13/14
AMIDST TEMPTATIONS
Episode 13
When Serena returned back to school everything went back to normal, Rebecca pas-sed her resit exam so could fully join us in the next clas-s. I went for my clinicals and decided to fully focus on it and of course fellowsh!p. I hadn’t heard from Sean, not that I was worried, Martin and I were usually busy hanging out anyway.
Today we decided to distribute tracts as a form of evangelism with the rest of my fellowsh!pmembers, even though he was no longer president, now in final year he was still actively involved in the fellowsh!pand I found that really fascinating, we were laughing about a man who had refused to take the tracts claiming he was a christian alre-ady
“He could have just collected it and given it to someb©dy else”he said
“I really dont know how people think”
“Are you going back to the hostel now?”
I checked my watch “I still have some time”
“Let’s go eat then” he said, I nodded, we were waiting for a cab when a car pu-ll-ed up, I looked and thought it was familiar, when the glas-ses rolled down
“Emilia”
I stared at him and gulped, what was he doing here and how did he find me, Serena of course, I glanced at Martins
“Do you know him?” he asked, I looked instead at my shoes, should I say yes or no?
“Where you going, I could drop you?”Sean said
“I’m fine”
“Dont worry she’s with me” Martin said putting his arm around my shoulder, Sean stared at us
“Clearly there’s no cab around”
I gave Sean the eye to go but he wasn’t bulging
“Who’s he, thought you said you didn’t know him?”
“I dont..he’s Serena’s brother”
Sean had come out of the car
“I nee-d to talk to you..hey” he said to Martins
“She clearly doesn’t want to talk to you”
Sean looked at him “mind your business, will you”
I at that moment wished the ground would open and swallow me whole, Martin was in his face in no time
“I think you should go”
“Get off my face.. Who’s he uh?” They both looked at me, I bit myl-ips nervously, I took Martins hand
“Martins..I ll go with him” before things got out of hand “he just wants to talk”
To say Martins was shocked was an un-der statement
“Emilia”
“I ll call you, I’m sorry” I just didn’t want them bawling over a little matter and I knew Sean wasn’t going to leave till I went with him
“You better have a good explanation sister”Martins said to me as I got in Sean’s car.
Sean drove off parking dust on Martin, he was seething and I didn’t know why
“Why do you have to be so dramatic, I clearly told you no”
He opened a pack of cigarettes and put one in his mouth
“Who’s he?” he asked like I hadn’t spoken, I gawked as he lit it
“Are you gonna smoke now?”
“Answer my question​” he said calmly, I glared ha-rd at him, I surely ha-rd ly seen this side of him before, he went out of school gate
“Take me home Sean”
“Thats where I’m taking you”
” Are you out of your mind?..drop me now” clearly I had gone with the wrong person, he just blew out smoke as he drove in silence
“So that’s why you haven’t given me the time of day uh, that’s why you won’t d@t£ me, because of him, who’s he, your b©yfri£nd? ”
“Its none of your business”
“Yeah it’s not my business”he agreed
“plea-se take me home”, he just kept driving, now he was far into town, I wondered how I was gonna go back home
‘I’m sorry.. Didn’t mean to act like that” he suddenly said..bipolar much
“..and smoke too”I said
He threw the cigarette out the window
“That too..I just wanted to talk to you?”
“How did you find me?”
“Been out of town, called you when I got in but you weren’t picking, went to your hostel, some girl told me where you were”
Rebecca, I couldn’t believe her
“Well can you take me back now?”
“I wanted you to go somewhere with me”
“You not gonna achieve that by kidnapping me”
He changed lanes going back, he sure was crazy, he looked at my go-wn
“You should change into something comfortable, then we can go out”
Was he serious “No”
“Because of him?”, I rolled my eyes “That’s why you have been avoiding me”
“Why would you think that, I’ve been busy”
“Busy with what” I showed him the tracts, he sighed and stared out
“We always gonna have that bridge between us won’t we?”
“Yes Sean.. Its obvious”
“Is he..a Christian?”
“Yes he’s born again”
“That’s the only reason you chose him over me”he said with so much confidence
I rolled my eyes”Cos I like him, everything is not always about you Sean” satisfied with the look on his face , I continued “you really should st©p wasting your time ”
“Ok” he agreed, I made to open the door, he stayed me “go in and change, we going out”
My mouth opened to protest but I decided to st©p arguing, I got out and slammed the door.
“So Serena’s brother c@m£ to look for you, he said..” Rebecca began when I got in,
“I saw him” I said “you shouldn’t have told him where I was”
“Why what happened?”
She went and looked out the window because he was pla-ying a very pagan music, I met her gaze
I went out after an hour and got in his car
“Fine..you win..just get out of here”, he sm-irked and drove off.
Episode 14
2 Corinthians 6:14;
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowsh!phath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness.
I guess I knew I was doing something wrong by conceding to a d@t£ with him, but I threw caution to the wind because by then Sean had succeeded in destroying all my defences. Martins made me comfortable, Sean made me feel the exact opposite yet I wanted to be with him more, he had driven to very expensive restaurant just because I said I was hungry. The waiter placed a plate of fried rice and chicken with salad, with a plate of icecream and cake..I gawked at all the food
“Eat up”he said, I was hungry so I did, he ordered nothing, just watched me eat
” I prefer chocolate icecream but this is nice”
“Noted for next time”he said
There would be no next time, I thought as my cell rang, I looked at the caller, it was Erica
” I have to take this..”I told him”hey”
“Hey sis, how you, not heard from you since forever”
“I just figured you ll be busy with your.. life”
“You kidding, how’s dad and mom and everyone, school?”
