Blurb:

He went to her on soul winning but got his soul hooked to hers. Gbenga, a young pastor in the neighborhood kept going back to this seductress, he knew it was wrong but this wrong thing seems right as he found himself falling helplessly inlove with the craziest woman he has ever met.

She was everything bad, a soul that deserved to burn in hell, an abomination to the house of God. When one man sought for her soul and her love, would she damn the shame and mockery and give herself back to redemption, love and the desire that pulls her back to a friend who abandoned her many years ago?

This is a story of hurt, bitterness, forgiveness and love. As they embark on this journey, both Gbenga and Amaka would make one of the greatest sacrifice in other to win back each other's friendship while they discover the love that pulls them together irrespective of their differences.

Ride on Rosemary....I have really missed your work..... Good to have you back.

jenifer007:
Ride on Rosemary....I have really missed your work..... Good to have you back.

thank you Jenny. I was busy with getting two of my works edited and published. one will make it's debut October this year.

Glad to have you back Rosemary33. Carry on! Ann2012, YoungBruzzy, Emex01 come and have a seat o

And she is back
I full ground

PrudySara:
Glad to have you back Rosemary33. Carry on!
Ann2012, YoungBruzzy, Emex01 come and have a seat o

Thanks dearie
Pls pass me the popcorn

Ann2012:

Thanks dearie Pls pass me the popcorn

Ann!! I have missed you plenty

PrudySara:
Glad to have you back Rosemary33. Carry on!
Ann2012, YoungBruzzy, Emex01 come and have a seat o

Wow!! now my NL bae has start her own story oo..
ride on babe, I'm with you all the way.

Emex01 while coming, get enough popcorn biko

Ann2012:


Thanks dearie
Pls pass me the popcorn

Rosemary33:
Ann!! I have missed you plenty

My love, i miss you more
How you doing?

Wellicomuuuu ooooooo

Welcome bk Rosie longest tym

EPISODE 1

It was twelve years ago when he left Rivers State, he was about to turn twenty-two when the news about his departure came.

“I and your mother has decided to send you to Canada to further your education” his Father had said to him one morning after the family devotion. He had slept through the devotion, with his Auntie, sister Hannah, smacking the back of his head making him to jerk up from his slumber and saying ‘Amen’ when the rest were listening to his father’s powerful baritone voice as he gave his morning sermon.

“But…but why? How? I am in my second year already, why do you want me to abandon my studies here to go to Canada?” he had asked

He hardly questioned his father’s decision, the old reverend was always right, an epitome of righteousness and the god in his life. But that morning, he couldn’t help but wondered why his father, who had always spoken about how the devil has possessed the whites and how any parents who allowed their children to go to the white man’s country is as good as losing their children.

“You will go to Canada to stay with your Mother’s sister, you will start your University over again” his father had answered

“I don’t understand Pa”

“You don’t have to understand, it is for your own good, get ready, you are leaving first week in next month. Everything has been arranged” his father had said, as a matter of fact.

Twelve years was long enough to forget how it feels to breath in the dusty air of Nigeria in a dry Harmattan. As he stepped down from the plane the wheezing sound of the January dry wind hit him and he masked his face with the newspaper he was holding while walking towards the arrival hall for his luggage, he spat out dusts that flew into his mouth.

“Gbenga! Gbenda my son!” he didn’t see his mother racing towards him until she screamed his name and crushed herself on him

“Mother!”

“I have missed you my child…how are you? Hope the lord has been good to you?” Pastor Favor Oluwole turned her son from side to side and gave him a thorough scrutiny “Ah! You have slimmed down o, see your cheeks, what happened to my once chubby boy?”

“Dear” Bishop Mark admonished his wife, “leave the boy alone he is just coming in now…” he heard his father approaching, his father gave him a bear hug, took his hands and placed on his forehead “Bless you my son, I have waited for this day to come”

“you look good Pa” his father laughed

“Come” he said “Everyone is waiting for you at home”

*
“Pa”
“Hmm”

They were in his father’s study, friends and church members had all retired to their homes after the long prayers of thanksgiving and heavy feast. His could hear his mother’s voice singing loudly in her room.

