THE QUIRK OF FATE
Episode 5
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My heart was as hard as a stone!
There was this thing about me since I was young that had kept me going since I was young- Great self-esteem.
I was proud of myself and never could I cry because someone ridiculed or insulted me. throughout my university days when the whites in Germany and all over the European countries I had visited ridiculed my skin tone and called me a ‘Badass’, I would only smile and not put it to heart because that was not the real definition of me!
Even when I met Edward in Germany, I still held myself up high though I was madly in love with him.
I was to go for a New World Medicine Convention in Berlin with some other medical personnel and Edward was the pilot of the private jet we boarded.
When I saw him and he flashed his white set of teeth at me, butterflies started swarming in my tummy because he looked angelic in his white uniform. He was quite muscular and he was well haired with nicely trimmed moustache and small bush of ‘goatie’. His dimples could house a ball of cheese- very deep. He was also gap-toothed. I started daydreaming but never did i reveal my emotions to him. I was as cold as ice!
When it was time to disembark from the plane, I was the last person to alight and by the time I was, he was already outside with his hand outstretched to help me down. My heart couldn’t contain it. Could this be God’s will for me?
As I gave him my hand and I came down the steps, he smiled still, giving me a sudden constipation.
Could he just stop flashing those teeth?
There was this thing I had with teeth
I loved well-arranged, white set of teeth.
‘God bless you’ he said as I finally alighted.
Wow! He is a God person also!
I was as happy as anything and though the whole part of me was laughing its ass out, my face was as stern as anything.
This my overly confident self-esteem though!
‘I saw you yesterday at the Faith Based Assembly. Right?’ he asked and I looked up at him with my eyebrows arched shooting him a ‘like I care’ look but’ the inside of me was screaming ‘wow! He attends my church. He even noticed me. Wow! Wow! Wow!’
‘Really. Good. That’s my church. Thanks. I gat to go’ I said in a cold, unyielding manner and he smiled
‘Could I have your contact please?’ he asked and I looked into his eyeballs
‘I don’t give that to strangers. I barely know you’ I said and he smiled again.
To cut the long story short, we eventually exchanged our contacts and became friends. Our love or let me say my love for him burnt like wild-fire. If I didn’t see him in a day, I would not be able to eat.
Now, my egoistic balloon had been burst by the first person I would ever open my heart to.
Oh not by him but by a ruthless, uncontrollable brute that would have to receive his judgement sooner or later.
I examined the knife in my hand again and clutched it in my hands firmly.
The door of the pen was locked with a huge padlock but I knew where to find the key. I bent down and under the shrubs sat the key. I picked it up and proceeded to open the door.
The pen was sound proof because of the incessant noise of the dog so I could not even hear a sound from inside.
What sight would greet me when I enter?
Broken bones, a helpless wounded man lying on the floor crying for help or Briton lying on the floor dead because of the fierce battle between them both? Exactly what sight?
My cold heart resumed its intense pumping business and I sighed before eventually opening the door, slowly, quietly and gently.
The knife fell from my hand at what I saw!
The guy, clad in a singlet and knickers was seated on a plank on the floor, his hands held together with handcuffs and his head bowed. Briton was sitting beside him, scratching its paws with his teeth.
It stood up when it saw me and wagged its tail for a number of time before going back to the guy and recoiling beside him.
I was shocked because it was strange.
Even the first day my mother came to visit me, Briton pursued her out of the compound fiercely despite the fact that I was with her family and the day some armed robbers came to the house, Briton gave three of the four of them dislocations in different joints.
But this guy here looked unharmed.
‘What jazz did you use on my dog?’
Then he looked up at me, his eyes red as the furnace. He stood up and looked at me from head to toe. I was not scared of anything. I ran to the door and locked it.
‘I didn’t touch it’ he replied calmly
I didn’t give a damn if I was in a battle with a chronic drug addict because even I was drunk to the brim in anger. So, if it was going to be a fight, let us fight to the last.
Episode 6
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As I turned back from locking the door, he was already behind me and my heart jumped into my mouth. He fell on his knees and looked into my face.
‘I have never killed anybody in my life until today. I killed your joy, your hope, your future and everything about you in general. Please, the Bible says he that kills with the sword, the same shall be killed with the sword. Please, have your way’ he said and bent his neck, pointing at left side.
‘This is where the jugular is. Just thrust the knife and cut it. I would be forever gone’ he said and I looked on in amazement.
