THE STRANGE PROPOSAL
Part 12
©Franca Uwuigiaren
After praying, I woke my wife and told her what happened. I could see fear engraved on her face. She looked frighteningly at me.
“But I told you…I told you to marry her, but you said no. I said raise money so I could go home, and you couldn’t because the river goddess kept frustrating and jeopardizing your hustling. Then you changed your mind and said you’re not going to allow me to travel. Obiama, if anything happens to me…if I die, my spirit will fight you. My spirit will pursue you.” She warned.
I kept quiet.
“Obiama, please…we are suffering already. Won’t you at least listen to me? What kind of love do you have for me if you can’t listen to me? Please listen to the voice of reason. See…I understand your stand, but…if you look at it the other way, there are a lot to benefit…”
“Like what?”
“You will be rich. You will have the whole money you need to do whatever you want. I…I…don’t think the River goddess will stop you from attending church when you are already married to her. In fact, you will be a great asset in the church. When there’s any need or project in the church…you can single-handedly handle it. Then your family…will benefit, and I know that through me, my family will enjoy too. Why allow us to go through this stress?”
She sighed and looked at me softly. For a moment, she didn’t say anything, and I didn’t respond to what she had said so far.
“Did you hear everything I said? If you marry her, I know the sickness will disappear, and lost opportunities will begin to locate you.”
Again, I didn’t say anything.
“You’re not saying anything. Didn’t you hear me? Am I just talking to myself?”
“As far as I am concerned, you have not said anything. I will never accept such an evil proposal. I’m now a child of God, Oroma…I will not please you to displease God. I won’t!”
Oroma began to cry.
“Please, Obiama, pity me…pity your children. See the condition we are in. I’m just getting closer to my grave.”
I looked at her and told her my stand once again.
“I have told you that nobody is going to die. Your tongue is a weapon. It’s a weapon of destruction or elevation. Use it to confess positivity in your life. Declare life into you and not death. Oroma, the wife of my youth…my beautiful princess, you’re not dying, neither are you getting to your grave. If only you will choose life over death. If only you will choose Jesus.”
My wife began to lament how she’s too young to go through what she’s going through. She vowed to travel home without my permission.
“As long as I am concerned, you’re not making sense. I want to be whole again.”
“Jesus can make you whole again.”
“Then he should help you first. Let me see the changes in you…let his goodness manifest in your life. Why hasn’t he helped you deal with the River goddess? Why are you still jobless after the many CVs you submitted? Why are my kids suffering what they know nothing about? Why has Jesus not turned your situation for good? Obiama, let me see changes first then probably I could be convinced.”
“Henceforth, you will start seeing His manifestation in my life. The whole world will see it.”
Oroma looked incredibly at me and then burst into fresh tears.
“My parents will definitely send me money, and I will be out of your house. After all, you’re still a young man. You will mourn me only a few months if I die, and then marry another woman.”
I sighed deeply.
“Oroma, I can see that you have chosen the power of darkness or the kingdom of darkness over God’s kingdom. I and my children chose to follow Jesus, and He’s backing us.”
“Is that what you have to say?”
“I’m just sad that you chose death over life.”
I climbed the bed and stretched on it. I listened to Oroma as she insulted me. In fact, she started bringing up past issues that don’t relate to what’s going on. For many minutes, she kept digging out past issues we have settled just to get me to get angry. I told myself that no matter what she said, I will deliberately ensure that I will not get angry. In fact, it dawned on me that the devil is looking for an opening to get at me. Why she kept trying to open the door, I deliberately ensured the door was shut through my silence.
I tried to sleep, but it was in vain as she kept talking. I stood up, picked my Bible, and left her still talking. This really infuriated her, and she began to wake the neighbours with her raised voice.
“Stop this, Oroma, please. You’re waking up the whole neighbours.” I said, standing at the entrance of the bedroom.
“I don’t care. Let them hear me. Let them know that you’re a wicked man…that wants me to die.”
I left her again and went to the sitting room. I began to study my Bible. I did everything I could to shut her voice so I could concentrate, and it worked. For more than thirty minutes, I was studying, and I was glad that Oroma stopped talking.
