The virgin

Chapter Thirty one

“Sister Sade, are you still sleeping? Wake up! Wake up! It’s time for our midnight chain prayer.” Kehinde said over the phone when Sade picked his call but was sleep talking over the phone. He had suggested they do a one week midnight chain prayer as one of their online Bible study action plan and that night was the seventh night.
“Hunmmm…brother Kehinde can we shift it to 2am? Am feeling very sleepy.” She said with sleepy eyes.
“No! no, Sister Sade. I had a terrible dream..” He said in a haste and the sleep in her eyes immediately gave way as she quickly sat up on the bed and held the phone closely to her ears.
“What’s the dream all about?” She queried anxiously.
“I can’t explain it right now, when we see,I will share it with you. There’s something strange in the air,I can’t explain it but we need to start our prayers now.” He said and she nodded her head with willingness.
“Okay, but you didn’t send me our prayer points for tonight” she replied and climbed down from the bed.
“We are following the leading of the Holy Spirit, I couldn’t get any prayer points for tonight. We shall start with worship songs and then pray in the Holy Ghost for as long as He gives us grace . Also, we would be praying over the phone this night, I want to hear your voice praying to be sure that you are not praying and sleeping at the same time.” He said sounding serious.
“Ah! Brother Kehinde, it will cost you much o.” she shouted over the phone.
“I’ve already counted the cost and also recharged my phone. So, Sinach, can you please lead us with worship songs?” He said smiling and she bursted into a loud laugh that almost woke Toyin up. She started up a worship song, one of Sinach’s songs which she knew was Kehinde’s favorite song and from there, they sang other songs before they finally entered into intensive three hours marathon tongue speaking that they didn’t know when the call ended. The aggression with which she prayer finally woke Toyin up and she climbed down the bed and knelt close to her mother muttering only what God knows as prayer.

The black messenger hovered over the air around the parsonage but the atmosphere became too hot for it to penetrate first because the prayer watch arm of the church were having their ‘power must change hands’ night prayer and mainly because the prime target was having an edge of fire surrounding her and her daughter. After wandering around fruitlessly, it diverted and visited Olori’s first daughter living in Lagos who was always sending money home for her father and stung her in the head. She woke up scratching her head and began to act strange and finally ran mad at the early hours of the morning.

The black messenger returned back to Olori with blood in its mouth indicating that it sucked an assigned victim and Olori laughed wickedly,then made more incantations to seal the madness.
At few minutes past 4am, Sade became very tired of praying and lay down and slept off very close to Toyin who had slept off after an hour of muttering her own prayers while Kehinde continued till 5am before concluding the prayer. Part of the desires in his heart that made him pray longer was his parents, he wanted God to touch their hearts to call him and approve his choice of whom to marry. After his prayers, he picked up his bible to study and midway into the study, he slept off with his head on the open bible which got squeezed up.

Olori’s son in-law called him to inform him of what was happening to his daughter and his heart dropped, he gave a loud scream and his wives ran into his room to know what was happening to him. They found him holding his chest painfully and had fallen to the floor in pain screaming his daughter’s name. He was pained because her first daughter was married to a very wealthy man and she was the secret behind all the money he threw around in the village as Olori. It was more hurting to him because he knew that any one stung by the black messenger can never be cured of the madness incurred.
“What happened to her?” His wives asked in unison as he kept repeating her daughter’s name over and over again. But he refused to answer them and after a long while, he instructed them to call his personal native doctor. The native doctor came and after observing his condition, suggested he be taken to the English doctors. He was rushed out to the village medical center where they referred them to another hospital in Akure because they couldn’t handle his case.
Olori’s daughter was as well taken to the psychiatric hospital but her condition got worse and some days later, she ran away without anyone’s notice and strayed faraway from the reach of her husband and relations in rags and dirty clothes.
Olori suffered a heart attack that affected and his blood pressure rose higher than normal resulting in partial stroke and he was confined to the hospital bed for months without any positive improvement. When he saw that all his money had been spent on hospital bill and drugs, and his daughter who used to send him money was no where to be found ,he took his own life by drinking a local rat poison.

Sade and Kehinde became very close so much that she confided in him before taking any decision regarding herself and Toyin her daughter. The church mummy used her position as the head pastor’s wife to get Sade a teaching job in the church’s primary school, but she couldn’t accept the offer until she got Kehinde’s approval.
“Hope you know you have become my mentor?” She told Kehinde over the phone without waiting to hear what he had to say.
“I don’t want to hide anything from you o. Mummy got me a teaching job in our church’s primary school. So, I want to inform you first before accepting it. Do you think I should pick it up?” She asked him.
“Wow! That’s good. I was just thinking of a possible job you can do!.” Kehinde replied excitedly at the other end,then continued.
“Well, I know the pay would be small but just take it up first while we trust God for a better job..” He said smiling, then continued.

“At least, you will start going out in the morning like others and not stay indoors alone.” He said teasingly and she laughed.
” Hey! Did I hear you say am your mentor?” He asked still laughing.
“Yes na, brother Kehinde am serious o. I have learnt a lot from you and I make less mistakes when I confide in you before taking decisions…” She was still talking and he cut in.
” My dear, we are friends and a friend ought to watch his friend’s back. That’s what am doing, watching our upcoming Sinach’s back. Mummy is already mentoring you.. ” he teased her.
“Stop joking, am serious brother Kehinde. Mummy is trying but she so busy, and I hardly have her to give me attention…’ She was trying to explain when the hungry Toyin called her attention to the food on fire which was burning and she excused herself and ended the call.

One day,during their monthly mountain joint prayer and one on one study, Kehinde was sharing his revelations from the scriptures sitting a little distant directly opposite Sade but while he was enjoying the insights from the scriptures and was sharing them with her, she was lost in thoughts admiring him and so couldn’t pick a word from every thing he said.
” Brother Kehinde is very handsome and kind too. Look at his pink lips and dimples. Gosh! I love him… But he won’t love me because am no longer attractive.” She was lost in thoughts and at a point, Kehinde noticed that she wasn’t concentrating so he paused but she did not know that he had stopped talking.
“Sister Sade! ” Kehinde called her and she jolted back.
“What were you thinking about?” He asked with concern but she nodded her head in the negative.
“Nothing.” She said and looked away from him praying in her heart that he should ask no further.
” Come’on ,talk to me. You weren’t here all the while I was talking. You were lost in some thoughts. What’s it?” He said and dropped the bible in his hand on a large stone nearby.
” brother Kehinde, I said nothing.” She maintained.
“Okay, if you say you were not thinking about anything, what was the last thing I said from the scriptures I was sharing with you?” He asked with displeasure written on his face.
“I can’t remember.” She said and maintained a bold face.
“You promised not to hide anything from me. Now, something is bothering you but you don’t want to talk about it..” He said feeling disturbed.
“Okay, maybe we should start going…” He said and picked up his bible and jotter.
“No! No, brother Kehinde. Please don’t ask me what I was thinking about, I’m ashamed of saying it before you and not necessarily that am hiding something from you. Am alright, I don’t have any physical challenge.” She explained and he understood with her from her facial expression.
“Since you are now ashamed of me, and cannot share your thoughts with me, start sharing your own revelations now because am done with mine.” He said and relaxed back, looking intently at her as she flipped through the bible to find the places she studied over the week. She lifted up her head and was about calling out the bible passages and her eyes came in contact with his fixed on her. She quickly blinked her eyes looked down feeling shy and began to call the bible passages carefully without looking up…