OF what interest did I have in a net? Neither was I a fisherman nor a tennis player. And I have never been a woman, so I have nothing to do with hair nets.
This is why I had a net in my room, but I never had a use for it. The net was just an ordinary one, although it had bright colours and a power worth acquiring.
The net was not hidden in my wardrobe, but lying on the sofa. So each day I entered and left the room, it smiled at me, although I never returned the smile.
It took just one night for me to find value for this piece of strings-woven material. Just one night for us to begin dating, express our love for each other and pledge to stay together forever, till death do us part. And how did it all happen? I’ll tell you.
We all know how valuable sleep is, especially when you are stressed and your bones are aching and you are craving for a good sleep. So in my desperation to catch a peaceful sleep on the night of Sunday, July 3, 2011, I took an early shower and settled on the bed by 8:30am.
Initially, it was all rosy as I turned from side to side. Sweet dreams and more...
Suddenly, I was awoken by a mosquito bite on a part of my arm and it felt really agonizing. I guess the blood-thirsty animal had roamed my room for a long time and finally found my body a suitable meal for the night.
And after that bite, I was never able to continue cruising. I was awoken intermittently by bites that felt too excruciating for me to pretend to be unaffected.
In fact, each night I get these bites from my unfriendly roommates, but on this particular night, they appeared more aggressive than ever.
When I finally could take it no more, I got up, switched the lights on and began searching for these tiny beasts. On the ceiling, on the walls, in the wardrobe, behind the window and door curtains and anywhere I taught they could be hidden.
Luckily, I found some of them and they felt the anger in me. Paa, paa, paa...I kept hitting, leaving tiny blood stains on my hands, portions of the wall and their various dwelling places.
Some managed to escape, but somehow I felt a bit relieved that I had dealt with these stinging vampires.
Then, finally, hmm, I went back to sleep once more, with a cloth covering most part of my body, except for a larger part of my head. The battle appeared to be over and I seemed to be getting back into gear.
And just when I was getting back into deep sleep, I felt another painful sensation of a mosquito bite, this time on a portion of my hairy scalp. Paa.., I hit that part! So mosquitoes even bite through the hair, I asked myself. Oh my God! What now!
I got up, once more, sat on the bed, this time with irritated sleepy eyes and several itchy spots on my two arms and legs. I switched on the lights, sat on the bed and began to think. In fact, you would have empathised with me, if you were in the room that faithful day.
What was even more shocking to me was that I had sprayed my room earlier in the evening, so what happened? Was it that the spray was ineffective or it is indeed true that mosquito sprays mostly weaken the mosquitoes, only for them to be revitalize after a while when the killer smell is no more.
After sitting for some few minutes, I looked round the room and suddenly my eyes settled on the net, which was sitting comfortably on the sofa in its beautiful blue pack and staring straight at me. As to whether it was empathising with me or saying “good for you,” only God can tell.
On the first sight of it, I remained indifferent because I still could not fathom how it could be of help. After all, it had been in my room for more than a year and I had never made use of it. In fact, it was my mom who gave it to me.
But on the second look, I thought otherwise. Is that not a treated mosquito net? Of course it is. But why am I not utilising it. You see, the last time I used a mosquito net was during my secondary school days.
I have never cherished using a net. It is mostly discomforting to sleep in the net due to heat. Removing it during the day and re-fixing it at night was also a bother. And the bigger challenge was how to find the points to tie the net.
On the faithful night, however, all these grudges I had with the net seemed to have disappeared. Due to the mistreatment I received from my unfriendly roommates, the net suddenly appeared to be a messiah.
Quickly I took it out of the pack and began looking for points to tie it. And as the saying goes: ‘necessity is the mother of invention,’ so in that brief moment, I was able to figure out ways to tie my mosquito net.
I took out laces from my two snickers and tied the four ends of the net to my windows at opposite ends. I was forced to abandon my bed, however, because apparently the position of the windows was not close to the bed.
Then, once again, I made an attempt to switch into sleeping gear, this time with more assurance, warranty, guarantee, you name it.
Initially, I felt a little hot, but as dawn approached and the atmosphere felt colder, the sleep became more and more enjoyable, except that I kept scratching the itch spots.
Several days have come to pass since then, but the net has remained tied in my room.
This was how an old friend of mine – the mosquito net – re-established its place in my heart and became my trusted partner for life.
Unknowingly for my wicked roommates, they had revived my relationship with the net, this time with much more romance.
More importantly for me, I have avoided being infected with malaria and would definitely not be counted among the statistics of people who travelled to Nether (land of the dead) and said goodbye to earth, unwillingly.
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