“Why do you want me back?” Gbenga asked for the third time

“I am getting old my son, someone have to take over the ministry, take care of the Lord’s people” his father gave him a side glance and busied himself with his writing.

“Pa, I can’t”

“You have told me that earlier but I believe that you don’t know what you are saying…I wanted you to come back to see the hunger in the souls of men foe yourself…”

“Pa! I am a Lawyer now, I am doing well for myself, I have a life in Canada! I can’t take over from you…I am not going to be a pastor!”

His father was surprisingly calm “I am not asking you to, I am giving you the opportunity to do the work of the lord here in this vineyard…” he wanted to protest but his father cut him shot “No son…go to bed, think about it…by the time two months elapses, you must have been convinced by the lord”

Gbenga sat confused for a while, then he stood up and retire to his room

“May the lord speak to you tonight son”

“Hmm” he muttered

But the lord didn’t speak to him, what spoke to him was the guilt that followed him to Canada and had burdened him for the past twelve years. Amaka, the naive new girl that was in the choir whom he slept with twelve years ago, the betrayal and denial when she got pregnant and accused him of being responsible.

“It is best you say nothing concerning that pregnancy son, you cannot own responsibility to that girl’s pregnancy…it is not good for the ministry” his mother had told him

And when Amaka came with her mother, he had said nothing but his parents had sent them out of the compound calling them daughters of Jezebel who had come to pull the ministry down.

He wondered what has become of the lanky shy girl Amaka and what happened to the pregnancy.

*
The music was too loud even from the outside of the popular Casablanca night club, Amaka threw her cloak over her shoulder as the night cold hit her and made her shiver.

“See you tomorrow girlfriend!” her colleague shouted from the entrance

“I am not coming tomorrow! My son is coming back and I need to be home!” she shouted back, bent to zip her boot and walked rapidly to the side of the road to wait for a taxi.

“Hi lady…how much for the night?” A Mercedes formatic slowed in front of her and a man peered from the window

“I am not for sell mister” she called back and walked towards the other side.

The driver brought the car to a halt, stepped out and followed her “I know you; you are the girl that shakes her naked butt cheeks in that club over there”

Amaka picked her pace and kept walking, the driver held her by the shoulder and turned her roughly

“Leave me alone minster!” she said

“Shut your mouth young lady; I finished my money on you tonight while you shook that thing” he slapped her butt

“Leave me alone!”

“I deserve some of you don’t you think? At least a fu*k for the night” he tried pulling her towards his car

“Help! Someone please help me!” she screamed as loud as her lungs could allow her

The intruder got scared and left her, she took her cloak from the ground and ran as far away from him as she could.

That wasn’t the first time she was experiencing such molestation from men after her pole dance, it probably won’t be the last.

skubido:
Wellicomuuuu ooooooo

skubido o

Ok. It gonna be a good ride on this story.

Waw.. ride on OP I'm with you all the way

Yooooo...... Enjoying this
Thanks ma'am

Woah ride on

Episode 2.

He got to the church the next morning, the Wednesday miracle service has already gone half way, the church was filled to the brim. He quietly climbed on top of the gallery and took a seat near a woman who was trying to calm her baby with no success. The woman gave her an apologetic look and he nodded in acknowledgement.

“…twenty-four years we have labored in the lord’s vine yard, and the lord has seen this ministry through, we have achieved so much by the grace of God and we have taking over the city of port Harcourt…”

There were loud applauds as his father’s voice filled the auditorium and his old face beamed with smiles. For Gbenga, things have actually changed. The ministry has moved from the one room apartment where it was before he left for Canada, the auditorium was bigger, modern and filled with state of the act equipments.

