Grabbing The Hot Gate - Episode 6

 

Gladys, as well as Matthew, waited patiently for Japheth at the door. His compound was beautifully adorned with various flowers and had about three palm trees; yet, the compound was neat. The dry leaves that were supposed to litter the ground had been packed to a side of the house. The flower that first caught her fancy was the bird of paradise. It was well-trimmed and the arrangement was beautiful . He had placed the Bird of paradise beside the Ixora flower. When she was younger, she used to make garlands from them to her mother's chagrin, but to her drunk father's joy.  According to him, it made her look like Indian ladies. He loved to watch a lot of Indian movies because of their beautiful women. Her mother always ensured that she never stayed with him alone. Those days, she always cried to stay with him, but her mother never allowed it. She wouldn't tell her why either.

 Japheth said he was coming, but she could hear the way he was running about in the house. She shrugged. Despite the neat, beautiful compound, Japheth must have a disorderliness issue. If God made them be together, she would make sure he became better.
'If God...'She muttered.
 With a recently dried face and a big smile, he opened the door. They stepped in

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/grabbing-the-hot-gate

. His apartment portrayed wealth. Although he dressed well, his clothes never depicted him as someone with such great wealth. He must be a lover of flowers because a purple heart flower laid in a vase on the beautifully designed center-table. Her heart bubbled.
'Come in'.
'Thanks', Matthew said, limping into the room. Gladys felt for him, and wondered why God had refused to heal him. Even her, she had prayed about her ear to no avail. She had the power she desired, but it wasn't enough to heal anybody. It only helped her bring things to pass, and not to do some divine things. That meant she needed more in-depth knowledge of God. And one of the ways to do that was to fellowship with the right Christians.  
She was surprised as she entered the parlor. It was neater than a recently cleaned room. He wasn't rough after all. His large stereo players stood at the four corners of the room and his air conditioner was also placed in a corner, but he didn't put it on, probably for the little cold that still lingered around from yesterday's rain. 
'You have a good taste in flowers', she said aloud before she could stop herself.
'I wish. My friend, a female, did all this'.
'Oh!' She said and made a face.
'No', he said, laughing. 'She's just my friend'.
If he wasn't rough, then something was wrong. There was only one way to know. She had to learn not to close her eyes to things regarding him. While he went to get them refreshments, she controlled her spirit, and navigated it through the house. She felt alive. It was exciting. Using the gift of the 'holy spirit' like that was deep and exciting. Then, she saw what he was hiding and held her breath. She became sullen.
She felt irritated even when he returned. Matthew did most of the talking, giving her a chance to remove herself from the pile of irritation that was forming in her head. After a while, they decided to leave him. 
'Thanks for the visit', Japheth said excitedly as he waved to them and turned towards the house.
The seed of anger had been planted in her, and she felt he must see what she saw: how disgusting his actions were. The second annoying thing was that when he saw them, he should have told them about his sins, for them to pray with him. Even James said that they should confess their sins one to another.
 'Sister Gladys, I'm happy that God wants to use that Bro. Japheth. I feel he should be a member of the Bible Study unit for a starter'.
'Ehen?'
'Yes. He looks excited to do something for God'.
'Hmm', she said absentmindedly, and her mind wandered off the thought of him. She had imagined that with his sullen look, that he would be a person without any sin. And even if there would one, it would be something that wasn't really deep. 
'Wait. When did he become a Christian?'
'It's hard to say. I think he said in his final year in school. He only rededicated his life last month'.
 She scoffed. Japheth was playing them. How will someone whose life just got rededicated be sent to the most vital part of the church? It's not done. It's not proper and should be kicked against like an infested plant.
'That's not right'.
'What?'
'Him. He's a new convert. You can't just put him in front of the church to teach them. How will you allow a baby feed babies? It's like asking a cub to feed its fellow cub. It has to either get its food from lions with strong teeth'.
Matthew glanced at her, shrugged and continued ranting about how exciting it was to have people return to Christ, especially in this perverse generation. Matthew was a tree; he wouldn't stop howling until the wind of excitement died down.
When she was sure Matthew was out of sight, after they had said their goodbyes, she returned to Japheth's house. When a child is sick, herbs can resuscitate him. Japheth needed spiritual herbs. But before she would first present the heat of the herb to him, let him soak the aroma into his olfactory lobe. Then, she would later point him towards the right spiritual herbs he needed to reshape his shape-shifting life.
She knocked, waited and they exchanged pleasantries, and he asked to know if all was well.
'Bro. Japheth, the lord is telling me that you've committed the sin of fornication. You've sinned against God and yourself'.
 He looked down. 'Will God go about telling people what I've done?'
 She was trying not to explode. Despite the hold on her fear, she had to spit it out. She couldn't explain what was wrong with her. What he did disgusted her.
