by Boadi, Lilly
“I won’t be around. I’ll be attending church tomorrow morning,” said Mellis and Chad laughed.
“What? What’s wrong with you? Are you repenting or what?” Chad teased.
“You can call it repentance, but it’s very important to me that I go to church. I’m going with Alex. It would be a good idea if you join us, don’t you think?”
Chad was in shock. “Church?” he stammered.
“Look, you are joining us, and you don’t have a choice! See you tomorrow morn at my house!” said Mellis, slamming Chad’s shoulder, and then walked off towards Kiara. Chad raised his eyebrows in indifference and followed him. “Goodnight, Kiara,” said Mellis, pecking her cheeks.
“Goodnight,” she said.
“Thanks too for your time, and I hope we can talk again.”
“Ok,” she said, smiling away.
FOURTEEN
A surge of pure joy rose within Mellis when he got to the church premises. The scenic splendor of the majestic building and the statutes of the Holy Mother and Her baby Jesus, of fairy angels surrounding them and the full grown Jesus, were awesome. He felt reverence towards the Holy Trinity, as he sat and gazed in rapture towards the altar. It has been years since he set foot in a church building. Though Haida had urged him on several times into attending church services, he wouldn’t budge. Suddenly, a thought ran through his mind. Wasn’t this place where Haida worshipped? He remembered her telling him about that some time ago; but it became quite clear when he saw the vicar on the pulpit later on. Could Haida be the girlfriend of his brother? He thought for a second, but dismissed the thought, with the conviction that there could be a number of ladies with that name in the church. Besides, he had not talked that much with his brother about his girlfriend, and so he couldn’t be sure.
Incense started to burn into Mellis’ nostrils from nowhere and he found it quite strange. Now, what stranger thing they did with the incense, twice, he wondered if he were at some modernized shrine; and he didn’t even know if he would recognize one when he saw it, except the ones he has been seeing in the African movies.
After few others of what Mellis called ‘rituals’, the vicar beckoned the large congregation to stand on their feet for a hymn. Afterwards, the bible readings were taken. The vicar dwelt his preaching on the theme ‘Faithfulness’ “…The God who made us is faithful; faithful to His word” he said “He never goes against His words when He speaks; He never lies. His promises are dependable, for whatever He promises, He delivers. Through His faithfulness, we have grace and mercy, and we have a covenant with Him which we can be sure would be fulfilled in our lives when we do what is expected of us to be part of that covenant…. Since the One who called us is faithful, we ought to be faithful, we who are made in His likeness. For it is the one who remains faithful to his calling to the end, who would receive the crown of life. If we say we are His children, made in His image, then we ought to be faithful to Him, and to one another: a friend must be faithful to his friend, a parent to his child, a servant to his master and a husband or wife to the partner….”
Mellis felt the vicar was chorusing more than preaching. Was this what the whole catholic thing all about?
“One thing we should take note of is that, faithfulness is made easy where there is love. God’s faithfulness towards us results from the profound love He has towards us; He promised us a Saviour who would reconcile us to Himself, and because He loved us, He remained faithful to His Word, and sent us His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus. If we love God, we would remain faithful to Him to the end. A parent who loves his child is faithful in his words and deeds towards the child, for he knows the child has his trust in him…; a friend who loves his friend will never betray him, but remains faithful to each other to the end, so does it go for a servant who loves his master; through love, a husband or wife keeps his or her marital vow to remain faithful to his partner through all seasons of life. If you have love, faithfulness is a virtue easy to take on – so to say, love and faithfulness goes hand in hand…”
From where he worshipped before, more than ten years ago, a Pentecostal church, it would have taken the preacher three times shorter to say all that the vicar just said, Mellis realized.
The congregation remained solemn as the vicar preached. Despite his own inward struggle against the manner in which the sermon was delivered, Mellis listened attentively, trying to understand and fix himself where it concerned his life.
