The Man hears a muffled creak at the door and looks towards the direction.
He can see his girlfriend, Alex, walk in with a beautifully designed ceramic tray that contains four slices of coconut bread, scrambled eggs, fried plantain and a mug of piping hot cocoa, with a gracious smile on her face to give him breakfast in bed.
His stomach rumbles upon seeing the delicious breakfast, and his taste buds come alive, leaking saliva.
The Man smiles satisfactorily at Alex. The faithful queen has come to serve the king his breakfast in bed.
Alex is walking towards him seductively, in slow motion. She is taking her precious time. He can see the twinkle in her eyes that shows him that she is enjoying making him wait. No problems. This is part of their romance.
He isn't complaining, no, not at all. In fact, he relishes it.
But, the scene changes abruptly. Halfway to his bed where he is waiting for her to bring the breakfast, her smile begins to fade and her face morphs into a deep, hideous scowl.
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The man is shocked with the abrupt change of attitude. He immediately looks around and behind him to see what she is scowling at. Nothing seems to be out of place. When his gaze returns to her, he sees that she is staring directly at him.
If eyes could kill, then he would have died six seconds ago. Her raging eyes are shooting daggers and lasers at him. She is quaking with a violent fury against him.
Cold chills run down his spine, his body trembles, and his face breaks out in sweat. The Man is very scared. He has never seen such an unguarded display of anger from Alex before. It terrifies him.
Her lips barely move but he distinctly hears the words that stop him cold.
"You killed me."
Without warning, the food tray violently crashes to the ground. Its contents splatters all over the floor.
His mind begins to protest but his lips will not form the words, so he keeps staring wide-eyed at the furious Alex.
He has seen her angry before, but it's nothing compared to what he is seeing now.
He hears the words again, and it almost sucks the breath out of him.
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"You killed me, and you will pay for it!"
The man is shocked at this unexpected turn around. What should he do?
He should run away immediately. Yes, that was the right thing to do at this moment. The house is no longer his safe haven but it is now haunted by a ghost. It is now haunted by Alex.
Before he could bolt from the bed, Alex surprisingly appeared in front of him with the same food tray with all its contents in it, effectively blocking his path. He gasps at the abruptness of her appearance. She looks even more menacing up close.
Without a word, she empties the slices of bread, hot fried plantain and scrambled eggs on his body. She also empties the mug of hot chocolate on his flesh and smashes his head with the ceramic food tray. The man screeches out in pain but there is no iota of mercy in her eyes.
It doesn't end there. As a matter of fact, it is just the beginning.
He cries out in pain, begging Alex to stop.
He keeps begging and telling her that he did not intentionally kill her. She doesn't listen.
After breaking the food tray on his head, she begins kicking and clawing at him.
Suddenly her voice turns into a million voices and continues shouting, each one straining to be heard above the other.
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"You killed me and you must pay!" "You killed me and you must pay!" "You killed me and you must pay!"
"You killed me and you must pay!"
The voices become louder and louder as they multiply in boomeranging echoes. At this point, the man has lost count of the voices.
And now, he no longer feels only a pair of hands and legs kicking him. He can see and feel a lot of them beating and clobbering at him.
No amount of begging will pacify them.
"You will pay. You who kill, you will pay."
The voices continue like a mantra as they deliver their own form of vengeance.
---
As the Green siblings drove to church in a separate car from their mother's, they were chatting and laughing as the car stereo played a Christian song from a radio station.
But after some time, Ayanate stopped her own side of the conversation, eventually forcing her brother to do the same as well, and sharply turned to him.
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"See ehn, Preye, I've told you before that you should stop calling me baby."
"What now?"
"You almost did it this morning at home." Her voice was accusatory.
"Nearly is not a crime."
"I don't want you to attempt it."
"En-hen? Tell me something," Preye replied nonchalantly with his eyes fixed on the road as he drove speedily to catch up with their mother now well ahead of them.
"I've told you, next time you call me baby again..."
Her brother cranked up the car stereo, drowning out her voice. He bobbed his head comically in rhythm with the song and let out a whoop.
Ayanate’s serious face melted as she collapsed in a heap of laughter.
