Written by Mofoluwake Omololu.
Kola went farther away this time, he couldn’t have her finding him easily, again, not after what had happened the night before. Knowing Lara, though, she wouldn’t go wandering in search of him, she didn’t even like to play puzzles on a good day. He sighed.
He’d ruined his wife. And for what? They’d both agreed to wait. After all, she’d agreed to not make a big deal out of their childlessness just for him, so he wouldn’t feel the pressure. But sometimes, despite her word, she just drove him up the wall. Or was he the who felt so?
They’d agreed to trust God together. God! What had he been thinking? Not once had he cast the devil’s idea out of his mind, he hadn’t asked for the Holy Spirit’s guide.
No. He’d simply become lord and master of all by himself and ruin everything good he had. He hadn’t thought ahead, not even to consider what would happen next, talk less of the consequences. Now though he was thinking, and he realized he had played himself and it would most definitely backfire on him.
He hadn’t even thought of the sin he was committing, a wife he had been given to cherish and watch over. He hadn’t only knowingly exposed her to alcohol, a vice she wouldn’t usually tolerate, but he’d also exposed her to rape, in a sense of it.
He’d also subjected Shola to same. They hadn’t given consent, they had been intoxicated, all pawns in his devious machinations.
Now he started to cry, what had he reduced himself to? At what cost? And what if it didn’t pay eventually? Too many losses… and now, if at all he had repented before and obtained mercy from God, now he was doomed to hell.
He rolled in the sand where he lay, close to the empty stables with no one in view and wept bitterly as he started to pray bitterly.
“Father forgive me! I haven’t just failed this time, I’ve failed woefully. The wife you placed under my care I have violated and made to stumble. I reduced an innocent man to sin for my own pleasure. I didn’t even look to you a bit because I was set in my ways and didn’t want a turn around. I knew what I was doing was wrong and still went ahead with it. Now I’m at my wits end and confusion has set in, that’s not why I’ve come back but it is definitely a push, Lord.
“I have come to ask you to have mercy on me and Lara and Shola, it was all my fault, please don’t take it out on them. Please. I don’t know what the end of this will be, what the consequence will be, it is my fault Lord. Have mercy on me Jesus.”
Kola prayed like this for a long while because when he stood up to go back to the suite the sun was blazing, it had to be way past noon. He sighed, he had prayed a while, maybe God would have mercy on him and hear him.
Lara was sleeping when he got back, she’d obviously woken up earlier because there was a tray with what looked like residues of a bounty meal. Lara never used to sleep in the day time but she’d slept a lot the first time she had the brew so sleeping could be its day-after effect. She looked beautiful and peaceful, so much so Kola was sure she definitely didn’t know what had happened the night before.
He began racking with sobs as he looked at her and rushed into the bathroom before he startled his lovely angel awake.
Now all he needed to do was make sure she never had any reason to remember -“Whatever happens in Rio, stays in Rio”.
And as he thought he held tightly on to the hope that he could leave his sin in Rio.
Just then, he heard a light knock on the door of the bathroom. “Kola, honey, what happens in Rio that stays in Rio?”
He froze. Was he speaking out that loud? He thought he was merely thinking. What else had he said, and how long had she been out there? Now he was shivering in fear as he flushed nothing. He turned on the hand-wash sink and resorted to washing his face.
He was cooked and done for this time. “Dear Father, why was your judgement so swift on me?” he muttered as he continued to shake uncontrollably.