“What is love then?” the vicar continued.“Let’s look at something at the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter thirteen, verse number four, through to eight…” the vicar read, and Mellis jotted the quotation down; the verses sounded nice and enlightening
“Long suffering, kindness, endurance, thoughtfulness, hope, belief, purity in thought, not easily provoked…all these are attributes of love, and if one has these in great measure, it would be difficult for one to be unfaithful to another. So, if you have these attributes dwelt deeply in you, friend, what will compel you to be unfaithful to your friend; husbands, wives, what will compel you to be unfaithful to your partners? If you have these attributes, no matter the kind of storms that would blow in your relationship with one another, you would remain faithful! It therefore goes that if you don’t have love, unfaithfulness is a vice easy to practice. If you do not love God, His commandments will mean nothing to you, and you do not care about what He expects from you. A servant or friend who has no love wouldn’t care betraying his master or friend for his own good. An unloving wife or husband wouldn’t care being unfaithful to the partner…”
At this juncture, Mellis’ thoughts shifted to Osborn – it explained why he was being unfaithful to his wife with Haida; and then to himself – it explained why he didn’t care about faithfulness to his ex’s. Then, it dawned on him that he must truly love Haida, thus, his care about faithfulness towards her when he was with her.
“Sometimes, we may love…” continued the vicar, “but our hearts may be stolen away by strange spirits and we become unfaithful to those we love. Anything that steals our hearts away from those we love and causes us to be unfaithful is a stranger – a stranger to our hearts. The Israelites forsook their true God and followed strange gods; the enemy stole their hearts and they gave their love to gods who were only strangers, because they were familiar with the One and only true God. A faithful servant’s heart may be stolen by another, being it a person or thing, who he isn’t familiar with and he would be unfaithful towards his master, and this goes for an unfaithful friend. A husband’s heart may be stolen by a strange woman and he would be unfaithful to his wife…. Children of God beware of strange gods; servants, friends, beware of the stranger; husbands, beware of the strange woman…lest they steal your hearts and cause you to be unfaithful…”
‘Strange woman!’ thought Mellis. The vicar actually mentioned that. Could Haida be a strange woman who stole the heart of Osborn away from his wife? He needed more knowledge into who a strange woman was, and the vicar could give him that. Maybe, he ought to see him one of these days to teach him more about that.
Certainly, with what came like a direct message to him, Mellis was refreshed after the service. He hoped his brother and friend also got their fair share of the cake. He followed the crowd, who trouped out of the hall, intending to say hi to the vicar, and perhaps, Haida and the rest of the family later on, if they were around.
“Stay here. I’d get my girlfriend quick” said Alex gleefully when the three gentlemen found themselves a comfortable corner isolated from the large crowd.
“Did he say his girlfriend?” said Chad somewhat rhetorically, when Alex was gone already.
“You heard him, right?” Mellis returned same.
“How long has he been in this country and he already has a girlfriend! Didn’t know your brother is worse than you!” and he laughed at his own sarcasm.
“Save him the honor! Alex is better than me!” Mellis confessed. “He claims he has been with her all the while on camp
us. He came down with her…” Mellis paused when his heart missed a beat at what he just said. But to Chad, that was a complete sentence. Mellis repeated the last sentence in his mind and felt his heart racing.
“Wasn’t that the vicar; Haida’s dad?” asked Chad indefinably
“Yeah, that’s him” said Mellis
“You didn’t tell me it was her church you were visiting. Is that how you intend to make up with her?” he chuckled “So much of your interest to come to church!” but Chad didn’t understand as usual and Mellis refused to tell him the main reason. Suddenly, for some nebulous reasons, he was having a strong feeling her Haida is Alex’s Haida, and the thought was already weighing him down.
“Let’s look for Haida then?”
“I would later; after I’ve met Alex’s girlfriend”
“Are you ok?” Chad noticed the worry on his face.
“Sure! I am!”
