The Boiler

Alright for those of you claiming to be bona fide boarders. Wht is a boiler? Yes you! What is it? Wrong. It is not something you find on ships. It is the little heating rod(I hope thats the right word) you can use in the hostels (illegally of course) to heat your bathing water or to make a quick meal of ebange (hello!) Eba (garri)and geisha for the taste of the home made meals experienced only on visiting days.
One thing I have to say is never underestimate the power of the boiler because though it was small, it sure was mighty. Especially during the harmattan season, when it was freezing and of course there was no facilities for heating your water other than the boiler which was illegal. That boiler ensured that you had many friends you know, coming around to borrow...I mean visit you.

So now you know how important the boiler was, I will go ahead and tell you about my adventure with the boiler. It was on a school night and everybody had gone for night prep. One of my side neighbors was sick so we (Chioma and I) used the opportunity not to go for prep. We were all having a good time although we keep our voices low as we did not want to attract any attention, when suddenly I felt this strong craving for a hot cup of Milo and some cabin buscuits.

Unfortunately, I did not own a boiler but this strong desire, really powerful craving just would not go away and so as a G (standing for upper case girl this time around) I decided to satisfy my urge. The only girl I knew who had a boiler was Clara and Clara, oh no you don't wanna know about her. Girl, she was hot-tempered and could flair up in a minute ( but then again how many people weren't?)so I decided to quickly use her boiler before she came back and so I sneaked to her apartment which was next to mine and as I was in the process of checking her box for it because that was where she always kept it ( I know because I had borrowed it on a few occasions, I heard a voice from the window

" There's somebody in our apartment"

" Oh my God, a thief!"

Damn! Just my luck that some girls from the apartment had decided to come back early. I froze, my heart racing because I knew I would never be able to convince these chicas that I was only trying to borrow(albeit without permission) Clara's boiler and imagine how she would react if she heard I had been trying to take it without her permission. I did not want to find out so as the girls raced to report to somebody, whoever. I stole out of the room and changed to my nightgown ( trying to be slick)and ran back to be with my friends. Eventually, the prefect opened up the hostel and the news spread like wildfire and everybody in the apartment started checking their belongings. Luckily, nobody reported anything missing so that was how I missed being scalped or a fate worse than death. And as for the hot cup of Milo? You guessed right, I never got it. Never got it, hey at least that day.