He knew the Bible.
He knew the jugular
He had never killed before
He was remorseful
Who is this guy?
‘Sir, the reverse is the case o. I brought this knife here so you could finish what you started.’ I said and knelt down before him too.
‘What?’ he asked me, so surprised that he shifted backwards.
‘This is my neck and thank God you know the jugular. Aren’t you a hired assassin? Please finish your job. Kill me! You did an incomplete job the other time. Now, please kill me’ I cried out with a serious voice.
I really wanted to die!
But I could not kill myself. I was a coward!
The guy fell to the ground, his hands still in bounds and cried so hard that I had to really think over and over again to be sure that he was the one that reeked of alcohol and raped me few hours ago.
‘Forgive me please. I have ruined everything…please forgive…’ he kept on saying when I got mad!
‘Forgive you for what? Are you mad? Forgive you for raping me or forgive you for climbing me with your filthy dirty body? or forgive you for taking my so much kept and treasured virginity? or forgive you for making my husband to walk out on me? or forgive you for making my wedding to be cancelled? Forgive you for what?’ I screamed so loudly that Briton had to growl loudly and swirl around in a circle.
‘I don’t have any excuse madam. I will go to the jail if that is…’ he was saying when I banged the wall with the knife.
‘What is my business with this jail thing that you have been shouting about? If you wanted to go to jail, why couldn’t you go to jail on your own? Why? Why must you drag others into serious problems like this? Why?’ I cried out, throwing the knife away. I knelt beside the guy and started punching him as I cried ‘why?’ repeatedly. He continued wailing and shaking in his tears.
As I hit him on and he allowed me, I felt that there was something about the guy. Something that made the situation weird.
He coughed as he swallowed loudly. I tried pulling him up but he was too muscularly built for me. He sat up and covered his face with his neat and beautiful hands.
‘Isn’t this guy a gangster? What’s with the beautiful hands?’ I asked myself. Then I pulled at his singlet and forced him to look into my face
‘Who are you? Please who are you? Talk to me. you can’t just walk into my life from nowhere, leave me destroyed and say you want to go to jail’ I screamed on and slapped his laps repeatedly hard.
‘My name is Nathaniel but I am called Niel’ he said and I shook my head
‘So, you are even a Christian? Why would you do this to a fellow Christian?’ I asked in a shaky voice.
‘I was living in England before now’ he said and I watched on.
So what?
‘So what? What is my own business?’ I asked furiously and he gave me a calm look with his bloodshot eyes that made me to keep quiet.
‘My dad met with your dad and your dad promised to give you to me as wife’ He said and I blinked so hard to process the words I had just heard.
‘What!’ I exclaimed as I rest my back against the wall, panting with the intense headache in my head.
‘He asked me to pay 10000 pounds and get him a car before he would give you to me which I promptly did. I sent him 15000 pounds and a brand new range rover, not because I had the money but I had to do numerous overtimes before I could meet up’ he explained on and on and my heartbeat became a drum set giving different rhythmic sounds of anxiety
‘I went online to read stories about you and I was happy that I was getting married to a medical personnel like me. I am a medical doctor. I have a comfortable mortgage and all in preparation for our marriage until last week when I saw on the newspaper that you were getting married to somebody else’ he said, wiping the beads of sweat from off his forehead.
‘My saviour!’ I exclaimed loudly as I realised how terribly my father had dealt with me.
‘I called my father who confirmed it and he asked me to come home. I was very mad at your father until I met him at a beer parlour. I followed him there to monitor him. He didn’t recognise me though. At the beer parlour, he started discussing about you again saying you were chaste, untouched and all.’ He explained and broke down crying.
I was confused. Who was to blame here? My boastful irresponsible father with his scams or this Niel who allowed the devil to use him against me? What a mess!
‘My friends saw my pains and started urging me to drink to forget my sorrow. I drank to stupor and they led me in here, advising me to take what belonged to me. To tell the whole world that he was just making mouth and that no virgin existed. That was why…’ he was saying when he broke down into tears again.
Sharp pain ran through my head down my spine to my feet. It felt like I was running mad and that the whole world was crashing down.
‘Your dad was the one at fault not you. I should never have done that. Please forgive me’ he cried on and on, going back to his knees from his sitting position. He held my legs.
