A New Creation episode 20

A New Creation

Chapter 20A

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WINNIEL….
Slimmy followed Roy who led him into Gentle’s room, Roy knocked the door thrice but got no reply, he tried to turn the knob and found out that the door was locked just as he had envisaged. He then brought out a bunch of keys out of his pocket, he kept on trying them one after another until he successful opened the door. He proceeded into the room and saw Gentle laying on the bed while Slimmy just entered the room silently.

“Roy which one be your own now, is it because am putting up in your house? You met the door locked, why’d you have to use the spare key to open it” Gentle complained.
“No vex” Said Roy “I will be right back, I want to see someone down the road” Roy excused himself from the room and the wh0le house, he started walking down the road, down to nowhere exactly. For Roy it’s just like Gentle should have moved out of his apartment already, he needed his space and privacy again. He hadn’t gone far when he saw a pretty lady walking down the street, without thinking twice, he got on her chase.
“Hello” Roy p-nting heavily after chasing after her.
“Hii” the pretty girl replied nonchalantly.

“I thought they said that the beautiful ones are not yet born” Roy said and the pretty lady reduced her walking speed and gazed at Roy, He felt happy that he had gotten her attention.
“Really?” the pretty girl said with a straight face.
“Yeah, at least that was we were told” Roy replied.
“You mean out of a million pick up lines there is, you had to use the one from Ayi Kwei Armah’s novel”
“Wooow, would you have preferred if I had said No sooner met but they looked, no sooner looked but they loved, no sooner loved but they sighed, no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason” Roy said
“Shakespeare’s As you like it” the pretty girl now looking interested in the conversation as they kept on walking both slowly.

“You are very brilliant hey, are you a genius or what” Roy complimented
“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces”
“Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice yeah?”
“Ohh look at you, you ought to be sure” the pretty girl smiling sheepishly now.
“I guess am right then, anyways am glad I got you smiling” Roy.
“Yeah you are right” she replied still smiling.
“My name is Roy”
“And my name is not Roy” said the pretty lady.
“Does this pretty lady have a name then”
“Yeah she does”
“And her name is ?”
“Malia”
“You mean like Malia Obama” Roy teased.
“Not only Obama, it’s Clinton” She teased back.
“So will Malia be my friend?” Roy asked with a sober and appealing look.
“I will only accept to be your friend because of that look on your face” Malia replied.

“Yaaaay, thanks Malia” Roy realised he had walked far away from home. “I have to go back now”
“Okay Mister Roy, it was fun talking with you”
“You don’t want to leave without giving me your number, do you? ” Roy asked.
“Errrmmm, you have to earn that” Malia
“How”
“Recite Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, without making any mistake”
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee” Roy sighed when he finished.
“080********” Malia called out and Roy punched the numbers into his phone.

___________
Slimmy walked around the room admiring the beauty of the room
“When all these is over, I will contact who ever decorated this house to come and decorate the mansion” Slimmy said to Gentle who only cast a glance at him before looking away again “Gentle how e go be if we even ask them to paint Host’s picture on the wall you know, just to honour him”. Gentle still said nothing but now stared at Slimmy who was trying to strike a conversation with him.

“Okay let’s talk bro” Slimmy sat down on the bed close to his brother.
“There’s nothing to talk about” Gentle replied.
“Come on bro, just go ahead and ask me anything”
“Do you love her” Gentle asked.
“Errmm I know have never loved before but believe me bro, I love Hadijat” Slimmy replied. Gentle raised his eyebrows as he heard Slimmy say those words, never before has he heard something like that coming out of Slimmy’s mouth.
“But you knew I was having feelings for her and then you still went her ahead to have her” Gentle with a much calmer tone.

“How was I supposed to know that, I asked you couple of times but you never owned up to the fact that you love her or something”
“Have I ever accepted that am in love with any girl that I have had somehow with? come on bro you just decided to turn deaf ears and blind eyes just because you wanted her for yourself” Gentle raising his voice again.
“What do you want me to do now, she already chose me over you and am sure she will make the same decision a thousand more times if need be”
“Really? So you think you are better than me right? ” Gentle now shouting.
“I didn’t mean it that way bro”
“So how do you mean it then”
“Gentle calm down and let’s talk this through”

“You know what? Just leave right now”
“Gentle I…….”
“Slimmy leave, right now” Gentle roared. Slimmy didn’t want the tension to get higher than it is, he decided to leave. As soon as Gentle saw Slimmy drive off, he picked up his phone and dialled a number on it, waited some seconds before the call was connected.
“Hello Rough, he truly is in love with Hadijat” Said Gentle……

Chapter 20B

“Slim!” Roy waved down Slimmy’s car. Slimmy slowly pulled over to the side and Roy turned back to meet him.
“How did it go?” Roy questioned.

Slimmy sighed and bit his l-ips before answering, “not too well, Gentle was not ready to listen”
“Eeyah,” Roy heaved a sigh of frustration, partly for Slimmy’s troubles and more for himself who would still have to harbour Gentle in the house. “Well, maybe he needs some time.” Roy added with a shrug.
“I don’t even know what he needs, Gentle is gentle and not as hærd as this.” Slimmy said.

“Like I said time will solve it, you know matters of the heart may not be that easy sometimes” Roy said and gently patted Slimmy on the arm, the part of Slimmy’s cloth on his arm rolled up displaying a small Arch Angels tatoo drawn on it. That got Roy and he finally remembered that he was discussing with the leader of the Arch Angels, the fear and reverence returned into his heart. He made a space between himself and the car by taking two steps backward. Slimmy noticed his change in countenance.
“Hey Homey, what’s up?” Slimmy asked with a big smile forming on his face. “Is it this?” He asked, covering back the tatoo. “Fear fear boy.” He said and started the car engine. “Don’t worry, Slimmy is not a bad boy, he only becomes bad to the bad boys.” He shouted before driving off.

