Try as he might, Munachimso could not bring himself to fully concentrate on the ongoing church service.
His eyes kept drifting back in different intervals to Ayanate, his mind to the conversation that he was about to have with her after the service.
He didn't look at the large screens which were placed at strategic locations for easy visibility to a wide range of the congregation. While others were looking at it to read the projected hymn and song lyrics, Bible passages, prayer points or announcement, his mind was far away.
He didn't look straight at the podium when the pastor was preaching or when the choir was singing. Instead, his eye traveled back and forth to Ayanate. After all, she was the reason he was here. She was the reason he came to church after several years.
Much to his relief, the church's first service finally drew to an anticipated end.
There was going to be a five-minutes break for people who came for the first service to step out of the auditorium before the second service would start. Some of the incoming and outgoing church members clustered around in small groups, chatting and exchanging greetings.
Munachimso, in a brief moment of distraction, lost sight of Ayanate and her brother.
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He mentally berated himself as his eyes carefully scanned the massive crowd, looking for his charge.
He couldn't mess this up now. He had come too far.
After a brief moment of searching harder and more urgently, almost knocking people over as he breezed past them, he still didn't find the siblings. He covered as much ground as he could inside the massive church auditorium, doing an almost 360 degree search, but he still didn't find the siblings, and there was no sign of their mother either.
Dang it! He couldn't believe that in a moment of carelessness, he had let them slip away from his sight. There was nothing he could do now than to go home and sulk for the rest of the day.
He had failed.
He sighed, hung his head and turned towards one of the exits.
He took a few steps when his eyes lit up at something he saw that almost went unnoticed.
Ahead of him, Preye and his sister had just broken up from a group and were also heading towards the same exit. His face broke out in a wide grin. Bingo!
The siblings were almost to the exit door when Munachimso made his move.
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He put up his game face and began running towards them, calling out to Preye as he did.
Preye heard a male voice calling out to him. Ayanate did too, but she quickly discarded the thought that it was who she thought. Maybe she'd also developed a hearing problem, or it could be that the person who was calling just had a similar voice to who her mind was telling her it was.
They stopped in their tracks as Preye turned around to see the face that belonged to the voice that was calling him by his name.
The figure approached them, and Preye couldn't believe his eyes.
"Please tell me that my eyes are not playing pranks on me!"
"It took me a while but I knew it was you when I saw you during the church service!" Munachimso replied excitedly as Preye broke out from his sister and gave him a giant bear hug.
Munachimso was happy to see his friend after several years, but sincerely, he wished that it was Ayanate that was embracing him right now. Indeed, it took an ounce of willpower not to shove his friend to one side and take Ayanate into his arms. He knew he had to be patient and play according to script. Prim and proper. Cool and collected.
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Preye seemed to have forgotten his sister as he broke away from the embrace, calling the name of his long-lost prodigy over and over again in happy amazement, talking and laughing excitedly as his sister stood at one corner, utterly astonished and not quite believing her ears.
Standing a few inches away from her brother, Ayanate was visibly astonished. She was surprised when Preye mentioned the name she never expected to hear again in her life. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. It sounded like a mistake, but when Preye repeated the name over and over again in a tone of pleasant surprise, she knew it was really Munachimso Savior Onuoha. She almost fainted.
Although she couldn't see him, her hearing compensated for it. His voice, as expected, was now more mature, but it was still the same baritone voice that she loved listening to five years ago. She had no doubt that this was indeed Munachimso, her formal secondary school classmate and secret crush.
She felt dizzy, she was sure going to faint now, she just had to position herself well.
But there was no time to faint as Munachimso suddenly called out her name, and reached out to greet her.
Munachimso darted closer to his blind former classmate to greet her with a handshake but unable to help himself, he decided to change course and embraced her at the last minute, however briefly.
After a few more exchanges of pleasantries and awkward conversations, Munachimso turned towards Preye and asked with a smile. "So, how have you been, senior?"
Preye laughed. "We are no longer in secondary school, bro, so you can quit with the ‘senior’ thing."
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Munachimso grinned. "Alright, if you say so. But tell me, what have I missed?"
"Not so much. Let me not bore you with all of it. What's up with you? I believe life has been nothing short of amazing to you?"
"I won't exactly put it that way, but generally, I'm fine."
"Of course. So, are you done with your studies?"
"I haven't gone for masters yet, but I've graduated from first degree and recently finished my youth service."
"Wow! Congrats! It has really been a while, wouldn't you say?" Preye said, playfully slapping Munachimso on his back.
"Honestly, it has, and I still can't believe I met you guys today," Munachimso replied, discreetly stealing another glance at Ayanate for the umpteenth time.
"So, how long have you been in this town?"
"I was always in Port Harcourt during holidays, but after graduating from the University of Lagos, I permanently moved back to this town."
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"Is this your first time attending church service here, because I've never seen you here before?"
"Yes, it's my first time here," Munachimso wanted to lie and say more for his solid cover story, but he decided to leave his answer at that, fearing that what happened to Ananias and Sapphira in the Bible might happen to him.
Where did that notion come from?
"It's really nice to have you here. I hope you enjoyed the service and you will keep coming?"
"Of course, I'll come again." And he meant it.
Preye kept peppering his friend and prodigy with a lot of questions.
He and his sister were excited when Munachimso regaled them with the list of his successes and the fact that he was now the CEO of his own enterprise, even though it wasn't his intention to do so, when Preye asked him about it.
"Wow! I've heard of your firm. Almost every tech savvy person in this country knows of it, but I never imagined that you were the CEO, and I never took out the time to really check up on it."
"Thanks to you, I finally studied computer science," Munachimso quipped.
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The second service was about to start and another pastor was moving up to the podium to begin the service with opening prayers.
"You know what," Preye said as they began to join the throng of people heading towards the exit.
"Why don't you join us? My sister lost two of her friends this week unfortunately, and I promised her I'll take her out today to cheer her up."
Was that a look of expectancy on the face of Ayanate that she was trying so hard to conceal?
"Oh, I wouldn't want to be a third wheel," he laughed.
"Oh, come on, I'm sure my sister doesn't mind, and it would be fun to do some catching up."
Munachimso couldn't believe what he was being offered. And what he was rejecting.
He would like nothing more than to sit with Ayanate and listen to her all day, but he didn't want to appear so eager. Thus, he politely declined the invitation despite her brother's persuasions.
That look of expectancy on her face morphed into disappointment.
He quickly decided to make up for it, hoping he had not shattered her hopes.
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"But tell you what," he said, fishing out his phone from his pocket, "Why don't we exchange contacts so that we can continue communicating on the phone before fixing a suitable date for a little get-together?"
"That's a nice idea."
The siblings exchanged contact numbers with him, Munachimso was inwardly jumping in ecstasy that he now safely had the number of Ayanate among his phone's contacts, although he knew he would have easily gotten it via another way if you wanted to.
When they were done, they all said their goodbyes and Munachimso broke away from the group, turned and began to calmly walk towards the direction where his car was parked.
As he approached his car and unlocked it with the remote control, he told himself that enough was enough.
It was high time he did what he couldn't do five years ago. It was high time indeed.
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