Kora

My phone churned again. It was the sixteenth time today and I had never been so irritated.

Why did he keep texting?

I couldn't help but ask myself every time the lights on my phone's screen came on and his name popped up. "Perv" that was how I saved the number of the stranger that kept calling me Mark even though I had explained to him that he had a wrong number. I turned back to my bed, with the only intention of ignoring his texts just as I did the whole of the day before and focusing on the mathematics equation in front of me which was kind of hard to concentrate on because he kept texting.

Yes,

I was taking maths classes now, thanks to my mum who thought it was better than staying at home doing nothing. It was better if I bettered myself before I got into NAUN next year. I still wasn't sure if I wanted to accept Peter's offer to help yet.

My phone churned again.

On God,
If I ever reached for my phone, I already prepared a head full of harsh words to throw in his face. I reached for my phone and then opened it. Straight to my messages.

"Hey Mark, please talk to me....."

"Mark I know this is you. I need you to text me back please. I need an address, there's someone I need you to find urgently. You remember right? The lady we talked about last week?"

"You promised to give me a feedback, I know you're only acting like this is not you because you're scared of getting caught. I won't get you into trouble, I promise."

Those were just a summary of all the messages I had gotten lately. Whoever he was, he was messing with the wrong girl and I was just about  to let him know.

"Don't you ever stop?"

I texted him back.
It delivered. I could see it. I held my breath, staring into my phone, anxiously waiting for him to read it and then reply. I had to put an end to whatever that was. I bit on my fingers nervously staring at the picture of me and Luke on my wallpaper.

Read!

He had opened the message and was trying to reply.

"Mark, thank God. I thought you were never going to send me a text. What's up?"

Scoff!

How many times did I have to say this over and over again?

"Look, I don't know who you are, but whoever it is, you have the wrong number. My name is Kora. Kora, not Mark. I have no idea who Mark is. The only Mark I know is a six year old boy who lives down my street." I didn't even know why I bothered to explain myself at that point.

"Come on man, listen. I promise, just do this for me one time. Do this for me and I'd never forget. I promise no one is going to know. I need to find her man. I need to find her before I get back. That could be the only chance I'd get to see her, from the airport."

What was this? How hard was my English? How hard were my words that he couldn't understand them? I was beginning to get so upset. So irritated. I hesitated. I hesitated for a while to find the right words. It was like there was this sudden silence that filled me right before...

"Are you really not Mark? You really don't know who he is do you? You're not Mark."

Thank God someone already got a hang of it.

"No. I'm not Mark. I've been trying to tell you this. I'm really sorry, I wish I could help you but I'm not the person you want me to be."

Crazy how I was being so nice all of a sudden. I guess I just felt there was some sort of pity fueling inside me at that moment, pity for him. I became so sad and sorry for reasons I didn't know of yet. Whoever he was, he sounded really desperate to find this Mark of a guy. It sounded really important he did.

"That's...I'm really sorry. I honestly thought you were him. I guess I got the number wrong."

That was exactly what I told him three times in the past. It was crazy he was only listening just now.

Silence.
He wasn't texting anymore. Good thing. I threw my phone back on my bed and turned back to my books.

Three hours later and I was already tired of solving math equations. I had no idea when I had fallen in my bed and shut my eyes for a second until I heard a loud beep. Another text. I groaned as I slowly reached for my phone, not bothering to sit up yet or open my eyes. I was too lazy to but I did when I raised my phone to my face. It was a text from him again, from the stranger who wouldn't stop texting. What did he want again?

"Hey,"

I rolled my eyes. I was really not in the mood to entertain him, especially if he was going to keep calling me by some name I didn't remember was mine. I dropped my hand and shut my eyes again, trying to go back to sleep. My phone beeped again and then again.

What on earth was wrong with him? Now this time, this time I was going to let him have it. I sat up quickly and pulled my phone to where I could see it. I opened my messages.

"I know this might sound crazy especially since you don't know me, but do you think you could help me with something really important? It's literally life and death."

Scoff.