‘I heard you are a Christian. Now I know better. Now I know! Please, lead me to Jesus. I am ready to accept him as my Lord and Saviour. Please save me’ he cried on the more and I looked into his face with my mouth suspended and my eyes widened
Isn’t this craziness? Lead you to Christ? How is that possible? Nothing is working out right for me and you are asking me to preach to you.
Wedding cancelled!
Marriage ruined!
Love tainted!
Holy Spirit silent!
Preach to you?
Which kind thing be that?
I closed my eyes, tilted my chin, squeezed my face, stretched out my arms and let out a heart wrenching cry that made even me shiver with great intensity.
Where do I go from now?
Somebody should please talk to me since God is silent!
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I was the evangelism coordinator of my Campus fellowship when I was at the University of Lagos and I knew quite alright what a soul- a single one meant unto the Lord.
But not now!
Not when my life had come to a standstill and it looked as if my world had come crashing.
By now, all my friends and families that had prepared for the ceremony tomorrow would have started wondering what happened when my parents call to inform them about the cancellation.
My colleagues from Australia too would have to cancel their flights as there was no need travelling from Europe to Africa again!
‘Here this non-entity wants to rope my legs with God! God! God!’
‘And I say No! No! No!’
I was as weak and light as a paper!
If a two-year old baby pushed me, I would fall!
My head rose as I thought about what I should do to my father.
I had heard some rumours that he had been involved in a lot of scam promising me to different families as bride as long as they could provide this or that. But never could I imagine that it was going to be as bad as this.
I can’t live in this world anymore
I can’t love or trust anymore so what more can I do but to die!
“Princess’’ Niel called me calmly. I looked into his face and hissed.
“See Niel, to be factual, there is hell and there is heaven” I started with my mouth twisted to the side. He listened with rapt attention, his head bowed.
“I have preached to many people about the fact that they should not miss heaven and all that because heaven is described as beautiful with endless fellowship with our creator, lord and master” I explained on and he nodded in comprehension.
My silent, cool voice became violent and bass when of a sudden I caught his two shoulders with indescribable strength and shook him vehemently.
“But we can’t go there!” I screamed into his ears. He looked very shaken but I didn’t care.
“Princess…” he was saying when I growled and made a dangerous look.
“We can’t go there! We are going to hell together because with this knife here, I will kill you, then before life goes out of you, you will kill…” I was saying when of a sudden there was a gentle breeze in the pen.
I loosened my grasp on him and we looked at each other, greatly surprised. The window was locked and the door was too. How on earth did breeze come in that way?
Niel fell to the ground and I looked at him with great fear. I started shaking him vigorously.
Jesus!
“This is becoming serious for me o.” I cried out, beating my laps in anguish
Who on earth who believe that I wasn’t the one that killed this guy if he died.
He has to wake up! I thought aloud as I started shaking him vigorously
“Wake up Niel! I hope this guy doesn’t have an incurable disease o.
How would an agile guy like this just fall down and die?” I cried out and laid on the floor beside him. I was so weak as I cried “Why Lord!” repeatedly
“Balaam!” I heard a voice call out calmly and confidently. I looked around and I saw nothing. Even Briton was already fast asleep!
Everything was just strange.
Whose voice was that?
“Is anyone there?” I asked, sitting up, very frightened
“Balaam! Verily verily I say unto you. You’re a Balaam and you are Balaam” the voice went on to say and I was baffled. Who was talking to me?
Where was the person?
I started wheezing! That was another strange thing because I had never had asthma.
“My God! I will run mad o! What is happening to me? Why are strange occurrences coming my way like this?” I wheezed on and on until I fell to the ground and passed out.
Episode 8
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The stadium was almost empty but for a horse, a man with a blindfold on his face and another man in white who were in the middle of the stadium as if in a competition.
“Sir, is this a competition? Where are the other contestants?” I asked the man in white.
“Princess, this is life. It is no competition. This man is the only one running the race on this horse” he said beautifully and it was not clear to me
“So, what is the blindfold on his face for?” I asked and the man in white smiled
“That is how everyone is as a Christian. You are blind. You do not know where to go and what goes on around you” he explained on and I was confused the more.
“So, how is the man going to know where he is going to and how to get there?” I asked again and the man in white smiled.
“That is why I am here. As long as he follows, he won’t miss the way. This man is about to start going now. Let’s go together with him” he said and I started walking with the man in white while the horse and its rider followed from behind.
As we approached a very large signpost with the inscription ‘The Will of God’, the horse made a very loud whine and I looked behind me.
