**[The beginning of the three tales stories click here](https://steemit.com/poetry/@samest/three-tales-series-choice)**
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*The story continues*: **LOST**

<center>![PicsArt_11-04-04.59.05.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSpYuQqfKjSxaYGuPhS9upv3E8VpGuwsNKejHuAu8GhDh/PicsArt_11-04-04.59.05.jpg)</center>
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**17th September, 1982.** The chapel threw a send-forth dinner to celebrate the year's graduates from the university. It was a really great evening for him-he received several gifts and awards and accolades. It was the best night of his life. It was like a floodlights shone on him after his years of darkness and uncertainty about graduating from the university.

Alex remembered it vividly-those dark days when it seemed there was no future for him. His father died years earlier and left his mum to bear the burden of his and his sisters schooling.

After a while, he realized his fees were taking a huge toll on mums pension, and he decided to stop asking money from her and be a man.

And what diddnt he do for money those days? From part-time poultry jobs, to marketing foot wears, to selling lecture notes and past questions, to helping final-year folks with their projects....
No one was gladder than him when it all came to an end. He gave the longest speech, did the wildest dance, and shouted the loudest hallelujah at that wonderful dinner. He was so glad, in fact, that he wrote a few words for it:

*I thought this day would never come
When all my struggles would be gone
When I can give an awesome smile
As well as run a thousand miles!
'Twas hard and rough, my years down here
With none to help me, none who'd care
But now it's just an old story
When I have tasted th'untold glory
Of crossing that finishing line
To possess those things that are mine.*

Wow. Alex had even forgotten that he used to write: how did that happen?
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**30th September 1982**. A glance at the words on this page jolted Alex's heart. They were about Jane , his girlfriend from a lifetime ago. Talk of a girl loving you with everything she's got, doin all she could to make the relationship work- only Alex felt she wasn't doing enough.

He felt he needed someone more challenging, not someone to drag up to his own level but someone to spur him on and make him better.
Alex was mummy's girl, quite unable to make up her own mind, living for her parents approval, telling them everything that happened in their relationship-that's childish, right?

Of course people did change; maybe Jane would as well. Maybe she would become the woman he would spend the rest of his life with. Maybe. But Alex knew very well how that story went. He flipped to the next page, a stab of guilt(regret?) In his heart

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**28th October, 1982**. His call-up letter arrived: he was to serve his nation for one year and be paid peanuts as salary. Posted to a town in Calabar(Southern Nigeria) to teach in a high school that was too local to be called Modern Day High School, Alex  got himself a small apartment and made a life for himself. Since he couldn't go home often, and since telephones weren't available in the town, his relationship with Jane was on hold for that period (except when he went home for Christmas and sang beside her during the carols and spent several evenings with her in shady places).

When he returned to Calabar at the start of the New Year, it was with with a well-rested body and an iron-clad assurance of the depth of his love for Jane. Unknown to him, that love was just about to be tested.

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**14th February, 1983**. That Monday morning a lady was transferred to his school to teach English, and for the first time in his life Alex fell in love at first sight. She was like an angel, but a black one: beautiful, articulate and well-proportioned. Her white smile was a window into a beautiful world, and her touch was warm and endearing when she shook him and introduced herself as Vivian.

Vivian hailed from Lagos state and was serving as well. She was witty, boisterous and ambitious with wealthy parents; she was everything that Jane wasn't, everything that Alex wanted. Since she only arrived on Saturday, he took her round the little town that evening, and the day ended with a warm, loving hug that kept his heart dancing all the way to his apartment.

And that was how love found Alex in that tiny south Nigerian town. He and Vivian became inseparable, their love blossomed wildly, and Jane simply slipped out of the picture.

8th September, 1983. Service year was over, and after a week-long of goodbyes, Alex and Vivian departed for their different places. He arrived Ondo State in the evening, tired from the bone-breaking journey due to the bad roads and the bags he carried with him. When Jane heard that he was back, she ran straight into his arms: she had missed him so much. I have missed you too, Alex whispered in her ears. He held her tightly and rocked her; he acted genuine, sincere, as if nothing happened during his months far away from home.

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**12th January, 1984**. Since he got back, Alex had sent CV to companies both in and outside Ondo State. At the start of the New Year, two jobs landed on his hands: one to manage a farm on the outskirts of Ondo State, and the other to be a salesperson for a new brand of refrigerators in Lagos. After weighing his chances he decided to take the Lagos job-he had the experience when it came to selling, but farm business didn't appeal to him. That was what he told Jane anyway, because he knew she'd want him to stay close by.
She wasn't happy with his decision, not when she wanted the best for him so she didn't push it.

What Jane didn't know was, his reason was only half true. His heart longed for someone else, someone whose address was tucked away in his Waller, someone whose smile and kiss had stolen his heart, whose intoxicating love was the stolen magnet pulling him to a city he'd never been before.
On the day of his departure, he gave Jane a swift kiss, promised to come home from time to time, and got on the bus.

**To be continued.........**
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