Saiz walked in a hurry in the dark. He glanced over his shoulder for the umpteenth time, to check if there was any suspicious movement behind him. It wasn't out of fear but out of habit.
"I am a master of the night." He reminded himself.
"It should be about 2:30a.m now." He thought to himself.
He remembered checking the clock on his mobile phone when he was leaving the house. The time was 1:45 a m. Since then, he hadn't checked. On his way, he didn't dare or he would've revealed his position to the patroling local police.
"I shouldn't check now." He thought, "I've to approach the prayer mountain as discreetly as possible. Pastor Peterson wouldn't want his spiritual focus to be distracted." He reasoned.
He was happy for the opportunity. He had waited for five months to be invited by the pastor to the prayer mountain.
"Only five months..many ." He said under his breathe.
He had met many in the church who had waited fruitlessly for years to be invited for special prayers with the pastor on the prayer mountain.
"I am a lucky man." He whispered to himself and smiled in the dark.
He increased his pace along the foot path, he didn't want to be late for the appointment with Pastor Peterson. His mind went back to the discussion he had with the pastor two days earlier.
"My son, I've a rule not to see new converts, converts less than two years, on my prayer mountain but I'm going to break that rule for you."
"Thank you daddy." Saiz said.
"I hope you're ready to make the best of this opportunity because you young ones are never serious about the things of God." The Pastor expressed his concerns.
Saiz said, "Sir you've told me that my time has come, I will not allow anything to stop me." He meant what he just said from the bottom of his heart
The pastor gave him a serious look and said, "Okay then. The time is 2:45a.m. You wouldn't see me if you come a second after that. Is that understood?"
"Yes Daddy." Saiz answered.
"You can leave now my son." The pastor dismissed him.
The prayer mountain was a mud house on a cleared land at the center of a cluster of trees. The mud house was the prayer house The silhouette of the prayer house came into his view. His heart began to pound faster. He wanted to run the remainder of the distance but decided against it.
"No need for that." I'm not late." He assured himself and maintained his pace.
Then he stopped abruptly, he was few meters from the prayer house. He stood motionless for few seconds, he could swear he heard a conversation.
He heard it again,...he couldn't hear it clearly from where he stood. "Maybe the pastor is praying..." He thought. "But...there's someone else there with him..I can swear." He said under his breath.
He tiptoed towards the prayer house. "I'm not taking chances, I don't want all these busybodies in the church asking questions and gossiping later about my business." He told himself.
As he got closer, the sound from inside the prayer house became clearer. It was a conversation between the pastor and a woman.
He crawled on all fours to the window, then lifted himself up and placed his ear on a crack in the window.
"Daddy, I'm tired." A female voice said.. Saiz could recognize the voice instantly but he couldn't immediately attach it to the name of anyone he knew.
"Come on! I'm just getting started." Pastor Peterson said in a pleading tone.
""Daddy, we will continue tomorrow." The woman pleaded.
"Look woman, tomorrow is the last night for the special prayer session..."
"I know Daddy..."
"Thank God, you know. Don't you want a child any more?" The Pastor asked.
"Daddy, I'm desperate for a child. My marriage depends on my having a child quickly for my husband."
The pastor sighed and said, ""I know woman.This is the sixth night."
He paused for few seconds and continued, "You know I'm a very busy man." He reminded.
"I know Daddy." The woman confirmed.
"If I wouldn't have the chance to come out tomorrow night, I would send brother Radoe..."
"No Daddy..the woman interrupted quickly. I want you to finish the work. You're my spiritual father, no one else should know about this. Yoou're the only I trust to keep quiet about the whole of this "
The pastor sighed. The woman continued in a measured tone, "I don't want a man coming in the future to blackmail me. I don't anyone to come in future and do anything to destroy my marriage. I know you will never do that Pastor."
"God forbid! The Pastor exclaimed. That would destroy my reputation as a spiritual father and general overseer. I would lose the respect of my members and I would also lose my prestigious position in the body. "
"Thank you Daddy. " Said the woman.
There was silence for few seconds. Then the pastor asked "Shall we?"
The woman hesitated for a moment then said, "Okay."
Saiz could recognize the voice now. It was Madam Sarai Bambi, the wife of Mr. Bambi, one of the financial pillars of the church.
Saiz was disappointed. He lowered himself and crawled away from the pastor, Mrs. Bambi and her moaning sounds.
After crawling a good distance away from the prayer house, he got up and began to walk back towards the road. He was mad at the pastor and at the church.
"I now believe the story about the pastor and the two teenage girls, aged 12 and 14." Saiz told himself as he made his way towards the road.
Helena and Gloria were in the choir and in the prayer band. They were living with their single mother, a jobless poor woman who spent virtually everyday in the church
The two girls spent most of their days in the church too. They were not in school as other children their age. They had no one to pay the necessary fees for them. The pastor paid the rent and occasionally, gave their mother little money, barely enough for feeding. So, the two girls and their mother spent everyday in the church, cleaning it and praying endlessly for a miracle that never came. They were always in the church, it didn't matter whether there was an activity or not.
One day,, the church members woke to learn that the woman had left the church with her children. It was strange.
Saiz heard but didn't the rumour that flew around in the church after the woman and her children left.
He doubted that the Pastor Peterson he knew as the oracle of God, was making out with the woman as the rumour said. That wasn't all to the rumour, some people said that the woman left the church when she learnt that the pastor raped her little girls. Saiz didn't believe any of the stories.
He believed the version the pastor told the congregation on the Sunday after the woman's departure. He told the church that the woman with her children had a habit stealing from him and the church.
He said, "I did everything I could to get her to stop the bad habit. I placed her on weekly stipend, paid her house rent, and paid the children's school fees."
"What else should I've done?" He asked the attentive assembly.
He didn't get any answer, he wasn't expecting any, so he continued, "Last Friday, I caught her and her children in the church, stealing from the tithe box..." He voice rising an octate with every word. "Can you imagine, stealing from the Lord?"
When members heard this, they began to murmur and argue among themselves. The pastor raised his hand and the church was silent. "I had to tell her to go and never to return. And.." The pastor paused and stared down at the congregation from the elevated pulpit..."I'll lay a curse on any of you that talks to that woman and her children again."
Members were scared.. Saiz had believed the pastor then but not any more now.
He screamed out in anger in the dark, "He's nothing but a liar, a dirty womanizer, a pedophile and an unapologetic rapist "
He was almost at the road. "No more church for me. I'll see Macho this morning for the job. I've to take care of my poor mother and my pregnant wife. The brotherhood may turn out to be better than the church."
When Saiz got back to the little house he shared with his pregnant wife and his mother, he sat down outside on the veranda. He didn't want o disturb the two women.
His mind was made up. "The brotherhood is going to know my true worth.
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