“Schools fine”
“Ok..just thought to check on you, you should practice calling, c ya” she cut
“Who’s that?” he asked with a smile I’m sure he heard everything
“Erica my sister”
“Elder”
“Uhuh”
“You have a younger?”
“Yea I have two sisters and one brother”
“Nice..wish I had more siblings but Serena alone is a handful”
“You bet” I began eating again..
“So I’m leaving town tomorrow”he said, I looked up surprised
” where you going? ”
“Canada” he said, I knew he travelled a lot but out the country..
“Why ..what’s happening there”
He paused drawing on the table
“My parents are there” he said
“Oh, thought they were on vacation”
He was silent
“My mother has late stage cervical cancer….my father is there with her”
I was chewing but kept my spoon..shocked, had no idea what to say, he had lied to me at first and I un-derstood why, nob©dy wanted to be as-sociated with that, the rich really did also cry. Here I was judging and giving him issues when his mother was dying
“No one else knows” he said and looked away, I nodded and reached for his hand
“I’m so sorry ”
“He decided to spend the last days with her..that’s why I didn’t want to tell them about Serena”
Myl-ips were dried, I decided I was a very selfish person if I couldnt even notice that Serena had issues she was dealing with
“I’m so sorry, is there really nothing the doctors can do”
He shook his head in thought then
“I didn’t mean to ruin our d@t£”
“No its fine..am glad you told me”
We were silent, the food suddenly wasn’t appetizing anymore
“I’m also going there for business, I’m running my dads company down here”
I took up my spoon again
“you really busy, when you coming back?”
“Are you gonna miss me?”
“Serena would”
He chuckled “Serena has her life, We have ours”
I was silent, he leaned back”Eat up, we still have places to go”
I wanted to protest but didn’t, as we walked to the car I asked
“Do you make it a habit of kidnapping your d@t£s?”
He looked at me”I’ve never had the opportunity, its actually fun”he win-ked at me as I rolled my eyes and got in the car
“So where we going”
“There’s a fanfair around” I had no choice, I was stuck in his car, we got there and I stared around in awe, we watched the kids pl@ygames and got in the merry go round though I was scared to death, we pla-yed target and he won a pink Teddy, he pushed it into my hands
“Its yours”he said to my protest
We then sat on the swing and talked
” I’m gonna be there for two weeks”he said
“That’s a real long time”
“Yea it is, away from you”
I tsked as he asked”so why did you decide to re-ad medicine?”
“Cos iv always wanted to be a doctor, it just calls to me, why did you study law?”
He chuckled “I wanted to be an artist, my father insisted”
I was silent then I said”when you return..would you follow me to church? ”
I waited as he stared at me for long
“why?”
Why..because I wanted to know if I could make something good out of this, if I could finally pres£nt him to my Dad
“Cos I want you to live better than the life you live” I said instead
He looked away”its not that simple..but yes I ll follow you to church ”
I grinned at him
“Can’t wait”
“Don’t get your hopes all up..I have my issues with God”
“I figured”
We ended up at the house, at the studio, where I got leave to stare at all the paintings, there was one about a woman in tears
“You have very nice paintings”
“Thanks”, my f!ngerstraced the woman’s face
“Why do you speak so much of pain?”
“Because there’s so much pain in the world..I wish I could erase it”he replied
“God can do that”
“Why doesn’t he?”
“Because then you won’t have any nee-d of him” I replied.
He didn’t reply, he pu-ll-ed the cover off the one nearest to him and gestured me over
“I dont think you can tell me anything more about God..I grew up worsh!pping God.. I went to church everyday..then I asked him to heal my mother, but she’s gonna die”
I t©uçhed his arm, but he continued as my gaze fixed on the painting “She’s gonna die and there’s nothing I or anyone can do about it, why then would you tell me to serve him?”
I was ton-gue tied as my eyes fixed at the painting, it was about his family, there was his father, him and Serena, only his mother’s space was empty because she was walking out of the picture.
I knew he was in a lot of pain and I couldn’t console him
“I’m sorry” I said, myl-ips were dried, I put my arms around him and hvgged him
“I’m so sorry”. They had the life, they had the beauty, anyone looking at them would be jealous of their life, but it was a broken family as I couldn’t imagine how Serena was holding up. All that glitters was really not gold. I couldn’t blame God either, there were some things that happened in life that we couldn’t question, God just knew it all.
” I just succeeded in ruining our d@t£” he said
“No..I’m fine”
He nodded “We should get out of here”
I went out with him after glancing back at the painting, we went to the kitchen as he took water to drink,
“I dont know why you told me all of that, but thanks for trusting me” I said, he leaned on the counter
“I dont know too.. maybe because…you might be invited for the burial”
I looked up at him
“That’s sounds so final, I believe there’s still hope, she’s not dead yet, besides the most important thing is where she’s going”
He chuckled”My mother is an ardent Christian, she has so much faith, yet it can’t save her”
“God has a reason” I said, I realised I might have judged him too early “when things happen we do not question God”I said
He shrugged, and kept the can of water
“You wanna watch a movie?”he asked changing the subject
” No..I think I should go” I said, it was alre-ady dark outside
“You’re not staying the night?”he asked surprised
“No..wondering what would make you think that I would want to do that” I ranted as
he sauntered towards me like a cat
“Because I want you to”
“Uh..I..I think I should go”
“No you don’t”he said his hands going into my hair as he tra-pped me against the counter. I un-derstood now when God said flee fornication because the heat between us burned with an intensity I couldn’t explain, his f!ngerstrailed on my n£¢k as he took myl-ips in his…and that was the the beginning of it all.
TBC
DROP YOUR COMMENTS