The Potter’s Hands
Written by Sonia Okehie
Episode 2
One of the greatest mistake a person can make in life is to think they have the ability to determine whom, when and where they will met that special someone and eventually fall in love. History always repeats itself in this situation because we as humans don’t have the power to figure out how our lives would turn out; all we can do is hope that things goes according to our various plans. Who would have thought that Terry will meet his soulmate in a prison cell? A woman that will sweep him off his feet and make him fall head-over-heels in love. That was the last thing he ever thought would happen to him but there he was, totally restless and love struck. This goes far to prove the saying that when love happens, it doesn’t care to ask questions like “how come?”, but rather just takes over our emotions and feelings. That day was a delightful one indeed for Maya too, because she never stopped blushing.
As Terry was on his way home that fateful day, his mind, body and soul was still back at the prison cell with Maya. He kept thinking about her and felt extremely heartbroken that he couldn’t bail her out with him. It was such a sad feeling whenever Terry recalled that Maya was still in that suffocating police cell. He was lost in thoughts as he sat in the taxi that drove himself and his boys home.
“Guy are you OK? You have been behaving like a person that lost someone. No tell me say na because of that babe you dey worry yourself like this” One of Terry’s friends said. Terry smiled faintly and looked out of the window to continue his deep thoughts. They arrived home shortly afterwards and everyone enter inside the house to freshen up.
While Terry had regained his freedom and back to his normal life, Maya was still locked up in the police cell. Thankfully, the case that got her arrested was resolved and she was now up for bail after spending close to one week there.
Immediately Maya was up for bail, she called her colleague from work and asked him to take a loan from their boss so he could come and bail her with the money. That same day, the loan was approved and transferred to her next month salary. Her colleague came around passed 4:20pm to bail her out of the police custody.
When Maya was bailed that evening, she was extremely happy and thanked her colleague for being a life saver and coming to her aid in such short notice. It felt so good to be free again and she didn’t hesitate to retire home after a stressful one week in cell.
While there was rejoicing in one camp, there was tension in another. Turns out that Terry had been worried sick about Maya and has been expecting her call but none was forth coming. He felt she was still under the police custody and hadn’t been granted bail yet but didn’t have any clue that she was now a free bird. Things got so bad that Terry almost visited the police station to find out why Maya was still in detention, but he was held back by his friends. They warned him not to near the lions den because the police wasn’t their friend at all. As Yahoo boys, they could get implicated if he gets too close to the officers. Terry’s friends advice made great sense and that was why he avoided the police station like a plague and wasn’t able to go check-up on Maya.
The good news was that Maya still had the napkin Terry wrote his number on and had quickly transferred the number to her phone when she received it at the police counter after her bail. She actually wanted to call him immediately she left the police station but it skipped her mind because she had lots of work to do when she arrived home. The next day after Maya had been bailed, she also wanted to put a call through to Terry but was distracted by the multitudes of work she had to attend to in the office. Not for once did she ever think that her silence was killing him slowly and also making him worried. Too bad she wasn’t a seer!
Days passed and Maya still hadn’t contacted Terry yet. Whenever he was on his laptop trying to scam people, his mind would wander and not focus on what he was doing. It was a difficult task indeed for him to ignore his feelings for her and focus on other stuffs that mattered to him too.
Due to Terry’s constant absent mindedness, he began to make mistakes in his fraudulent strategies and started losing serious money. When he figured that he was flopping seriously, he took a little break from his dubious schemes and tried to clear his head. Well, everything continued same for the young lover boy till he received the long awaited phone call one fateful evening.
It happened that Maya was returning from work one evening when one of the youth preachers from her church fellowship called to inform her that she would be leading opening prayer in church during the midweek service. He reminded her to invite someone while coming before ending the call.
After receiving that call, Maya kept thinking of whom to invite to church as she headed home that evening. Her mind wandered for a while and finally stopped when Terry’s name hit her thoughts. “Wow! Terry! Oh My God, I haven’t called him since over five days I left the police cell. Eh, that’s too bad of me because he was such a good and thoughtful guy” she shockingly said to herself as she sat at the window section of the bus that drove her home. She wanted to call him that very moment but couldn’t because the bus was noisy.
Immediately Maya got home that very day, she quickly dialied Terry’s number and prayed that he picked. After ringing for a little while, he picked up. “Hello” Terry coldly greeted, “Hi Terry, is it you?” Maya inquired and he froze in shock. That voice was crystal clear and rang a bell in his head. Without hesitating, he shouted “Maya?” and she chuckled and said “Yes”.
What a lovely day it was indeed for Terry because he had waited a long time for that phone call. His heart raced and his palms suddenly became sweaty. Terry was extremely happy to hear from Maya after a long time and didn’t hesitate to let her know that he had been worried sick and also missed her.
“I waited for your call since the day I left that cell and haven’t been truly happy since then. What later happened? I thought I told you to call me when you are up for bail” Terry said, “I’m so sorry dear, I actually didn’t want to disturb you because you had done a lot for me already during that weekend. That bail fee was sorted by myself so I didn’t want to bother you” Maya calmly said. He still wasn’t satisfied with her explanation and went ahead to tell her that she shouldn’t have used her money to sort a fee that she wasn’t prepared for and also for a crime she didn’t commit. Maya was smitten by the level of care Terry exhibited towards her predicament and didn’t hold back her gratitude towards him.
