The Church Revenge

CHAPTER ONE Leaving the Birds at Her Window The smell of frying buns filled the air, combined with the sishhhhhhhhh sound coming from the hot boiling oil Sofia's mother used to fry the buns. It woke Sofia up. She quickly jumped out of bed, sliding the curtains open to let the sunlight illuminate her room. She wanted to know if her bird friend had come. On looking out of the window, her face lit up with a smile as she saw the little brown bird dancing on the window ledge and chirping loudly. She tried mimicking the bird's chirps, but it only startled the bird. As she tried to unlock the window, the bird flew away. Each time she tried to unlock the window to get a closer look at the bird, it would fly away before she could finish unlocking it. She knew she would miss her bird friend. She immediately went downstairs, wearing the oversized blue gown her mother had gotten for her from the local marketplace she called "Lafia Market." On arriving downstairs, she realized her mother had finished frying the buns, and the dining table was adorned with a plate of golden-brown buns in different shapes and a bowl of yellow custard with steam rising from it. She was to leave that evening for the university. She had received an admission email the previous week from her dream university, the University of Abuja, and this made her very excited. Her father wasn't present in her life due to the nature of his job. He worked at a university in the United States as an art lecturer which Sofia liked. Sofia always used the many stuffed toys her dad brought for her whenever he returned to remember him. She was already used to his absence, so because of this Sofia and her mother were very close and shared everything with each other. She had finished packing her luggage and was waiting for the cab that would take her to school. Grace, the cat, came into the kitchen and licked the custard Sofia's mother had served in her plate. Sofia had picked the cat up when she was still a kitten from the gutter while returning home from school one late evening. The kitten was skinny and had bruises all over her body. She was also partially blind, but with treatment from the veterinarian down the street, the kitten survived. Sofia never thought the kitten would survive, and that was why she named her Grace. The Reverend Father in the church she and her mother attended always talked about the grace of God and how it saves people and helps them survive difficult times. That was why she named the cat Grace, because she believed God had given the kitten His grace to survive. Her mother called her to come to the dining table to eat with her. The custard had enough sugar, just the way Sofia liked it, and the buns were hot and soft. She ate like it was her last meal on earth. "You know I have not spoken to you about resuming school," her mother said as they both ate. "You know you are the only daughter I have. Your brother doesn't come home anymore ever since he left for the UK. So I just have God, you, and your father. Please take your studies seriously and keep God close to you. Attend church every Sunday, attend fellowships, and don't hang out with bad friends. Call me if you need anything or have any issues, and don't go where I wouldn't go." As her mother continued listing her university rules, Sofia used her spoon to play with the custard as it stared back at her. Her mother loved her, but at times it got out of hand for Sofia. She looked over at Grace's plate and saw that Grace had already gone, leaving the plate empty. She immediately looked up at her mother and said, "Okay, Mummy. I promise not to get into trouble. I have to go and prepare. I don't want to miss my bus to the transit station." She quickly pushed the dining chair backwards and zoomed upstairs to start preparing for her long journey to Abuja... The journey to Abuja was quiet and lonely although they were a lot of people in the bus, she wondered how her new university and faculty would be like and how many friends she would make. She arrived to the university by 5:25pm, and was picked up by a bus which drove into the school, the masquerade trees danced side by side welcoming her into the university. The school entrance had short green bushes and trees which divided the road for those driving in d driving out. She arrived at a big white building with flats that had a shiny sign board reading 'Elites lodge'. She quickly paid the taxi driver and dragged her huge luggage and other bags away into the the compound of the lodge. She called the woman which is the care taker, her mother had been speaking to and got the keys to her room. The Walls of the room was painted white and there was a patch of small mold on the ceiling, which made her wonder why it was called the elites lodge if it didn't give that impression. She managed to drag her things inside and headed over to the window to observe it, she wondered if her bird friends would notice her Absence. Oh! Shoot she forgot to tell them. To be continued...