THE CHAT ROOM : PART 21 – 30
The CHAT ROOM PART 23
By Temi Akintade
With the help of my old neighbour who has always known my mother, I got a shop in a busy area right opposite the school campus gate where I strictly sold fresh bread, snacks of all kinds, and cakes.
My mother’s old neighbour advised me to get someone who would assist me with the whole job so I got a lady from the church who offered her services for free because she wanted to learn from me. Her name was sister Dorcas and she was a graduate of Christian religious studies at the University of Abuja.
Sister Dorcas was a beautiful light-skinned Christian sister. She was the type that every man would want to marry because of her kindness and accommodating attitude. I loved her too because she took Hadassah as her child.
Even when Hadassah turned one year old, sister Dorcas lavished a whopping twenty thousand naira on a plain white dress which according to her, she got from Amazon.
“Be careful with this sister Dorcas that is fast warming her way into your life. Not all glitters are gold.” Mama Judith warned me one night during one of our late-night calls.
“But she is an usher in our church and the sister’s coordinator.
She speaks in tongues fervently and she teaches so well like a pastor. In fact, I recently told her to teach me how to speak in tongues.”
Mama Judith exclaimed on the other end of the phone! “Paulina! Read your Bible and study it well! No one was ever taught how to speak in tongues.
Have a firm relationship with Holy Spirit and desire to speak in tongues it is a gift that cannot be learnt, my dear.”
She swallowed. “And let me warn you, my dear, looks can be very deceptive. She might appear like a dove but be a snake on the inside.” She said.
I shook my head. Mama Judith doesn’t know that this lady I was talking about was a born-again spirit-filled child of God. “She is a child of God ma.”
“I am not saying she is not a child of God but I want you to be careful. Okay, you know what, try to listen more and talk less when she is around you. Is that okay?”
I nodded.
The day I found out that sister Dorcas was thirty years old, it was the day she busted into tears in the kitchen area of my shop.
It was a busy day and customers were trooping in and out as usual. Meanwhile, I had employed more hands to assist me in selling and responding to customers.
Tears matted her smooth round face. I thick eyebrow was scattered and I brushed that afternoon and her brown skirt, and white floral blouse was wrinkled.
“I am thirty but yet there is no man to tell me I love you. Can you imagine the lady who just got married in our church, she is not supposed to marry before me.
She is a single mother. Yet God gave her a husband before me who has been a vrgn since I was born!” She lamented.
My jaw dropped open. Did she just stigmatize single mothers? “Single mothers, are people too you know?”
She stopped crying and turned to me. “What I am trying to say is, a virgin is better than a single mother. I never played with my life! Yet God is treating me this way.”
I shut my mouth and tried to make sense of the whole statement.
“Anyone who is sitting on my seat when I am supposed to sit, father, unseat them by fire! Even if my husband mistakenly got married, father kll his wife and put me there!” She rose to her feet and started to pray.
I exclaimed and halted her prayers. “What exactly is wrong with you? Are you praying to kll another man’s wife?
Shouldn’t you be praying for your husband instead not a married man?” I queried. She ignored me and continued her prayers.
That was when I knew that Mama Judith was right only that, it was too late because had already known all my secrets. Secrets about how I got pregnant, Hadassah’s father and Frank.
But the sudden news I heard late one night, when I was preparing to go to bed, made me realize that I needed to stay away from sister Dorcas.
The broad-chested pastor whose church I now attend took his pregnant wife to the hospital but in between labour, she d!ed.
“Oh my goodness!” I exclaimed. Hadassah stirred from sleep.
Sister Dorcas busted into a decisive laugh. “I told you that, whoever is sitting on my seat where I am supposed to be the wife, will d!e!” She laughed again.
I ended the call and sat defeated on the bed. It was official, sister Dorcas was a church wtch.
THE CHAT ROOM : PART 21 – 30
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