They talked about the police issue for a little while and jumped into other topics. Terry tried to get to know Maya a little bit more but it was quite difficult because they were conversing via phone call. On seeing that the phone call wasn’t doing much justice, he asked if they could met up somewhere later and talk properly. “Uhmm, actually I wanted to invite you for our midweek service program this week. You were the first person that came to my mind when I thought of whom to invite” She politely said.
At the mention of fellowship, Terry started having clues that Maya must be a church warrior. The fact that he lived a dubious life was something to consider if he ever wanted to be in any sort of relationship with her because as at then, they lived in different worlds.
Out of curiously, Terry wanted to be sure that he heard rightly the first time. “Did you say midweek service? Are you like a religious person or something?” he inquired and Maya chuckled. “Well, I’m a youth pastor for my church and usually hold prayers in my fellowship” she said.
With that being said, Terry finally got the gist that Maya was a church goer and was probably someone that would never condone his lifestyle. If it was just any other lady, he would have taken a bow and gently exit himself from her life, but she was just different and had gotten him love struck.
Without being told, Terry realised that there was a huge battle in front of him if he ever wanted to proceed with his desire to get into any form of relationship with Maya. The fact that he was helpless and couldn’t control his feelings for her, made the whole situation worst. As he was lost in thoughts, Maya brought him back to reality by inquiring his answer to her request. “I requested something from you earlier, would you come to fellowship with me?” she calmly asked. Without thinking twice and being unaware of the perfect reply to give, he said “Sure!”.
The reply brought great joy to Maya’s heart that she almost screamed for joy. “Thank you, Thank you and thank you!” she happily said and Terry told her not to mention. “Where should we meet? The fellowship is on Friday” She excitedly asked, “uhmm, where do you want us to meet? Or would you rather prefer I pick you up so we go together?” he suggested, “Oh no don’t worry, I’ll just give you the address so you can meet me there” she said and they both agreed to that.
After the call ended, Terry couldn’t believe that he accepted to go on a church fellowship with Maya. It still felt like a dream to him because never in a thousand years did he ever imagine a lady having that much influence over him. The fact that he was a ‘Yahoo’ Boss made things even more complicated because he knew for a fact that Maya would have serious issues with him in the future if she ever found out what he truly did for a living. The battle line had been drawn but no one was fighting yet.
The D-day for the fellowship finally came and Terry was highly nervous. He just finished closing a dubious deal that very day before heading out to met Maya in church. As he drove down to her fellowship, his heart kept beating fast because he knew that his lifestyle was nothing close to that of a godly man. It was a huge sacrifice that he was making but Maya was absolutely worth every bit of it.
When Terry arrived at the church venue, he stood outside and called Maya on phone so as to inform her that he was there but she wasn’t picking up. After calling twice, he walked towards the church building and entered inside. Immediately his feet stepped into the church, he heard a strong voice blasting in tongues of fire. Terry was highly shocked and almost dropped dead when he looked and saw that the lady bringing down heaven with powerful tongues was no other than Maya.
At that moment, it felt as though Terry’s heart was frozen because the atmosphere was highly charged up. Unable to hold back the mixed feelings and emotions, he located a seat and gently sat down because his legs were weak.
Turns out that Maya was leading opening prayer that very moment, hence the reason she was intoxicated by the thick presence of the Holy Spirit. While the praying session was ongoing, Terry couldn’t do anything other than get lost in thoughts and feeling guilt trapped.
Few minutes later, the prayer ended and service commenced; that was when Maya checked her phone and saw Terry’s missed calls. She looked around the congregation to see if she could catch sight of him but the crowd was too much. Unable to locate him, she texted to inquire if he was in church and he replied “Yeah, I saw you praying”. That reply made Maya blush. She relaxed and focused on the ongoing service.
As the service went on, the preacher preached about a lot of things that gradually guilt trapped Terry. The atmosphere was making him greatly uncomfortable that he started sweating under air-condition.
Unable to hold back any longer, Terry got up and walked out while service was still ongoing. Maya was quick to catch sight of him because he was the only one that stood up while every other person quietly sat down. Her heart skipped several beats as she watched him walk away. She couldn’t help but quietly excuse herself and follow him out.
Immediately Maya came out, Terry was already close to his car and was about to enter inside and zoomed out. “Terry wait!” she shouted as she ran to where he was. The closer she got to him, the more emotional and guilt trapped he felt. In order not to worsen the whole situation, he had to act fast.
“No! don’t come closer please, I can’t do this” Terry said with tears in his eyes. Maya was greatly shocked and instantly felt emotional too; “why can’t you do this? What’s wrong?” she curiously asked as she gently took each step closer to him. “I don’t belong here, I’m so sorry but I have to go” he soberly replied.
Without trying to ask more questions, Maya got to Terry and wrapped her arms around him. She pulled away almost immediately, cleaned the tears in his eyes and said; “Don’t say that, you are the most qualified to be here”.
Written by Sonia Okehie
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@Sonia Okehie
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