CHAPTER ONE

   I walked into the church that evening quite befuddled. I had no idea what Segun wanted or why he urgently wanted to see me. I just hoped this meeting was of value. I got to the church right on time, so I sat on a chair in the church but he was nowhere in sight. Being an orphan as far back as I could remember, with no relations or siblings, I had many problems. One of them was being single whilst approaching thirty, another was paying my bills with a low-paying job. The other was losing a lot of money to a lottery game which my friend Becky introduced to me. Having a conversation with Bro Segun was the least of my problems right now.

       I picked up the Bible which lay on one of the chairs. Unknown to him, that was the actual reason for me answering this odd request; I forgot my bible. On no other account, will I ever honor a fixed appointment with this brother in the lord. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and wait patiently for the ‘stories’ he had for me. I never admired him nor did I think he would say anything important. In a short while, I could see the short brother limping across the hall, heading towards my direction. I couldn’t hide my disgust. I didn’t know if he noticed my snarl, because he smiled. Even with my biased mindset, I couldn’t deny that he had a good smile. He sat and then stretched his hand quickly, I received the hand shake. He smiled broadly again and said,

               ``Thanks for honoring my request.”

I put on a very fake smile and said in my mind;

                  Bros, I only forgot my bible.

            He coughed repeatedly. I took my time to examine him, he looked very dark skinned and I didn’t like dark skinned men, his height was not even encouraging. He smiled again and then I noticed that he had a very bad set of teeth with big ‘bulging’ lips. Although he had pink colored lips which was an impressive sight to behold, I didn’t admire that large nose and big unattractive eyes. His clothes where neat and properly ironed but he dressed as if he were in the 80s, he wasn’t in vogue. That he had a small Volkswagen car (1994 model) didn’t mean anything to me, or that he lived in an old rented apartment. I just noticed from the look in his eyes that he noticed I wasn’t paying attention. I briefly apologized. He smiled and continued,

“My dear sister, I guess you were so distracted by this beautiful shirt of mine. It was a gift from another sister who now resides in Port-Harcourt.”

              That shirt is a disaster.

He smiled and continued;

``The reason I called you here is because God kept on urging me in repeated visions and dreams to – he told me of the vision he has been showing you.”

“Which is?” I asked,

    Then he narrated a vision which I felt was only known by me. God had showed me a ladder and someone was holding the Ladder for me while I climbed. This vision kept on reoccurring, I was bothered. I never told anybody about this. Then he told me about another personal vision which God showed me where I was walking hand in hand with a stranger in a beautiful garden and the last one where the same person saved me from drowning. I was scared, because I thought I knew what he was going to say next and I never saw the helper’s face while dreaming. He smiled.

Stolen novel; please report.

           “Don’t be scared my dear sister.” He said.

     Maybe I am just overreacting, it wouldn’t happen.

Then he threw the bomb shell;

       “My dear sister, Kevwe Thomas, the woman with the glory of God, God said I am the man.” and he dropped to his knees;

                    “God said I should marry you.”

           I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, shout or run. I just sat there while he quoted all the scriptures about marriage on his knees. Then I realized I had heard enough and burst into a short wicked laughter.

               “You of all people! How can you say this now? Brother Segun, out of all the sisters in the choir why didn’t you pick one that befits your status? What have I done wrong?” I pointed at him in rage. “Look, don’t ever in your life say that rubbish again. I am leaving this church! In fact, I have had enough you, just because you are the prayer leader and can see into other people’s private lives, doesn’t mean you should take advantage of me.”

I took my bag angrily, put my bible inside and stormed out while I turned deaf ears to his pleas.

           As I walked home angrily, I kept putting my hand to my eye as if to push back the tears that were about to run down my cheeks. Today I felt so humiliated. How could Brother Segun of all people want to seek my hand in marriage? What did he take me for, a piece of trash? I concluded I had overstayed my welcome in that church. I swallowed hard and discovered I had almost collided with a tricycle driving along his path. As the man raised some strange curses, I turned the other way, what I had heard today was worse than all that. My phone started buzzing;

                              Pastor Matthew Calling

I was at Obalende market and it was quite noisy so I walked into an empty stall which was quieter, but as I tried to receive the call, a thought ran across my mind.

                         Your pastor could have orchestrated this meeting.

I felt a sharp pain in my chest, not entirely physical, it was more of an emotional turmoil. I stood there watching my phone ring again, while different thoughts ran across my mind.

     Did he know about Bro Segun proposal? Was it a planned work? Was he trying to marry me off to an old time member?

Then I did something almost impulsively, I received the call;

“Oh Sister Kevwe, I didn’t think you would answer the call”, he said in his husky voice. “I know you might be quite busy, but I felt in my spirit you needed this information.”

       “Yes Sir”, I responded, quite relieved that it wasn’t what I initially thought. 

       “Sister Kevwe, God said that a new package would present itself as a new blessing unto you, but you should think twice before embracing it. Be careful, might lead you away from the presence of God.”

I didn’t understand, but I knew better than to question him.

                        “Thank you Sir”

“Also Sister Kevwe, I don’t know if Bro Segun has talked to you about it yet but he told me earlier on concerning his proposal and I know God…”

          I watched myself listen to all his prophetic utterance and all I could feel was disgust but I didn’t say a word. After a while, I just hung up. This was when I received the shock of my life. It was a call from my roommate Becky, and she was screaming;

“Baby, your numbers were correct! You’ve won the lottery; this is good news. You are now the latest millionaire! This is the happiest day ever.”