[color=blue]THE CHURCH NEXT DOOR – Episode 5[/color]
The search for Annie took longer than anyone had expected. The tenth day of her disappearance had come with the news that she had gone to her friend’s house the last day she was seen at my office. That had brought for us all at my company a short lived excitement. As far as the police were concerned, her phone went off from her mobile network about 11:40 PM the same day, at Ikorodu. “Ikorodu? What was Annie doing at Ikorodu at 11:40 PM?” I asked myself out loud in my office. The police trackers said that was where they lost track of her mobile phone. Her friend whom she had gone to see the last day she reported to work lived in Lekki and sadly, she lived alone. Her neighbors did know a thing about her. All they could tell the police was that she was always driving in and out of her house in assorted cars. She rarely spoke to anyone on her street and seemed to be very happy with life. They claimed she cut the figure of a self-sufficient lady. None of the street dwellers had seen Annie the evening she had visited her friend.
On my part, I saw what was going on as Annie’s business. Don’t get me wrong, I was worried and concerned for her safety. However, as far as I could see, it had nothing to do with me.
I had since repented of my intentions to kill her, though forgiving myself was the hard part. I had struggles over that. The heinous design to kill her was to grave for me to forget. It made me feel sick. It increased the load of guilt in my heart. That period was though for me because I had to pretend at home that everything was alright. I did not want to give my wife any reason to suspect that I was in trouble or had done anything foolish. For her and the children, I was a brand new husband and father. However, at nights, I prayed down the roof, asking God to help me. I was ready to own up to my wife the sinful life I had lived. The fact that Annie just vanished did not make me think my problems were over. I feared she could resurface and make good her threats or even try to blackmail me. I did not forget that she knew about the Procter & Gamble deal which was worth hundreds of millions and with the potential to hit one-billion-naira mark. While the police searched for Annie, my family and I switched from our old family church to the new one on our street. In the midst of my woes, that was the best thing which happened to both my family and I.
The fellowship and the revival we received and enjoyed in the church were amazing. The church members could love even the worst sinner to heaven. I did not mean to tell anyone about my plight, but because of how they took my family and I; I had to pour out my heart to the pastor of the church. As you would expect, I was scared for telling anyone and had expected the pastor to open his bible and tell me just how filthy I was and how hell re was fitting for men like me. He didn’t. Instead he told me about his own mistakes in the past and how he had found Christ Jesus in the midst of his sins, pains and troubles. His words gave me hope. My fears were whittled down in size. That day we prayed for what seemed like thirty minutes. We did not forget to pray for Annie too. My new found pastor was confident that she was not in danger but was in much sorrows. We asked God to help her and heal her.
Two days after the prayers, Anita Magbere returned home. Just like she vanished, she reappeared. Before I got a call from her, the police had told me that she reported herself not missing a few hours earlier at a police station in Ikeja. Somehow she must have found out that she had been declared missing. All she said to me on the phone when she called was, “I want to see you at my house now, boss.” I had no chance to say a thing before she dropped the call.
Quickly I called my pastor and told him what she said. He said, “Give me a moment, I will call you back. Don’t do anything till I call you back.” I knew he was going to seek God’s face on the matter. I was restless as I sat in my office waiting for his call. I could not do a thing, not even breathe well. It took some fifteen minutes before my pastor called back. “David, go see her. God is with you,” my pastor said over the phone.
I was disappointed. I had expected him to give me details of what I might expect at Annie’s house. But you see, my pastor was not like the new age prophets who took the place of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the believers who followed them. He detested that and condemned it at every chance he got. Even though it was unscriptural to be led entirely by prophecy, I wanted it at that point. “Why do I feel you are disappointed?” my pastor asked. “I wish I could get to know what I am walking into,” I replied.
“Do you have peace in your heart, David?” I paused for a minute and listened to my heart. I was very much afraid, but beneath that maelstrom of dread, I picked up something I will describe as ‘budding fruit of peace’. “I think the Lord is trying to tell me not to be afraid,” I said finally. “Then don’t be afraid David.” I took his advice and tried not to be afraid, but it was hard. At Annie’s house, I met her alone. She had a turban on her head and wore a long, red gown which covered her hands and feet. Her face was expressionless. “Good day boss,” she said as she let me into her living room.
