Like I was saying before the fly flew in, that action of hers provoked a powerful response from my body system, and I proceeded to act on the thought which the strange voice had played in my mind. I knelt on the bed, looked her in the eyes and smiled, but she didn’t return my smile, neither did she frown or make any objections. Just then, the song that was playing from the laptop ended, and another one began. The new song that started playing was actually one of mine, and the lyrics to the song altered a lot. It lifted the present atmosphere and dropped another. This is how the lyrics go;
The reason a thing is loved is the reason it is HATED.
The reason a thing is praised is the reason it is PERSECUTED.
There are doves and serpents EVERYWHERE,
If I could fly, I’d be the one the sky would call my DEAR,
I would be flying with the eagles in the AIR,
And I wouldn’t even shrink out of FEAR.
But I’m down HERE,
Sounding so loud, hope u can HEAR?
The gospel is what I SHEAR,
You know that the end of all things is NEAR,
So tell it to the ones u hold DEAR,
That they may fear what you FEAR,
& wear righteousness as you WEAR.
Tell them that have ears to HEAR,
For no one knows the day, the month or the YEAR,
When the saints of the Lord will DISAPPEAR.
I pray I’ll be one of them, Oh! How hard it seems to PERSEVERE,
How I wish the only thing I had to stay away from was BEER,
But it isn’t, because I look around and see temptations EVERYWHERE,
Too much pressure from a group called PEER,
So much that even when I sleep, in my dreams they APPEAR,
But nah, in all these things I’m still HERE,
& I am not going anywhere until I’m caught up in the AIR,
Not just I, but all whom to God’s word have not turned a deaf EAR
As soon as I heard just the first verse of that song, I relented, lay on the bed beside her and released the deep breathe I had taken in. After about five to six minutes of silence, Ogechi said; I’m proud of you. And again she said; goodnight. I replied her goodnight and we retired to bed, music still playing. We didn’t pray that night.
By the time I woke up the next morning she was already prepared to leave. You’re up already? I asked shyly.
Yes I am. I have to hurry home and prepare for school. She didn’t in any way seem disappointed at me like I thought she would, so I bottled up the apology I wanted to tender to her. Or could she have been hiding her feelings? I couldn’t help but feel guilty, even though I hadn’t done anything wrong, so to speak. Just that she didn’t even expect me to put up such act. But then, she said she was proud of me.
Many thoughts just kept running through my mind, and I didn’t know which one to settle with. So I dismissed them all and concluded that I would take whatever comes as a result of what I had done. After all, whatsoever a man sows, so shall he reap.
Alright then, I replied. Let me escort you to a cab. Okay, she responded sharply. As we worked down discussing, the usual flow in our conversation was absent. I would say a thing and she would respond, and then there’ll be silence for about 30 seconds. She would also say something of which I would respond to before the silence continues.
That’s how it was until she boarded a cab home. We said goodbye to each other, and it sounded like goodbye forever. As I walked back home I met two guys who started hailing me unstoppable. I wondered why they did so. I just moved in yesterday and hadn’t made any acquaintances yet. As we closed the gap between us, they started raining praises on me and misinterpreting their suspicions to suit their own purposes. Well, that’s left for them anyway.
I got back home, freshened up, turned on my laptop and started my normal FOREX transaction. The figures in my bank account were increasing little by little. But while the figures were on the increase, my communication with Ogechi was on the decrease, as we didn’t call each other often, and only met in church during church services, since I had become a full blown member of Christ’s Embassy. Even at that, we barely had time enough to speak to each other.
I couldn’t visit her due to her brother’s presence, and I couldn’t summon the courage to ask her out or tell her to pay me visit at my house because of our last experience, which wasn’t terrible according to my judgment. But for some reason, I just couldn’t say a word in that direction.
Out of sight became out of mind. I was missing her company like hell. The money I was making could not fill the vacuum her absence left in me. Nothing was of interest to me anymore and I began bearing the burden of indescribable feelings. The more I kept trying to shove away the memories that triggered those feelings, the more I kept reminiscing on the good times we shared together. I couldn’t bear it anymore. I had to bring back those days. Truly, you don’t know what you have until you lose it.
I consulted the brightest part of my mind on how to resolve this issue and found that the best way to get close enough to her again was by joining the choir. I made my intension to join the choir known to the choir director and he brought me in and introduced me to the crew.
Judging from the look on her face, I could tell that Ogechi was surprise at this development. From the night at my house till this very moment, she never acted as though she was pushing me away; neither was she coming to me. She was simply unpredictable. As soon as I joined the choir, everything went back to normal and soon enough, her brother was done with his engagements in Enugu and left. She and I were alone again.
To be continued.
