Munachimso was very close to one of the entrance doors of the church auditorium when he spotted Ayanate also about to enter the church through a different entrance door.
He squinted his eyes and observed her carefully. He could see that she was wearing a long red gown that snugly fit her petite body and she was carrying a big handbag on her left arm. He could see the gleaming bracelets on her wrist that matched her necklace and gold chandelier earrings. Her long wig was bundled in a ponytail with a white ribbon. It was obvious that she was wearing a high heel but he couldn't see the color and design. Her makeup was moderate and almost went unnoticed on her smooth and spotless face.
"Stunning!" That was the only word he could manage to exclaim before his heart began furiously slamming against his rib cage at something else that he just began to notice.
Ayanate was not with her mother as he presumed; she was with a man.
His eyes squinted even more and took a careful look again, and he could see a man affectionately holding her by the hand as they walked into the church. He could also see that she and the man were smiling and having some sort of conversation.
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A heavy jealousy that he never knew that he was capable of having sprouted wings in his heart. Savior was now protesting in the background of Munachimso’s mind despite his earlier vow of maintaining silence.
After several attempts, Munachimso finally succeeded in silencing Savior as he continued inside the church auditorium, trailing Ayanate and her, uh, her... He couldn't bring himself to complete that sentence.
Apparently, he had a rival, and Savior was already planning his next move to defeat and take out this rivalry.
He observed as she and the male figure took their seats, seemingly at their preferred spot. Then he hurried and sat down on the other side of the church aisle. Luckily for him, the place he chose to sit in afforded him the luxury of observing Ayanate from a safe distance.
Unable to resist the temptation of looking at her, his gaze moved towards her direction and that was when he recognized the man that was with her.
He began to breathe easier, for if his memory served him right, the man who was seated beside Ayanate was her only and older brother. This was no rival. Oh, piece of cake!
This was Preye Green, one of his former friends.
Preye was also an alumni from the same school that his sister and Munachimso graduated from, although he was two years ahead of them. Despite the disparity in class, Preye and Munachimso discovered that they had a lot of similarities, and it drew them together back in their secondary school days. Indeed, their relationship was more or less like that between a master and his prodigy.
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Preye Green, who was in SS2 at the time and computer savvy, had not just been given the position of the head boy and senior prefect, but also allocated the task of taking charge of the school's computer lab and all its equipment.
Being the only student with access to the computer lab, he was also in the position to grant a temporary permission to any student who also wanted access at a period of time.
It was in the process that he had met a young and bright student who was also his sister's classmate. His sister was in JSS3 at the time, which was equivalent to grade nine in the European educational setting.
Munachimso didn't just approach him everyday, before school hours, during school breaks, and after school hours to request access to the computer lab, but also for Preye to teach him what he knew about computers.
Unable to resist such a passionate request, Preye readily agreed.
It was during one of their classes that Munachimso asked his revered teacher and senior student what he would like to study in the University. When he replied that he would very much like to study computer science, Munachimso called him his mentor.
"How so?" Preye had asked, smiling.
"That's because I also want to study computer science," he had replied, reciprocating his mentor's smile.
There were also other similarities with the duo. They were both science students and part of the most brilliant the school ever produced. They also belonged to the class of hot guys. This was why, regardless of his mentor's religious affiliation, the students, unlike his sister, didn't tag him as one of the holy rollers.
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His sister was also one of the brilliant students of the school, but she was just an ordinary art student. Plain and simple. And her strict ways of turning down boys landed her in the category of touch-not-my-anointed.
As the years went by, Munachimso and Preye grew closer like brothers. Munachimso would someday occupy the position of the senior student, and his mentor at the time told him as much prior to his graduation as though he had seen it coming.
Munachimso remembered how he and his friend began slowly drifting away from each other.
Soon after Preye graduated from secondary school, both of them started becoming too busy to see one-on-one.
When Preye gained admission into the University of Port Harcourt, he became too swamped with lectures, assignments and projects in order to keep up with a high GPA, so much so that they hardly spoke even through phone calls. Then finally, Preye and his family had dropped off the radar after what happened to his sister.
Looking back now, he could hardly blame Preye for what happened. Communication was supposed to be both ways, and he had done a terrible job.
Munachimso's attention was drawn back to the present and the church as one of the pastors went up to the podium and began the church service with an opening prayer.
He gave the siblings one last look before turning to concentrate on the opening prayers.
"This reunion will be really fun," he muttered to himself.
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