“…two weeks from now we will be having our annual Anniversary, it would be a time for reflections on what the lord has done and what we have also done for the lord…we are going to give the lord quality thanks in this ministry…”

Gbenga suddenly became proud of his father, the Old man has really kept the faith and have worked tirelessly to build the ministry to what it was.

“Are you not Gbenga…Bishop’s son?” the woman beside him asked in hushed tone
He gave her a smile and nodded

“My God!” the woman looked him up and down with admiration “You have grown so much…I hardly recognized you…”

Gbenga was lost for words, he sucks when it comes to taking in complements, he was still smiling to the woman when he heard his name and he saw the congregation stood up, clapping and shouting out of excitement.

“My son…Pastor Gbenga has come to be with us for a while, he will contribute to the growth of this ministry where necessary as the spirit leads…”
‘More claps and cheers’

The service finally came to an end after three hours from the time he came in, it was tiring greeting both old and new faces, shaking hands and receiving invites.

“My house is not far o, you can always stop by before going back to your house” a man that appeared to be wealthy said to him before he entered his car with his two giggling daughters and drove off.

By the time he got to his father’s office, he was told by his secretary that he was in a meeting and his mother was with the women leaders of the ministry. He was getting bored so he decided to drive around the town.

*
“she held her skirt together and walked briskly. She would go and pick her son who was coming back from the boarding school that day, but first, she had to make sure there was food in the house. money was not forth coming the way it used to, life kept getting tougher as years rowed by and each year she told herself that she would make enough money to start another business and leave the neighborhood, each year her hope for better life thinned as she struggled to keep the one bedroom apartment which has been her home since her mother died and to pay her sons school fees.

“You can’t keep the boy with you Amaka”

Her employee has said to her one of the nights she came to work with Ekene her son,

“I have no other place to keep him ma’am please let him stay”

She had always taken the boy to the club and allowed him to sleep in the girl’s room while she did her job. As the boy got older, it became difficult to get him to sleep at all and to prevent him from seeing how dirty her job was.

The night she caught one of the girls handling her son’s penis in the toilet was the day she finally made the decision to let the boy go. The boy was already ten and was ready for secondary school.

“I can’t afford it Rose, I struggle to pay school fees alone, how can I pay for boarding school?”
She had lamented to a friend after she had fought with the lady that molested her son.

“Some of us will always help out Amaka, this boy needs a life outside this place”

“We only have each other, how will I survive without him?”

“It is for his own good, for both of you…don’t worry about how the money will come, things will turn up fine…you are already a sensation and most of these men return every night to watch you”

That was how she sent her son off to boarding school, hoping that one day she would be able to quite the club and take her son to a better neighborhood.

She unhooked the nail that served as the door lock, entered her house, threw her jacket on the bed and pulled the rusty kerosene stove from corner of the room.

*
“Mother, what happened to the girl…Amaka?”

The question was unexpected, his mother gave him a sudden surprise look. The night was cold and they were seated at the balcony of his father’s four-bedroom duplex.

“Who is Amaka?” his mother feigned ignorant

He could sense how uncomfortable his mother had become all of a sudden

“Amaka the girl that ehm…that got pregnant…that I got involved with years back”

His mother hesitated before responding “Why would you ask me of Amaka after more that twelve years? What business do you have with her?”

He didn’t answer but he couldn’t erase the image of the young woman he saw earlier that day. He was sure it her, but then she was looking taller, and curvier. He had stopped to get some oranges when the lady stopped few steps before him to buy carrots, she had her back on him. When she spoke, he couldn’t mistake that voice for another, the rich deep feminine voice, the voice that attracted him to her the first time she joined the church choir and had walked up to him after the rehearsals,

“I can play the guitar sir, I am not perfect though but I don’t mind learning more” she had said to him that evening, when he searched her face, she gave him a smile that melted his heart.

