Physical Gateway Tabernacle,
P.O Box 1133,
Ilorin- Kwara State,
15th August, 2001.
The Pastor,
Physical Gateway Tabernacle,
Lagos.
Dear Pastor,
It has become necessary to write this letter to you, for notification and prompt action, on behalf of the Asuquo family at home and abroad.
Few years ago, Bro. Joe-Sunday Emeka, a member of the Enugu Physical Gateway Chapter visited the father of Miss Edidiong Asuquo for a courtship with his daughter, Edidiong. Our response to Bro. Joe-Sunday was that he should go and pray and also allow us to go and wait on the lord for a clear decision about it.
It was not a very long time after this, that Bro. Joe-Sunday went to Kaduna for our daughter where she was schooling and maneuvered her to accompany him to Calabar for some days without any permission from her parents; this was a shocking development to us.
Also, these kinds of outings between Bro. Joe-Sunday together with our daughter, miss Edidiong since then has been repeated even the third time without our consent. Time and space would not permit us to state what our eyes have seen and ears heard.
We want the Pastor and the entire members of the church to know that Bro. Joe-Sunday, a member of our esteemed church, has no right to move with our daughter. A reliable source from your side told us that Bro. Joe-Sunday and Edidiong Asuquo are still moving together up till now, sinning away their lives.
Pastor, please use your God-given gifts to end this infidel relations between Bro. Joe-Sunday and our Miss. Edidiong Asuquo. Thank you.
Yours faithfully.
&*%^%$^
Pastor Michael David.
For the family.
***
Pastor crumpled the letter and threw it into the dustbin, welcoming it to the other letters that he had been sent from the Asuquo family, begging him to save their daughter from the demonic hands of Bro. Joe-Sunday. Pastor laughed and went back to his bed, eyeing the wayward Edidiong Asuquo lying on the bed, waiting for him. She smiled at him and a million unholy thoughts flew to his mind.
“I’m guessing that that letter was from my parents?” she asked. He nodded, hoisting himself unto the bed and her to his laps.
“Don’t worry; I’m taking care of it.” He whispered into her ear before taking it in his mouth, sucking it and making her laugh the way he liked.
Indeed he was taking care of it. Later, he would send a letter detailing how the brethren were still on the hunt for Joe-Sunday and Edidiong. He would tell them to keep pressing on and hoping for the return of their daughter. While they prayed, he would feast on the Edidiong Asuquo who was missing and marvel at how a girl like her, barely twenty years old and one of his houseboy’s could pull off such a devious prank. Anyways, he was not bothered by their means of deception, so far as it got him Edidiong.
He unhooked Edidiong’s bra and began to unbuckle his belt when a sharp knock on his door shook him and he rolled over to the side of the bed. As practiced, Edidiong fled the bed for his human-sized wardrobe. The knock came again, this time sharper. Pastor slipped on his singlet and buckled his belt before scanning the room for any trace of Edidiong and then opening the door.
It was Joe-Sunday. The boy who had apparently fled the face of the earth with Ediddiong Asuquo.
“Pastor, Mike tell me dat Edidiong’s parents’ dey outside gate. He wan ask if e fit open am. Make I tell ‘im no?”
Pastor swirled his tongue around his cheeks, thinking and trying to calm himself down. If he didn’t invite them in, it would raise suspicions.
“Tell him to let them in. After you’ll go and hide in the backyard. Make sure they don’t see you.” Joe-Sunday nodded and Pastor went back to his room to dress up. Edidiong stepped out of the wardrobe and raised an eyebrow at him, demanding an explanation.
“Didi, go to the bathroom. Your parents are here. Just stay there until I come upstairs. Don’t make any noise. Have you heard?” pastor kissed her cheek and led her to the bathroom door, slapping her behind. She giggled and he quickly quieted her with a kiss.
Pastor brushed his hair and sprayed his signature cologne. As he walked down the stairs he could hear the low hum of her parents talking, perhaps about the Joe-Sunday boy. He cleared his throat and stretched his face out for his warm and fatherly smile.
“Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Asuquo! You came all the way from Ilorin? I hope I have not kept you long. Come, let me entice you with some breakfast.”
