BY: ORIMOLOYE, Ifeoluwa

The major source of confusion set in shortly after Gbemisola’s burial. Many of those with whom she shared intimacy on her social media platform started complaining about strange updates, which might have suggested that she posted those things by herself.
Some of those things, I heard while in detention and some were confirmed even after I left detention. Her parents complained about the fact that they received strange text messages from the number she utilized before her death and it was one of those things she said in one of those texts that prompted their withdrawal of that case at all cost. Then came Kate’s assertion, although we have decided not to inform Kate about her mum’s death but occasionally whenever she asked after her mum, I would have no other option than to answer her the way my parents had done in the past, “Kate, don’t disturb me, your mum had travelled to London, she had been sent to go for a course over there”, then she will cease to disturb albeit, momentarily. She had continued to believe those statements as factual, until recently, when she came back home from school only to report her school mates. She said they ‘they’ had told her that “their parents said mummy is dead”. I rebuked her on such occasions telling her not to believe them, I would retract secretly, during those periods to go and cry in my bedroom , until my parents came consoling. Her confidence in me started becoming shaky when ‘she started experiencing one of those things’, I later discovered that she had refused to discuss those mysterious experiences with me because the ‘assailant’ had warned her not to do so.
Well, I treated all of those things with a wave of hand, because worse was experienced the day we buried her. She had made calls to her siblings hours after her death, those ones received those calls ignorantly because they have not been informed of her demise. The wind that struck that day should definitely had been an evidence to hold on to.
Well, my consolation had been in the injucture; it has been said that “it has been stated for one to die once, after which judgement comes” virtually everyone knows this. Her phone, which I collected after my release from detention had been with her parents since all these while, So whoever had made those mysterious sort of observation or the enigmatic form of experience might be going through some form of psychiatric disorder or might need spiritual cleansing in whatever form. As far as I am concerned, Gbemisola is dead, and I saw her being buried.

I took time to occasionally visit my pastor, Rev. Ayorinde who had been of immense help during the time I was incarcerated. I shared those rumoured-experiences with him and he counseled me, “Mr Gboyega, they are ploys being anchored by the devil to threaten the children of God, it is not possible” he paused sipping the water from the glass cup, he continued, “Let us be assured that sister Gbemi is resting in the bossom of her savior, please read psalms 23 and 91 every night” , he emphasized, then searching his sitting room, perhaps for the holy oil he promised me, I heard him talk about the fact that our people especially the averagely surface-minded believers needs to be enlightened about the existence of heaven, as the eternal abode of believers or maybe writing a book encompassing those facts.
Back home, I couldn’t just stop crying, not only because of the fact that I lost someone who can be boldly said to be my better half, but because of the circumstances that led to her death. I occasionally take one of her pictures, mostly the one we took on our wedding day, and I would ask how she wanted me to begin my life all over again as if the picture would provide some answers.
It was one of those times I was tasking myself, asking one of those involuntary, yet-to-be answered questions that I received a text message on my phone, “I will be there for you till eternity, but please take good care of my children”, It was then I realized that I am not battling only mere mortals, but…It was sent from her phone number, I didn’t wait to check the phone number again-to confirm-I threw my phone away and dashed out of the building…
I then found myself on the sofa at the seating room, beads of sweat dotted my face, my breathing had suddenly became outrageous. Nobody was at home, I knew that it was just a dream that came perhaps as a result of my deep thought, I took the wall-frame picture away from my chest and replaced it. It was then I discovered that I had slept off, I checked my phone, in order to further confirm that it was all a dream. Until then came the intrinsic relieve, which was just momentary, because as soon as I was relieved of the scare, came first a soft and then a heavy bang on the door...

-ORIMOLOYE, Ifeoluwa is the national general secretary of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AKURE STUDENTS

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