Suddenly, I felt a chill. I was so uncomfortable. My thought kept going to my wife. As I tried to concentrate, her face flashed before me the third time. I stood up to go check on her when suddenly she screamed. I jumped out of the chair, but before I got to the bedroom, the door slammed shut. Oroma kept screaming, and my children became awake. I tried to open the door, but it wasn’t giving way. I knew that my wife was in trouble. I tried not to panic as I thought of what next to do.
“What’s going on, Oroma?” I asked. She kept screaming.
“Oroma, what’s going on?” I repeated.
“Goddess… River, she… here,” she said incoherently and screamed.
I tried to open the door again, but nothing was happening.
“Father, I need your help. Please come and show your power and might. Show your mightiness. Do the impossible.” I prayed.
“Don’t come near me,” my wife shouted. “I have nothing to do with you. I have begged him to marry you…I have told…” She cried so loudly. “Please… don’t kill me…take my husband…go and marry him and leave me alone.”
Then I heard a crash again and again, and my kids screamed. They were frightened. I wasn’t deterred by their screams or the crashes. I did everything to connect to God as I prayed fervently, asking for His help.
“Leave me alone,” she said again and breathed laboriously. I heard another crash and ran to the door, and as I touched the door knob, it gave way easily. I rushed in, and behold, my wife was on the floor, bleeding and gasping for air. There was a big bump on her forehead.
“She’s evil…wicked…oh,” she said, crying. My kids gathered round her as she cried. She was shocked and shaking like leaves. I carried her and placed her on the bed. I noticed she was bleeding on her leg.
“I told you. It’s because of your stubbornness….are you satisfied with what she did to me?” She began to cough. I rushed to the kitchen and got her water, but she refused to drink it. I tried to check her wounds, but she wouldn’t allow me. My kids sat on the chair, staring at her.
“Oh, my body hurts. She threw me with her power several times…ahhh! I’m going to call my parents. I will call your parents too.”
The bedroom was turned upside down. The wardrobe door almost falling off. The bed out of position. Shoes scattered everywhere.
“Oroma, all these you’re saying will not save you. We need to join forces as a family to pray and…”
“Mummy, Jesus can save you. Listen to what daddy is saying to you. I have been talking to Jesus,” Alabo said.
We listened to her lamentation till it was dawn. As soon as it was bright enough, I reached out to a nurse in the street. I wanted her to check my wife’s wounds. She came and checked my wife’s wound, and the cut was treated. When she looked at the bumps on Oroma’s face, she asked, “Did you fall or bump your head on something?”
It was the question she first asked me when I rushed to her that morning, and I told her my wife sustained some injury. When the nurse left, I told Oroma that I will never go back to my vomit, and that she should genuinely surrender to Jesus and see things changed for the better. I had not finished talking when my mother called. She began to talk about the dream she had about me.
“Obiama, you died in my dream. I saw you in a coffin. The river goddess is still angry with you. I’m sending money today for you and your whole family to come.”
“Mama, the person you saw in a coffin isn’t me, and I am not coming to the village. In fact, stop calling me because of all these fetish things. I’m a Christian now…a genuine child of God. I refused to compromise. I know that God will sort out my life.”
“Shut up, Obiama. How many of you did I give birth to that I will lose? I told you what that man told me. Today, he is enjoying the wealth of the goddess…he didn’t face any challenge. Accept the goddess’s proposal, and you refused, and a great calamity is about to befall you. Come home, Obiama. Come with your children.”
“My life is not in the hands of any river goddess, and she cannot take it. In life, we make our choice, and I have made mine. I have chosen the way of Calvary. I chose Jesus, and I chose life. I don’t need her wealth…that will trap me.”
“Obiama…”
“Mama, listen…I thought you said you were born into a Christian home. Don’t you think you should retrace your step? What do you think will happen to you if you die? Where do you think you will go? Heaven or hell? How could you choose darkness…you people are just romancing the devil. I, Obiama, will not bow to any idol. Whatever that will displease God, I will not do. I will not come home for rituals. Mama, you better repent for the sake of your soul.”
She began to cry, saying she has seen people the river goddess dealt with, and she is afraid I will go the same way. It was like all I said didn’t enter my mother’s ears. I cut the call.
