“Really? You’ve gotten a job? Oh, praise the Lord… wowww, right there and then… oh, glory be to God… oh, Clarence, me, I’m just a vessel ooo. All the thanks and praise goes to God and God alone. Oh, I’m so happy for you. This is great!”

With Akpene’s mother at home with the kids, Bishop Gordon and Akpene were currently at Cues Corner to get some burgers and chips for the evening. As they patiently waited, a happy-sounding Clarence called, informing him of the new and essential development in his life. And of course, Bishop Gordon was overjoyed to hear of this.

“Sure, sure, I’m just glad it’s finally over. We bless the Lord for His goodness. Chale, may the Lord grant you grace as you start this new job, and as you diligently do your work, may you find favour before your boss, in Jesus name… alright, alright. Talk to you later.”

Hanging up, he turned to his wife. “So Clarence has finally gotten a job ooo. Apparently, he and the guys went to some outing bi. He met some gentleman there who’s an old student of Augusco, and once they talked, he found out Clarence doesn’t have a job, invited him to his office – which is some microfinance company. He went there, small interview, bam. New job. Just like that.”

Akpene looked delighted. “Wowww! Oh, wow, that’s wonderful! Oh, thank God! Herh, God is good, isn’t He?”

“I tell you. See how He changed the guy’s predicament just like that. From one whole year of struggling to get a job, to getting a good one in days. The God of ‘suddenly’ ampa!”

“Yes ooo! The God of ‘suddenly’!”

As the couple talked about the goodness of God, the television screen near to them switched to SuperSport, where an interview of the Liverpool manager was on display. Their attention instantly switched from their talk to the man on the screen.

Bishop Gordon smirked. “Ei, so finally, Jurgen Klopp is leaving. Now di33, the team spoil finish! Back to the good old days of Liverpool being an azaa midtable team.”

Two young gentlemen at a table nearby guffawed at the bishop’s indirect jab. As regular customers, they knew Akpene was a Liverpool fan, and that statement was certainly meant to get under her skin.

“Oh, Bishop, you don’t like peace?” one of them asked while laughing.

Bishop Gordon gazed at him, the sly grin still on his face while he rubbed Akpene’s knee teasingly. “Oh, of course I like peace. I married her, in fact. Why won’t I like her?”

The two continued to laugh at the clever response to the question.

Akpene gave him that up-and-down look before shaking her head. “You are still talking about my team? You are still talking about us? You, you won’t think about your team and that Abossey Okai Pep you have as a coach, eh?”

“Ohhhhhhhhh!”

If they found Bishop Gordon’s jab funny, they found this response even funnier. The fact that they weren’t Manchester United fans made it even sweeter for them.

“Oh, oh, Bishop, this one di33, wicked counter-attack ooo!”

“I swear down, chale! Belgium versus Japan vibes paaa!”

“Chai, dramatic comeback paa nie!”

Bishop Gordon’s expression had switched from one of smugness to one of defeat. Akpene was now the one with the cocky look.

He then shook his head. “You… issokay. I have a powerful word to preach tomorrow, so I’ll let you win this one for now.”

Now Akpene was laughing with the guys. Nothing she loved more than shooting him down when it came to football matters, and everyone familiar with Cues Corner knew this.

“But Bishop,” one of the guys started, his voice taking on a more somber tone, “on a more serious note, if nobody ever tell you before, me, I go tell you: the way you then your madam dey, eh, e dey inspire me pass. Like, from the few times you dey talk about am when she’s not here, the way you then am dey vibe… it really inspires me. I no dey see many men like you wey them dey love dema wives the way you do. Like, ibi nice waaa.”

His partner nodded in agreement. “True, true. For some of us, the examples we see di33, no be inspiring kraaa. But you, you be different.”

Bishop Gordon’s face had also taken on a somber tint as he heard all they had said. It was safe to say he had not anticipated getting such high praise like that from them. He nodded soberly. “Wow. That… that really means a lot to me.”

Nodding and rubbing her husband’s shoulders, Akpene smiled at them. “You’ve said it all, guys. Bishop is an amazing husband, and I couldn’t be more blessed to be his wife. It’ll be eight years in… two months, and those have been eight beautiful years. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

The two guys nodded, pleased to hear Akpene’s words of praise for their inspiration, who remained sober in his expression.

