Birthday
One beautiful evening, I sat by my window and discussed with all the people who came to see me. It was my birthday and as expected, I had several guests. I typically hosted my female friends inside my hostel but guys were not allowed because of the religious beliefs in that part of the country. As a result, a young lady sitting at the corner of the room and talking to someone on the other side of the window wasn’t a strange sight at all. It was part of the process in testing if your prospect was ‘husband material’.
Three People
I hoped a few people would come by. In fact, I hoped three people in particular would come by before the day ended. Thankfully, they all did and one of them was a young man named Kingsley. He was a good friend and we had really interesting conversations. He had the usual very wide smile on his face and a mischievous glint in his eyes that night. We chatted for a while then he said he had to rush off and just wanted to deliver a gift someone asked him to give me.
A Gift
I wished he could stay a little longer but I didn’t have the ‘right’ to ask him to. We were just friends and I didn’t want to say anything that would give away the way I really felt about him. He had to be the one to take the lead in this matter – that was my resolve. After he left, I settled down, opened the gift and found that there were several layers of wrapping paper with a hand written note after each one. I wondered who the gift was from and eventually a letter ‘y’ on the fifth note gave him away. It was from Kingsley after all; he had tried to change his writing to keep me in suspense till I got to the last note.
Pure Genius
Beneath the last wrap, I found a final note and a devotional for women. It was old. That made me wonder. He later explained that he really wanted to get me a gift, but he was broke. So he went to a bookstore in town and bought the book for a price he could afford. It wasn’t expensive but he had succeeded in turning it into an unforgettable gift. I thought to myself – this is someone you could live happily with in times when you have plenty and in times when you don’t have so much. Husband material!
