently...at least if they consistently keep putting out novels. Please come up with suggestions, or if you know anyone that already earns that much or more. let us know how the person does it.

Chapter 13: The Rubber Band Effect (Part 1)

There was a UBA branch opposite the Art Block building on campus. It was next to the bookshop- a mesh fence cutting it off from the bookshop car park. Any time I had to pass through the place, I always prayed nothing would ever make me have to go in there, as there was always a long queue from inside the bank, all the way outside to the main entrance of the bank premises. The sight was always nightmarish.

This was 2002, not now where you had ATMs on every corner, and also had the option of mobile and Internet banking. Bank then, if you wanted to withdraw money, needed to send money to someone, or pay your school fees, you had to go into the banking hall. There was no way around it.

This particular Monday, I was rushing for a class I was already late for. From the famous Moremi Hall car park, I walked past the brown colored Bungalow QSS buildling to the sweet smell of freshly baked confectionaries, and then the smell of fresh paper hit me when I walked past the bookshop. I got to the main campus road, about to cross to the art block building when I heard a woman call my name. I turned around and saw it was my aunt. I cursed under my breath before I smiled and walked back to meet her by the UBA car park. My aunt Tayo was a nice old lady in her 60s that had worked at the admin section of University of Lagos’s Science Department since before I was born. She had tried unsuccessfully to get me into Unilag multiple times over the years, before my dad’s best friend at the time had gotten me in. This made her feel guilty, and she always wanted to know if there was anything I needed on campus. “Kunle, how are you? Bawo ni studies e.” She always mixed Yoruba and English whenever she was relating with me. She was wearing a grey coloured gown that looked great on her fit slender body.

“Studies are fine ma.” I replied with a forced smile on my face.

“I want to ask you some questions about your department.” She said, looking up at me from behind her thick glasses. She had a faraway look in her eyes, like she was trying to gather her thoughts.

“Okay ma.” I answered, wondering what she wanted to ask about.

“Come. I want to quickly do something in the bank. Hostel yen ko? Hope no problem?” She asked with her smile. She had worked out my accommodation for me, and was happy she could at least do something for me.

“No problem ma.” I followed her inside the bank, hoping she wasn’t going to join the long queue.

“Ehen, tell me the names of the lecturers in your department. I’m trying to work someone’s transfer from sciences to your department.” She said as we walked into the crowded banking hall.

“Umm. Professor…”

“I’m coming.” She said and hurried after a short-stocky man in black suit heading towards the restricted part of the banking hall. A green rubber band fell from the pile of documents she was holding, and I assumed a squatting position to pick it up. I didn’t know if it was of any real significance, but I held on to it while she chatted with the man. There were no vacant seats so I leaned on the wall, and watched the gloomy looks on the faces of all the people on the long queue happy I wasn’t one of them.

A few minutes later, my aunt walked up to me and we headed out of the bank. I guess the short man had helped with what she came to do at the bank.
I was naming the lecturers in my department as we walked out of the bank’s gate when she shouted out a name. A black VW Golf slowly came to a halt on the other side of the road and she ran off, saying she would see me another time. I watched her get into the car before I crossed the road, and hurried to class.

Students from another department were taking this course with us, and the lecture hall was filled by the time I got there. Sope, fair Kunle, Dare, and the rest of my friends were in front row seats. They had reserved a seat for me, and were waving me over, but I declined the offer. The place they were seated was quite tight, and I didn’t want to discomfort people trying to get to the seat. I moved to the back of the hall, got a good sitting position by the window, and dropped my bag on the table.

I sat in the noisy class, playing with the rubber band in my hand while we waited on the lecturer. I was so bored and restless that I tour out a sheet of paper from my exercise book and made a couple of paper ammunition for a rubber band catapult like I used to do as a kid. Then I stretched out the green rubber band with my thumb and index, placed the thick rolled paper ammunition on the rubber band and pulled back. I started moving my projectile around, looking for a target. Up ahead, I saw Bisi Sanmi smiling at me, wondering what I was doing. She was about 5 meters in front of me. I would position my hand like I was going to fire the projectile at her, and then I would pull away. She was smiling all through. Then I focused on her for a few seconds, seeing my missile hitting her left cheek. I held on to this position and was tempted to fire, but I held back. And then, I moved my hand about six inches from my target, and let go. Like in the movie Matrix, I watched my paper missile travel in slow motion, going off target at first, and then for some crazy reason, at the last meter stretch before Bisi, it changed course, heading directly for her. And then it hit her smack on the cheek.