I wasn't in the mood for this. I didn't know what exactly what game this stranger was trying to play but I honestly wasn't in the mood for it. How did he suddenly go from blowing up my phone to asking for favors? I didn't know him, he didn't know me. It just made no sense.

"What do you want?"

I must have lost what was left of my mind at that moment because why was I suddenly responding to this individual and caring about what it is he wanted to say to me? For all I know, he could be one of those people, one of those boys that just go around finding an excuse to text you after taking your number from someone else. The boys whose favorite lines were..
'I stole your number from my friend' and then they never tell you what friend it was.

But this one seemed very tricky because it didn't have the Nigerian Country code. I was guessing America or canada since it started with a +1, but I wasn't so sure. It wasn't like I have ever been abroad before anyway.

I was curious for some reason, bored too. A part of me just wanted to see what this one was all about.

"Do you think you could make a quick call to someone for me? You see, I am trying to find someone important and I don't know a lot of Nigerians that I could ask for favors from."

"Why can't you do it yourself?"

Silence,

Why wasn't he responding? Why was he taking forever to respond? I held my breath. Just who exactly was this person and why was he asking a stranger for help this way?

"It's complicated. My calls might be monitored. I can't make certain calls to nigeria from here."

Monitored?  Yeah right. Who was he and why would anyone try to monitor his calls? Did he work for a secret agency? Was he the president's son? Did he really expect me to buy that rubbish?

"Look, I know it sounds like a terrible lie but I promise, it's not what it looks like. He's just someone I really need to contact right now and it looks like his number isn't available on WhatsApp. I can only reach him through a phone call. It's just a phone call. I'm not going to bite, I promise."

I had to think this one through. It seemed sketchy but for some reason, I wasn't worried about it. If this was a scam, I didn't have anything to lose anyway. It was probably not, I'm guessing he was just some random loser trying to get my attention.

But what if he wasn't? What if this was someone that actually needed my help for some reason? Was I really just going to not help him? Was this about the person he was looking for earlier? The one he thought I was? Mark?

I exhaled.
Oh Kora, you just never know when to stop.

"Who am I calling and what do I tell him?" I texted back.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

I had never been so invested in a stranger's life the way I was in this one. I had done all he wanted and somehow helped him with an address from whoever it was he had asked me to get it from. No calls, no texts, I had to send the address via email to a rather strange email address because he preferred it that way. I had never met someone so secretive in my life. Apparently it didn't look like the number that texted me earlier even existed on chat anymore, seeing how I couldn't see his last seen date plus why wasn't he texting back now that he got what he wanted? Was I blocked?

Scoff.

So it was a scam then?
It really didn't feel like it. Everything felt so real. I spoke to the person he wanted and got the address he had asked for, the least he could have said was thank you.

I exhaled weakly and rolled on my back so I could look at the ceiling. Reading was useless anyway, not when I was barely concentrating on anything in front of me. Call me nosey or whatever but I couldn't help being concerned about it. Barely a day after and I just couldn't help but worry about it. I couldn't help myself, the past fifteen hours had to be the most thrilling moment of my life. It had been a while since I ever felt so useful, so needed. I enjoyed being delegated such an important task even if I had no idea what it was. It was thrilling and it distracted me. Too bad it was all for nothing.

Churn!

I had never been so excited to get a text so much. I turned around quickly and reached for my phone.

Who was that? Was it him?

I could feel a scowl appear on my face when I saw the text from an unsaved number on my phone. It was yet another international number, another +1, but it wasn't the same with the one he had texted me earlier.

"Hey," it said, "it's Jeremiah. I just wanted to thank you for your help earlier. Means a lot to me."

It had to be him.
So that was his name? Jeremiah?
cleared my throat and tucked my hair behind my ear just as I took position to type back a response. What was I going to say anyway? I had to be careful, I didn't want to seem too excited.

"You're texting with a different number?"

"Yeah, had to get rid of my old phone. Just in case,"

"In case it was being monitored?"

