Helplessly Bound

Chapter 34

Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for  you.  —1 Peter 5:7

Cast your cares on the Lord," Tobii's words played in Fola's head.

Could she do it? She asked herself.

Several years had passed since she last talked to God. Once upon a time, praying was as easy as talking to her best friend but not anymore. The day Kit died was the beginning of her crumbling relationship with God. And the day she married Chief Naade was the end of her relationship with God.

After all, why should she talk to someone who refused to listen to her?

Why should she have a relationship with someone who abandoned her and left her helpless?

Cast your cares on God and He'll sustain you. The words rang in her head.

She forced her eyes closed as the words became a chant in her head.

Cast your cares on God and He'll sustain you.

Cast your cares on God and He'll sustain you.

FINE! She screamed in her mind and her eyes flew open. She shot up with a racing heart. Regardless of the functioning Air conditioner, beads of sweat rolled down her face.

Her eyes darted around as she slowly came back to the present. It was late afternoon, a few hours after she met with the children. She was seated in the recliner inside her study where her thoughts had taken her to a different world.

Cast your cares on God and He'll sustain you.

There is no harm in trying, said a small voice.

I can't bear another disappointment, she replied and her heart filled with sorrow.

As they say, the third time's a charm but that didn't apply in her situation. At least not anymore. Her third chance had passed.

She was too young to understand the demise of her father but she felt his absence. And one night a year after his death she had cried out to God to bring back her father but her prayers remained unanswered. She consoled herself with the belief that it won't happen again.

However, four years later, she watched her mother slip away, she watched her mother being snatched away by a sickness called sickle cell anemia. A disease that had plagued her since she was a child.

Sickle cell disease was a genetic disease that affected the red blood cells. All through her mother's years on earth she was on various pain meds. The sickness caused her to get exhausted easily and she suffered from seizures occasionally.

However, everything was under control until after her father's death.

Two years after her father's death, her mother's health slowly declined. Her seizures became more frequent and her strength slowly dwindled and one fateful day she suffered a stroke which incapacitated her body and finally claimed her life.

It was a punch to Fola's guts to watch her mother lose a battle against sickness and death. During those times, she pleaded with God to heal her mother but it was like God was deaf to her prayers.

That was when a crack erupted in her relationship with God.

At almost 17 years old, Fola's heart was covered in bruises caused by heartbreak and disappointment. But fate seemed to have one more blow to make.

One night a few years after her mother's date, a rainstorm ravaged the earth, destroying anything on its path.

Years later, Fola could still feel the chill in the air that night. A chill seeped into the body and bones of the youngest member of the family, Kit. Their threadbare blankets couldn't protect him from the chill in the atmosphere. That truth made Fola's heart bleed.