One year later, and I was back at it again. This time, it was a cousin to a friend of mine that I liked. I guess it is a little suspicious that my first three girl-interests were all cousins, either my cousins or friends’ cousins.

Anyway, Lydia didn’t even catch my attention the first time I saw her. It was until one of the boys I played with pointed her out to the rest of us that we all got interested. But since he had declared his interest first, it was sufficient to keep the rest of us off; declaration of interest was tantamount to possession, never mind that the girl didn’t even have a clue about the fuss a bunch of boys was raising over her.

Lydia’s cousin, a boy named Mark, had no objection to the whole arrangement. Truly, there was nothing he could do about it, no one was asking for his permission. Isaac meanwhile was considered lucky, and envied because he had a "girlfriend”.

Once, Lydia came to collect Mark, and after she left, it was like Isaac had just been elected president. He was so proud of himself for having such an electrifying girl that, it was like he had won the lottery.

envied him, just like the rest of the boys. It wasn’t emotional envy; it was more of "you have something I do not have”. If I had seen her first, then she would have been mine.

But as it was, she was Isaac’s.
I could have gone to her and asked her out. But at 7 years of age, such things are not that obvious.

The only way I could get her was if Isaac got tired of her, or lost interest in her. This definitely wasn’t going to happen, not in this millennium at least. He was enjoying the show time way too much!

So, one day, buying pancakes, I asked Isaac what I could do for him to give me Lydia. He immediately answered that nothing was worth Lydia.

But two days later, he came asking to play with my remote control toy car.
I thought about it; he really liked that car very much. But it belonged to me. I liked the car too, but at that moment, Lydia seemed more interesting.

So, when he came to play with my car, I asked him "how about if I give you the car. Not lend it to you, but give it to you to be yours.

In exchange, you give me Lydia. And you have to promise never to say she is yours again.”
He thought about it, and made his decision; he would take the car. Also, he would have to tell the other boys that Lydia was now mine.

It was the right decision, because I only enjoyed the status of having Lydia for a girlfriend for only one week. The next week, she had to go back to her home since school was starting again.

I was sad, my friends felt sorry for me, including Isaac. He still had the toy car, but for me, Lydia was gone. The interesting fact is that she never even had an idea that she had been in a "relationship” not with one boy, but two boys in a space of one month.

And that she had been considered worth a toy car! We never saw Lydia again. Now every Lydia I meet, I wonder if she is the one. I sure would like to tell her that story and see what she thinks about it.

Ends