WAGES OF SIN 13

EPISODE THIRTEEN

 The secretary ran up the stairs, gasping as she entered the office without knocking. "Pastor, pastor" she shouted

Kenneth and Rachael quickly tried to wipe their faces, concealing their tears. "What is it?" Kenneth asked, anxiously.

Sarah wouldn't talk, but only would point to the window. Kenneth rose and walked slowly to the curtain to part it, only to see the chief usher and two hefty men, with one of them in black which looked to him to be a police officer.

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Hot sweats emanated from Kenneth's body and got him baptized, despite the fact that there was power and his air conditioner was on. Rachael also stood from her seat to see what got her husband in such a terrible mood. Kenneth left the window for Rachael to have a view while he took few steps to his desk and sank in his black office seat. He folded his hands over his head, with his eyes dilated, confused on what to do. The secretary made her way back to the ground floor to keep the visitors waiting.

"It's over" Kenneth said, banging his right fist on the desk. "This lack of self control has finally destroyed my ministry. I'm finally done for."

"But you tried your best." Rachael replied.

"And who will be ready to listen to that in court? Who?"

Silence roamed in the room for few seconds before Kenneth broke it, "The Nigerian Baptist Convention will not even be merciful at removing my lampstand."

"Don't talk that way, Sweetheart. We don't even know what they have come to do." Rachael wouldn't even look in his direction, knowing her prediction could never be true. Why would the chief usher be there with a force agent if not that he had discovered the nonsense and guilt of the young pastor?

Kenneth mustered some strength and courage, and rose to his feet to face whatever judgment awaited him. He wiped the film of tears that had formed on his face with the back of his left hand. He descended down the staircase to meet his visitors at the gate.

"Here comes the church pastor." Kenneth could hear Mr. Festus, the chief usher, said to the other men with him.

"Good afternoon, sir," One of the men greeted Kenneth, politely, while Kenneth and the chief usher shook hands. "Nice to meet you."

"What's happening here?" Kenneth asked, with a dry face and innocent look.

"I have tried your number severally already today but was not reachable," Festus said. "I received a strange message in a letter earlier today and it got me alerted, not knowing what to do than to try and reach you. But since I couldn't get across to you I had no choice than to involve the police to help us out."

"And what could the strange letter contain?"

"It's a visitation letter from..."

"From the convention?" Kenneth cut in, with his conscience troubling his mind.

"No sir," One of the police replied. "From the Boko Haram resurgent."

"Ugh?" Kenneth's eyes lit up. 

"I'm sure you know it's no more any news that these people have invaded this state and have started to kill people, destroy properties and invading churches to kill the followers of Christ. From reports, we got to know that the places visited by these people for destructions received this kind of letter of visitation."

"And we have received ours, right?"

"I'm afriad so, sir." Mr. Festus replied sharply.

Kenneth lost his inner strength to an external force and tried to lean on the bonnet of Festus's car. "What are we going to do now?"

"That's the problem, because they didn't specify the exact date they plan to come which would have helped us to prepre for their visitation." Festus said.

"They didn't?" Kenneth fumed. "Are they trying to ask us never to conduct services anylonger? That's not going to work. We don't even know if the letter is real or not."

"But I think it is better we believe it is real." Festus said.

"Okay, this is what we'll do." Kenneth said, wiping the sweat on his face again. "Since the police already know about it, why don't they use this as an opportunity to catch those bastards. We can have the police in every of our services, disguising to be ushers and members in the church and use that to arrest them."

"Yea, that sounds beautiful." Festus said, facing the two policemen. "We will buy that idea, or what do you think about it?" The policemen nodded their heads in agreement and shook hands with Kenneth and Festus.

Kenneth returned to his office to brood on everything. Their plan in catching the Boko Haram resurgents sounded and looked perfect, but would the enemies fall into the well laid plan against them? Would they have their way and destroy The Bethel Baptist Church? Was the letter even real or not? These were his thoughts until he fell asleep.

to be continued ...

Story by: ADENIJI MICHEAL (MICHEALHADEN)