Three delicious fantastic memorable fun filled years passed in a hurry and it was time for our industrial training, so we both left for our homes. I came back home. She didn’t go anywhere far. She was an indigene of Udi LGA there in Enugu. When I got home, my peeps were so excited to see me. I got back with a better bank account than ever, so there was a lot of celebrations and jubilations. With time I started missing Ogechi. Though we talked and talked on phone, yet it didn’t seem enough. We proceeded to Skype calls, and that was a bit okay for a while since I got to see her beautiful face daily.
During one of our calls, she told me that one of her relatives who stayed in Ghana had invited her to come over there, promising to get her fixed up in a cinema for her industrial training, and she was set to leave in two weeks.
Hmm, na wa o. Must you go to Ghana for I.T? I asked.
‘Of course not! But that seems to be where there is an opening at the moment. I wouldn’t want to be far from you. But if all efforts to find an alternative turns out futile, I guess I have no choice’, she said.
Okay, I understand. Next thing she said was; I have to see you before I leave to Ghana.
Definitely! I replied.
So how is it gonna be? She asked.
‘Would you mind coming over here’?
‘Alright’. We fixed a date for our little get together before her journey.
Just one week to the day of our meeting I got a call from her, saying that Ck, the singer, who was then at the United States Of America, asked her to come over to the US for a song he was recording.
According to Ck, the Americans loved that music so much, but critics said a woman’s voice would spice it up all the more, so he decided to call on Ogechi who had once done excellently and attracted a lot of thumbs up. Out of all the female singers Ck knew, it was Ogechi he decided to call on to feature him. Not even the American female singers impressed Ck as much as Ogechi did. And the song had to be recorded as soon as possible, so Ogechi had to be in the United States in three days’ time to be back in Nigerian after her deal with Ck before heading to Ghana for her IT. So I was only waiting for her to finish up there and come back so that we could meet before she left for Ghana.
She left for US in three days. We continued our audio and video calls all the while.
The song she did with Ck, titled; VOICE IN MY GENERATION was trending highly on TV and radio stations both home and abroad. She had spent three months there already and there was no sign that she was returning anytime soon. She soon got famous to an extent and created her own website in order to reach out to her fans.
One day she called me and asked if we could communicate via BBM. Her reason was that she didn’t want to draw the press’s attention to herself before they documented her conversation in the newspapers since she had become a little bit famous and was mostly in the midst of other really famous singers. So we switched to BBM, and this was our conversation;
‘Hi baby’ she greeted
‘Hi. Still glowing as usual. Your dp says it all’ I complemented
‘Hahaha, I only get like that when I think of you’
‘Wow!! You must have been thinking of me the whole time then’ I said.
‘You are not far from the truth. I really have’
‘I miss you too, beautiful. What’s been happening?’ I asked
‘Nothing much, It’s just the songs and the performances’
‘You need not say. It’s all over TV and radio stations here. ‘Ck featuring Oge’. Why did you make Oge your stage name?’
‘The Americans find it a bit difficult to pronounce Ogechi, so I made it short for their sake, and now it’s everywhere’
‘Everywhere indeed. What about the song you did with Ck? I don’t seem to find it on the internet’
‘It is’ she said.
‘Well, I’ve been searching for it endlessly yet couldn’t find it. Can you give the link please? I want to have it in my phone so that I can listen to it anytime’
‘Okay. Here is the link; http://m.naijapals.com/music.php?id=40459
‘Alright. I’ll download it right after now. So when are you coming back home to me?’
‘Actually, that’s why I called for this conversation’
‘Oh really? I get the feeling you’re coming soon. That’s what you want to tell me right?’
‘Eehm.., on the contrary, I won’t be coming home anytime soon. Ck has been booked to sing at various places already, and the bookings will keep coming. As his backup singer, I need to go with him everywhere he goes. From the look of things, I might not be coming home till the period for our Industrial Training is over’
‘What?’ I exclaimed.
‘Yes dear. I really wish there was something I could do to avert this. But as it stands, I’ll have to go along with everything that is happening.
(Still finding what she said hard to believe) ‘Are you serious about this?’
‘Yes I am. I really am’ She replied
I held onto my phone without being able to type another word. She tried to keep the communication flowing but my spirit was too destabilized to chat anymore. When it was apparent I wasn’t going to continue with the chat, she just typed; talk to you later honey. At this point, the hard nut was cracked. My emotions got the better part of me to a point where I nearly shed tears. I couldn’t believe what she just said, and there was absolutely nothing that could be done. I felt like my world had crumbled. At least, if she was in the country, I would have the liberty to visit her whenever, but with her out of the country, nothing like that could happen. I was deeply traumatized for weeks. Eventually, I got over it, got involved with a theater and won a role in a major stage play titled; STOLEN. Rehearsals for the play were all I did throughout the period for my Industrial Training.
Conversation between me and Ogechi reduced little by little until it was no more. We got to see each other again after the IT period was over. I went back to school first. The first quarter of the semester was over before Ogechi got back to join us from the US. She was highly respected and admired. Above all, she was also very RICH! Time alone with her became a myth. She always had people around her. At that point I didn’t know if she craved for my company the way I craved for hers.
There were lots of guys around her. Rich guys, handsome guys, singers, actors, and all manner of guys lingered around her to achieve different purposes. All my meetings with her was brief and in public. When I asked to see her privately, she would promise to make out time for that but won’t eventually, perhaps because she had become a very busy person. I was confused and didn’t know what to do anymore. So I assumed that things had taken a new turn which I had to accept, and I did.
Travelling to America became like traveling from Lagos to Abuja for Ogechi. During our final year in school, she had travelled more than twenty times abroad to perform with Ck. A recording label abroad even concluded plans to sign a contract with her the moment she was done schooling. Apparently, God had made a way for her to live her dreams.
I, on the other hand directed all my focus to studies and business. The only mega thing I was expecting was to be called upon to play the role I had won in a stage play, which was to be performed anytime soon. But the play wasn’t performed until I graduated from school.
The year ended in a hurry and we became graduates. I went for service while Ogechi bypassed service and travelled abroad for her contract. Ogechi and I were still in good terms, but only as acquaintances. We usually met online and would chat a little. But that happened once in a long while.
I followed her work closely. I became one of her fans. I knew I stilled loved her, but at a point I murdered my feelings and thought of her to be the closest person to me that had hit the walls of fame. It was an honor knowing her. I still called her though, as an acquaintance and a fan.
To be continued.
