TALITHA CUMI! 3

TALITHA CUMI!

EPISODE 3

WRITTEN BY OYEKUNLE LIZZY OYEBOLA

 

As I swallowed the very soft pounded yam well wrapped in rich egusi soup, it felt like a huge stone in my throat that wouldn’t go down!

 

I coughed and mum quickly handed me a cup of cold, richly hand squeezed orange juice which I used to forcefully let it sink.

 

Even as mum handed me the cup, she wasn’t looking at my face as she was so engrossed in the discussion going on.

 

I cleared my throat a number of times just to get someone’s attention but they wouldn’t even give it to me.

 

Well, I stood up, moved to the washing hand basin and gently scrubbed my hands. It was the raining sound of the tap that made them realize that someone had stood up from the dining table.

 

“My Prince, what’s wrong? You are not done eating your food” Mummy said with so much worry and I turned to look at her.

 

“I am done mum” I said but she wasn’t convinced

 

“Daddy, talk to this boy o. Why would he waste my food when he was the one that asked me to pound the yam? Ehn” She started complaining and I smiled.

 

“Son, what’s up?” Dad asked in a manly way and I smiled

 

“I suddenly lost my appetite dad. It felt as if I was swallowing stones” I said and they all looked at me with different funny looks

 

Joe with those teary red eyes of his gave me a ‘You must be kidding me’ kinda look;

 

Daddy looked at me with a shocked ‘My wife’s food? What are you talking about?’ kinda look.

 

And my mum’s look….

 

Oh my!

 

It burnt with fire!

 

If there was anyone who appreciated mum’s food so well and expressed it in kind, it was me.

 

After each meal, I would normally sing praises of the virtuous woman mum was and give her a sweet, tight hug that would send daddy running to take his queen away from me.

 

It definitely must have pained my mum so well that the same me that sang ‘Hosanna!’ was also chanting ‘Crucify him!’

 

That was exactly what I wanted!

 

A perfect silence, especially today!

 

“I am so sorry mum! I know you put in so much to get this prepared and then, this your prince doesn’t even wanna understand.” I said and looked into their faces still.

 

The looks grew from bad to worse

 

“Son, what is the matter? Have you taste buds suddenly…” My dad was asking when I clapped dramatically

 

“Oh yes dad! That’s the word! My taste buds are dead. They aren’t even responsive no more!” I said again and their expressions grew a bit less than bad

 

“What is wrong with you my prince? When did it start?” My mum asked again, looking worried.

 

I smiled

 

I knew she loved me dearly.

 

Though she tried her best to love Joe and I equally, I still know that I was just so dear to her heart!

 

I wondered often how she would cope when a woman eventually takes a tight hold of my heart. The jealousy tho!

 

“It started while we were in the car, it grew worse as I watched mum and Joe pound the yam and it grew worst as we started eating” I said and they all looked puzzled

 

Mummy tried standing up to come and meet me but daddy held her down with one of his hands on her shoulder

 

I looked at dad’s face

 

I saw confusion and a zeal to get to the root of the matter!

 

The intelligent chap!

 

As his eyes ran through my face succinctly, I knew he was trying to relate what I said was wrong with me with the look on my face.

 

“Son, I still see you salivating. Your adam’s apple are really moving! Also, the expression on your face is showing you are really happy seeing us bothering so much about you. Am I right son?” He said and I smiled as my heart clapped for him

 

He obviously had the Holy Spirit in him

 

I scratched my head and thought for a while

 

“Or, could it be heartburn?” I asked them and Joe hissed, resuming his food

 

“He sounds pranky!” Joe said, his mouth food-ful

 

“My prince, is it heartburn or dead taste buds?” Mummy asked, confused

 

“And what caused it in the car, when we got home and now?” Dad asked too and I nodded

 

Exactly the questions I wanted them to ask so badly

 

“The cause…” I seemed to think about it carefully

 

“I guess the words! The words we’ve been saying, especially Joe, they were unkind! I am very allergic to those kinds of words!” I said and mum still looked puzzled.

