~THE DEVIL ON THE ALTAR~ 👺
© Grace Olayemi
CHAPTER ONE
“Mummy! Mummy! Mummy!” Patricia kept on shouting as she ran towards the main entrance of her father’s compound.
Patricia was a lady of about twenty-four, she was the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Adams, the village headmaster. She had completed her secondary school education for about six years and all efforts to gain admission into the higher institution proved abortive. Being a headmaster, her father valued education but he didn’t have the means to provide it for his only daughter and that always made him sad.
Six years ago, when Patricia completed her secondary education and gained admission to the university, her father could not raise the money for the acceptance fee and she had to forfeit the admission.
Even though her father saved his meager salary since then, Patricia has been denied admission for various reasons. She had almost lost hope of ever going to school when she got the news that the institution she applied to had released the admission list and when she checked it, her name was shortlisted for the admission.
She could not contain her joy as she ran down from the cyber café to the house. Everybody was happy about the news and there was singing and dancing and rejoicing in Mr. Adams house after such a long time.
Patricia went down on her knees as she couldn’t contain her joy and gratitude to God. She worshipped God all through the night, singing songs of praises, dancing and even rolling on the floor.
Patricia couldn’t wait to share the news with her friends in their local church. Very early the next morning, she got dressed and hurried to the church since it was a Sunday. After the service, she informed her pastor and he was also very happy for her, everyone rejoiced with her and then she went home. Patricia’s parents were not born-again Christians even though they go to church occasionally. Patricia gave her life to Jesus while she was in the secondary school and she had been living for God since then. Even though her parents frowned at her religious beliefs and most of the time taunted her for taking it too far and becoming a fanatic, she never lost focus and she was resolute about her conviction.
When she got home from the church, her parents called her to advise, admonish and caution her about a lot of things. Her father who was privileged to study in a college of education told her that life in the higher institution was quite different from what she could imagine and that there would be a lot of things in the school that would catch her attention and might end up distracting her from her main purpose of going to the school in the first place. He told her to be focused on what she went to the school for and that it was only then she would be able to achieve success in the school.
“Thank you very much, daddy and mummy.” She knelt before them.
“I’ll be a good girl and make you proud.”
Her parents kept on giving her all the sermons African parents give to their children when they are set to go to school. She had a mixed feeling of both joy and anxiety that night as she packed the few things she had into a leather box. She committed her ways to the Lord that night before going to bed and she was rest assured of lifting the status of her family once she graduated with a very good result. Very early the following morning she took the first bus leaving their village to Ibadan and off she went.
To be continued…
