By Ian Ortega
When the posters came up on the hostel walls that there was going to be a Talent hunt show coming up which was organised by Femi Akinwunmi, I quickly registered for it as a rapper. The star price was a CD player, my dream. I imagined being able to replace our old cassette player and put on a CD like the rest of the boys.
I practised my lines and waited for d-day. 3 days to the event, I woke up with fever, only to find my body covered with little sores… I had chicken pox. I used calamine lotion like my life depended on it, but they only seemed to increase by the day.
Then came the day of the competition. Everyone dressed up and left, one after the other, to the venue. I was in pain from the heat but in greater pain from being in that room rather than on that stage. I was covered in calamine lotion, disappointed as all my hope that I would have miraculously recovered in those 2 days had gone and with it, my dream of a CD player.
As I tried to play a tape on the radio to take my mind off everything, the cassette player wouldn’t work. That was the last straw. In anger, I got up, washed off the lotion from my hands and feet, washed off my face and neck. I wore a long sleeve shirt, buttoned up and hit the road with my friend/manager―Bayo Adekeye. The walk from my room to the Uniben Auditorium was the most difficult 45 mins of my life…well, one of.
I got to the venue early enough, the competition was about to begin. I saw the brand new silver BUSH CD player on the stage…it was beautiful. I couldn’t help but imagine. Then the compere, Tee A began to call out the names. Before long, I heard my name…I came out did my one track performance and in the second round, I switched the game at them, and did a comedy performance.
The next morning, our neighbours woke up to the loudest music, it came from our room, we were celebrating, singing, shouting and dancing to music from the shiny BUSH CD player on our table…and in midst of the crowd, a young dreamer covered from head to toe in white calamine lotion danced the hardest…
Now guys… this is the last episode, you will all have to wait for the book. It’s out in December. Thanks for the love and support.