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They finally got to the church and secured a space for themselves in the parking lot.
Stepping out of the vehicle, they joined the throng of human beings who were going inside the church auditorium. They were seven minutes early, instead of the usual twenty.
The church was already buzzing with a lot of activities.
The hundred-thousand capacity auditorium, popularly known as Glory Dome, was currently the biggest church auditorium in the world. There were also other surrounding buildings which were a few thousand capacities that were used by the church in all their services for overflows.
The church’s major emphasis was on evangelism and soul winning, thus, they had other satellite churches in other parts of the country and around the globe.
Preye and his sister were fortunate to get a seat for themselves inside the church auditorium. It was almost filled up to the needed capacity.
A few more church members entered before the ushers closed the doors and directed the rest to the overflows.
Unfortunately for Righteous, even though she made it to the auditorium, she was unable to sit on her favorite spot which was close to the front roll.
Yes, even in a big and crowded church like that, there were people like Righteous who often came early to stake out a claim for themselves just behind the pastors and other ministers.
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Preye peered into the crowd, his eyes searching for his mother.
As soon as he spotted her, he gave a little wave and told his sister her location. With his oral direction, Ayanate wheeled towards her mother and sent her a wave.
Righteous was sitting in the same row as her children, but she was a few seats away, the ones between them having been occupied by other church members.
A man was seated to Righteous' right side and he tried to make small conversation with her.
"He looks handsome and clean shaven," Preye described the man to his sister.
"Okay, what is he wearing?"
He trailed off with some designer this and designer that.
"Age range?"
"What? I didn't catch that." He said, tilting his head and bringing his ear closer to her mouth.
"I asked what his age range was."
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"Mid to late forties."
"So, this makes him how many years older than mum?"
He displayed two and five fingers separately but quickly drew them back when he remembered what he was doing.
"Between two to five years," he finally said.
"Okay, that's cool. Now we just have to see if he's wearing a wedding band."
"But you know it's not all married people that wear a wedding band."
"Just check first," she said with a tone of voice that told him that she was up to something.
"Okay, okay, I'm doing that now."
He strained his eyes as he checked. The man's ring finger was bare.
The children began to get excited. This might be the much-needed break their mother deserved.
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Preye could see the man putting on his best smile as he kept trying to make some conversation with her.
Around them, some of the church members were seated, praying for the service that was about to start. A few members sat still while the rest discussed with families and friends.
The man that was chatting with Righteous was oblivious to her silent message but her son could see clearly that she wasn't interested in the conversation.
Preye relayed his mother's disinterest in the man to his sister.
"Forget it, she is just playing hard to get," Ayanate told him.
"How sure are you?"
"Just watch, sooner or later she will start cracking like biscuits."
"Are you willing to bet on that?"
"Cross my heart," she replied with a smile.
Righteous swiveled her gaze towards her children's direction and saw them smiling knowingly at her. She reciprocated their gesture with a scowl.
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She gave them the look that read, "Una don enter my soup today."
That was a pidgin way of saying, "You guys are in trouble with me today."
But her children, clearly not bothered, grinned and waved at her.
Finally figuring that it would be better to listen to this pestering man than to keep looking at her children, she turned towards him and wrapped her attention around the conversation.
Immediately the hour struck six, the church's first service began with an opening prayer of thanksgiving.
Four more services would follow.
If only Ayanate knew how utterly wrong her prediction was, she wouldn't have made that ridiculous bet with her brother.
As soon as the church service started, Righteous was greatly relieved that the boring conversation had come to an abrupt halt.
Her children could think all they wanted but she would never have anything to do with the man who introduced himself with the name she didn't desire to hear that morning. He had introduced himself as Henry. Henry something. She had forgotten his surname because it was his first name that mattered to her.
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At first she thought the man was playing a creepy prank on her, but she later realized that he didn't know her prior to this time. Why did he have to bear the same name as her lost-but-never-found husband.
"Lift up your hands and worship the King of kings and the Lord of lords," the lead chorister began after the opening prayers had been said by the coordinator.
Righteous relaxed her mind and concentrated on the service.
She needed a lot of healing, and the presence of God was her only hope.
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