She held on to her cheek as her smile disappeared, replaced by a frown. Just as I was about to get up and go apologize to her, the lecturer walked into the class.

Thanks guys...I can't believe the story has gotten over 10,000 views without getting to front page. I appreciate you all.

Chapter 12: Reconnecting with Temisan (Part 2)

We hugged, and as we disentangled from the embrace, we stood face to face for a few seconds, saying nothing, just smiling at each other. She had on a simple, black sleeveless gown and black leather flat sole shoes. I wonder why I had spent almost two semesters in Unilag, and I had not even seen her once till today, when her faculty was more or less behind mine. I don’t even know why I didn’t look for her all this while, then I remembered that I had had romantic encounters with almost half a dozen girls since I got admission into Unilag. I had been too preoccupied with those to remember her.

“Tosan told me you had gotten into Lag, but I didn’t know what department you were in.” She said as she brushed off hair from the front of her face. She was holding a green jotter that had Harry Potter’s face in the front. I guessed being in final year she probably had just one course for the day, unlike me that had like five every day. “So, what department are you in?” She said, and I realized I had been silent for far too long.

“Oh, sorry, I’m just really shocked seeing you. Let’s walk.” I said and we started walking towards the senate building, which stood between my department and hers. “So…how have you been? It’s been really long.” I said, turning around to look at her with a smile on my face. It was really cool walking with someone close to my height for a change. Most of the girls I had been involved with the last couple of months had been almost a foot shorter than me.

“I’m fine. Yea, it really has been long.” She said with a distant look in her eyes.

“When was the last time we saw?”

“I don’t know. I really can’t remember.”

“I think it was that one time I came to your house to invite Tosan for a party and…”

“Oh yea, I remember that day.” She cut in and laughed lightly. Actually, my visit to her house that day had almost cost me my friendship with Tosan.

After meeting Temisan for the first time at Felicia’s sister’s party and instantly forming a bond, we had seen a couple of more times, but I had not been in the rare form I had been in the night we first saw, and gradually, the magic between us had died. The day I had gone to invite Tosan for an impromptu party, she was not home, but I met Temisan and their brother in the living room. After finding out Tosan wasn’t home, I had wanted to leave immediately when Temisan complimented the silver watch I had on. I sat back on the other end of the long couch she was on, and ended up spending about an hour there. We talked about a lot of different things, but never about what went wrong between us. During the course of our discussion, she had asked why I always invited Tosan for my parties, and I said it was because Tosan liked parties. Temisan and her brother didn’t like that answer, and when Tosan got back that night, they had a discussion with her concerning what I had said. They must have made her believe I saw her only as a party animal and not a friend, because after that day, Tosan didn’t talk to me for months. I cherished the friendship that I had with Tosan, and this made me hate Temisan for telling her what I had said. I kept on going to see Felicia to help me apologize to Tosa, and ended up falling in love with Felicia in the process. That’s a story for another day.

Seeing Temisan in Unilag and remembering the promise we had made so many years ago brought back the magic of that night, and made us forget all the in between periods were I was being a wuss. We exchanged numbers when I got to the front of her department building. We hung out later that night behind the big art block building on campus; it was a car park, but after the car park, just before the swamp was a long line of food canteens made out of wood. We were in one of them, sipping coke, and catching up on old times- laughing at all the silly mistakes I had made over the years.

She told me she had failed a major course last semester, and would have to stay back for an extra semester after her mates graduate in a few months. I was amazed at her nonchalant attitude as she talked about this. I knew I would be depressed if I failed any courses- little did I know I was going to experience something similar in the near future.