“So, please, when you guys are ready for marriage, you know who to come to for advice, right?”

“Oh, sharp kraaa! He’s even gonna be talking to us about something like that at the next MensTalk, right?”

Bishop Gordon looked up upon realizing the guy was asking him about the next talk. “Yeah, yeah, it is. Sort of, but yeah, it’s in that vein…”

“Ourrrrrrr bishop!”

The voice of the waiter broke through his response as he approached their table, carrying the bags full of food they had ordered. He nodded at Akpene and added, “Osofo Maame, please, your burger is in the small pack. No onions. And your coleslaw too is in.”

Checking the bag to see the pack, Akpene nodded and smiled at him. “I can see Bishop had given you my requirements. I like that.”

“Na why wouldn’t I?” Bishop Gordon retorted playfully. “After the way you were ready to hold my neck that one time I forgot? Guys, this woman, eh, her name may be Peace, but she doesn’t always like peace.”

Those around them laughed.

***

A few minutes later, and the Tamakloe couple were in their car, ready to head home and give the kids and Akpene’s mother the surprise for the evening.

As Bishop Gordon buckled his seat belt, Akpene rubbed him gently on the shoulder. “Ese.”

Bishop Gordon looked at her. “Yeah?”

“Ese, you see? I’ve told you not to let the past bog you down like that. You see all the things those guys said about you?”

Bishop Gordon sighed, then nodded.

“Exactly. I’ve told you, don’t let what happened back in those days continue to haunt you. For what it’s worth, I meant every word I said back in there. I wouldn’t change a thing with you, Ese. So please, l beg you, keep all this in mind, wai. You are not a terrible person.”

The solemn look on his face, he nodded. “Yeah… yeah, I know. I know all this. It’s just… sometimes it hits so hard…”

“I understand, Ese. I understand. I just want you to be able to fight it when it hits. I know it’s not easy to shed just like that. But don’t let the devil win. You are not who you used to be. Alright?”

The bishop nodded again, slowly.

Akpene then picked up his phone and opened Spotify. “Here, let’s play some Nathaniel Bassey, alright?”

As the sounds of ‘Adonai’ filled the car, Bishop Gordon and Akpene headed out of the car park, already wrapped up in a mood of worship.

***

“Herh, Amankwaah, are you okay? Seriously, are you alright up there? What is wrong with you?”

Mr. Victor watched on in disbelief as his firstborn sprung to his feet, the darkest of scowls scrawled across his face. For the life of him, he could not understand why Amankwaah had suddenly been blowing fuses whenever he spoke to him about matters concerning men. All he wanted was for him to understand that the route he took was a normal one for men. The young man had to learn.

But nope, Amankwaah was not taking kindly to it.

He had just mentioned to him that he would soon discover how nice the feeling of sleeping with another woman was as a married man. And instead of Amankwaah getting curious and probing further, he was looking ready to storm out on him again.

Amankwaah turned to him, a fiery look on his face. “Papa, I came here to give you your meds as usual. That’s my business here. I’m not in the mood to hear those funny ideas of yours. Please.”

Victor’s lips curled in disgust. “Funny ideas? You are telling your father he has funny ideas? Herh! Amankwaah, I didn’t know you were this effeminate! Ah! Herh, I’m shocked. This is the thanks I get for telling you how the world works…”

“I don’t want to know how the world works, Papa! Not from you!” Amankwaah snapped. “Please, you can keep your ideas. I don’t want them!”

Victor shook his head, laughed scornfully and clapped his hands. “Herh, Amankwaah. I thought your sisters were the stupid ones. Not knowing you are even worse. You that you are a man-“

“Sir, please, stop. I don’t know what you think being a man means, but as far as I know, it doesn’t mean I have carte blanche to be selfish! It doesn’t mean I’m not obliged to love my family when things get hard. It doesn’t mean I’m at liberty to say ‘eff you’ to my marriage. It doesn’t mean any of that! It’s the absolute opposite, in fact. All this stuff you’re ‘preaching’ has nothing to do with manhood. Ah, even alpha males kraa will disagree with you on all these things you claim!