When I got home from church yesterday, I was curious to know if the church was online, so I went on Facebook, and it was. I was fortunate to get Pastor Moses’ phone number from there. I dialed his line, and as soon as he came online, I explained everything to him. He laughed for a long time.
“Of course, I was on the altar all through the night praying for you. Got home a few minutes ago to prepare for service.”
“Thank you, pastor. Thank you for sacrificing your night to pray for me.”
“The prayers are hitting their target. No matter what, persist in prayer. The reactions are coming because your victory is near.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Intimidations will come, discouragement will come, but stand firm on God’s word. Forget the threat and be focused. Push distractions away. The River goddess and her agents are losers already. I saw them trying to enter the church, but there was no access. The army of the Lord was fully on ground.”
I listened to him for a long time, encouraging me before we bade each other goodbye. I stood up to leave the bedroom when my wife insisted that I carry her to the kitchen, where I was going to.
“Why?”
“I’m afraid. I don’t want to be alone. I don’t want to be locked again or see the goddess again,” she said, pleadingly. ”
“I am so scared. She stretched her hand towards the door, and it locked. She came as a snake and almost bit me, but when you opened the door, she vanished into thin air.”
I sighed deeply, then carried her to the sitting room instead, and told the kids to stay with her. I was in the kitchen cooking when she started talking on the phone, narrating her experience. I could hear her parents shouting.
“What kind of man is he? Your husband is indeed wicked. How can you be sick…he knows it’s spiritual, yet he does nothing. Give him the phone.” Her father barked.
My second son brought the phone to me, and I had the choice of cutting the line, but I didn’t.
“You’re a very wicked man, Obiama. I regretted the day I handed my daughter to you in marriage. If anything happens to my daughter, I will so deal with you. Anyway, I am sending money to her today, and I dare you to refuse to bring her home. I’m sending enough money to transport all of you…I dare you not to bring her home…and I dare you not to come with her. You need to explain what you actually did to her…her, are you sure you have not used her for money rituals…rituals gone wrong. You have to come with her to explain. We believe that what you explained to us before isn’t true…you need to tell us the truth.” He threatened.
“Papa, I am not a wicked son-in-law, and I didn’t use your daughter for rituals. I only told her to surrender her life to Christ, and that the deity you’re taking her to doesn’t have power…”
“May God punish you there.”
“I’m not saying you shouldn’t send money, but I won’t be foolish enough to come to the village and watch you perform certain rituals. Oroma won’t even come.”
“So you’re saying that even if I send money…”
“Yes, sir…Oroma won’t come.”
“Ooh! It’s alright. I won’t bother you…you’re indeed a wicked man. Hand over the phone to my daughter.”
I handed her the phone then returned to the kitchen. The way my wife stared at me, enh…I could tell she was very angry. From the kitchen i began to hear their discussion.
“Your husband is stubborn, and stubborn people like flies follow the corpse to the grave. Oroma, my daughter, don’t be afraid. We will call him in the traditional way.”
“How?”
“It’s a simple thing. Today, I am going to the shrine…and the priest will summon your husband…he will call him spiritually, and the gods of our fathers will force him home. As soon as that call is made, your husband’s spirit will be summoned, and instructed to start coming with you. He thinks he knows everything? Well, he doesn’t. I give him two days…two days to be here.”
I waited until the call ended before going to her.
“Oroma, I heard everything your father told you, but I am ashamed that you’re so comfortable with such an arrangement. Aren’t you afraid or bothered that something may happen, and your husband might be killed?”
She stared sheepishly at me.
“Let me tell you, no man or power can summon my spirit. I will not answer the call of your deity or priest. It won’t work. I serve a living God who is a consuming fire. Oroma, if God be for me, who can be against me?”
She stared at me without saying a word.
“Your father can go to the four corners of the world to summon my spirit, but it will not work. Greater is He that is in me?” I read today where the Bible says, henceforth, let no man trouble me, for I bear upon me the mark of Christ.”
Oroma folded her hands across her b*****s and stared at me. I returned to the kitchen and prepared a meal of beans.
To be continued…