 

Dad  nodded slowly and smiled as he gave me a kinda appreciative look, telling me he knew my destination already.

 

Joe paused to look at me then

 

“I don’t get” He said and I cleared my throat, trying to put it in a way they would understand.

 

“Thoughts gives birth to words, shae? The Bible says we should think on words that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, those that have virtues and brings forth praise to God. I guess if we think those kinda thoughts, we shall have beautiful words!” I explained and mummy relaxed in her chair, blinking hard

 

“So, what are you saying exactly?” She asked

 

It was time to face the fact!

 

“The same way you all felt as I talked about mum’s food in a negative way is the same or worst way Pastor Bode-Davies’ daughter will feel if she hear her pastor’s family deliberating about her matter and crucifying her the more!”

 

I looked at them for their reaction but daddy was enjoying me so I continued

 

“Yes, the poor girl was embarrassed in church today and no one talked about praying for her or waiting after service to counsel her. I asked you mummy, to show me the girl, you said there was no need and we left her that way and the next thing, everyone started talking about her from the car till we reached home.”

 

As I spoke, my heart boiled so much that I wished they could all see how I felt.

 

“Even as you and Joe pounded, the gist still continued, we were still set to start eating and then, no one could even realize that I was choking, the gist continued! Ah ah! I wonder what the members too are doing in their various houses if this is what entails in the pastor’s house”

 

With this said, everyone kept so silent and even though mum wanted to reply me, daddy held her down on the shoulder once more.

 

Afterwards, I sat close to her at the table and carefully consumed and enjoyed my pounded yam while they watched for a while before they resumed theirs too.

 

The whole house was so quiet from that time till I picked up my suit and briefcase and decided that I was moving back to my station in Ibadan

 

I did go home in Abuja once in a month because I worked as an On-Air Personality in GTV, Lagos, an international television organization.

 

As Joe placed my travelling bag in the boot, mum came out with my briefcase which she placed at the back seat. She hugged me briefly and went to stay beside her husband

 

“I hope you carried you egusi” She asked and I nodded, smiling slightly

 

“Make sure you open your onions to the air so that they wouldn’t get rotten soon o” She said and I smiled

 

My typical mum!

 

That was the first full statement I had heard her said since the dining incidence.

 

“Alright Maami” I decided to respond in the Ibadan way and she smiled

 

“Eat very well o. I don’t like the way your collar bones are showing. No, not at all!” She said again and daddy laughed as he pulled her close to her

 

“Iyawo mi atata, which collarbones?” He laughed on but she was serious and I had to nod well so she could feel well.

 

“Don’t worry mum. I will start eating well ma. It’s just the time, but I will try, shae you hear?” I asked and she frowned a bit

 

“That’s why you should go and marry, hmmm” She sighed and I sighed too.

 

As if I knew it would go in that direction

 

I jumped into the driver’s seat and peeped outside for a while

 

“Joe seems to be ready already. Tell him to tell her to hasten up, mum” I said and looked into mum’s face.

 

“Who is the her?” She asked, irritation on her face

 

“Pastor Bode-Da….” I was saying when Joe suddenly snapped my door shut

 

“Just go now. You have said enough. In the multitude of words, there wanteth no sin” Joe quoted for me and I found in mom’s face that she agreed with him.

 

The look on dad’s face was of confusion as to who to really support- the majority or the minority!

 

I sighed deeply and turned the ignition key.

 

“May God help us all.” I said

 

“Amin!” Mummy said quickly, swinging her hands and raising her nose at me. I smiled

 

“Alright son, have a nice drive. If it gets too late, please have a stop over at Lokoja or Ibillo because you are going so late now” Daddy said

 

“Thanks dad, take care of your wifey” I said and she blushed

 

“She is my responsibility, I know what to do. Ese” Daddy said, giving me a ‘Don’t teach me what to do’ kinda look

 

“Mum, stay strong!” I said as I blew her a kiss with my hand

 

“Ose oko mi” she said caringly with her sweet Yoruba intonation

 

I loved the way she said that so sweetly that I had always wished my wife would call me that often in the future, hehehehe

 

“Bro, love yah!” I said, facing Joe and his red eyes greeted me again

 

“Bye!” He said as if he couldn’t even wait to see me go!