“Please, I’ve tolerated you because I’ve been told to help you. All these funny things you say, I’ve tried my best not to react to them. I’ve tried my very best. But I’m not going to sit there and listen to you demean my wife and disrespect my marriage! I know you have no respect for your marriage. I know you didn’t care that I got married. That’s fine. But please, I won’t sit here for you to tell me to cheat on her. Good night, Papa. Take your meds.”

“Amankwaah! Amankwaah! Come here!”

His orders were ignored, as the front door saw the back of Amankwaah with a slam.

The room fell into an uneasy silence. Victor was seated upright in his wheelchair, his face etched with a fierce defiance. How dare Amankwaah refuse to listen to him!

“Foolish boy,” he snarled to himself. “I can’t believe I have such stupid children. Ah, you, a grown man, and you are there talking like your silly sisters. So you’ll sit there and play mister nurse if your wife gets sick? You won’t go out there and taste what is outside? Ah! This boy is a fool…”

With the nurse stepped out for a moment, he was alone in the room. He cursed at the emptiness around him as he clenched his fists, livid at his son’s refusal to embrace his twisted life philosophy.

And then, a strange sensation suddenly washed over him, with a creeping sense of dread crawling up from the depths of his subconscious. His eyelids grew strangely heavy, and everything in the room around him went blurry and distorted, as if reality itself were bending to accommodate some unseen force.

Then, suddenly, Victor found himself engulfed in a vivid trance, his surroundings melting away into darkness as a strange figure rose up from the depths of his mind.

As it straightened itself up, he knew what it was. He had never seen it before, but it was as if his mind already knew what it was.

His conscience. A conscience that had long been considered dead, but was actually dormant and buried beneath the thickest layers of denial and repression.

The form it had taken up was both terrifying and familiar; a twisted reflection of his own likeness, but with hollow eyes that bore into his soul with the most accusing intensity. As it advanced towards him with slow, deliberate steps, he could tell what was wrong.

It was angry. Extremely angry.

Angry that he had refused to listen to it. Angry that he had burned it badly with the hottest of irons and left it for dead. Angry that he had chosen foolishness over wisdom, time after time, even as his health deteriorated by the day.

It was fed up. And it was coming for him.

“No, no, no, no,” Victor gasped, his voice trembling with fear as he recoiled in his wheelchair, unable to tear his gaze away from the specter before him. “This can’t be happening. This can’t be real.”

If the apparition heard him at all, it paid no heed to his protests, its ethereal form pulsating with an eerie, otherworldly energy as it closed in on him.

It was happening. As sensationally twisted as it seemed, it was happening.

With a sudden lunge, it reached out with spectral hands, fingers curling into claws that seemed to tear at Victor’s very essence.

Pain instantly shot through his body, the effect leaving him feeling like he had been struck by a bolt of lightning. His breath was caught in his throat as he struggled against the relentless onslaught of this terrifying apparition. This weird phenomenon was taking the very life out of him.

“Fooooool!” it seethed, rustling him roughly, its hollow eyes boring devastatingly into his with a frightening fury. As it did so, memories long buried resurfaced to his mind with brutal clarity, with each one serving as a damning indictment of his past actions.

There could not be a more strange and inexplicable attack than this. The idea that one’s conscience could take up a human-like form and attack its owner was as ridiculous as could be. Yet somehow, it was happening.

And the emergence of all those memories…

They carried with them a feeling he had never felt before.

Regret.

“Stoppp,” Victor whispered, his voice barely audible. “Please… please, stop…”

But the specter showed no mercy, its grip tightening with every passing moment, and the pain growing more and more intense until he felt as though he would be consumed by the weight of his own guilt.

With the iron grip still locked on him, darkness began to slowly close in around him…

***

The nurse stepped into the living room, and the sight before her had screams of terror jumping out of her throat.

Victor was convulsing violently in his wheelchair.

Well, that was really strange! Not that it’s undeserved, though. And again, what is in Bishop Gordon’s past that he seems to regret so much?