The blindfold on the face of the man was no more there. The horse had turned to the left and the man was smiling happily as he looked at something afar off.
I moved towards his side to check what was making him smile. It was a glittering entrance with the signpost ‘The Beautiful Will of God”
As he pulled the bridle of the horse, the horse raced off in the direction of the glittering signpost and I looked at the man in white who had worn a sad face
“He is gone!” I said and he shook his head
“It is a deception. There is nothing like the beautiful will of God. His will is his will. It is going to be beautiful in its own way!” he said painfully and looked sad.
“His eyes are opened! Your eyes can’t be opened and you will say you would be led. There are lots of distractions out there. Come with me” the man said again and the gate of the ‘Will of God’ opened wide. I saw a very large, expanse of Greenland. I smiled happily as it was very colorful with fruits of many kinds.
“This was for him” the man in white said and I opened my mouth wide
“Was?” I asked and he shook his head
“But for his many savings, he would have missed this beautiful Greenland. Now, I have to go after him if perhaps he notices my presence, he would come back” he said in a caring tone.
As I walked with him down the road the man had passed, I started ruminating over everything the man had just told me.
“But sir, savings?” I asked and he smiled
“You will get to understand later” he said and we went on.
The man in white reached for his pocket and brought out a remote control which he pressed and we heard the loud whining of the horse. I looked at his face inquisitively
“I just stopped the horse abruptly” he said and we watched from afar as the man beat the horse to move.
The horse was almost entering the glittering entrance when it was halted and I could see the anxiety on the man’s face as he shouted ‘Move!’ to no avail.
“Help him” I told the man in white and he looked at me and smiled
“His father employed me to be his professional guide. He should call me if he needs me” He said and I started screaming
“Your guide is here. Call him” I shouted. He looked at me and hissed
“Leave me! Can you live in that old castle he was leading me to? Leave me! Move!” he beat the horse the more and the man in white shook his head. He pressed a remote control and the glittering gate opened.
I was so shocked as I saw a very fallow ground with thorns and thistles and different crawling insects and cobwebs. I held my chest and looked at the man on the horse. He was carried away with beating the horse that he didn’t see the gate opened.
“The entrance is fine but its dirty inside. Don’t go!” I screamed and he was obviously furious. I ran towards him and started pulling at him anxiously to get down the horse.
“’Please, don’t pull me. Leave me and let me go into this place. This place appeals to me. Please” he cried and I looked into his adamant face. I dragged him off the horse angrily.
“That place is not good!” I said firmly.
In an attempt to drag him off the horse, I forgot his legs were held together in a slide and thereby, I broke his leg. He screamed and screamed in pain but I didn’t want him to go into the entrance. It was horrible!
“You have killed me!” he cried as he dug his nails into my hands in pain. I felt very bad but I kept on dragging him on the shrubs till we got to the man in white
“I am sorry. Its for your own good” I said to him and he screamed the more as I dragged him with the man in white in front of us.
As his screams died away gradually due to loss of his strength, we got to the entrance of the ‘Will of God’ gate.
I pulled him inside and an ambulance was at the gate ready to take him away.
“Thank you ma. He would be okay” the nurses said and they turned away with the gate closing behind them. I looked into the man in white’s face, smiling very gladly. I was greatly satisfied but the look on his face was sad.
“What is the matter?” I asked and he shook his head
“How do you feel after the struggle?” he asked and I smiled again
“I feel very great!” I exclaimed and he shook his head again
“Princess” he called out
“Sir?”
“Princess” he called out again
I was losing my patience!
“Yes sir!” I responded again
“But that was you!” he said and I checked myself through
“Me?” I asked to be sure
“Yes you! Following the Holy Spirit’s leading was your doing all along because he was the one employed by the Father to serve as your guide. You have many guides- your mother, your friends, your pastors, your counselors, they are all good but he is the only professional guide” he continued and I listened with rapt attention.
I had started perspiring.
“The Holy spirit started leading you- the university to go, the course to study, the way to go, the right friends to choose and everything but it got to the marital aspect of your life.
You removed your blindfold, saw a beautiful face, nice structure, and like Prophet Samuel, you said ‘Definitely, this is him!’” he paused and walked to a fence, leaning on it, his face raised to heaven
I pursed my lips as the words sunk into my being.
