Chapter One
The Girl In The Pink Dress
I always look back to where it all began, where it all started, where the chaos erupted from and where the demon was gotten from and someway, somehow it always took me back to the church.
I think I was a "Laugher" as a little kid—No, I am sure I was a laugher. Laughers are those set of people in the church who found people who made spiritual displays; hilarious. I would miss Sunday services and only attend deliverance services just to watch people like, Aunty Agnes roll and roll until she fell flat on her face. There was not any other form of fun better than that. Sometimes, I would entertain my mother and my siblings with numerous displays of people in the holy ghost and sometimes, they would scold me with anger and serious warnings about how what I was doing was very terrible and most times, they would just laugh their brains out.
A preacher caught me laughing on one occasion and immediately asked that the service be stopped as he instructed the Ushers to bring me to the pulpit. I was just 5 years of age, but I will never forget that day for the rest of my life.
"What is your name and who are the parents of this girl?" The aged preacher asked with an expressionless reaction and I watched as my father and mother slowly disappeared into the crowd. We attended a noticeably big church and my parents were poor at the time so, no one really knew who we were. They just knew me as the girl with the pink dress who was always in front of the church when it was deliverance time.
It did not take the man so long to realize that no-one was going to come and claim ownership of me, So, he asked me to kneel in front of the alter facing the wall as he began to inform the church of my actions. I did not need to see the embarrassment on my parents face to know that I had
brought them so much shame that day, especially when I knew how much they feared and respected the man of God.
"I'll make an example of you, today." Was the last thing he said to me before carrying on with his prayer.
The service went on for hours and my legs ached but I Knew the entire congregation of over 2000 people were watching me; some in the main auditorium, others outside and most, at home on their TV. Like, picture someone like pastor EA Adeboye calling a child out to kneel in the middle of service—Yeah, that is exactly what happened. If it was not in 2005 and it was in 2022? I would have been a meme on WhatsApp, a trend on Twitter, and a meal on Instablog or gossipmill9ja; but as at then, I was merely a disgrace and a strong warning for bad kids. Parents would go on to tell their children, "Don't be like that girl in the pink dress".
I went back home that evening an entirely different child.
No number of words and beatings my parents could lay on me could even faze me. They had no idea. No one was ever going to tell them that I was not ever going to smile again, who was going to inform my mother that she was not going to ever see me wear anything pink again, or that my life was never going to be the same again.
"I remember the look of shame on the faces of my parents when they finally came to pick me up at the minister's apartment, hours after the service. For the first few hours I feared that they were going to abandon me until a nice woman; who I guess was a barren church secretary based by the pitiful way in which she looked at me, informed me about the protracted process it took to get into the ministers building.
"Consider yourself very lucky if you see your parents today; coming in here is like going to the Aso Rock in Abuja" she whispered before handing me a pack of Caprisone.
The pastor already informed the secretary that she was not allowed to release me to my parents without him seeing them, So, my parents had to wait extra hours until he was free.
"Your daughter is demonic" Was the first thing I heard him tell my parents even before they took their seats.
Hi
I watched as the fresh wound on the right side of his face still revealed raw flesh as he downed a cold glass of water without offering anything to my parents who were even too ashamed to look him in the eyes. They had always fantasized about meeting and talking to the pastor one on one, but never would they have imagined that it would be on such demoralizing terms.
"You people should be smart enough to know what happens to kids that open their eyes during a deliverance session...right?"
my dad was about to talk when the Pastor cut him off.
"They inherit the demons, that's exactly what has happened to your daughter, and she needs to be coming here every day for one week for cleansing." He concluded and the deafening impact of my father's slap threw me out the window when I tried to protest
"Pack her bags." I heard my father tell my mother, ", she's going early tomorrow morning."
'Over my dead body' I told myself as I gathered my bags that night and ran to my grandmother who did not live too far away from us at the time.
As I ran that night, images of the pastor reaching for my underwear and tearing them apart filled my head. Images of him forcefully thrusting himself into me filled my head, Images of me scratching his face consumed my brain and at the end of the day, I appeared in front of grandmother's house with tears all over my eyes as I told everything to her. She believed me, but my parents swore I was lying and that I was possessed until I went for a test and my father and mother decided to drop me with my grandmother; they only came to see me every weekend ever since. They still attend that church as I speak.
the girl in the pink dress
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