 

And I did go!

 

*********

 

Joe was adopted by my parents when he was barely one. He had just lost his parents in a fatal motor accident. They adopted him when they realized mum couldn’t give birth to anymore child.

 

I was ten years old then.

 

Well, with the relationship with him and the way he was brought up by my parents, no one would know she didn’t give birth to him!

 

She loved him like her son!

 

We grew up like brothers and were like inseparable friends until I travelled to Canada for my post graduate studies.

 

Even till then, we were always talking.

 

I remembered how well he had told me about one Talitha who I barely  knew because she was always at the children’s church while I was in Abuja- but I knew her parents well.

 

He had told me about having feelings for her, loving her and caring for her so tightly. I told him then to pray about the issue so well and get back to me. He came back with convictions that made me know for sure that it was God’s will

 

He told our parents and they were happy about the whole thing saying she was a good girl, well mannered, well-brought up and beautiful

 

I was happy about the development and he was even saying he would show her to me after service until events turned to worse at the service.

 

While in church, I suddenly realized that he had left the choir stand through the back door hurriedly as Pastor Bode-Davies was suspended and I felt he must be very heartbroken.

 

From the gallery where I was, I went downstairs to meet him.

 

He was in tears- his eyes were red and as he saw me, he backed me as he fell into another fit of tears.

 

I didn’t know what to do at that point because I had not even fallen in love before.

 

I had always seen the real love he had for the girl!

 

“Bro, it is well” I managed to say and he came close to me and fell on my chest, hanging his head across my shoulder, weeping profusely

 

After some minutes, he stopped to sit down and I bent before him, looking into his red eyes

 

“How do you feel now?” I asked and he shook his head

 

“I feel so miserable bro! I feel so mise…” He started crying again and I was touched.

 

“Oh my!” I exclaimed as I patted him on the back

 

He had been nursing the feeling for close to six years and he had planned that as soon as he earned some more money and she graduated from the university, he would marry her straightaway!

 

“She wasn’t mine after all” He said and I lost balance

 

“What!” I exclaimed, shocked

 

“Yes bro! Can’t you hear the charge against her? She is pregnant! Pregant for God knows who” He cried on defiantly

 

“Yeah bro, but sit her down and talk to her. She didn’t even know there was a guy here waiting for her, did she?” I asked and he looked into my face

 

“I told her before travelling to Ukraine. I told her. But wait, talk to her about what?” He asked, looking pale as if stung by a bee

 

“Yeah, because it was just an allegation. It would be nice to hear from the horse’s mouth” I said and he stood up abruptly!

 

“I can’t sit down and have you feed me with craps like this bro! I can’t!” He was almost screaming, moving close to the door when I pulled him back

 

“I said someone cheated on me! She cheated on me big time! And you are here, telling me to hear from her? Impossible!

 

“As a good communicator, I know that communication is key in all relationships!”

 

“Well, it was never a relationship and never will be!” He exclaimed and I was shocked

 

“You don’t mean it bro! You really waited!”

 

“Yes I waited! I kept myself! I didn’t mess up even in a strange land. Small porn, I didn’t watch because I feared addiction and dreaded having to make such horrible, dirty confession to my chaste Talitha! I was wrong!….”

 

“So, are you…..” I was saying when he cut me short

 

“Don’t tell me you are actually encouraging me to go into a relationship with a mother. I will marry her and marry some kind of baby? No way! Do I even know if she intends getting married to the father of the child? Chai! I wouldn’t have believed her to be this cheap mhen!”

 

“You really waited bro! Can’t you wait a bit longer?”

 

“Bro, can you hear yourself? See, the Bible says, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Though painful, I have moved on nitemi” He said and left me there thinking so hard about how the feelings had just evaporated into thin air.

 

I had always envisaged their marriage!  I really did watch out for them both!

