Marriage Chronicles - Season 1 - Episode 24

4 years ago

Marriage Chronicles - Season 1 - Episode 24

☆☆☆☆☆
..COREEN..
I awoke with a pounding headache in Cephas’
house. How I got here or why I was here in the
first place, I didn’t know. I dragged myself from
the floor where I’d been sprawled and stood in
front of the mirror. I was wearing my clothes
quite alright but I couldn’t remember putting
them on in the first place. Oh God, this was
d--n confusing.

I racked my brains as I threw a couple of
painkillers into my mouth and swallowed. The
last thing I could remember was going to pay
Anna a visit and she rudely telling me to stay
away from her as she deemed me a
backstabbing friend. I was still wondering why I
couldn’t remember nothing more when my phone
which was on the carpet vibrated, a sign that I’d
received a text. I grabbed the phone to check
who had messaged me and clicked my tongue
when I realised the text was from MTN, some ad
about caller tunes to be accurate.

It was then that I saw what the date was. 12th
March, 2015. But wasn’t it on the 10th when I’d
paid Anna a visit?
All this obviously had only one rational
explanation, Lubuto Bwalya. As I wondered what
she had done to me, my thoughts were disrupted
by a knock at the door.
“Come in,” I called.

My maid Rosemary opened the door a fraction
and stepped into the room. “Good morning,
madam.” “Morning, Rosemary.”
“Did sir turn up yesterday?”
Wasn’t that a weird question to ask your boss?
“Um..I think he didn’t turn up. Honestly, I don’t
know. But Rosemary, how do you know he didn’t
turn up yesterday?”
She heavily sighed and looked at me pitifully.
“Can I take a seat?”
“Sure.”

She sat on the edge of my bed and I sat beside
her. Rosemary was slightly older than I was and
the look that she gave me right now was a look
Grandma used to give me when she was feeling
motherly.

“Madam, you were acting weird yesterday and
you are asking me right now how I know sir
didn’t turn up? You mean you don’t remember
how you made me stay here keeping you
company until 9 PM saying you were in no mood
to do anything so I had to prepare dinner and do
other chores? Or how you kept on cussing cause
sir was taking forever to arrive home? Now I
know it’s none of my business but with all the
ritual killings going on, am just concerned.”
“I understand, Rosemary. What I don’t
understand though is why I can’t remember
nothing about yesterday. Oh God,” I closed my
eyes and opened them. “In as much as what am
about to say may sound unbelievable and
farfetched, I don’t recall a thing about the last
two days, Rosemary. So many bizarre incidents
have been happening lately and to tell you the
truth, I think am now fade up!” I stood from the
bed and started packing the few clothes of mine
that were in the wardrobe. “I don’t know how I
got here nor what am doing here but all I know
is I can’t spend another minute in this wretched
house.”

“Why, because sir is a Satanist?” before I could
reply, she hurriedly said. “Am sorry, that came
out wrong. People do speculate though, no lie.”
I wasn’t upset, I felt nothing. “Let them talk
cause I honestly no longer care..Cephas and I
are through!”
“Don’t tell me you’re just going to take back the vows you took when getting married to sir,
madam.”

I zipped my small bag and turned to glance at
Rosemary. “You don’t know nothing about what am going through so you have no right to bring up my vows.”

“How would anyone know what you’re going
through when you don’t confide in no single soul?

All you do is carry the weight of the world on
your shoulders and pretend everything’s cool.
Don’t look at me like that, madam. For the few
months that I’ve worked here, I’ve studied you and sir and your marriage. Not that I am a spy but I think you two love each other and whatever your marital hiccups, divorce ain’t the solution.”

Her words were sinking in and even though she
and I hadn’t been the best of friends, I still felt
like I could talk and confide in her.

She was saying, “My husband and I had had
marital hiccups of our own and guess what, all
our problems vanished when I turned to makufi
(knees) ministries. I took all my problems to the
Lord with the aid of my powerful Bishop Mwape
and now my husband and I live happily with our
three kids. We do fight from time to time but it’s
nothing serious.”

“In short, you’re saying the solution to my
problems is prayer?”

“Exactly! Prayer is the key, mama.”
“Wow! The last time I tried that, things didn’t go too well.”