'While I was here earlier, the Lord showed me how you have turned your room to Sodom and Gomorrah, how the ways of the heathen still embodies your way of life. You brought a whore to your house, to soak in the goodness of her being. You better pray to God for forgiveness and cleansing', she said and walked away. The relief of saying that was good. It was really good. She felt good.
 She had begun to hope something would happen between him and her. But there he was, defiling the temple of God. That was the problem with choices. When she was looking for the perfect husband, he came out to be a whoremonger. 
She hissed. At least, even if God would have said no to his request of asking her hand in marriage, Japheth should have made her have reasons to go to God to know if he was the right person for her. Now, nothing in the world would make her love him the way she intended to do. She froze. She had never acted like that before. There was a sort of edge on being the one to bear the truth, to be a prophet of doom, angry and holy. The feeling was exciting but bad, extremely bad. She walked home. Why did she even allow Matthew talk her into walking to Japheth's place? She couldn't cope with the journey from his place to her home. When she got home, she met Elizabeth in the house watching TV. She rubbed her little friend's hair.
'Have you gone inside to check on your mother?'
Elizabeth nodded and gestured at her own clothes. She was putting on something different from what she was wearing earlier. Gladys slumped dejectedly beside Elizabeth and drew her closer.
'What happened?'
'She vomited everywhere in the house, on the bed.
'Yuck'.
'Don't worry. I've cleaned it up'.
Gladys sighed as she stared at nothing and rubbed the unplaited hair of Elizabeth. 'This life knows how to throw things that are not deserving at us. We suddenly love them and want them to become better. We would use all our energy on them and hope they would love us in return. You know you should follow me to church tomorrow'.
'Will she allow me?'
'She will. After that, you'll plait your hair for school'.
'Okay. My Daddy didn't deserve my mummy. She is in this mess because of him. He left her alone'.
 'I know Baby. I know'.
She fixed her gaze on the movie playing in the TV. Life was the real movie and movies were wrong about life. At least, most things in movies have logical explanations, but life has an illogicality planted in it. You have to watch this illogicality grow without much access to change how it was doing. They all were part of the stunted growth. 
That evening, she made sure Elizabeth was safe, and tried to enter their house, but Elizabeth told her it was inadvisable. The next day she would visit her mother after service. Stella would have equipped her with enough word of God that would last her for the week. She would equip her beauty with the clothes that were delivered to her mother. 
                   ***
 'Is she crazy?' Alexis shouted as she began to wear her clothes. She crashed into the bed while trying to draw her jeggings on. She was fuming and panting heavily. 'I would have shown her what fornication means. I would have shown her that her body will feel fornicated by the time I finish beating her to nothing. I will beat her to the extent that even compressed hot bread would call her its senior. Bastard of no generation. Who does she think she is? Me. Alexis. A prostitute'.
'Alexis, calm down. She...'
'Even if I'm a runs girl, she's not my class. I'll brush her anywhere. And I'm not a runs girl. I'm also a Pastor's daughter. How many bible verses does she have in that useless head? I won fifteen national Sunday school competitions'.
Japheth felt bad. He rededicated his life to Christ three weeks ago. Being saved from sins was exciting. That feeling of redemption from everything he used to do was sweet. But now again, like before, everything came crashing down. He couldn't explain what happened, but he allowed himself do what he had stopped: fornication. Yet, they said he was dead to sin. Maybe if he had a way of controlling his urge around Alexis, maybe then and only then would he have the chance to be called free. He was in bondage, and the most annoying part was that he loved the bondage. Alexis dumped the pin-up models clothe into her bag, and picked her other things. 
He had sent her away for a few days, but Alexis had her way with his most trusted gateman; yet, he couldn't send the gateman away because it was his own fault. Even though the gateman allowed her to enter the compound, it wasn't his fault that she had the key to the main building. Until he deprived her of that, she would still have access to his house.
'Are you deaf?' Alexis shouted as she kept fiddling with the button of the lower part of her clothes, which kept popping out of its hole.
'And what do you want from me? See, I'm off to work. You need to start preparing for school. We would see later in the day, hopefully'.
'Jeffy, let your head remain on your neck. Be wise. I'm talking about us and that foolish girl, you're talking about one foolish lesson'.
'Well, she's right. You're just 19 and ought to be in the University, if not because you failed JAMB twice before getting this admission'.
'Why not become cable news- CNN or Sky News? Tell the world I failed'.
'That's not what I meant. I'm saying this relationship is not a good symbiotic relationship. It might look mutual, but I think it is more of parasitism. I'm only using you to satisfy my sexual urge, which is not ideal'.
'I've told you, times without number. We're in this together. Stop this Jack Robinson you're saying. If you break-up with me, I'll kill myself'.
'We're not supposed to copulate or even...'
'Do you see me with any other man? What's this fish saying? Are you afraid that I do the same with other men?'
