The communion service was scheduled to hold by 12 noon. It had been estimated that by that time, everyone would have rested after the previous Virgil and still have time to rest before nightfall brings another.
Osi looked at the mirror as he adjusted his tie. He was the one officiating the service and so he had decided to wear a suit.
He studied himself for some seconds then shook his head removing the tie. He never really liked ties, they disturbed his bulging Adam's apple and gave him a choking sensation more often than not.
Ovie walked into the room a towel round his waist as he headed to his luggage.
"Ovie for God's sake we should be in church at least two hours before the service and its already 11"
Ovie just looked at him and began creaming his body. They had gotten home by 6 am that morning and Ovie had over slept. He still felt tired and blamed Ovie for taking him round the village the day before looking for "clues"
"Hurry up so we can have our own communion before leaving"
He walked to the kitchen where Bukky was busy wrapping the unleavened bread in foil.
"I can't find the other bottles of wine" Bukky complained as she rolled the foil expertly. She was a work machine.
"Samuel and I already moved it to the church..we left one behind" Gregory came in from the parlour, he was already dressed and held his shoe in his hands. "I think we left it...." He scanned the cupboards with his eyes "here". He transferred both shoes to his right hand then stretched with his left and opened the cupboard.
"Ahhh...there it is" he took the whine.
Somehow he thought he could close the door of the cupboard with the back of his hand while holding the wine.
The bottle slipped from his hand and crashed to the floor.
CrAaaash!
"Oh my God..you've broken it" Bukky shouted. She had been sounding stressed lately.
"Hope you didn't cut yourself" Osi said as he scanned the kitchen for a broom or mop.
"Why didn't you drop your shoe first or you should have just left it now-"
"Bukky!" Osi cautioned her with a frown.
"We still have half carton of wine..I think 11 bottles in church..it would be more than enough"
"I'm sorry" Gregory said sheepishly.
"Haba! Why are we acting like strangers? We'd have our communion in church with the rest"
The departed Chinaza and her father were getting buried today in their compound. There was going to be a short service, singing hymns and prayer in the church before the communion and before they were laid to rest.
She had no family in Amaife but had uncles from her mother's side coming from the nearby village. Indeed her father had been involved with a land dispute with one of her uncles. The acre of land was supposed to belong to her mother and her father had been fighting for the land ever since she died and her elder brothers held on to it. As a matter of fact it was rumoured that he had been afflicted as a result of the land dispute. Over the past one month, Chinaza had made frequent trips to her mother's home to plead with her uncles for her father's sake. Whenever she visited, she talked with her cousin and the two had grown very close.
Her cousin's name was Ada. She had arrived Amaife with her brothers and sisters and her father and two uncles. Tears streaked down her cheeks as she walked the streets, Chinaza had been a wonderful person and her best friend and confidant.
She could see different people moving about. They held bibles in their hands and were mostly headed towards the church.
Her younger brother who was just shy of his eighteenth birthday held her hand and pointed at a man in a leather jacket.
"Is that not Emeka, Chinaza's boyfriend?"
Ada followed his finger and was suprised.
"That's Emeka now..he's been in our village for about two months" he used to come and see Chinaza whenever she came visiting and Ada knew for a fact they had been lovers. She never knew what had happened but they seemed to have had a spat and broken up sometime last week. She was surprised to see him.
The church was a big church. Massive with a very big compound.
Osi studied the building as he scrutimized the church. The service of songs was going on inside but he had went outside to receive the call from his Reverend Okonkwo.
"The deacon arrived here this morning, with a lot of negative comments. Osi what's going on?"
Osi tried to explain as clearly as he could.
"So what do you want to do..I think you should come home" the reverend concluded when he was through
"Sir..when you sent me on this assignment, you said God had a purpose for every thing..my being in this villagw was not by chance and I remain committed to your word sir"
There was a short silence then "alright...I understand and respect your choice..I would intercede for you with prayers you can be sure of that"
"Thank you Sir"
He ended the call and studied the building idly, noticing the structure of the building was like a group is shops that had been joined together.
"Pastor Osi...your sermon is coming up soon" pastor Bartholomew announced.
He noticed him staring at the church and sighed. "It wasn't easy...when I heard the divine call. I ditched my trading business and started with my small shop. But look at where we are today...the Lord is faithful"
"Yes indeed...he is..I'm really impressed"
"Now let's go in and break bread"
"And Jesus said, take eat, this is my body that is broken down for you, do this in remembrance of me...my brethren take the bread and eat" Osi preached from the alter and the whole congregation complied. Chewing the unleavened bread.
"Take this cup..this wine represents the blood of Jesus that signifies our redemption...take the cup and drink"
The communion was over.
After the service, some villagers stayed back to linger behind and ask questions. Most of them had never taken communion before so they had a lot of questions.
Osi was already sweating and had since removed his blazer. He heard a familiar voice and turned to see the white man coming his way.
"Hello...nice service sir..the communion was powerful"
"Thank you...we give God the praise"
"I guess you all had your own communion this morning before coming"
"We were supposed to..however the bottle got broken"
"Wow..sorry about that hope no one was hurt?"
"No...not at all...wait how did you know we planned to take communion this morning?"
"When you were out cold and the youths arrived. I happen to look around out of.curiosity ..pardon me but as a writer i jave insatiable curiosity snd when I saw the bread and the bottle I guessed as much."
"Oh...it was to bad it got broken that was why we did it generally..I feel it was even better this way"
Amara was with Oluchi they were both looking in the direction of Osi and Steve. Oluchi had love in her eyes as she stared at the European and Amara had stars in hers as she watched the pastor.
"Amara...I'm glad I found you...please forgive me..I beg of you, it would never happen again" paul said walking up to her. He sounded sad and she softened.
"Its alright Paul..but I would prefer you keep your distance at least for a while"
He nodded meekly. How could he have messed up?
As they spoke a young lady walked up to them. She tapped Paul on the shoulder.
"Emeka, I've been wondering were you were we never see you around again"
Paul turned to study the person and his face went pale.
Oluchi frowned "who's Emeka? His name is Paul...okay are you from Lagos too"
The girl seemed baffled "no..I've never been to Lagos..I come from gorabe the neighbouring g village"
Amara spoke up immediately she had a feeling something was about to be revealed.
"So how do you know him?"
"He arrived our communty about 2 montns ago..he was a good friend of Chinaza and everyone in the village liked him.
Paul looked like he had been slapped. "There's a misunderstanding..you mistake me for someone else" he said in a weak voice.
Oluchi looked at her brother in disbelief.
"Paul you mean you didn't come straight from Lagos..like you said? You've been in a village fifteen minutes away for the past 2 months?"
He scratched his head. " I can explain.."
The dibia was in his shrine enjoying the tobacco as he puffed on his pipe.
Jelemba his young protege had gone to the woods to get some local herbs he was making, a fertility concoction to give to a woman who had been childless for 10 years.
He puffed on his pipe as he relaxed in his shrine staring at the cowries. He suddenly heard footsteps and shouted "Jelemba is that you?"
He stood up, opened the tent and saw the crowbar descending on his skull.
He fell down immediately and died within seconds as his head split open.
To be continued...
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