“What do you mean?”
I gestured we sit and once we were seated, I
narrated everything to her and when I was done,
her jaw was almost touching the floor. Rosemary
hugged me and wiped the tears that had stained
my face while I was telling my tale.

“You’re a very strong woman,” she took my
hands in hers. “I’ve always thought dealing with a juju kinda sidechick was handful but after
hearing your story, I now know people face
problems bigger than Zambia but I’ll assure you
one thing, trust in the Lord and leave your
problems to Him and believe me you’ll be rid of
all of them sooner than you think.” she excused
herself and brought back with her a Good News
Bible. Rosemary read some chapters to me and
shaded more light on their meaning. The last
verse she recited was from John 3:16, “For God
so loved the world that He gave his only
begotten son that whoever believes in him shall
not perish but have everlasting life… Madam
Coreen, believe in God and he’ll fight your battle
for you because he says in his Word the Bible
that no weapon formed against His children shall
prosper and no situation is permanent so it is up
to you to decide if you want to get rid of this
ghost that you’ve been seeing and if you want to save your marriage.”

Rosemary and I helped each other with house
chores as she told me about all the miracles
God was doing through her Bishop.

She was saying, “Bishop Mwape is a very simple
man by looking and one look at his simple house
and lifestyle, you’d doubt he’s even a man of God because these men of God of nowadays drive
Porsche cars and all. Anyway,” she was
scrubbing the tiles as she spoke. “my point is I
admire and respect the word in the Bishop. I
thank God for that man.” “After all that you’ve told me about him, am now anxious to meet him.

When can you take me to see him?”
“I won’t take you to see him,” she said with a
cheerful smile. “I’ll bring him here. This house
needs prayers, no offense.”
“None taken,” I laughed. “Thanks, Rosemary. I already feel delivered.”

“That’s the spirit! I’ll bring the Bishop tomorrow morning by the way.” “Thanks once again.”

I felt lighter the rest of that day as Rosemary
shared more and more of the wonders God was
performing through different men of God. She
also urged me to have Faith in Jesus Christ and
God the Father.

It was only after Rosemary left that I
remembered I had a husband by the name of
Cephas Mwaba whom I finally decided to call so
I could find out where in the name of God he
was.

His phone went unanswered all the five times I
called and even went off on the sixth.
Odd, I thought. Cephas never ignores my calls
and neither does he switch his phone off.
Something must be really wrong. But what could
it be?

I was listening to the main news in the evening
when I saw the headline.

“31-year-old Lusaka man confesses to have
murdered his girlfriend whom he’d been
cohabiting with, 11 years ago.”
And I knew this had to be Cephas even before I
heard the full report and saw Cephas on T.V. He
had confessed to killing Lubuto in cold blood and
was now apprehended in a police station in
Ndola. Awaiting trial.

The tears were inevitable. Lubuto Bwalya had
finally won.

Speaking of which, she appeared right beside me
such that I gasped and leaped out of the seat.
“Hi, honey,” she waved at me.
“You killed my unborn baby and now Cephas is in police custody so may I ask what you’re doing here? Isn’t your revenge complete?” “My revenge
will only be complete once I kill you, which I’ve
come to do.” She floated off her seat and came
to a pause in mid air where she pointed a shrewd
finger at me. “Any last words, sis?” I was sick
and tired of this ghost who had drastically ruined
my life since the first day I’d set eyes on her. I
recalled losing my baby and seeing Cephas
confess on T.V. and then came to a final
conclusion, I’d had it! So I took a deep breath
and inwardly asked for forgiveness from God for
all my sins and loudly, I said, “My only and not
last wish is this house be covered with the blood
of Jesus Christ and that you leave my presence
right this minute you agent of Satan!” I meant
every word I uttered thus Kimono me painfully
screamed before vanishing.

I breathed in and out and waved my arms in the
air. “Thank you, Jesus.” I didn’t sleep a wink that night as I kept on binding the evil spirits out of my house which was quite a refreshing and
fulfilling thing to do.

At 15 past 8 AM, Rosemary showed up with
Bishop Mwape who as she had described the
previous day was simple by looking. We
exchanged greetings and when I offered him
food, he politely declined saying God first and
then human needs last.