 

All the way home, as mum lamented that she was shocked about the news and how ladies of nowadays fall for cheap stuffs, he kept calling her dirty names like bitch, sinner, pig, disgrace to humanity and as much as I tried to tell him to stop, mum kept pampering her baby and patting him on the back.

 

I was irritated and I had to tell them my mind

 

I made up my mind to still call him when he has cooled down to have a bro-to-bro hearty chat!

 

********

I couldn’t believe a dot out of everything Happie was saying.

 

My head couldn’t comprehend it at all!

 

She was toiling with my heart really!

 

“I shouldn’t have met you!” I started crying really hard, falling on the chair and shaking with so much violence

 

Happie was in tears!

 

I looked around and saw Aunty Tessie, her hands supporting her chin

 

“Tally, think about me too. I am so sad as well. It was good we met really but we meet to part and we part to meet” She said, coming close to me and holding my shoulders but I broke free

 

“Think of the hell I am about to go and go through too” She said and only then did I pause to think

 

I was being selfish!

 

As much as I didn’t want her to go because I would miss her, I cried harder because I would miss Uncle Jeff!

 

Because Uncle Jeff meant a lot to me really!

 

But I was so selfish not to have thought about the emotional trauma she was about going through too

 

I met a very tensed up Aunty Tessie when I got to her place in Maitama.

 

She welcomed me, made me shower, gave me a change of clothes and served me some fried Irish potatoes and Fanta as she smoked her cigar, blues music playing at the background.

 

Happie came around the house few minutes later and told me to help her start packing her stuffs as she was traveling

 

“My dad is causing some big problem with my mum in the US and I am needed to come over” She said in a shaky voice

 

I didn’t understand

 

“He had not been there for me all my life and now he says he wants to take custody of me. He is just a fool!” She said again as she folded some undies in her panty bag.

 

“How on earth would you drag my mum to the court for me who you never really cared for? Then he is lying to the media that my mum has sold me to some herbalists and that she should prove him wrong by bringing me before a press conference. Imagine that! He only wants to spoil her career mhen” She exclaimed again, zipped her bag and gave a very long hiss.

 

“My mum hates to bring him before those fucking cameras! She hated the fact that microphones had to be pushed close to me all in the bid of getting my voice. She hated this so much that she had suffered in silence. Oh my! But her contracts are being withdrawn because of this scandalous allegations!” She exclaimed again and tears ran down her face.

 

“Stop those freaking tears girl!” Aunty Tessie said as she released the tobacco smoke from her mouth, her eyes becoming red in the process.

 

Happie wiped her tears and smiled at me lovingly as if nothing had happened

 

“I have to be strong for my mum! Celebrities live in front of the camera mhen!” She exclaimed as she slammed her box and started dragging it to the door.

 

As I was about following her, I noticed her phone was on the bed and picked it for her. It started ringing.

 

Uncle Jeff!

 

I went after her and gave the phone to her.

 

“Hello Uncle…I am ready….yes….I will be on my way right now.” She dropped the phone in her bag and came close to me

 

“Uncle Jeff isn’t coming around?” I asked, unable to hide my desire to see him

 

“No. He is already in the airport and it’s about time I am checked in. I need to go now. I will miss you so much” She said and I nodded as tears ran down my face

 

The thought that I wasn’t really going to see Uncle Jeff before he travelled clouded my heart and I fell into fresh fits of tears.

 

Happie also started crying as she hugged me

 

But my heart was far away.

 

As I sobbed and helped her drag the box to the park, my heart throbbed impatiently.

 

“But what about his job?” I asked, pretending to be nonchalant. I didn’t want her to realize that I was really bothered about his leaving than hers

 

“My dad?” She asked, raising her teary eyes at me.

 

“I mean your uncle.” I said and she nodded

 

“We have that under control already. His job will be fine till he comes back”

 

That was indefinite.

 

I needed an answer that would cast my fears out!

 

I needed to know when he would be back;

 

How he would react to the news of the pregnancy (If there was really any);

 

I needed to ask millions of questions which by asking Happie would only land her into more emotional trauma.

 

When we got to the airport, the checking in was almost over as the announcer was already saying it was about time the Arik Airline moved.