When we went our separate ways that night, I just knew nothing would happen between us romantically anymore. I knew we would be good friends, but it wouldn’t go past that.

One short chapter coming up.

By the way, this story is going to have four parts...Year 1- Year 4. This is Year 1 (Book 1), and there are about 5-6 chapters left. Thanks for reading.

Olabantu:
Thanks bro, but can we start getting faster updates pls....

Bro, it isn't easy... It takes me between 5-7 hours to write a chapter...and since the mods in this section blackballed me and stopped pushing my stories to front page, i don't get motivated to write as i used too. The best I can do is twice a week. Please bear with me.

Adelodun24:
I've been waiting for this.

Thanks for being a loyal fan...I noticed you have been a fan since 2017. It is people like you that keep me writing.

Chapter 11: Reconnecting with Temisan (Part 1)

After the day I discovered what channel o was all about, I teased Joshua about it all the time. He was just a very unusual guy that did real weird things; like, he told me he was the best drummer in his church, but no one knew he smoked weed before climbing the stage to drum during night vigils. He also used to dress up real nice on Saturdays to crash parties at the Multipurpose Hall on campus. He asked me to tag along on multiple times, but I always turned down the offer, because I knew the day I joined him would be the day he gets caught. I just didn’t have mind for stuff like that, but I liked having Joshua around; there was never a dull moment with him.

School went on as usual, and we were getting closer to exam period. A lot more people had gotten phones now. Dare, my close friend had gotten a small, silver coloured Motorola phone with an Econet line. Omari had a Motorola Talkabout, and a couple of girls had also gotten phones too. A few weeks after Dare got his Motorola Sope got the same type with an Econet line. At the time, Econet was doing a promo. They had dropped their sim card price from eighteen thousand Naira to six thousand. The day Sope got his line he had gone out with thirty six thousand with the mind of getting six lines- one for him, two for his parents, two for his siblings, and the last one for me. Yea, that’s how great a friend Sope was. But the issue was that, he got to the Econet office a bit late, and they had run out of stock. So he had to buy from a reseller who sold at double the price, and he could only afford three lines.

A few weeks to the start of second semester exams, I went home for the weekend and discovered my mom had gotten another phone with an MTN line for a call centre business. I asked if I could take her other phone to school for a week, and she said no problem. So, there I was on a Sunny Monday morning, walking to class from the Moremi Hall call park, with my black Mitsubishi Trium Mars phone in my hand, feeling fly when I heard someone call my name from behind. I turned around and saw a tall and pretty girl walking towards me with a smile on her face. It was Temisan; a girl from my past.


Back in 1999

During the three years I spent at home before getting into Unilag, I had become famous for throwing parties at my house; the parties were organized by me, my brother, and a couple of our friends. The three things that made the parties successful were music, the elite crowd that attended, and girls. I was a music freak at the time, so I was always the DJ, and never disappointed. My brother knew the happening people in the area. And as for the girls, thanks to my two friends at the time, black skin beauties, Tosan, and Felicia, the parties never lacked girls. I had met Tosan first at a tutorial centre; she was a friend to my cousin who was living with me at the time. We became friend after she invited my cousin and I for her brother’s birthday party. Felicia had been at the party too, and then I found out later that she lived two streets away from mine. Any time Tosan came over to see Felicia, they would come over to my place, and our friendship grew.

At one of our crazy parties in 1999, I was arranging the white plastic chairs in my compound, anticipating guests when I heard a knock at the gate. I went over to open the gate and saw it was Tosan and Felicia, dressed up flashy like they were in the girl group, Destiny’s Child. We stood by the gate, talking about the party and when their friends would be arriving when a silver-coloured Volvo 740 drove up towards us with a girl behind the wheel. I was immediately drawn to her. Her hair was scatted, but in a sexy way. She was brown skinned, with pimples on her face, but she was still really pretty. The heavy sound of the Volvo engine filled the air. The car slowed down at my gate and with a poker face, she waved at us before driving off. The whole thing was so damn sexy to me at the time.

“Do you know that girl?” I asked them, still looking at the car as it drove off.

