INSIDE STORY

CHAPTER 5

Wednesdays are very special days during the week for most of the church members, many of whom have stayed in church since the very first day they walked in because of the beautiful Janelle, that smiled and welcomed them warmly at the entrance of the church. She was one of the greeters who welcomed people as they walked into church on Wednesdays and an usher inside the main church hall on Sundays. Her work in the church was unparalleled and she was always dutifully punctual, wearing her charming smile as though she was born that way.

Service ended that very day and Janelle was shocked to see Amaka stand as one of the first-timers. Seeing Amaka made Janelle smile and she made a resolution in her heart to fight to stop her cravings for the sake of leading by example. She knows it wouldn't matter to anyone nor would anyone notice, but it mattered to her and she was bent on letting the word have a place in her, this time for real.

9:30 pm, Janelle walks into her bedroom, exhausted from a long day and in need of a bath to soothe her body temperature and ready her for Netflix; seeing movies is one sure way of ensuring she falls asleep fast.

Carefully, she takes off her shoes and keeps them in one corner of the room, drops her bag on the bed and takes off her suit jacket. The air-conditioner in the room blows sweet air to her skin and a familiar shiver up her spine in micro-seconds.

Welcome home.

Taking off her blouse, she folds it and drops it in the laundry basket. She sits on the bed and with her left hand unhooks her bra letting her breasts breathe for the first time since she left the house this morning. It sure is a good feeling because she smiles and turns to look at her reflection in her live-sized mirror. Sliding her skirt down her legs the memories of the office moment runs through her mind and she craves to indulge one more time for the night just as her phone rings.

"Thank you so much for today at the office, I actually went to church for the first time today, it's a church that has always been on my street but I never entered it..."

Janelle is filled with so much emotion...

"And guess what?" Amaka continues

"what?"

"I now have the Holy Spirit" and for some reason, I cannot find those funny feelings anymore."

"Now that's more like it" Janelle says with a feigned smile. The call drops.

That's more like it? You are just a dross. You feel like a hero right now but deep down we both know she is far better off than you are right now in life.

So...where were we?

She lets her skirt fall to the ground, the wind caresses her thighs, and she immediately kneels down with tears and sudden realization in her eyes.

This is new. Now what?

She begins to pray, more and more in tongues till the voice inside her head is permanently silenced. Tears begin to roll down her cheeks and she smiles because now she knows the peace she preached, has finally found room in her.

She listens closely for the voice of in her head, but all she hears is the gentle whistle of her air-conditioning unit.

Then the voice resumes, this time it sounds more reassuring and non-condemning than before.

Hey girl, you got this. More of me, less of you and we will be alright... Okay?

Now get your pretty self into the shower and have a well-deserved bath.

With a smile, she gets up, takes off her panties, walks to her mirror and once again takes some time to admire how pretty she is before heading into the bathroom.

If ever she felt the need to indulge in her habits from that night onwards she instinctively talked herself out of it with the help of the Holy Spirit, and with time there was no effort put in it.

The cool, calm, and collected lady she put out for the world to see was no longer a façade. All the books she read, now made sense because beyond her will to want to stop it, it had to be replaced with another more pleasant habit, and this cannot easily be achieved with only positive confessions especially when you've indulged for over 10 years consistently promising to change and never actually stopping.

It was a lot easier for her to transmute her sexual urges and channel them to more creative works. Most times she wonders how little her immediate world knew about her. This was her battle and hers alone.

#yourfavoritewriter

Klynic