Chapter 66 TURMOIL
Osano was visiting his sister's family at Port Gareth for the long undergraduates vacation.
Pastor Davies texted Osano with the news of Sobrina's - supposedly - rekindled relationship, and convinced him to ask Sobrina to come clean his house.
Osano had traveled for over two months now, but he spoke with Sobrina from time to time. He knew she was back with Pastor Melvin, but never expected anything serious to happen between the two.
The news broke his heart. Sobrina had the keys to his room, even though she rarely used them.
Sobrina had never done any such work as cleaning of any kind, at Osano's. If anything, Osano was the one who served her, like a son. She was shocked when his text message entered her cell phone.
"Sobrina, go to my house and help me clean it before you go for midweek service tomorrow", it read. Sobrina felt insulted, and decided to ignored it.
Osano called the following morning demanding to know if she had seen his text message, she warned him never to repeat such nonsense. And complained to Donald and his brother about what Osano had done. She also kept the text message as evidence, so she could show it to Osano when he returned.
It was the very first text message he ever wrote her, since all the years they had known, apart from little recharge numbers he used to text her from time to time. But she went to church one morning, before he returned, and a sister borrowed her phone - with the excuse of wanting to transfer something - and deleted the text message.
When Osano returned to the University, he wouldn't speak to Sobrina.
Sobrina who used to always be the first to know about his return, didn't even know he'd returned to school. She went to visit Pastor Davies one morning, a week after he returned, and saw him in front of his house. She innocently ran to him and hugged him, but was called back to her senses by the way he reacted.
Osano confronted her later that evening at Donald's place, and she warned him off like she had planned to. He denied being disrespectful in the text message he had sent, and Sobrina searched for it, but discovered it was gone.
"Come to think of it, your room had been empty for over two months. It would have accumulated excessive dust. Imagine how long it would have taken me to finish the cleaning, and especially now that my relationship with Pastor Melvin has become more serious. Did you consider what anyone who had seen me cleaning your house would have thought?", she questioned in annoyance.
"Pastor Davies wanted to use my room, he was expecting to be visited by a pastor from afar. He didn't want him to stay in a hotel, and decided to use my room", Osano sadly explained.
"You didn't explain that in the text message, and Pastor Davies has a lot of young boys around him. One of them could have come collect your key and go clean the room", Sobrina rethought. Of course no one had visited Pastor Davies, Sobrina knew this, because no visiting pastor had been to any of their church meetings.
Osano had called a week before he returned to the University, to order Sobrina to hand over his keys to one of Pastor Davies' boys. They had mocked her disrespectfully while at it.
Osano refused to calm down, or accept her rejection as normal people did.
Sobrina actually knew about Osano's feelings towards her, but only by the instinct of women. Osano never opened up to her about it. She also didn't know that he had started considering himself long ago, as someone in a romantic relationship with her. She wasn't expecting any troubles with him, since he was well informed about her relationship with Pastor Melvin.
"Is it me that you're treating this way?", Osano lamented disrespectfully.
"I picked you up, cleaned you up, taught you all you know. I even helped you - with my had earned money - gain admission into this University. I remember how I leaped for joy when you finally got in", Sobrina barked.
"Imagine Sobrina whom I lo... lo... loved", Osano stammered, addressing Donald who had returned from work that evening.
"What do you expect from me? You've always known about my relationship with Pastor Melvin. Were you expecting me to break up with him and begin waiting for you? You're in your first academic year, for crying out loud. I'm almost done with MSc. I'm also very much older than you are. How long do you imagine I would wait? How old would I be? I have already waited for over 8years for Pastor Melvin. You mean that I should start afresh? I thought you would be happy for me, do you even wish me well at all?", Sobrina questioned.
"I'm a man o... Sobrina, I'm a man", Osano warned her before he left that day. He was observing himself in a small mirror, placed behind his smart phone cover as he said this. Sobrina in her naivety did not understand what he meant, she took the saying literally, "and so what?", she thought, without responding.
It became a cold war. Osano first continued to confront Sobrina at her 'favorite spot' close to Donald's, either alone or accompanied by his fellow circular cult members - with quarrels - on unexpected periods, when no one else was around. Sobrina knew his friends, they were also her friends. Young men who'd come to respect her at one point or the other. Therefore she wasn't alarmed. But she called Pastor Davies.
"Osano is chasing me around, saying he loved me and all", she complained, hoping Pastor Davies would speak to him and call him to order. Pastor Davies texted Osano instead, "Sobrina said you're chasing her around!".
It was fire in his bones as intended. Osano began to make threats - with bitter tears - behind Sobrina, in his complaints to Donald, who tried his best to dissuade him. But Osano would have none of it, he eventually stigmatized Sobrina among their friends by revealing that she was living with HIV.
Sobrina found out about this, and went that night to speak with Pastor Davies.
"Osano doesn't love you Sobrina", Pastor Davies said before she could speak, opening the conversation.
"Pastor, Osano has stigmatized me among our friends, young men I've positively influenced over the years", she responded, ignoring his statement.
"Are you sure?", Pastor Davies questioned, and Sobrina noticed before she could respond that he was darting his tongue at her. She thought he was trying to seduce her again.
"Yes", she responded pretending she hadn't noticed anything.
"Osano told me you said he's an enemy of progress",
"I don't remember all that's been said since all these began, but I've seen that there's no soft landing in this thing", Sobrina responded, thinking he was on her side.
"It's alright, go home, I'll take care of it", he promised.
Pastor Davies who was now sure Sobrina was not a member of his cult, and therefore he owed her no allegiance, hoped she would complain to Pastor Melvin with accusations about his darting tongue; who would have in turn reported to him as supposed to, so he could sow another seed of discord. But he was frustrated. It seemed as if all their attempts had failed. The text message he expected after she left that night didn't come, Pastor Melvin's 'accountability' had become weaponized information for him, as Pastor Melvin - who had set all these in motion - expected.
Pastor Davies couldn't sleep, he visited Osano next door, in the middle of the night and reported about what Sobrina had complained to him few hours ago, adding his own news.
"This Jew (title for nonmembers of the underside) girl is taking you for a fool Osano. Will you sit back and do nothing?",
"What do I do?", Osano tearfully questioned in hopelessness.
"You must kill her",
"What?",
"Yes, you must! And make it look like suicide. Everyone will agree she'd taken her own life after her boyfriend dumped her, because he'd discovered that she had AIDS", Pastor Davies concluded.
Osano received the new order, the spirit of the underside overshadowed his mind, and he accepted to murder his very own Sobrina.
