SURVIVOR 6: RECEPTIONIST

I worked at PHOTOCOM, the leading photography printing shop around lawanson in Lagos. Back in the late 1980's there weren't digital cameras so printing shops that owned big printing presses were popular stops for every photographer. I didn't have any experience whatsoever in printing or photography so I only worked as a receptionist. My job involved; collection of films from photographers, delivery of their printed photos back to them and most importantly, collating payments and balancing accounts.

 Photocom-as the owner of the company was populary called-trusted me to ensure his money  was well accounted for. He employed two of us as receptionists but he didn't trust Lola as much as he trusted me, I guess me being an "SU"  came to play in this case, and it worked in my favor. I never took out of the money even though I was in the position to, Lola wasn't so committed though. She sometimes connived with the guys that worked in the printing room to divert funds into their own pocket. I couldn't blame photocom for not trusting any of them.

  I met too many men at PHOTOCOM. My advice to mothers who don't want their daughters to sleep around "never let your daughters work as receptionists, they'll probably bring you grandchildren before you're old enough to be called a grandmother".

There was one thing I enjoyed being in the midst of men who liked beautiful girls though, free lunch! I can't remember ever paying for my lunch in almost three years of my working there. It was always "Tomisin, let's go and eat at mama Do good canteen" or " have you eaten anything today Tomi, oya take this money and go buy yourself something". 

 My ever free lunch enabled me save up more money. I was paid #400( Nigerian naira still had value then so  #400 of 1990 could be equalled to #4000 of 2020) as a receptionist but since I walked to and from work and also enjoyed free lunches, I was able to save at least #4000 in a year.

But there was a downside to eating free lunch, men didn't want to give anything for free. They expected me to date them or maybe even marry them. 

There was a particular man that stood out. I called him brother kunle because he was older and Yoruba people used words like brother, sister or aunty to show a sign of respect. He pestered me like no other. Even thou he was obviously much older, he wanted me to marry him, even though he was already in a serious relationship and was to be married soon. 

   He used to tell me "Tomisin you're lucky I'm already Engaged to fola, else I'll have married you" usually after that statement, I'll laugh and say     "brother kunle, you can't force me to marry you against my will" and he'll reply  " I don't need to use force, I'll just sponsor you to school and you'll be too grateful not to marry me".

    The funny thing was, he was totally right. I was that eager to get a university education. There was no way I wasn't gonna marry him if he gave me the opportunity to get what I desired. But he was  getting married in a few months and I was glad for that. Though him getting married didn't stop him from following me around. If other guys got too close to me or talked to me for longer than thirty minutes, he would ask them to leave me, it caused a fight sometimes. It was almost like it was me he was going to marry. Thank God it wasn't else I wouldn't have met my knight in shiny armor!.

That wasn't an understatement. He really was a knight, though the only shiny armor he had on him was  a pack of films to be printed into photographs. He was the knight that saved me from the long list of men trying to have a go at me. Most ladies picture their future husbands as tall, dark and handsome. I wouldn't describe my knight that way though. But that's a piece of my story for later.

Firstly, the name of my knight was and is still Daniel. As I would later come to know, he had seen me once before we met. Allow me tell you his part of the beginning of our story, because without his part, our story wouldn't be complete. According to daniel, that morning, he was brushing his teeth in front of his hostel, he hadn't even observed morning prayers, when he spotted a girl in a yellow dress. She walked briskly like she was rushing to somewhere and didn't even spare a glance at her surroundings. He didn't know he had paused his brushing process while watching her walk by. As soon as she passed, he recovered from his 'trance' and whispered a prayer of forgiveness " God I'm sorry, I was watching a girl this early in the morning, and I haven't even prayed". 

I'm going to pause on his story and continue mine, maybe someday, he'll write his story and you'll finally hear from the horse's mouth.

That afternoon, we had a lot of customers and lola, who wasn't nice even on a normal day, was being cranky and rude to them. Daniel was among the customers and unlike most of the others, he was being calm and patient. That wasn't a character most lagosians possessed, lagosians prefer to push and hustle till the job is done, so I was impressed. When it was his turn, he moved forward, to be attended to, but Lola was acting up again so I motioned for him to come to my side of our desk. As I attended to him, he kept watching me. He introduced himself and we got talking. That was the beginning of our very long journey.