“Kunle, that’s my sister, Temisan. She just dropped us off.” Tosan said.

“Oh! I didn’t know you had an elder sister. Why didn’t you invite her for the party?” I said, turning around to face them. Tosan just rolled her eyes at me and walked into my compound.

“Kunleee.” Felicia said, hitting me on the head with her black handbag. “You like girls too much.”

We went in for the party, but I couldn’t get Temisan out of my head. It had been like a scene from a Hollywood romance movie. The fact that she was about my age, 17, pretty, and could drive really turned me on.

A few days after that particular party, I had to travel to Ibadan for WAEC GCE, but I kept in touch with Tosan via landline. I always asked about Temisan, but would say NO anytime she asked if she should handover the phone to her. I didn’t want our first conversation to be on the phone.

The day I wrote my last GCE paper was a Saturday, and my parents had a party in Ibadan that day. So, after attending the party, they came to my cousin’s house to pick me up for the trip back to Lagos. That same day was Felicia’s elder sister’s birthday party back in Lagos, and I just couldn’t wait to get back home.

Tosan and Felicia had come over to my house twice that day to check if I had gotten back from Ibadan, and the moment I got back, I started preparing for the party. I ironed my favourite shirt at the time; a deep blue long sleeve shirt, with double breast pocket. I wore that on charcoal black jeans and brown leather moccasins.

Even though I was a reserved guy, I was very popular in the area because of my elder brother, and as soon as I got to the party, people started greeting me, left right and centre. Felicia appeared from nowhere, gave me a hug, and disappeared. Seconds later, Tosan walked up to me, held me by the hand and led me into the house. I asked where she was taking me, but she didn’t hear over the loud music. We walked into the crowded living room, and I kept greeting people as we made our way to the back. Then, she stopped by a dark corner of the large living room with a single seater couch. There was a girl on braids and white bodycon gown on, sitting alone. When I looked closer, I saw it was Temisan. Tosan introduced us and walked away. I sat on the arm of the couch next to her. “Hi. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m glad we are finally meeting.” I said.

“Hope they were good things?” She replied and we kicked off the conversation from there.

I don’t think I had connected with anyone before the way I connected with her. For a shy kid, I did real great that night. The day was just so magical; one of those rare days that my shyness goes on leave, and let’s me be bold and confident.

I didn’t get up from where I sat with her throughout my stay at the party. Felicia and Tosan checked up on us every once in a while; they got us drinks, food, small chops and every other thing we requested. Those two girls played cupid that day. They were just so happy to see me with a girl that I liked. Temisan and I talked about any and everything. I was blown away when she told me she had been driving since she was 13. Being the first born, her dad wanted her to be very responsible and he thought her a lot of things at a very early age.

While walking her to the bus stop after the party that night, we spoke about the future. She had already gotten admission into University of Lagos to study Business Admin. But I hadn’t passed all my WAEC subjects yet, so we made a pact that she would wait for me, and not date anyone till I got in the following year. I must have made a strong impression on her that night for her to agree to something like that. She gave me a hug at the bus stop before getting into the bus, and for months afterwards, I had her scent in my head.

She resumed at Unilag a few weeks after that party, and we lost contact. I would pass word of mouth messages to her through Tosan; there was no GSM at the time, and no Internet, and as time passed, the communication reduced, till she became a distant memory.


Present Day

After finally getting into the University of Lagos three years later, here I was, face-to-face with Temisan- my old crush. She was in her final year, and I was a freaking Jambite.

dplordx:
Read this late into the night. Damn, you are good. Ever thought of going for writing contests? I mean international contests?

Thanks for the compliment. I really appreciate it.

About writing contests, I'm always on the lookout for them.

Next update will be on Saturday. Sorry for the delay.

OlufemiWhit:
All good boss...been very busy past few days...just read the val story tonight sef....good work....i feel i've read it before tho

Yeah... You must have read it when I posted it 2018 Valentine's Day... I just commented on it again this year cos I felt it didn't get enough reads/exposure last year.

OlufemiWhit:
Kay....wats good bro.....

I'm cool. How are you doing