“I can give you few classes on Guiter if your mother allows you” he had replied

“My mother wont mind, as long as I come home on time to help her prepare for the next day sales”

He saw the pure joy in her and would have done anything to make her happy “You are new in this church? I don’t think I have seen you before”

“we moved to this area last month. Myself and my mom”

Those were the conversations that built the foundation to their secret affair, she was naive and scared, he was scared too, especially of his father. But he had a crush on her, she was the first girl he had ever dreamt of, he had lied to his parents severally to meet her by the barbing saloon at night, they had stolen glances at each other during church services and had writing secret letters to each other.

when he saw her that afternoon after twelve years, it was clear to him that he was looking at a full-grown woman and he didn’t know what to do with himself at that moment.

“I don’t know what happened to her” her mother finally answered “I heard she is now a prostitute who stands on the road side at night calling men…”

“Really” was all he could say

“Some even said she dances naked in club houses for money…praise God you didn’t entangle yourself with her any further”

He didn’t know what to make of the news he heard, when he walked back to his room and pick his bible, he couldn’t read nor pray for the second night since he came home. The guilt of what he did to her and the shame to face the truth tore him apart.

“Forgive me lord for I have sinned” he prayed

Following to the end

I smell reunion

*squeals loudly like a delighted little girl*

This is so my type of story and I am so totally following this *squeals again, this time ear shattering typa squeal*

welcome Rossie

Thanks for the update Ma

Waiting for the next update.

ok so ..you started such a beautiful story well...please i beg you COMPLETE IT O....

Thanks for the update. Please more.

EPISODE 3

Gbenga sat in the car, his fingers drummed on the steering wheel and his head rested on the seat rest. He glanced once in a while towards the club, it was a busy night he could see scanty dressed women, some had their faces depressed out of the heavy makeups that patched their faces like layers of cement.

“You shouldn’t go there!” Madu had said to him when he came up with the idea of going after Amaka.

It was during one of their ‘Souls winning’ walk that he had met Madu, his secondary school mate.

“Pastor Pikin!” Madu had shouted and jumped up from the bench where he was previously playing ‘Draft’ with his friends “I hear say you come back, I think say na lie”

They had preached to the men who paid then little interest and had invited them to the church. As they made to leave, Madu had followed him out, Chatting and laughing.

“Pastor Pikin watin you bring come for your brother na…see my life na…hunger wan finish me o” he said with his hands spread as if he was exhibiting his bony frame, one could count his ribs from his skin.

“Don’t worry Madu, come to church on Sunday, we will see and talk of Good old days”

And so did Madu accosted him and he was forced to invite Madu to their house.

“I been hear say she run commot for house…person no know where she run go” Madu had told him while gulping a bottle of drink as if his life depended on it “The time way her Mama die, she came back, people think say she no go come” he wiped his mouth with the back of his hands

Gbenga had asked how Madu knew about Amaka’s activities at the club houses

“Na small town be this na…story dey leak like water…people rumor say then they see her”

For three days Gbenga had secretly visited ‘Casablanca.’ he would park his car a little far from the club, where he could get a clear view of who went in and who came out. Three days his search was futile, he was scared of asking anyone around there of her way about for fear of recognition.

He was losing patience and excuses to give his parents about his late night keeping

“I have someone I am following up” he had told his father those three days, he wasn’t sure if the old man believed him, but his parents has said nothing about it.

He looked at his phone again and decided to drive off, as he turned his ignition on, he saw her, she was the same lady he saw on the street a week ago.

He had rehearsed what to say to her when he would finally come face to face with her, but at that moment, his tongue ran into his stomach and he felt his pulse increased. His heat beat so fast that he unconsciously held his chest to prevent his chest from bursting.

He wondered if it was right to meet her after all.

*

Amaka! Amaka wait!”