“Kindly take me through all that you have been
going through ever since the ghost of your
husband’s late girlfriend showed itself to you.”
I told him everything without leaving anything
out. Rosemary kept on nodding and smiling at
me, assuring me I was doing the right thing. “Do
you believe in God?” Bishop Mwape plainly asked me when I was done telling him my tale.
“Two days ago, I would have said no. But
Rosemary here, God bless her, made me believe
in God.” “That’s a wonderful job you did, sister Rosemary,” the Bishop quietly said before
standing and gesturing Rosemary and I do the
same. “Let’s pray.”

Him and Rosemary opened with a song of praise
before breaking into prayer. I joined too.
We prayed, covering the house with the blood of
Jesus and asking God to send his holy spirit
upon us so that we could do away with Lubuto’s
ghost and asked her soul rests in peace. The
Bishop was first to break into tongues followed
by Rosemary then me, much to my surprise. I
knew what I was saying even though I seemed to
be saying it in a foreign language.

We prayed harder and harder and only slowed
down when someone shouted, “Shut up, y’all!!!”

It was none other than Kimono me herself who
had decided to grace us with her unpleasant
presence. I didn’t stop praying though cause I
desperately wanted and needed my freedom
from her.

“What do you want?” asked the Bishop calmly as Rosemary cowered behind him while mumbling the Lord’s name.

“Revenge,” revenge…revenge…revenge..echoed
Kimono me’s voice.

“But vengeance is for God, don’t you know?”
“To hell with that! I’m halfway through my
revenge and none of you here can stop me,
neither can your God! Do you know how patient
I’ve been all these years?” she said in a dreamy tone as she floated in the air. “I had to wait for the perfect moment to strike. I had to wait for Coreen to fall pregnant so that I could snatch the joy of parenthood away from Cephas and her.” “But I believe she hasn’t wronged you in any way so why punish her?”
“Because I’ve always been second best because of her but not anymore and I won’t have a bunch of wanna be men of God ruin my plans. I went
through so much pain and now am back for
revenge. You said Coreen has never wronged
me? Ha,” she let out a brief laugh. “The b---h
became my nemesis the second she spread her
slutty legs for my Cephas! You know what, am
just wasting my time talking to you all. What I
should be doing is have fun killing the lot of you.
Whom should I kill first?”

“You aren’t God to decide who gets to live,” I
managed to bravely say. “Look who just found
her voice,” she mocked. “You’re wrong once
again because I am a god. I became a god the
night I was murdered cause it was while my
heart was being taken out of my body that I
vowed to all the evil spirits that I’d be back for
vengeance so here I am.” Lubuto spread her
arms in triumph and added. “I’ve talked too
much..it’s Showtime!”

She twirled her forefinger and the chandelier
unscrewed itself from the ceiling and began
descending onto the Bishop who was standing
right under it.

He put his Bible over his head and chanted the
Lord’s name several times such that the
chandelier came to a stop right atop his head.
Bishop Mwape moved and the chandelier fell,
shattering to pieces.

Rosemary and I hugged each other and clinged
to one another for dear life, awestruck.
“Not bad,” mumbled Lubuto Bwalya who raised her hands and with them rose all knives from the kitchen, pots, pans, spoons and other cutlery and she aimed them straight at the Bishop, Rosemary and I.

“Goodbye!” she erratically screamed before
launching the cutlery at us.

We as a trio broke into prayer, binding them
cutlery back to the sender.

The whole lot of steel came to a stop in front of
us as if they’d come into contact with a fortress.
Bishop Mwape smiled, “The Lord I serve will
never fail me. Now in the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord who had sacrificed so much on the
cross of Calvary, I send all this back to its
sender, tenforth!” At jet speed, everything shot
back at her so fast that she had no time to pull
any vanishing stunt. Everything happened so fast
such that before I knew it, Lubuto was lying on
the floor with knives and forks dug in her flesh
but there was no blood.

Bishop Mwape took a few strides towards her
and peered down at her. “It’s over, Lubuto
Bwalya.” he took a bottle of holy water from his
pocket and sprinkled the water on her. “I hereby
banish you from this earth..In the name of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

“Amen,” Rosemary and I shakily repeated.
Lubuto craned her neck so that she was looking
at me. All she weakly said was, “You and Cephas
love each other so much..never let your love
die.” She screamed and wriggled on the floor as
she literally melted, like when ice cream comes
into contact with heat.

She melted, burst into flames and vanished with
a pop sound.