[STORY] DIARY OF A PASTOR’S SON (Episode 15)

Episode 15.

“Good morning, sir,” Desiré turned to my father and greeted him in the best manner. He simply nodded his head without uttering a word. Agatha was looking unkempt and she had a long neck too. I wondered where she had been all this while.
“Femi, let me have your phone,” thundered my father. He got my heart beating faster than usual. “Be fast about it,” he added, still standing beside Agatha. My eyes moved in the direction of the center table where I had kept my phone. He followed my direction and sighted the phone on the table. It was much closer to him. He bent down and picked it. “Unlock it,” he said, stretching it in my direction.

Subconsciously, my hands were shaking as I placed my forefinger behind my phone, and it got unlocked as soon the tip of my forefinger felt the sensor. Desiré twisted her fingers, patiently waiting to see what was about to unfold. I wished she wasn’t in our apartment at that moment. I badly wished she could just get up and start going home. She wasn’t even making any move to stand up.

I watched my father as he scrolled my phone and I wondered what particular app he was going through. I suddenly felt a lump in my throat when he began to shake his head in what appeared to be a sign of disappointment. “Femi, take off.” This was exactly the thought that rushed through my head but my father was standing beside the door, so it would be hard to attempt to run away. He would surely get hold of me.

“Femi, so you have been messing around?” he queried. I tried to say something but nothing came through my mouth. I was dumbfounded and I couldn’t think of any lies to tell at that moment. What did he see? I had pondered.
“I thought you told us Bukola was your secondary schoolmate?” He let out a devil’s smile. “Isn’t that what he said that day?” He turned to Agatha. She just nodded her head like an Agama lizard. She seemed to be enveloped with fears that she couldn’t talk. I was already sweating under my feet.
Damn! He was going through my conversation with Bukola.

“Femi, your cup is filled up,” he said looking into my eyes. I quickly averted my eyes.
“This boy is not what you think he is,” he turned to Desiré but she didn’t say anything.
“By the time I’m done with you today, you’ll never forget it in a hurry,” he added.

Desiré finally stood to leave. “Femi, hope to see you in the program next tomorrow,” she said. I simply nodded my head. “Goodbye, sir,” he turned to my father who was still busy scrolling through my phone while he shook his head disappointed. “My regards to your father,” my father said to Desiré who was already at the door.
“Alright, sir,” she said and walked past the brown wooden door.
My father turned and bolted the door as soon she left. My heartbeat went faster. It’s been years since my father pounced on me. And it seemed he was going to do that. “After I told you to avoid going to those new occupants, yet you disobeyed me. The other day too, I caught you outside their door and you told me you went to repair their light. Ahhhh! Femi, o ti wa ni ijakule.” He meant I’m doomed.

“And you have been messing around with Agatha too because she told me everything,” he yelled, causing my heart to thud against my ribs. How could she possibly tell him that? How could she? Who asked her? Oh! God. Why did I even fall for her trap in the first place?
“Don’t worry, I’ll wait till when your mom comes back, you’ll tell us why you have chosen to be this disobedient and wayward.”
“Daddy, please, forgive me. It’s the devil’s handwork,” I stuttered. I haven’t finished speaking when he rushed me and whacked his right hand on my face. I heard the sound of something cracking on the tiled floor. My heart skipped a bit when I saw it was my phone. He quickly picked it up again. I felt the screen had broken with the way it landed on the floor but I wasn’t sure if it broke.

My father dragged me angrily inside his room. “You’ll stay there till whenever I come back,” he slammed the door and locked it up from outside. “And as for you Agatha, go inside his mother’s room,” he said. I overheard him locking it up too. Both rooms were directly opposite each other. So I was locked up in my father’s room while Agatha was in my mother’s room. “Get ready for me this night. I’ll be back!” He slammed the door. It was obvious he left the house thereafter.

Well, my father still hasn’t changed. He still hasn’t changed his ways of punishing us. Getting us locked up in a room wasn’t new to me, maybe new to Agatha who joined us a few years ago. Locking us up in a room had been part of him while we grew up as his children. Sometimes, he won’t tell you to fast but indirectly he would lock you up for hours, and in that way, you have stayed in the room without food or water for hours. But this time, I knew, he won’t just lock us up and let us go like that. I’m sure before he comes back, the Holy Spirit would have directed him on what to do as he had always believed.

I lay on my back on his bed while my head was bombarded with random thoughts; several of them. I had the thought of breaking the door or escaping through the ceiling but that would only worsen the issue.
“Why did you come back?” Agatha broke the long silence from my mother’s door.
“Where did you run to? And why did you even spill the beans.? Did he point a gun on your head or what?” I queried back.
“Femi, you won’t understand what I went through. You won’t!” She answered.
“What did you go through? Why run away in the first place?” I asked.

Silence.

“I bet you, this is not going to end well. Now, my phone is broken,” I sounded bitter.
“But you told us Bukola was your classmate and not the one in our compound. Ahhh! Femiiii,” she said, stressing the last syllable of my name.
“What? Were you not the one that initiated me into this act? I was on my own that day…”
“What did I do? Did I also push you to flirt with Bukola? Hope you haven’t slept with her?”
“No! I haven’t!” I lied.

It was crazy how we stood at the door of both rooms and discussed, despite the fact we were in for big trouble. My major concern was my phone. I was ready to face any punishment as long as I get my phone back.

“So where have you been all these days?” I broke the short silence.
“A friend’s place. I don’t know what your father would have done when he caught me in the bathroom that day, so I ran for my life.”
“A friend’s house? Now, you’re back again. You never thought of how my parents would feel when you disappeared,” I paused but she didn’t reply.

“I don’t even know who told him where I was,” said Agatha.
“You mean he came there to pick you up?”
“Yes. He even told me you have exposed all our doings in the secret. He made me confess everything we have been doing,” she said to my discomfort.
“Oh! My God. You did what? He played a mind game on you and you fall for it. I didn’t tell him anything and he didn’t ask too.”
“Do you mean he never asked anything and you didn’t tell him anything?”
“Of course, yes. I never told him anything. You should have known him before now. He only did that to find out everything he had suspected.

Silence.

“So you told him everything we have been doing?” My voice went low and I felt my legs go weak.
“No, I told him small.”
“Which one is small?”
“Yes, small. I didn’t tell him everything,” she said.
“Damn, you shouldn’t have told him anything.”
“Please, I’m very hungry. I haven’t eaten today. I don’t have the strength to talk,” she sighed slowly.

To be continued…

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