 

As she passed her bags under the slider of the X-ray machines, she walked through the metal detectors and we stayed behind the red line.

 

Worried Uncle Jeff was seen pacing to and fro the departure lounge, fixing his gaze on his phone without drifting.

 

As soon as he sighted Happie, he hurriedly ran towards her as if he had not seen her in days.

 

A pang of jealousy took a hold of me.

 

I watched on still until I saw…

 

I needed a clearer view I felt…

 

But he was not running to meet her as he ran past her, his face looking so worried.

 

Was he looking at someone behind me, I seemed to ask myself as I looked back until with just the red rope between us, he pulled me into a warm embrace

 

It was a kind of embrace that cast out fears, doubts and all negativity

 

He loved me really!

 

I was so swept off my feet that I burst into a hot round of tears.

 

“I will miss you dearly my dear. Stay strong!” He said and disengaged from me almost immediately.

 

He bowed a bit before his sister- Aunty Tessie and off through the lounge he passed into the terminal and my eyes followed him until clouded with tears, my eyes could see no more!

 

My heart quaked in great fears of uncertainty and loneliness.

 

I wiped my tears and looked towards Auntie Tessie who was looking into my eyes very intently.

 

There were many questions on her face as she looked at me from head the toes

 

Questions which I could not decipher at all.

 

She smiled all of a sudden and patted my shoulder

 

“Let’s go home” She said calmly as she turned towards where the car was parked. I followed almost immediately even though my legs were still shaking seriously.

 

I couldn’t believe that I was actually left alone in the whole wide world!

 

No father; No church; No family friend; No happie; No Uncle Jeff!

 

I was all alone

 

I felt cold in my bones of a sudden.

 

As we entered the jeep, Aunty Tessy fastened the seat belt and being weak to do anything, she stretched her hands and fixed mine too

 

“Thank you ma” I managed to say

 

“Hmm” She replied with her nose.

 

She paused for a while, pushed her head backwards on the headrest and forward again.

 

She later reached for the vault and brought out a cigar stick.

 

“Could you pass….oh, never mind” She said and I was confused as I felt uncomfortable

 

Why was she finding it hard to send me to help her do something since we left the lounge?

 

What could have happened?

 

Could it be because her brother hugged me tight and I was crying?

 

Oh my!

 

She bent forward towards the glove box and opened it. It hit my leg and she flinched

 

“I am so sorry” She said, looking very mad at herself

 

I smiled

 

“It didn’t hurt ma’am” I said.

 

She picked a lighter and closed the glove box again.

 

“I am sorry dear” She said again, her eyes looking dilated

 

I smiled again

 

Well, she was just a kind of weird woman anyone could meet anywhere,-that was how Happie had described her to me- but what made her go so weirder was what I was yet to construe.

 

She lighted the cigar and inhaled for a while, her eyes closed firmly.

 

I watched her with the side of my eyes as she exhaled the smoke through the window probably so the smell would not permeate the whole car.

 

She looked at me afterwards and I saw her red eyes.

 

I sat up and looked shocked

 

“You were crying ma?” I asked and she smiled

 

“Not at all. Don’t mind the tears dearie. I let them flow” She said and gave a sad smile.

 

I was very shocked at the fact that I was just seeing how sad and lonely she looked.

 

I saw how withdrawn from life she was and my heart clicked that she was very forsaken

 

“Baby, are you sick?” She asked me. Her voice was very loving and concerned

 

But that was the wrong question to ask because I was even the one meaning to ask her if all was well with her spirit, soul and body

 

“I am fine ma” I said

 

“Drop the formalities and call me Tessie” She said and my eyes shone in shock

 

“Ma!” I exclaimed and she smiled

 

“I am Happie’s mum elder sister right? No doubt about that. Call me Tessie still. I like you as a friend” She said again and my heart skipped up the rope like a hundred times before it started somersaulting

 

“What! You are like a mother to me ma” I said again, feeling so awkward.

 

She inhaled more smoke, shook her mouth as if to let the smoke circulate well before throwing the smoke residue out of the window.