“The love race started and you fell really in love. You left prayers which regularly were your food yet the Holy Spirit followed you everywhere but you were too busy to notice his presence. All you did was complaining that God had left you when he was always by you daily!”
“My father!”I exclaimed as it dawned on me that I had wronged God! I fell on my knees, with my hands supporting my shivering chin.
“You asked me about savings the other time. Your savings as a Christian is prayer. Let us come boldly to the throne of mercy. The end of that verse says ‘that we may find grace in time of need’. Let us bank in prayers that when we can’t probably pray again, when our hearts are straying, we would find grace to help us up. That is the savings.
You had few coins of prayers but the value your mother had made into that savings was more than anything. Always praying for you was her responsibility!” he explained on and I sat on the floor, trying to process everything.
So, the rape?
“Yes, the rape was God’s will!” he said and I looked up at him, shocked!
“Like seriously?” I asked to be sure I heard correctly.
“Few weeks to your wedding, your mother’s prayer point changed its course from ‘let the wedding be a success’ to ‘your will alone shall be done. Our will shall not be done!’ that is a wonderful prayer. None of me but all of you! That was how the heavens started working on your behalf not to let your will be done.” He said on and I looked lost.
What did he say?
“First of all, in answer to your mother’s prayers, the guy told you he was no longer interested in you. But you cried and begged him to continue. Heaven was sad” he said and I shook my head unbelievably
“Next, you caught him with a lady in bed and you were angry, ready to break it off. Yet, he still cajoled you saying he was preserving you untouched till your wedding night. You knelt down together to ask for forgiveness. For what?” he almost shouted.
My heart started pounding and my sight became bright. It was as if a blind had been removed from my sight.
“What is the difference between yourself and the horse rider now?” he asked and I shook my head.
There was obviously no difference whatsoever.
“Niel came, smashed your pride on the floor just as you broke the rider’s leg and together, through the power of the prayers of your mother and others, we shall drag you into His perfect will. You should count yourself lucky! Except you still want that beautiful entrance will an ugly inside” the man in white smiled faintly and I looked perturbed.
“Now, would you walk with me to the entrance of ‘The Will of God’?”he asked and I nodded.
I was totally ready!
I was confused and perturbed at the whole thing but I was ready.
Ready to see how green the whole inside was.
“I am ready” I said as I stood up.
Quietly and gently, we approached the gate and it opened.
I gasped severally as I surveyed the environs. There was a perfect green land with different crawling plants of different shapes and colors and it looked very nice to behold but it looked unkempt!
“Sir, why is everything like this? It’s too bushy!” I said and he nodded.
“The watchman is not around.” He said and I opened my mouth in suspension
“Where is he?” I asked and the man in white turned around and looked straight. I turned around too and saw a cross not too far away.
“You have crucified him” he said and I looked at him sharply
“Me?” I asked and the man in white nodded. I sighed deeply
What exactly is this old man saying for Righteousness’ sake?
As we approached the cross, the face of the person on it was covered with a white cloth. I shuddered!
I had nailed Christ to the cross again!
“Climb that stool and open the covering on his face.” The man in white said as he pointed to a very tall ladder-like stool.
I moved close to the stool, sighed for the umpteen time , took my steps as I climbed and eventually I stood tall on it.
I looked down at the man in white who smiled largely and then made to open the covering with my heart in my mouth.
“Jesus!” I repeated as I loosened the covering and removed it with a slow motion.
“What! Olorun maje ooooooo!” I exclaimed loudly as I saw, tied to the cross, Niel!
He looked so good, though with perspiration on his face. And his teeth as he smiled at me were wonderful!
But no!
I reject it for my dog!
This rapist! This drunk! This evil man!
“Whatever God has called clean, do not call unclean!” the man in white said to me. I shook my head vigorously.
”I don’t have the grace. I can’t do it” I said firmly, my heart wailing in me. The man in white smiled
“Help him down from that cross of condemnation on which you have tied him and let him be free” he said and I shook my head.
“No! Lailai! I can’t do it. I can’t touch him. He is filthy!” I continued. Then, I missed my steps on the narrow stool and I tumbled in the air as I descended. I screamed
“I am falling! Please somebody help!”
I saw a lightning, I heard the thunder, I saw a great brightness, then I fell into the waiting arms of the man in white I supposed.
… and my heart stopped!!
Wetin be God’s will in this case?
Tufiakwa!
I will rather kill myself than commit suicide!
… And I closed my eyes in death!
To be continued…
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