“Good day Anita.” To mask my fear of whatever was coming, I asked, “What happened to you Annie? Were you kidnapped? Are you okay?” Then she smiled. “I am fine boss. In fact, I have never been this ne ever before.” What is she saying? I asked myself. “Give me a moment please,” she said and disappeared into the bedroom. She returned in a jiffy with an envelope and handed it toward me. I could not reach out for it. I was afraid. “Take it boss, you need to read what’s inside,” she encouraged me. Managing to, I took the envelope from her and hurriedly pulled out the content.
I didn’t have to read the entire content. The heading was enough for me. “You are leaving my company Annie! Why?” “Call me Anita. I prefer that name,” she said sounding very cold. “Tell me please. What is going on Anita?” “I don’t want to work for you anymore or share the same office building with you. It… it…” “I what…? We have a big deal from Procter & Gamble! And there are more coming! I will raise your salary and give you whatever you want! Don’t leave now Annie… am sorry, I meant Anita,” I said breathlessly, hoping to get her to open up and tell me what was going on. Annie raced her head to look at me and I saw tears polling down like Victoria Falls.
“I don’t need anything from you, boss… the pictures and the videos of you and I in those acts are gone, and so also the baby…
I lost it,” she said as her entire body shook. My heart broke for her. I tried to take her in my arms, but she pushed me away violently and screamed, “Don’t touch me!” “What is going on Anita Magbere! Put me out of my misery please! Talk to me! What on earth is going on with you?” I yelled at her. Like a little girl, she recoiled and began to sob intensely. I let her unburden her heart through the sob. When she was done crying, she wiped her tears and said to me, “You claimed to have found Jesus, well, you are no longer alone. I have not only found him; I have seen him.
My very eyes have seen him…” she paused. My jaw dropped in shock and my eyes almost popped out of their sockets. As she spoke, it seemed to me that her whole body was taking another form. She seemed to glow like the sun. “I am sorry for the things we did together. I am sorry for the threat I made to you. That was then, I am a new person now. You may not believe me, but I am,” she said with her head bowed. “I believe you! How did you lose the pregnancy?” I asked, almost in tears myself. My heart was threatening to blow up with pain. All I could think of was how I was going to kill her. “I miscarried it the night I left office after working late with you. I guess I put myself through too much strain. That was what the doctor suggested.” There was silence which seemed interminable between us. “How did you meet Jesus?” I broke the silence. “Through my friend. The one who lives at Lekki.
She is now a Jesus freak. She claims to have seen Jesus at a camp meeting she unwillingly attended. While she narrated to me her story, I felt like I heard someone call my name. I turned only to see Jesus standing behind me. With a smile beyond any the world has seen, he said to me, ‘I can show you what she saw too, Anita,’” she replied. There was yet another silence as she smiled at me. “Boss, I am willing to die just to keep what I saw. This is why we can’t work together anymore. I don’t want to be tempted back to my old ways with you.” “Your phone was tracked to Ikorodu…” “Yes, after my encounter with Jesus, my friend took me to a prayer meeting with her friends there.
It was there that I decided to dismember my phone. I didn’t want anything with you or anyone until I was done with the Lord. My friend helped me hide my car in an uncompleted building belonging to one of her friends… boss I am sorry I mocked you for making peace with Christ again. I didn’t know any better then.” That was it for me. I could not take the guilt in my heart anymore. I sprang to my feet and ran out of her house. While Anita spoke to me and smiled happily, all I kept thinking was how I would have killed her at Southern Sun Ikoyi. In my frenzied drive away from her house, I rammed my car into a truck loaded with wet sand. It was a ghastly motor accident on my part.
My head took a massive hit and broken shards of glass lacerated my body. Fortunately for me, while death took over my body in my crumpled car and I slipped into glory, I saw a mighty, glorious hand touch my right shoulder and a voice said, “David go back, it is not yet your time.”
[color=red]THE END[/color]
