MURDER IN THE ORATORY

FOUR

MURDER IN THE ORATORY

Four

His hands tighten more around me, I smile knowing he is either waking up or protecting his wife to be. I roll my eyes, not with an ill-motive but jokingly. I am almost already his wife because I only have my own house for the show. We practically spend all the time together. The fear of me finding myself in the same situation as months ago while in the church at our wedding scares me to death, but I believe in trying until I get there. In the meantime, I will keep faking confidence until I make everyone believe that I am a very confident person. I think I am such an unlucky person.

I am born into a family of five, and I am the second born. In a way, I carry bad luck, and I don’t feel good at all. Imagine being dumped at the altar, doesn’t that feel crazy? I thought so. I remember mum asking me if I was normal, do you know the person who is supposed to be asked that? It’s her, mum should respond to that question. She sired me, it is her to know whether I am normal or not. I smile when I hear a sigh from his end. I feel sweet lying beside Jasper for some hours, no phone, no nothing, just us.

‘’Baby, you are so warm. I have been missing this all along, I mean when I have to go to work early, when I am called in for an emergency …’’

‘’I am fine, thank you. Good morning, my love? I smile turning to look at him. He cannot just wake up and start telling me all that.

‘’Baby,’’ he calls but I ignore him. ‘’Baby,’’ he calls again, but instead of responding to him, I lean in, and yeah, he tastes so sweet in the morning, he is calm and hot at the same time. He loves it, I know because he reacts to it, he takes over, and he is on me a few minutes later. He kisses me until I am almost running out of breath.

When he pulls out, we are gasping and wondering what I would have done if I never met this guy, Jasper in my life. He is a cool guy, he is great. He makes life easy for me, he kisses me all the time. In public, everywhere. He is a busy man, but he gives me all the attention that I need, he never lets me down. He never hides, he makes it up to me. I remember when I was dating Elias, he never touched me in public, he was the holier than thou type. I really wonder if he really was responsible for Emma’s pregnancy, or if it was a ruse.

I will never trust a friend like I trusted Emma. ‘once bitten, twice shy.’ I will never tell anyone what I am going through, I mean my relationship affairs should always be private and confidential. If I cannot tell Jasper anything, then I will keep it to myself. If I cannot, then I will find a lone moment, then pray about it, tell God that he is the redeemer, to let myself live a peaceful life. Do you understand what I mean? Life can be so stressful sometimes, and especially the moment when you make your bedroom affairs public.

You share with a friend who tells a friend who tells friends and yeah, the chain continues, and before you know it, you are the buffoon in school or wherever you are. I remember telling Emma about Elias saying that we should wait for the right time to do it, well, Emma laughed sarcastically, and she said, ‘’I will never let a man sleep around in the name of waiting for the right time.’’ That didn’t hit me then. 

If you ask me, I didn’t know that Elias could do that, he was just someone who you couldn’t believe had such a mind. I didn’t bother much, neither did I dwell on that, because I knew she was joking. I was so sure, and yeah, I had trusted both of them blindly. To date, I would like to know what mum saw in Elias, why she didn’t like him, and if she was aware of his pretense.

Mum and I, however, are not that close. She decided to frustrate me and make sure that I was the bad one before her and my siblings. She trashed me a lot of the time, and yeah, life is a real b***h. When you expect your mum to be there for you, then you look at her and she sneers, so discouraging, so I walked away.

I met Emma in school, high school to be precise. She never had a dad; she was raised by a single mum. To me, she deserved my help and after I saw her being sent away and her telling me how she went home and went hungry for days, came back without any money, explained her situation to the deputy principal who couldn’t understand her, hence sending her back home, I decided to help her. How?

I called my dad and asked him to come over. He showed up, then I requested him to help Emma. He agreed after he said he would do a background check, he found out that Emma really needed the help, and he decided to help her. Since then, we have been living with her as a sister, sharing everything, making sure that we visit her mum, and also being there for her whenever she is sick. Dad even took us to college together.

She was diagnosed with a chronic disease and dad has been the one taking care of her hospital bills. She is such a good woman, I mean she was such a good woman because, to be honest, I haven’t seen her since the time her daughter messed up my wedding.

I guess it was my fault that it happened, sometimes in life, the people you value, trust, and love most are the same people who will turn back and hit you from behind, without you knowing. Well, Emma was family, and we all kept her in our house most of the time. Her mum was our guest of honor and mum loved her so much. She made sure that she was treated well. Protected from anything that could trigger her disease, and yeah, it’s just funny that mum was never offended when Emma took Elias away from me.

‘’Hey, shower?’’ Jasper asks startling me, and I come back to normalcy. I am thinking too much. Am I missing him? I shake my head.

‘’No! I …’’ I say loudly but he cuts me off thinking that I am talking to him.

‘’No?’’ he asks urgently, and I sit up as he does the same. ‘’You are zoning out, love. Are you okay? You know what, I have been observing you since you woke up, are you overthinking again?’’