Meanwhile, while Haida was talking with her family, she felt a light tap on her shoulder and saw Jolly smiling over her head. She turned immediately “Oh Alex, you could make it!” she exclaimed ecstatically “I’m glad to see you” she said, hugging him gently “You meet my mom; mom, this is Alex, a very good friend. He came to worship with us today”
“Hello son, how are you?” asked Mrs. Morgan, shaking hands with Alex
“I’m well mom. I now know where Haida got her good looks from” he said, and his humor worked as they laughed
“It’s nice meeting you, Alex”
“It’s my pleasure meeting you too, mom” said Alex politely
“I believe you two know each other already?” said Haida, turning to Jolly
“Yes we do. It’s nice meeting you again, Alex” said Jolly, smiling into his eyes and shaking his hand. Alex smiled back “Yeah, me too” he said, and then turning to Haida “Urr, can I see you privately for a moment?”
“Sure” said Haida
“I’m honoured to have met you mom. Hoping to see you all again some other time” he said and winked at Jolly who giggled “Excuse me please”
“Go ahead son. Bye” said Mrs. Morgan
“Where’s your dad? I wish I could say hi” said Alex, meandering his way through the crowd and pulling Haida gently behind him
“He’s at the Sacristy. Are you taking me somewhere?” asked Haida
“Yes”
“Where?”
He paused and turned to her “To my brother; he’s here!” he announced delightfully
“Oh, really? That is a surprise. Why didn’t you tell me he was going to be here?” she asked, delighted too. She was going to meet her boyfriend’s brother, supposed to be some sort of a genius, and she was blushing already.
“Like you put it, I wanted to surprise you” said Alex, pulling her behind him once more, but this time, a bit harder out of excitement. Haida followed, giggling with delight and expectancy
“What is taking that brother of yours that long?” Chad was saying “Is he already necking her at the church premises?” he laughed but Mellis gave a wry smile.
“Your brother is really in love, isn’t he?”
“Very much. I’ve never seen him so much in love. I wonder what that girl has done to him. She must really be something else” said Mellis, grinning
“What’s she called?”
“Haida…” said Mellis, and paused
“Haida?” asked Chad, and then he saw Mellis was hypnotized, staring before him. Chad followed his gaze and saw Alex with Haida behind him; they were giggling like school children. The two gentlemen watched in amazement, as they made their way to their direction. Then Chad glanced at Mellis questionably.
“Did you know about this?!” Chad hissed hardly.
“I wasn’t sure…” Mellis hardly completed his statement when Haida and Alex reached them. When they did, Alex paused, and Haida looked up. Suddenly, her heart missed a heavy beat and her laughter died down, as she stared into Mellis’ eyes ‘What is he doing here?’ she thought
“Gentlemen, this is my lovely girlfriend, Haida” announced Alex gleefully. Chad and Mellis stole uneasy glances at each other.
“Your…” that was all a mesmerized Mellis could utter.
For a moment, Haida wondered which of the two gentlemen Alex’s brother was “Haida, you meet my brother, Mellis, and his friend, Chad”. Haida gasped in horror, very terrified. But Alex mistook that bewilderment for that of the sight of an awesome loveliness like his brother. She shook hands with Mellis reluctantly, looking away from him
“Hello beautiful, nice meeting you” said Mellis, looking into her eyes which she was trying to avoid meeting his
“I’ve heard so many wonderful things about you, and I think my brother’s description of you is understatement, now that I’ve met you” he said, trying hard to bring a smile out.
Haida gave a short smile and blushed. She shook hands with Chad “Nice meeting you Haida; you are lovely” he said, smiling at her
“Thanks!” she said into his eyes, looking quite mean.
“You really have a beautiful woman Alex. I think I envy you” said Chad humourously and Alex laughed. Chad laughed too, but Haida only chuckled, as Mellis remained silent, looking intently into her eyes. Every second, a bone appeared in Mellis’ jaws. He was feeling restless at the moment.
“Don’t go there man, and don’t forget we are still at the church premises, so, if you are thinking of stealing, then you had better renewed your mind” said Alex, and then put Haida into his arms “Haida is all mine” he said “and no one can take her from me. Woe to the one who approaches. I think I’d have to post a beware of dogs bill all over her, to scare off potential robbers like you” said Alex, and then turning to Haida “Do you agree, love?” he asked and planted a kiss on her forehead. Haida forced a smile out, as she stared into Mellis’ eyes; she could see them – the disappointment, pain, anger, upset and devastation – they were all in his beautiful bewitching eyes.