 

“I will be 45 next month, you?” That was what she asked when she eventually looked at me.

 

Well, I was finding the whole situation absurd and I needed to tell this woman to stop joking!

 

“Ma, my mum would be 40 this year if she was alive. You are even older than…” I said and her eyes shone brightly as the tears rushed into her eyes the more.

 

She took my two hands suddenly and put her face in-between my hands.

 

Her face felt warm.

 

She started kissing my hands as she wept profusely.

 

“No wonder you look sad! Oh my! My pumpkin doesn’t even have a mum. Oh, no wonder she looks sad. She doesn’t have a…” She continued crying so much that my eyes couldn’t resist the onions of her tears.

 

I started crying too.

 

She stopped abruptly again and threw her half cigar tub away though the window.

 

She opened the vault and brought out a perf bottle which she sprayed before winding up the windows and switching on the air conditioner.

 

There was silence all the way home and there was a raging storm in my head as I thought about the whole thing.

 

Was this not the woman who had just been dramatic few minutes ago?

 

She drove into a hospital environment and smiled at me for a while, then raised a finger before her face to probably ask for an excuse to go out

 

But Happie never told me the Aunty Tessie was actually a psychologically sick person!

 

She came back in, gave me a careful hug and pecked my forehead before starting the drive home.

 

I felt uneasy

 

Was she a lesbian?

 

When we got home, she turned the ignition key and paused  a while

 

“Are you okay ma?” I asked, summoning courage to touch her shoulder.

 

She looked shocked as she looked from my hand on her shoulder to my face and back.

 

I withdrew my hand and smiled sheepishly

 

She unfastened her belt and came close to me.

 

She hugged me suddenly and muttered something beneath her breath and she wept again

 

“Thanks” I thought I heard her say

 

I remained calm in her embrace.

 

I was feeling that something was wrong and she needed to feel loved, so I maintained my cool.

 

But I loved it as my head rested on her chest.

 

It felt like that was where I was meant to be.

 

My brain started calculating and I travelled down memory lane in a short while

 

I started feeling and imagining as my mum cuddled me even on her sick bed, shortly before she kicked the bucket

 

“Mum!” I exclaimed from my dreamland and I felt as Aunty Tessie’s heartbeat increased.

 

She broke free from the embrace and I opened my eyes from the dreamland where I was.

 

Her eyes were filled with tears

 

Her nose had become red as she sniffed continuously to pull back the mucus that was trying to escape.

 

Even her cheeks were pink.

 

“You called me mum?” She asked and I didn’t know what I should say

 

I was just lost in my thoughts that I muttered ‘mum!’, if I told her that, how would she feel?

 

Did she feel offended that she heard me call her that because she had no daughter of hers?

 

Or, did she feel so good that she blushed?

 

I was confused.

 

“You don’t like it ma?” I asked and she slapped me slightly across the shoulder as she started another round of tears.

 

“No ma here! Mum feels good. It feels really good! That feels good. It feels really good” She sang on, picked her handbag and opened the door to alight..

 

I felt good that she felt good but I felt bad that I was feeling bad about the whole thing.

 

Why was she behaving like that.

 

The door leading to my seat opened and she unfastened my belt and helped lift my legs as I alighted too

 

I was shocked

 

I just couldn’t bring myself to understand what was happening.

 

“Take it easy my pumpkin. You will be fine” She said as she led me inside as if I was having some leg issues.

 

Anyways, I allowed her do all that if they would give her joy!

 

********

I closed my eyes firmly

 

I opened again

 

I closed them again

 

I opened my eyes again!

 

I sat up suddenly and looked all around me, my mouth suspended.

 

“Am I in paradise?” I asked myself as I was seriously dazed

 

The room was all pink with different girlie toys and barbie dolls carefully arranged in shelves and in the princess cots that were strategically placed in the room.

 

The centre rug was slightly pink but richly furry on the whitish-pink tiles that covered the small, snuggy room

 

I lay back in bed again and rolled on my side to the left and to the right and backwards again.