She was hurrying out of the club when Rose ran after her “How could you leave now…I thought you will stay for the night; the club is just starting and…customers are still coming in?” Rose said

“My son is alone in the house, I left him while he was sleeping”

“then why did you come since you know you will not stay for the main event of the night?” Amaka asked

“I need the money Amaka, no matter how little. At least what I got from the first appearance can take care of us for two days”

She was alarmed when the money she had dwindled and there was no hope of sustenance, she avoided going to the club few days after her son came back, but that nigh she knew they would starve if she didn’t go out to hustle. She had waited for Ekene to sleep before she took her cloths, and quietly left to make more money.

“Madam is not taking it lightly o, she said she will get another Dancer to replace you since you are no longer consistent” Amaka said nothing, “When are we seeing you again?” Rose asked

“I don’t know…my son must not know that I still do this…I am trying to hide this part of me from him”

“Its okay girlfriend, tell your big boy that I will come and see him on Sunday”

They bid farewell and she hurried down the road to wait for a taxi.

She waited by the road for a while and decided to keep walking, she heard the sound of a car approaching, she was disappointed when it wasn’t a taxi but a Black Mercedes Formatic so she continued walking.

The car stopped, she heard the door opened and footsteps approaching her rapidly, she was alarmed, sliding her hand inside her bag, she felt the spray and hoped she wouldn’t get to use it. Then she felt a soft palm on her bare shoulder and her name simultaneously.

At first she couldn’t recognize the tall calm young man that stood before her, she waited for introduction but none came from the man, she squinted her eyes, that was when recognition hit her, memories of the past rushed back like a harsh wind, the muscled of her face contrasted in anger.

“What are doing here? How did you find me? Why are you here…” she said coldly. Gbenga tried to hold her by the shoulder, she quickly beat his hand off as if he was leprous “Do not touch me!”

“I am so sorry Amaka…” was the only words that came out of his mouth

“I don’t want to hear it…I don’t want to hear how sorry you are Gbenga, and I don’t want you around me, ever!” she had her finger poking his hard chest

He caught her hand and cover it with his, Amaka withdrew her hands immediately “I don’t know what to say Amaka…I didn’t mean to…I am so sorry”

“Shut up! What was that your mother said to me? ‘My son has a bright future ahead of him…’” she mimicked “And I was sent to destroy you Gbenga…you and your family are evil”

He heard the bitterness in her, even in darkness, her anger shone through her eyes “Amaka…”

“Do not ever say my name…do not come close to me, I don’t want to have anything to do with you in my life…you are a mistake I regret every day of my life.

Passers-by looks at them and moved on,

“Is this young ma bordering you Lady?” a man asked behind her

“No, he is about leaving…never to show his face again” she left him standing and walked away with the unknown man.

Gbenga watched her till she disappeared in the dark. He didn’t know which hurt most, the words she said to him, or she walking away with another man.

As he drove back, he wondered; does she go home every night with men? How many would have her before the day breaks? Why would he even be thinking about this?

He was worried he was getting jealous of the men in her life while he should be lifting himself in the most holy place, in preparation of spiritual works ahead.

*

“Mum? Is that you?”

Ekene stretched and rubbed his eyes

“Yes baby, go back to sleep, its still early to wake up” Amaka kicked off her shoes and walked to the side of the bed.

“I woke up to pee and I didn’t see you?” the boy said lazily

“I ehm…I went outside…I heard a noise and I decided to check it out” she said

“Mum can I watch TV?”

“No baby, go to bed”

It was difficult for her to sleep, she tossed and turned until she gave up and left the bed to seat on the only chair in the room. she thought of Gbenga. The last time she asked of him, he was out of the country, neither him no his parents visited her nor attended her mother’s burial.

Why did he come back? Why would he want to see her and apologize after many years? Then it hit her; he may have heard of the boy and he would want to come for him. she suddenly became scared, she looked at the boy sleeping peacefully, her heart tightened.

“Gbenga, why are you back?” she muttered

Nice story. I hope updates will be timely?

Gbenga better correct his mistake because of Ekene, Amaka is still hurting

Thanks for the update ma'am

It's getting more interesting. Well done

Gbenga parents didn't handle the situation properly.