‘’I am okay,’’ I say coolly, I do not want to tell him anything. ‘’Let’s get to the shower.’’ I try standing up, but he stops me.

‘’Come here, I think a tight hug will do the trick. You are being so calm about it, but I think you need your man with you.’’ I get back to bed, and he hugs me.

‘’Baby, you know what I want for us?’’ I shake my head

‘’What is the plan?’’

‘’I want us to go hiking.’’ I shake my head.

‘’No way! I am not going to do that with you. Can we instead go for a road trip? It will help me push away the load from my head.’’

‘’You got to share.’’ He says calmly, with a serious face.

‘’I know, love. I cannot help but think about what our wedding day will be like. I would like to be assured that the day will be successful, that no one will mess this for us. Do you understand what I mean?’’ he nods when I lie without batting an eyelid.

‘’I do and trust me when I say that nothing will go wrong, we will have the best day ever, and I will make sure that nothing goes wrong.’’

‘’You know, after what happened …’’ he pulls me closer and rubs my back gently. Making sure that I am leaning comfortably on his warm, broad, and accommodative chest.

‘’I understand you. I will always do. Remember I was there, and you should never doubt it when I say I will keep you safe.’’

‘’Tell me something, what were you doing in the church that day?’’

‘’I was invited by a friend to Elias, who is also my friend. I witnessed everything. He is actually the one who told me about Elias wanting to be a priest before he met you.’’

‘’I want to meet your friend.’’

‘’Sure, he went abroad, but he will be back before our wedding day.’’

‘’Thanks,’’ I say holding his hand after pulling away from the hug and hauling him out of bed.

We head to the shower and we don’t take time in there. I take very few seconds to admire his muscles and I know for sure that we will get very beautiful kids.

‘’Baby, you are staring, I am blushing.’’ I laugh heartily.

‘’Good luck with your blushing spree!’’ We laugh at that as he conspicuously rolls his big sexy eyes.

**********

‘’Buckle up darling.’’ He commands gently like the gentleman that he is. I take up my seatbelt and clip up as told. ‘’We are going on a very long road trip, I hope by the time we come back here, we shall have explored the whole of this area.’’

‘’I love the idea.’’

‘’That makes us both. You know we rhyme a lot because you and I, apart from hiking, both like almost similar things. I love you.’’

I don’t respond. Not because I don’t trust that he does, but because I love him too, and I almost become emotional when I tell him that.

I kept telling Elias that, he kept telling me that, and guess what, he still left me. I mean he just didn’t leave me, he left me at the altar.

‘’Can I have your attention now?’’ I secretly roll my eyes as I turn to look at him. ‘’Are you here with me, Amara?’’

‘’Yeah, you got all my attention.’’ That name sounds unique coming from him. He normally calls me Amy or any other pet name. He is serious when he says Amara.

‘’I don’t trust that, but I will give you the benefits of the doubt. Now I wanted to tell you, that I will be taking you home to my parents. Are you ready to meet them now?’’ This is something I have been avoiding for so long, he has come up with it again.

‘’Love, you know I do fear rejection, I don’t know …’’

‘’No, baby! Don’t say that. You know even if they reject you, I will always be there for you. I will make sure that I am with you always. Remember, I love you enough for anyone who has a different opinion.’’ ‘’Hey, but …’’

‘’No buts here! I only want you to trust me. When I met you, I promised myself that if you ever woke up, then I would work hard for you to love me, and I would never let you go. I know what I want, the woman I want, and the plans I have for her remain regardless of who wants what.’’

‘’Well, if you say so, I will go home with you. I will go and see your parents. I hope you will be with me, and not leave me to get frustrated.’’

‘’No one and I mean absolutely no one has a right to come between you and me. I will always stay by your side, when we finally leave this place, I will stay by your side all the time.’’ Because I already had a very disturbing dream, I have no idea what to do should I be rejected. He’s driving at a very high speed. I am so used to him being a very rough driver. I normally tell him to take things slowly, but hey, this is Japer we are talking about.

We don’t have our phones, we only have some water, and some food packed from the hotel where we are residing. We will be going back to the city tomorrow. Jasper will be taking me somewhere. I have a fantasy that he promised to fulfill before we go back to the noisy city. I smile naughtily at the thought.

‘’You got to clutch your seatbelts! Put your head down because there is a car trailing us.’’ He says very calmly and yeah, that leaves my mouth agape. ‘’Stay very calm because I will make sure you stay safe.’’

I don’t like such things. I am a mess! I do as he tells me. I have to keep safe. For me, for him, for us. ‘’Baby, we are in danger, but stay strong, I will protect you.’’ Ever felt helpless, and you have no idea whether you should shout or just keep quiet? That’s me right now. This is my fault because the road trip was my idea.

I peer at the side mirror, and true to his word, a black car is speeding behind us. Jasper steps on the gas like never before. The car gets closer, and yes, there is traffic ahead of us, and a tractor is coming from the other end so, we are unable to overtake. Will life stop here? No idea.