He watched the polar opposites of the couple; dark tall wife, fair short husband stand up to greet him. They both bowed at his knees and he did what was customary – to bless them by touching their heads.
“Thank you, Pastor.” They said in unison. He ushered them back to their seats and sat down on the large chair opposite them.
The husband- he never remembered their first name, spoke first.
“God bless you, Pastor. I hope you got our letter from last week. We were around so we just decided to give you a visit and inquire on the process of finding Bro. Joe-Sunday and our daughter.”
Pastor called for Lillian, the house girl and asked for Lipton tea- honey, no sugar. The husband and wife took theirs with milk and sugar.
“I actually meant to send a letter. I hear that Bro. Joe-Sunday is in Port-Harcourt with your daughter. We are not exactly sure of the location, but just know that we have been searching for her.”
The wife spoke next. “Pastor, when the boy is found, what will the church do to him?”
Pastor sighed and sipped on his now tepid tea, briefly scanning the room for any sign of Joe-Sunday or worse, Edidiong. He found none.
He cleared his throat. “Leave it to me. I’ll call a meeting with the Board of Trustees and we would decide what will be done to the boy.” He took another sip and studied the couple, hoping he had calmed them with his fool-proof story. Surely, they would suspect nothing.
A long drawn out creek came from upstairs, making a chill run down Pastor’s spine. It was the sound of a door opening. Pastor gasped and bit his lip, hoping Edidiong was not daring to come downstairs.
“Excuse me please; it seems there is something wrong with my door. I need to go upstairs and check it.” He started for the handle of his chair to stand up, but the wife beat him to it.
“Ah ah na… Pastor, you should not be stressing yourself like this. Let me go and close it for you.” Before he could object, she was already climbing up the staircase, leading herself towards the direction of the creaking sound.
Pastor began to panic. He had not signed up for this. He did not even want to imagine the look that would be on the wife’s face when she saw her supposedly missing daughter in the Pastor’s room, wearing only underwear. It would be over for him.
With no excuse, he left the husband and rushed as far as his weight could take him up the stairs. Relief flooded him when he saw the wife trying to turn the door knob of the bathroom.
“Pastor, please excuse me. I want to ease myself.” He reached for the door knob and opened it slightly, scanning for any sign of Edidiong’s underwear. He fully opened the door when he found none. Smart girl, he thought to himself.
“Thank you, Pastor.” He waited for the door to click shut before he turned to his room door.
Inside, Edidiong was hurriedly stuffing things into the small bag she had come with. She looked up when he came inside.
“Didi, what are you doing?” he moved closer to hold her but she winced and pushed him away, like he was something unclean she refused to be associated with.
“Pastor, I’m going back to my parents’ house. I’m sorry but I cannot stay here anymore.”
Pastor stared at her as though she had just grown a third eye in the middle of her face.
“What do you mean by you’re going to your parents’ house? You are staying here until I say that you can go.” He snatched her bag from her and flung it on the bed, proceeding to unpack her things.
“Pastor, you are a man of God and what we have done is not right. My parents are worried about me and I don’t want to cause them even more stress. Please let me just go back to my parents. Abeg.”
She snatched the bag from him and began putting her clothes back. Every clothing item he removed from the bag, she took it and crumpled it back into its position.
“Pastor please leave me alone!” she screamed. His brain ran wild with curses from beneath the earth.
“SHUT UP! They will hear you! Your mother is just in the bathroom.”
“Pastor, let them hear me! Pastor leave me alone ooo! This is fornication! Pastor leave me alone!” she screamed.
To pacify her, he crumpled one of her dresses and pressed it against her mouth. “Shebi you did not know that it was a man of God you were tempting? Whore!”
He dragged her to the dead, each time pressing down on her pacifier to cover up her muffled screams. He began to unbuckle his belt. Her bra and underwear went next. She was stark naked and he was about entering her before the small voice of the wife stopped him.
“Pastor? Pastor what are you doing with my daughter?”
He jolted up and stared back at the wife as though he had seen a ghost, waiting and wanting to see what she would do next. She kept her eyes off him and climbed on the bed, occupying the space beside her naked daughter.
“Edidiong?” she did not answer. Her breath slowed down until it eventually seized.
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