"Lol yeah,"

"And what makes you think that this one isn't?"

"I don't. It could be."

I took a deep breath, I needed it for what I was about to say.

"Am I supposed to believe any of this? That you're someone important enough to be kept an eye on this much? What are you? Who are you?"

"I wouldn't say I'm important, at least not in the way you put it but yeah, I just, my family is really weird, my father is really weird and he just does these things to put me in check I guess. He thinks I cause a lot of trouble."

"Well, I don't think he's wrong with that one."

"💀"

Silence

"Nice profile picture by the way, I think you're really pretty."

Scoff!

Oh no he didn't. I knew it. I just knew it. There was no way that could ever be a coincidence. It was it again. One of those moments a stranger got my number somehow and sent me a message and lie about how he got my number. There was no way this was a coincidence.

"You can't be serious."

How could he not see that the woman on my display picture was way older than me? my mother? I scoffed. Not that I could blame him. My mother had the same effect on everyone. People always thought we were sisters. Even in her late thirties, she still looked so beautiful and young. I couldn't blame him for trying to come up with such a flimsy reason to want to talk to me.

"I have a boyfriend."
Not that he asked. I just felt I had to let him know because I knew how it was going to end one way or the other. Even if Luke and I were miles apart from each other, I was still in love with him and we were both dedicated to making us work. I couldn't afford to be distracted by a mysterious stranger I met online.

"Easy there tiger." He texted back.
"It was just a harmless honest compliment."

I paused.
I didn't need to be so uptight. Maybe he was right, it wasn't that deep.

"You know, you can't keep texting random strangers for help. You could end up texting the wrong person one day. Whatever the situation is with your family, you should try to sort it out. Whatever the situation is, I'm sure they would understand, it might be harder if you were African."

"I'm Nigerian."

Was he serious? Was he really Nigerian? Had I really spent my entire day completely oblivious about this information? How was I supposed to know anyway? I didn't know anything about this mysterious person besides his name. I cleared my throat, this was getting really interesting. I took a position that didn't put too much pressure on my spine.

"You are?"

"Yup. Didn't take me for one?"

"I mean, can you blame me? You're the mysterious one not me."

"Fair enough lol. Well, if you want to know more about me you can ask, I do owe you that much at least after what you did."

Not like it was any of my business but my curiosity could never be contended with. I hated being in the dark about anything. I wanted to know, I was curious. I could have just called it a day and went about my day but I couldn't. Having a conversation with a stranger was better than going back to my books anyway. Besides, this was an opportunity that almost never happened to me.

"Where do you live?"

"New York, upper east side to be precise. Ever been to New York?"

"Not exactly. I don't exactly travel so much."

"That's fair."

"How are you so far from home though? The United States is Miles away from Nigeria. Are you American? Were you born there?"

"Not really, moved here some years ago, and yes, I'm American too."

"Oh really? Did you move with your parents?"

"Nope."

"You moved to reunite with them?"

"Nope. I live by myself. It's been that way for eight years."

"How old are you?"

"Nineteen."

How did that make any sense? How did he stay all by himself for so long? I didn't understand a thing. How was any of that normal.

"Don't you have parents?"

"Well, I'd like to think that I do. I mean, I did say it was complicated."

The more I knew about this boy, the more I wanted to know more about him. I had never heard a story like his before and he had barely told me his story.

"What about you? What's your story?"

I hesitated.
Oh I did have a story, but I wasn't sure it was one I had to tell him. Why did he have to ask?

"Kora? It's Kora right? Are you there?"

I blinked. Maybe that wasn't a bad idea after all. Having a new friend didn't look like a bad idea I mean, we weren't friends per say but he didn't know who I was or what I looked like. I also had a lot going on and had no one to talk to about them. It wasn't like I could talk to my mum and look was so busy with his classes. Maybe I could confide in a stranger, maybe I could let myself be distracted for a while.

Oh God Kora, what are you doing?

I shut my eyes for a second and then opened it. I must have lost my mind at that minute.

"Yes," I typed. "What do you want to know?"