~THE DEVIL ON THE ALTAR~ 👺
CHAPTER TWO
Patricia got to Ibadan tired and worn out due to the stress of the journey. It was not difficult for her to find her way around since she had been to the campus before. She entered her hostel and was greeted with a warm smile and a big hug.
“Hello I’m Celestina James, a part one student of the department of business administration, can I meet you?”
“I’m Patricia Adams also a part one student from the same department.”
Celestina could not contain her joy as she jumped up from the bed and gave Patricia a big hug.
“Wow! Wow! Wow! This is so awesome!” she shouted.
Celestina helped Patricia settle down and they became best of friends because they had a lot of things in common. They were both Christians from a humble background, from the same department and also roommates. They became inseparable and because they were both fair in complexion many people started calling them twins and at first they would protest and say they were not but as time went on they both accepted it and started calling one another twins. They went as far as dressing in matching outfits to almost everywhere they went.
Patricia and Celestina joined the campus fellowship in the school. They were very committed, zealous and passionate about the things of God. They would be the first to get to the fellowship on meeting days and the last to leave and since they have not been integrated into the working force of the fellowship, they would just help with the cleaning and arrangements of the chairs for the service. They were so committed to doing this and in no time they caught the attention of the executives of the fellowship. They were trained alongside other people and they became workers. Patricia had always been a chorister and she loved singing and registered her interest to join the choir of the fellowship but she was asked to join the prayer team and even though she was not happy with the arrangement she accepted it and was faithful to discharging her duties as a member of the prayer team. Celestina on the other hand wanted to join the ushering team and she was allowed to. She was very happy and started her function as an usher also.
Lectures, assignments, tutorials, seminars and other activities started fully in school and Patricia and Celestina were gradually getting used to the rigour of campus life. They would wake up as early as 4am and would be out of their hostel by 6am to meet up with their 7am lectures. Even though their hostel was inside the school, the distance between the hostel areas and the lecture halls was quite great and it was always very difficult to catch up with the bus so they mostly trekked to class.
Patricia had always been a very brilliant student so she had little issues with difficult courses and most of the time she would be the one to teach her roommate and others. She was also very pleasant and outspoken and she loved making friends. She talked to virtually everyone in her department and because of her many good qualities many people wanted to be her friend and she would always give her consent.
This attitude of hers was also transferred to the church. She was always making friends with everyone and because of her zeal and passion for the things of God, she became quite popular. Her beauty also made a way for her amidst all other things and everyone wanted her.
Even though she was aware of what was happening she didn’t allow anything to distract her from her studies and from her devotion to God. She would go to the library after lectures and on fellowship days she would go from the library to the church. She had no time for social engagements and even though she had a lot of friends, she knew how to handle them so they would not be a source of distraction for her. Everything was going on very fine and smoothly and the semester was gradually drawing to a close when the unexpected happened.
To be continued…
©Grace Olayemi
