Chapter Ten
Mangodo couldn’t remember the last time he was in Church. It was not that he didn’t believe in God. He simply thought his brand of spirituality didn’t require Church attendance. He wasn’t a priest. What was he supposed to do in Church? Heal the sick people there? Isn’t that what hospitals were for? But as ridiculous as the whole idea of having a date in Church sounded, Mangodo drove straight home after work, freshened up and found himself at St Martin, ten minutes before 5:00pm, ready to be ‘born again’.
“I see you made it.” Kemi came out from the shadows. She had been waiting just outside the main entrance.
“Well now,” Mangodo began, “for you I would make it, even if the venue for the date was hell.”
“How can you be mentioning hell in front of a Church?”
Mangodo shrugged.
“What kind of a human being are you anyways?” Kemi asked.
“The kind that uses his head?”
“Oh please!” Kemi pulled him into the Church.
Mangodo froze. He felt quite uncomfortable being inside the Church. He shouldn’t be here. He really shouldn’t be here. He wasn’t friends with God. He never pretended to be. But here he was, as close to God as he could possibly get.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to him.”
“Who?”
“God?” Kemi slid into a pew at the rear of the large building. “I could have sworn you were thinking about Him.”
“Reading my mind?” Mangodo asked.
“I wish I could. There’s just a way people get when they focus on God.” Kemi was busy flipping the pages of the Community Bible she had taken out of the pew rack.
Mangodo sat beside Kemi. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. Since there was a Bible in front of him as well, he took it out and began reading through the pages; “Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their way, and sinners their thoughts; Let them turn to the Lord to find mercy; to our God, who is generous in forgiving. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways—oracle of the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Yet just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down, and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, Giving seed to the one who sows, and bread to the one who eats, So it is with the word that goes from my mouth: it will not return to me unfulfilled or before having carried out my good pleasure and having achieved what it was sent to do…”
Kemi caught Mangodo’s unflinching concentration as he read the Holy Book aloud to himself. She wasn’t about to distract him.
Ivy couldn’t make up her mind on whom to send to Senator Yuri’s mansion. She was running out of time. In her mind’s eye, she was pacing back and forth. She didn’t have anyone she could call on very short notice. After narrowing down her options, Kemi came to mind. Maybe she could help.
Ivy brought out her phone and dialled Kemi’s number…
To be continued…
Image Credit@PIXABAY
