CHAPTER FIVE “WHEN WRONG IS LOUD!”

© Opeyemi Akintunde
As Inspired by the Creative Word

We stepped out of the Alabi house, and the air I breathed in felt like gold.

The air in Sikemi’s room had felt like air trapped behind prison walls. Heavy. Dangerous. Suffocating.

But outside, I could breathe again.

I had not even taken up to ten steps before Mark started.

“Guy, what was that about?” he asked, staring at me like he had been holding the question since the moment he entered the room. “Why were you looking helpless in Sikemi’s room like you needed to be rescued? What was she telling you to do?”

“Calm down,” I said, trying to sound casual. “It’s not a big deal. She was just talking.”

“Talking?” Mark repeated. “Talking how?”

“I found what she was saying amusing,” I said. “And I was trying to explain why what she was saying was not right.”

Mark stopped walking for a second.

“What did she say?”

I paused.

If I told Mark everything, he would preach from the Alabi house to school and back home. Mark did not know how to hear things halfway. Once you gave him one sentence, he could build a whole Sunday message from it.

“It’s not serious,” I said. “Forget about it.”

Mark shook his head. “Matthew, be careful. Don’t play with fire.”

“Ah. Here we go again,” I muttered.

He ignored me.

“Can a young man put coals in his bosom and not be burned?” he asked.

I looked at him. “You now have Bible quotation ready?”

“I am serious,” he said. “You don’t want anything to do with the Alabis beyond cleaning. Don’t let them sell poison to you and call it perfume.”

I laughed, but Mark did not laugh with me.

That was when I knew he was truly serious.

He continued. “Do you know what I saw inside that house? Do you know what I had to clean? Martins’ room alone was a combination of a shrine and a drug baron’s factory. The smell there was not normal. There were strange substances everywhere. And some things looked like charms.”

I slowed down.

“Charms?”

“Yes, charms,” Mark said. “And Chief’s room was not better. In fact, Chief’s room was a shrine on its own. That house gives me chills.”

I swallowed.

I knew the Alabis were not ordinary people. Everybody in town knew that. Rich people had rumours around them the way perfume stayed around expensive clothes. But hearing Mark say it like that made something cold pass through my back.

“I think I will tell Mum I am not going back,” Mark said. “It is not good for my sanctification.”

“Oh my God,” I sighed. “You have gone full preacher again. What happened to light not being afraid of darkness? What happened to carrying fire everywhere?”

Mark looked at me and smiled without humour.

“Even Joseph fled when he saw temptation.”

That line did not just enter my ears.

It entered somewhere deeper.

Even Joseph fled when he saw temptation.

I knew the story. Everybody in church knew the story. Joseph did not stand there and say, “Let me prove that I am holy.” He ran. He left his garment and ran for his life.

But was I going to run?

Or was I going to stand there and pretend I was stronger than what was standing before me?

I pushed the thought aside quickly.

“That is what you Christians always say,” I said, trying to sound bold. “You don’t like to face temptation and overcome it. Even Jesus faced temptation, and He overcame.”

Mark gave me a look.

“Matthew, don’t use Jesus to support foolishness.”

“Foolishness?”

“Yes. Jesus faced temptation, but He did not go and book an appointment with the devil the next day.”

I opened my mouth, but no answer came out immediately.

Mark had a way of saying things that could annoy you and still make sense.

I finally said, “Nobody is booking any appointment with anybody.”

“Are you coming tomorrow like she said?”

That question cut through my defence like a knife.

I looked away.

“I don’t know,” I said. “If Mum needs us to come, I will come.”

But inside my mind, another question rose quietly.

Do I really need to come back here?

Mark’s voice softened. “Even if Mum says I should come, and I know it is not good for my soul, I will plead with her.”

I did not answer.

We kept walking.

Mark moved on to other things, talking about school, extra classes, and how he hoped the Mathematics teacher would not decide to punish the whole class again because of those who did not submit their homework.

He kept chatting about pure things.

Meanwhile, my mind was not pure at all.

My mind had travelled back to Sikemi’s room.

She liked me.

The thought came softly at first.

She liked me.

Then it grew louder.

Sikemi Alabi liked me.

The idea made me smile before I could stop myself.

Was I that fine?

I mean, I knew I was not ugly. God did not create rubbish. But I was not the type of boy rich girls looked at twice. At least, that was what I used to think.

What if I was wrong?

What if there was something about me that I had not noticed?

What would it even feel like to date Sikemi Alabi?

I imagined walking beside her in school. People turning. People whispering. Boys wondering how Matthew, the cleaner’s son, became the boyfriend of Sikemi Alabi.

I smiled again.

“Why are you smiling like that?” Mark asked.

I quickly adjusted my face. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” he asked.

“Yes, nothing.”

“Guy,” he said quietly, “that girl said something to you in that room.”

I rolled my eyes. “Mark, rest.”

“No, I will not rest. Cast it out.”

“Cast what out?”

“Whatever she said to you,” he replied. “Jesus did not swallow the devil’s words. The moment the devil spoke, Jesus answered and shut it down. He did not carry the words home to be thinking about them like love letter.”

I became quiet.

Mark continued, “Whatever she told you, be careful.”

We walked on in silence.

But the silence outside was nothing compared to the noise inside me.

Sikemi’s voice was still there.

Matthew, will you be my boyfriend?

Mark’s voice was also there.

Even Joseph fled when he saw temptation.

Then my own voice joined them.

Should I really be careful?

Or was Mark just being too spiritual again?

I kept walking beside my brother, but my mind had already gone back to the room I had just escaped from.

And that was the dangerous part.

My body had left Sikemi’s room.

But something in me was still standing there.

To be continued…

DEEP THOUGHTS NOVELS
Written by Opeyemi Akintunde
As Inspired by the Creative Word

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