It was a journey that tested my patience, I hadn't even arrived Lagos yet.
It started with frustration. I had stepped out from the bus, to buy some snacks, and when I returned, a man had taken my seat, he looked as grumpy as a dog with a sore on its head. He was trouble I knew, as soon as I saw him.
"Excuse me, that's my seat."
The man looked up and spoke with contempt;
"Your bum was not fixed on any seat."
"What do you mean? I just stepped out for a minute, and you are already taking my position." I was getting infuriated because I came to the bus stop early enough to get myself the best space..... and now this?
He remained adamant and picked up quarrels with everyone who supported me.
His audacity was maddening, and rather than continue arguing, he wasn't worth it, I moved to the next available seat, the back row of the rusty creaking vehicle. The one I was going to be in, for the next 6-7 hours!
Beside me sat an elderly woman who kept fiddling with her phone, smiling like a child who just got a rare treat. And she seemed determined to keep me busy;
First, it was her alarm clock blaring from her phone which she had no idea how to stop;
"My son bought this new phone for me, I must have set off the alarm by mistake, I don't even know how to stop it." she said, pleading with me to help out. It happened to be the same model as mine, so I did.
Then came another request;
Ah! My child. Please, help me load this airtime, mine got exhausted.” She said as she brought out a piece of rumpled paper from her bag.
Then another. And another. I was exasperated. At that moment, sitting beside the grumpy man who stole my seat would have been a better option.
"Please these messages, please help me check them out." Came yet another one.
I inhaled deeply, this was going to be one long trip
Eventually, we both dozed off
By the time I arrived in Lagos, I was exhausted beyond words. I quickly took a cab to my destination, ready to put the long journey behind me. But the moment I reached into my bag for my phone, because I had to announce my arrival to the people I was meeting, my breath hitched. It wasn't mine.
I panicked
As soon as the elderly woman's photo appeared on the screen, I immediately knew it was a mix up, an unforgivable one.
My heart pounded. The realization sent me into a frenzy. My entire digital life was in that device, and I had no idea where she was.
Anytime I was traveling, I always disabled the password to my phone, a precautionary measure in case there was an accident, my phone could be easily accessible to call family and friends.
"How was I going to communicate with my people? How do I find the woman in that vast sea of humans?" Were the questions racing through my mind.
What followed after was called chaos. Hours of calls, explanations, descriptions and bargaining with my own frustration. It took almost $40 and a journey across half of Lagos to retrieve my phone from the woman. When I finally had, relief washed over me—until I opened the gallery.
More than half of my files were gone—Documents, memories, photos, all wiped clean!
My heart almost stopped
I wanted to scream, to curse my hard luck, the grumpy man who took my space in the first place, the elderly woman who disturbed me sore, during the entire journey, and the entire day. But what was the point? The damage was done.
The woman, looking genuinely remorseful, severally muttered apologies."
“I—I don’t know. I was just pressing. I didn’t mean to delete anything.”
Also her daughter and her four grandchildren, all came out to offer apologies on her behalf—she had unknowingly erased fragments of my life, but I sincerely told myself that she was not the only one at fault here, I was too.
That night, as I lay on my bed, defeated , drained fatigued, I made a silent vow, never again to make such an unforgivable and costly mistake.
From that moment on, my phone would be locked, protected like a vault. No more mix-ups. No more losses. Some mistakes were too costly to repeat and it would never ever happen again.
And this? This was truly unforgivable.
All images are AI generated.
I am @edith-4angelseu and thank you for stopping by my neighbourhood.
Thank you so much.
I know how painful it can be when important stuffs are deleted from a phone.
You are right!
Thank you 😊
Losing stuffs from your phone can leave you sad and thinking how you can actually retrieve them.
You are so right!
Thank you!