Roy stood motionless for a while as he watched Slimmy drive away until he heard a familiar voice calling his name.
“Bro Roy,” he turned towards the direction as he heard the voice call in a pleasant tone. It was Angela, the pretty chick who was always coming to invite him for church services.
“Sister Angela,” Bro Roy replied back pleasantly, trying his best to sound in an “holy brother manner”.
“Good evening sir,” Sister Angela greeted with a broad smile.
“Good evening sister,” Roy replied, feeding his eyes on her body from her head to toe. Although she wasn’t putting on a revealing outfit but the eyes of his mind could penetrate her clothes and see what was laying behind. He started comparing Angela’s beauty with Malia’s, the girl which he just met about an hour ago.

“There’s service this evening by 5pm.”
“Ehen,” Roy squeezed his face and scratched his head. “And what is my concern with the service now?” He wanted to ask but kept it to himself. “I thought it was a leaders meeting that you people have today na?” Roy questioned Angela.
“No, it’s Bible study and it’ll just lasts for an hour.”
“Ehen, but ermm… You said you were going to come follow up on me this week, what happened na?” Roy tried to shift the topic of discussion.
“I should have visited you on Monday but the brother who wanted to accompany me had an emergency to attend to.”
“You wanted to visit me with a brother?” Roy asked, the frown on his face showed his disappointment.
“Yes,” Angela replied, “he’s a very wonderful brother, you’ll like him when you meet him.”

“Oh no, Angela.” Roy objected, wiggling his head. “You know I don’t like all those mean looking usher guys, they never let me sleep off during services.”
“See you… Why should you sleep off during service too? Did you come to sleep in church?” She questioned, looking at him like a small boy who needs discipline. “The ushers are not mean people, they are only helping you to fulfill the purpose of your coming by making sure that you stay awake all through the service.”
“But why is it only the ushering guys that comes to me? Why don’t the ladies ever come?” Roy asked with a serious look on his face, forgetting that he was talking to his crush.

Angela stared at him without replying, she shook her head and sighed.
“No o, sister Angela, it’s not what you’re thinking oh! It’s just that I believe that their hands would be softer when they try to wake me up. My bones are aching from the pokes and jabs of those guys.”
“They are all trained ushers and none of them would wake you up with a poke or jab.” Angela argued.

Roy sighed, he knew he was never going win the argument. “I just don’t like those guys.”
“Well, the person I wanted to come with is not even an usher, he’s a chorister.”
“Ermm… Do you have to wait for him to be ready?”
“No, but if I must visit you. It must be on a day I’m sure you’re at home.”
“Come on, right now, I’m at home.” Roy eyeballs w¡dened as he tried to lure her. “My house is just a stone’s throw from this place. You can convert this coincidence into visitation.”

“No, we have to… Oh God!” She exclaimed after taking a glance at her wristwatch. “It’s six minutes to five already.”
“Okay,” Roy said and began to walk slowly away, trying to evade her request for him to come to church. A figure suddenly appeared at his front of nowhere, it was Malia, the girl he met earlier.
“Come on brother Roy, let’s go to church first.” Malia said with a wink.
Roy turned to look at Angela’s face, then Malia’s, giving them an accusing look as if they both planned to double cross him.

“Are you a member of the church too?” Angela asked Malia.
“Yes but I just joined, Malia replied with a smile. “I want to pick someone from that house.” Malia said pointing to a fenced compound a few metres away. “Make sure brother Roy goes with you.”
“Okay,” Angela said and waved Malia bye. She held Roy by the hand and drew him back. “Brother Roy, your dress is good enough, there’s no need to go home and change.”
“I’m going home to do something else not to change,” Roy stuttered.
“And does that mean you won’t be in church today?” Angela queried.
“I will come and join you later,” Roy said.

“No, you can’t come later. It’s a short meeting, let’s go now.” Angela insisted and began to pull him along with her, the fingers of her palm intertwined with his as they went.
He scratched his head and continued to follow in confusion. He was enjoying the fact that she was pulling him now and her body was very close to his, although he didn’t feel like going for the meeting. He took a glance at the direction which Malia took and let out a deep breath.

~~
After speaking with Rough, Gentle began to pace around the living room slowly, thinking of the next step to take. He was now sure that Slimmy was in love with Hadijat but he was still angry with Slimmy and unwilling to return to the Arch Angel’s mansion yet. For some reason, he began to reminisce about the past.

He recalled his younger days with Slimmy as primary school students. How simple life was and how close they were. He remembered how people used to shower then gifts when they found out that they were a twin. He recalled their secondary school days too, the years of their sports and entertainment victories, they achieved more in sports, girls and games more than they did in their academics. Then he recalled their early university days as normal guys with Fabio and Roy, life was less complicated until they joined the Angels.
He also remembered how he met with Hadijat, that slap she had dished out to him, how Slimmy was pained by his ordeal and wanted to take her life immediately if not for his pleas, now it was the same girl who had come in between them.

~~
Three men wearing an all black attire stepped into Fabio’s compound through the gate, they began to march forward towards Roy’s door. Tied around their elbows and foreheads were handkerchiefs which showed the white Tigers symbol.
“The dude is home alone, let’s drain out life from him like a dog.” The one who seemed to be the leader of the group whispered to the others as they got to the entrance. They hid their weapons in their back pockets and knocked on the door.

“Roy?” Gentle called from in,side the house. He proceeded to open the door immediately, wanting to quarrel with Roy for setting him up with Slimmy. “Guy you mess up today, big time!” He said as he got to the door and began to unlock it with the key.

…to be continued