But my name is Abdulgafar.

Early this year was the first time I would travel by air, the tech team of AFEX were going on a retreat to Akwa Ibom State, sweet. The flight was slated for 12 o' clock and we must have checked-in one hour before,

I usually do not sleep after subh — the morning prayer, and that day was no different. I pressed my phone for a bit and arranged the room, then proceeded to throw my refuse bag into the big refuse bin in front of my apartment, I opened the door and locked it behind me, threw away the refuse bag, came back, opened the door and locked it behind me.

I then swept my room and the kitchen, I thought I shouldn't leave the any dirt behind, so this time I didn't need a refuse bag, I just carried the bin, opened the door and closed it behind me, went outside, emptied the bin, came back inside and closed the door behind me again, for the fourth time that morning.

I then went to have my bath and dressed up with my Jean jacket and Jean face cap. Oya, time to step outside, guess what? The door wouldn't open. I calmed down and tried to turn the key very gently but the lock just won't budge.

Ah… wàhálà wàhálà wàhálà (In Portable's voice)

I tried every style I knew, but all came to naught. Now the time was 8:40, The airport is about 50 minutes away, so I have to leave the house by 10 in order to get to the airport by 11 (an hour before departure).

Up next, engineering. I didn't have screw drivers so I brought out my knife set, found the one that fit and tried to unscrew the door open, hopefully I can open the door, screw it back and lock it from the other side and deal with any issues that arose when I returned from the trip.

Brothers and sisters, not only did it not work, the key also got stuck and I could turn the knob anymore, panic mode activated. The time was now a few minutes past 9. I called the agent who helped me get the apartment to come over, but he said he was with his family in Jos. Ọmọ…

I got a carpenter's phone number from him but the man said he was busy at the moment, I begged him to leave whatever he was doing and save my life. At this point, I had started to wonder if this was a bad omen and I should just stay back home, but I shrugged it off, we don't believe in bad omens.

The carpenter was a bit far away though and it took him about 40 minutes to arrive, He was able to pry the door open with a hinge, I heaved a sigh of relief and paid him for a new lock, it was 10:00 already!

I couldn't even wait for him to repair the door lock, I just told him to give the new keys to the agent when he returns from Jos and he should take the Easy Bite bread on the table if he wanted it.

I booked a Bolt that arrived in 10 minutes and for the first time in my life, I told the driver to speed 😅

I got to the check-ins by 11:05, presented my ticket number and was given a ticket, easy. One attendant asked me to help deliver an envelope to someone at the airport in Akwa Ibom, I declined and thought in my mind, "not today, devil".

I got to the ticket inspection section, after which I would board the plane, and the man inspecting collected my ticket, looked up at me, and called out the name on the ticket, "Mariam Adewale".

Wàhálà wàhálà wàhálà.

But my name is Abdulgafar.

OK, so her last name isn't Adewale, I didn't want to cast her. Why? I'm not sure. She was one of my bosses at work and luckily she was in the room, she came out and it was sorted quite easily, it was a fault on the airline's part.

The flight did not feel spectacular 😅. Actually, it felt like being in that blue luxurious Unilorin Marco-polo bus, only with more static noises that were disturbing my small ears. The journey was one hour long (about 12 hours by road according to the best app in the world — Google Maps).