'What? I'm saying you're too young to be led into the wrong path'.
'Like... I'm seeing other men?'
'No. I'm teaching you something unhealthy for you'.
She sniggered. 'You? I'm your trainer baby boy. See...'
She walked slowly towards him, her eyes fixed on him, her tongue sliding back and forth around her lips, and her clothes slipping off. 
'Let's not do this today. It's detrimental to both our...'
'In fact, give me money, and I don't ever want to see your pathetic face for the rest of the day', Alexis shouted. 'Don't come for me today'.
'Try not to do anything rash at home', he said as he gave her money enough to cater for a lot of things.
'Like you care'. She grabbed the money and stormed out, still ranting about Gladys.
 He went on his knee and prayed. 'Lord, I'm so sorry'.
 Somehow, the people that got him saved explained the concept of God forgiving all his sins  past, future, and present  and that was why he joined the fold immediately he saw the chance. Mirabel had been trying to bring him to Christ for months before those ones finally did, but he guessed she only prepared the way for them.
His sorrow arose when his parents, his wife, pregnant with their child, died in an accident. Since then, his life had become boring. That was a time he needed expressions of love from people. His other family members had tried their best, but their effort wasn't enough to make him happy. Mirabel who would have helped, travelled to take care of her Aunt, who had now gone missing. Her mother ought to have gone but there was a little dispute between them that made her refuse to go. So, Mirabel took her place. Those times, she tried to call him per time, but it wasn't enough to help him. 
He would have committed suicide that night, but a drunk Alexis staggered towards him while she was returning from a night party. She met him on the edge of a bridge, trying to jump into a river. She laughed at him and promised to follow him if he jumped into the canal. At first, he thought she was babbling, but when she began removing her clothes, he stopped. Immediately he got down, she went into a vomiting bout. That was how he brought her to his house.
The next day, when she was sober, she explained that she was another spoilt disobedient Pastor's daughter. Rather, her parents were strict, poor Church owners. She only wanted to escape their cage. And that was how she got stuck with him. From then, she started experimenting her fantasies with him at every turn. Being an unadventurous person, he did it with her, hoping that it would cater for the void in his heart.
When he became a Christian, he saw an avenue to restore her to Christ. So, he made her stay, as a friend. But she had her ways, terrible ways, of making him return to his vomit. All he needed at that point was freedom from her, and a good reason to make Mirabel happy. He hadn't even called her to check her state of mind after she discovered that Alexis was in his life. 
He wanted to be free from his lustful desire, from Alexis. Japheth kept praying. Even if God had forgiven him, there was no way he could forgive himself. 
 Gladys said he should talk to someone. Who could he talk to? 
The Pastor of the church had the same character as that of Gladys, who came back to him ranting as if she was jealous. He had only seen that trait in vengeful prostitutes and wives whenever he was dealing with them at the hospital.
 He needed to talk to someone. No one had shown any form of care in that church except the follow-up unit members that came visiting. Matthew was spiritually naive. His words weren't as deep as that of Gladys. Despite her rant about confessing his sin, he still found her intriguing; beautiful yet modest, holy yet without the nerdy look of most Christians. Her dress sense was captivating on its own. But truth be told, she wasn't as beautiful as his naughty Alexis, whose beauty couldn't match Mirabel's. Even without her extravagant make-up, she still had that edge over them. Nevertheless, Gladys seemed soaked in God's word and that was what he needed at that time of his life. Mirabel had what both of them had, but how would he explain to the woman he wanted to start a relationship with that he was fornicating and that he needed her help? 
Although the next day was Sunday, he would wait till Tuesday to talk to Gladys, and would boldly tell her his problem.

Read " Purified Tomorrow: The Mad Awakening " by the same author ( Akíntayo Akinjide )

. He was sure that once it was shared, it would be half-solved like he used to tell his patients.
Just then, a WhatsApp message alert popped on his phone.
Jaf, tomorrow is another Sunday. Come to church for God, and a blessed wife *winks*. In case the Alexis is the one, bring her too. Come and experience the real power of God, and total freedom in the Holy Ghost'- Mirabel.
He smiled and slumped into his seat.
                    ***
Alexis returned home to the rants and complaints of her overbearing parents, and the only thing that consumed her mind was how to return to Japheth's place. He thought she was joking when she promised to kill herself if he ever left her. He was like the control over her desire.
'She's changing a little', she heard her father whisper to her mother one of those days she was having issues with them. 
'Yes', her mother said. 'I think our prayers and corrections are having effect on her'.
'I'm sensing something else'.
If only they knew that God would never answer their prayers on her the way they wanted. Japheth was the answer to their prayer. They had better intensify their prayers because he was beginning to drift. He seemed to have started having a liking for Church than for her. She hoped it was another foolish phase of his self-discovery, one that he always quickly returned from.