RIGHT ON TIME

chapter 4

FIRST ARTILLERY, ABA ROAD, PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS STATE. 

As Mrs Righteous Green continued driving absent-mindedly back to her home, she felt as though the weight of the world was crashing down upon her, threatening to bury her alive. 

She thought back to the events that had taken place within the past five years and fresh tears of gut-wrenching sorrow streamed down her face. She let them flow freely, sobs whacking her chest. She managed to keep her hands steady on the wheels as she drove through a blur of tears. 

What's happening? How did I get to this rock bottom point? And, and why? 

"God, why me?" The question came out as a whisper. 

She cursed in frustration—something she trained her children to never do—and mentally chided herself. 

She groaned and slapped her steering wheels hard with both hands. 

"God, God, I ask you again. Why me?" Her voice, though quavering from the tears, was louder this time.

She bawled out of the blues, and nearly collided with a Highlander moving ahead of her. She veered her steering just in time to avoid a collision.

Thanking her stars that her carelessness did cause damage to her car and her body, she sniffed and quickly wiped her tears with her sleeves. She resumed her tirade of questions to  God again, breathing steadier this time around. 

"God, do you still love me? No, have you ever even loved me?" 

"Yes, my dear beloved. I love you so much, more than you could ever imagine," the still small voice replied to her but she found it hard to believe. 

"Oh, my daughter... My baby girl... Ayanate didn't deserve what happened to her." 

"She loved you," Mrs Righteous whispered bitterly. "My sweet baby girl still loves you and yet, you idly sat down and allowed this to happen to her. Why? I demand to know why you've been so cruel to us? Is it because of my sin? Then you should have punished me instead."

The question kept bubbling from her grief-ridden heart and spilling through her lips. She didn't stop. If only he would answer her with something more concrete that all that I-love-you talk. Did he even listen to her anymore?

No one, not even a sworn enemy, deserved to go through what she had gone through in her life. 

She hadn't asked for this, at least not intentionally. She didn't bargain for it. Now that life was overdosing her with an ample share of its sour grapes, she was dead tired of everything. 

Her woes began in earnest when she came in contact with Henry Green. 

She'd gotten married to him at the age of twenty, when she was still a third-year law student of the University of Nnamdi Azikiwe. 

Her parents were vehemently opposed to her marriage with Henry Green and did everything in their power to dissuade and stop their daughter from marrying him. 

They even went as far as rejecting Henry's bride price, refusing to bless their union if they ever got married without their consent. 

Righteous had gone ahead to beg, cry and cajole them, but still, her parents did not budge. 

When she finally confronted her parents, questioning their love for her and why they were opposed to her happiness in life, they had simply replied, "Can't you see that he is a fraud? We don't trust him and we don't think he is the will of God for your life." 

"Will of God indeed," Righteous had replied angrily. 

"This is someone you barely know and haven't even taken out much of your time to examine him closely and carefully, yet, you have the boldness to question his motives and sincerity?"