A GIRL WHO SOLD PHONES TO GHOSTS
CHAPTER ONE: A girl who sold phones to ghosts
Lagos was buzzing at 9pm when Zara closed her tiny gadget shop on Yaba Market.
She wasn’t the biggest seller. She wasn’t the loudest.
But she had one problem no other seller had:
*Her best customers only came at midnight.*
It started 3 months ago.
A DM at 12:03am: _"Hi. I need 2 iPhone 15s. Can you deliver to No. 13, Bourdillon Road?"_
Zara laughed. That address didn’t exist on Google Maps.
But the transfer came in. Full payment. ₦3.2M.
She took the risk. Wrapped the phones.
And at 12:30am, a black tinted car with no driver pulled up. The window rolled down by itself. Two hands took the package. The car vanished.
The next night, another DM. Then another.
"2 MacBooks. 10 AirPods. 1 DJI Drone."
Always midnight. Always cash before delivery. Always that same empty address.
Her friends said stop. _"Zara, that’s fraud. That’s jazz."_
But business was booming. She paid rent. She bought stock. She helped her mom.
Then last Friday, the DM said:
_"We need one more thing. A phone for our leader. Bring it yourself. 12am. No. 13 Bourdillon."_
Her heart was pounding. She went.
No. 13 was an abandoned duplex. Broken gate. No lights.
She knocked. Nothing.
She was about to leave when her phone rang. Unknown number.
A calm voice said: _"Check the phone you brought."_
She did. On the screen was a w******p chat.
It was her. From 5 years ago.
Talking to her younger brother who died in an accident.
Messages she deleted. Messages only she and him knew.
The voice continued: _"We’re not ghosts, Zara. We’re people who lost people. And we found you. Because you sell more than phones. You sell connection. You answer at midnight when everyone else is asleep."_
The gate creaked open.
Inside were 20 people. All ages. All holding phones. All smiling.
No jazz. No fraud. Just a support group that met at night because grief is loudest in the dark.
Their "leader" was an old man. He held out the money for 50 phones.
_"We run a charity. We give phones to kids who lost parents to violence. But we do it at night, so nobody asks questions. We needed someone trustworthy to supply us. Someone with a good heart."_
Zara cried right there on the dusty floor.
Today, *Zara's Gadgets* isn’t just a shop anymore.
It’s the official supplier for "Midnight Phones" - a charity across Lagos.
And every night at 12am, Zara still gets DMs.
But now she smiles before she replies.
Because sometimes the weirdest customers... are the ones who save you.
