STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’S SHOE
Episode 10
©? Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde
I woke up few hours later on the hospital bed.
The moment I opened my eyes and realized I was in the hospital, I jumped from the bed thinking I was on the bed of the psychiatric hospital I had spent most of my childhood days…The thought of being there again made me cringe. I looked around and noticed the roommates were not on uniforms and neither was I .
” OK …I was not at the psychiatric hospital”..That was a huge relief… I looked around and saw mum…
” Mum, where am I?” I said
” You…are in the hospital, you fainted..”
Fainted!…What happened?… Suddenly everything came rushing back to my memory… Mummy, Aunt Julie, Pastor Maggie’s death…
” What? Mummy what are you doing here? I don’t want to see you…” I screamed
One thing about bipolar and psychosis was whenever I got angry, it could trigger a state called hypomania ( A state where I become irritable and I would start overreacting)
Mum always avoided me getting to that state…
” I am sorry, Happiness, all I did was to try to give you true happiness”
” True happiness by praying against someone else?…what am I even saying? Praying? You didn’t pray because I know God would never have answered that prayer, you spoke negative words into someone else and the evil forces picked your words and acted on it…” I said
“ I am sorry” Mum said
“ And yet you still expect me to marry her husband?” I asked in total disbelief
“ Hmmm…”
“ You don’t have anything to say again?…You know what Mum, you have to be the one to bear the guilt of your crime.”
My phone rang…It was a number that was not stored on my phone, so I picked up thinking it was one of my clients… It was already 7:30am in the morning, it was only my clients that usually called that early…
“ Hello, good morning…”
“ Good Morning Happy…” It was the masculine voice of Apostle Ray… My body shivered the moment I heard his voice and my heart started pounding seriously out of fear and guilt…I ended the call. That was my way of trying not the say the wrong thing whenever I was on the phone having a conversation. Whenever I ended a call, it gave me time to think through…
The phone rang again…I took a deep breath and picked up…
“ I guess you have a habit of ending calls if you don’t like someone “ He said humorously “Well I am getting used to it and hope you won’t do that often when we get married” he said jokingly
I gave a sarcastic laughter in my mind…
“ Marry you my foot” I said in my mind…
“ I am sorry Apostle sir, I did that out of respect for you sir, please sir… I am sure you know I am engaged to be married, I cannot leave my Fiance” I said very bluntly with a respectful voice… I noticed my mother stood up in disappointment…
“ Is He the will of God?” He asked
I could not answer that question because I had asked myself that question uncountable times but I had no answer for it… I just knew I was marrying Julius Because he was the only serious minded guy I had at time and since age was not being friendly, I choose to settle with him…
“ You don’t have an answer to that?”
“ No…” At times I could be very honest “ But, I am fine with him”
“ Ok…If you say so, guess I will be looking elsewhere”
Finally! “ Yes sir, and I pray you will find the right woman who will fit into pastor Maggie’s shoe” I said
“ Thanks..”
I ended the call without the courtesy of saying “bye”
My phone rang almost immediately…
“ You have done it again” He said laughing. His laughter was making me feel guilty as I was hearing the voice of a nice man who had just been widowed looking for comfort…
“ I am sorry Sir, I thought we were through”
“ I just remembered I had a revelation about you, are you fine? I saw you on a hospital bed…”
What! Is this what marriage with him will be like? He will be able to see everything about me? Then After marriage, he will discover my mother had a hand in the death of his first wife!
Never!
“ I am fine sir!”
“ Ok, Let me pray with you”
He eventually prayed for about Five minutes before I patiently ended the call….
The moment I ended the call, I knew within myself what I needed to do.
I asked to be discharged, I didn’t say a word to my mother, I was communicating with my father who had walked in during my phone call with the Apostle.
We drove home in silence. I took my bath and stepped out. I went straight to the bank, withdrew 90 percent of my savings and went straight to Julius’s house.
“ Have it, From it you can pay my dowry and still have enough to get us a better accommodation…”
Julius was shocked, he looked at the bulk of money I had pushed into his hands…
“ Who borrowed us?” He asked with excitement on his face
“ No one, it’s my money!”
“ Your money?” He asked and I nodded in the affirmative. He stood on the same spot for few seconds very quiet while looking at the money in his hands….
“ I cant use your money to pay your dowry…”
“ See it as if you borrowed it from me, I believe when we get married, you will get a job and you will pay me back” I said
“ This is not right!” Julius said pushing back the money at me
“ Please Julius, do this for us, I cannot marry the Apostle…It’s you I want to spend my life with”
I said crying …and Julius couldn’t stand my tears… After a brief moment of silence, he said
“ Ok, on one condition”
“ Anything!”
“ This stays between us, I will tell everyone who cares to know, that I got a Loan from a friend…”
“Very fine with me” I said
He wiped my tears as I felt relieved
“ How soon are we getting married?” He asked as he tickled me…
“ Like now…” I said smiling…
“ Let’s have it by weekend, we have postponed this engagement for too long”
The idea sounded ok, since that day was Monday. I had Five days to get every other thing done…
But somewhere in my heart, I felt someone was eavesdropping on our conversation…
Who it was I didn’t know?
Hope what I did was right? Julius had promised to refund my money…
TO BE CONTINUED
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