 

I jumped up again and did ‘Nepa’ for a while with my eyes before eventually opening my eyes wide.

 

When we came back, Auntie Tessie made me some chicken and chips and some juice to wash it down while she went inside to do God-knows-what.

 

She came back inside and told me that she wanted to show me into my room and I went with her.

 

She brought me into the best room I had ever seen in my entire life.

 

It was so beautiful and well kept that I wondered since when the room had been set up and what stress she engaged herself in to ensure the cleanliness.

 

I couldn’t imagine me in a princess room like the one I was.

 

It was just a day after sleeping in a store room!

 

Tears started to gather in my eyes again!

 

I saw as my dad knelt before the church and how the pastor had removed his tag off his neck before everyone!

 

Then, I saw in the television of my mind and eyes how my dad had pushed me against the wall and I had fallen against the wall on a nail…

 

How he threw me out of the house like a bag of potatoes;

 

How Mrs. Tade said some dirty stuffs to me…

 

When I realized that the television of my mind didn’t want to stop transmitting what brought me more heartbreak, I picked up a pillow and forced my face into it, so everything could be calm and cool again!

 

I felt a very soft, warm hand pulling gently at the pillow and my hand.

 

“Don’t suffocate yourself baby” I heard her voice and quickly removed the pillow.

 

I shot her a look that said ‘I am fine mum’ with a smile that was trying to balance between happiness and sorrow.

 

“Your eyes are red!” She exclaimed with so much care that I quickly hugged her

 

If in all the problem I was going through, with no family or friend, a cigar smoking woman would care to take me inside her home and feel concerned for me, I was just ready!

 

I was ready to be her daughter!

 

“I shall be free from all church problems and hypocrisy!” I was saying to myself, not knowing I had spoken aloud

 

She looked into my face

 

“You have faced church problems too? You have had to face the committee to recount the tales of your past? You have paid your whole earnings as tithe yet the pastor doesn’t even care? You hate church too? You do?” She asked so expectantly, her face shining with such glee.

 

How did I want to tell her that that was not exactly how the church is?

 

Or at least that was not what it was meant to be?

 

What proof did I have to tell her that God exists but that I was as confused as her as to know exactly where those who practise the religion had gotten it all wrong?

 

How do I tell her?

 

“You do too?” She asked again, shaking my shoulders slightly and I smiled slowly as I nodded foolishly.

 

But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

 

Those words that I had always heard my dad preach rang in my head and my heart became heavy but I didn’t know what to do.

 

I didn’t want to break her heart

 

“But there is God” I tried to say and she smiled sadly

 

“I wish I know where he lives” She said as she buried her head in her hands.

 

I knew deep down that there is God and that He is the All powerful God but I just didn’t know how to tell her.

 

“Who told you about God most?” She asked suddenly and without thinking I said the truth

 

“My dad!”

 

“Where is he now?” She asked

 

“In his house” I said, somehow feeling embittered

 

“In this Abuja?” She asked again and I nodded

 

“What does he do?”

 

“He is a pastor” I said and her eyes shone in shock

 

“So, why are you not at home with him?” She asked again and I felt irritated in the trachea

 

“I erred” I managed to still say as my throat turned sour

 

“And you were chased out of the house? No one to cater for you, no friend, no one and he is a pastor, right? And you tell me this christianity is real? Huh?” Her voice was quite loud now and my ears were not hearing well anymore

 

All sounds were echoing in my ears like the screeching of a microphone.

 

I felt a sharp pain under my stomach and as I tried to block my ears and holding my tummy at the same time, my irritated, sour throat seemed to purge as I jumped up from the bed, covering my bulging, stressed mouth with my two hands.

 

I ran off to the toilet

 

“My pumpkin! Oh my! Oh my!” She exclaimed as she followed after me in a hurry.

 

As I tried to vomit in the washing basin, I felt a lumpy fluid in my pant

 

What was happening to me?

 

Aunty Tessie pulled at my undies as gradually I fell into her hands while she screamed in fear.

 

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Written By: Oyekunle Lizzy Oyebola

All rights reserved

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