“Don’t worry yourself Alex. I may never be able to steal her away anyway. I think she would not give in” said Chad, looking at Haida
“Yeah, you are right. Haida and I are so much in love, and she would never be unfaithful. You heard the vicar, didn’t you? She is a decent woman…” said Alex, looking lovingly into Haida’s eyes “…and that’s one reason I love her so much” and he gave her a peck on the cheek.
Mellis stood with a bone in his jaw, burning with pure jealousy and anger. He couldn’t bear the sight anymore “Chad, I think we have to let these love-birds be. Come on, let’s go!” he said amusingly, trying to sound in control.
“Hey you are jealous, aren’t you?” Alex teased
“You really do make me feel like being with my love-bird too” whispered Mellis, and Haida’s heart jumped out. Of course, she knew he said this to hurt her, and she couldn’t believe he had succeeded. “See you at home”
“Oh, don’t tell me you are going to Kelly’s and would be back home before I do?” said Alex
“Bet I would, because I think with a pretty woman like this in your arms, you’d have lots to do” said Mellis, looking at Haida, and she thought she heard sarcasm in his tone. He then extended his arm to her “Nice meeting you pretty. Hope we meet again”
“Me too” stammered Haida
“It’s a pleasure to have met you, Haida” said Chad, and then to Alex “Make sure you take good care of her”
“You needn’t say; I always do” said Alex, and planted a kiss on Haida’s forehead once more.
Mellis sighed “Well, you two have a nice day. See you soon Alex” he said and departed, with Chad following and smiling sheepishly at the couple.
“Can I see your dad now? I want to say hello to him before I leave?” asked Alex
“Oh yes. I’m sure by now he’s done with the formalities at the Sacristy. Let’s go” said Haida. Alex realized she was upset and nervous all of a sudden. He paused and took her hand “Are you sure it’s ok I see your dad?” he asked
“Of course
; it’s no problem. Why do you ask anyway?”
“Urr…nothing really. I only thought it might create suspicion, and you might have problems with him”
“Oh no, it won’t, so long as I make him know you are only a friend and we behave so”
“Alright, I get you”
Later, when she escorted him to his car, he realized she still looked a bit tensed “Can I visit you at home one of these days?” he asked out of the blue, and he saw the surprise look on her face “I’d be with a company, so that your dad would believe we are really friends; I’ll come with Mellis”
“No! You don’t have to! Err, I mean, you can come and visit, but not necessarily with your brother” she said and she thought she saw suspicion in his eyes “I’d like to be near you alone, you get me?” she whispered lovingly, blushing with tension.
Alex watched her for a second “Are you sure it’s ok I visit you at home?”
“Yes, of course” she said sharply. But the nervousness with which she said so told him it would be better if he deferred that idea, for the moment.
“Haida has no shame!” said Mellis “She’s flirting with Osborn and going out with my brother at the same time! I couldn’t imagine she was so much of a harlot!” he said bitterly “You know, after knowing all that Kiara told me yesterday, I was thinking of going after her again and being together forever this time, not to allow anything to come in between us” he said earnestly, and then shook his head “and now this!” he said sadly. Chad remained silent, seeing he had failed this time. Fact is, he didn’t know what to say to Mellis – nothing else could convince Mellis again to fight for his love for Haida. Nevertheless, somehow, he thought he saw it in Haida’s eyes and the way she looked at Mellis, that she was still in love with his friend; yet, he daren’t speak another word about making up with her and fighting for their love.
“Shameless wench!” exclaimed Mellis with such deep contempt that it made Chad flinch “Foolish me!” exclaimed Mellis contemptibly once more and smacked the surface of the wheel. Once more, Chad flinched, and at this moment, he thought it was a bad idea that Mellis should drive. Without looking at Mellis, he sat silently at the front seat and swallowed hard. “Jesus Christ! I can’t believe I’ve allowed myself to be made a victim of abuse of love! I’ll never forgive myself for this! I curse the day I fell in love with that woman!”
