WHEN neither counselling nor scolding nor even beating could make Eric stop seeing Rose, Uncle Sam decided to adopt another approach. One day, he called Eric into his house and asked him to invite the girl to church. He reasoned that if Rose could start attending church and gave her life to Christ, it would be easier to make her stop her sinful conducts, including her unwholesome relationship with Eric. The man of God had to make that decision in view of the dilemma he suddenly found himself. The news of Eric’s relationship with Rose had now spread round the entire village and elders of the church were coming to him to complain of the ugly development. The church council had also met over the issue, telling him that if something urgent was not done about it, it could soon drag the name of the Believers Church of God in the mud and people would start leaving the church. But Uncle Sam could not bring himself to excommunicate Eric from the church. And it was not because Eric was his nephew. He believed that chasing people away from the house of God, on account of their wrongdoings, would do more damage than good to their spiritual life because it could push them permanently into Satan’s kingdom.
Eric was too thrilled for words when his uncle laid the proposition before him. ‘You mean I should invite Rose to church?’ he asked in disbelief.
‘Yes,’ Uncle Sam reaffirmed. ‘Remember every Christian is an evangelist, vested with the task of bringing people into the Kingdom. So, bring her to church.’
Eric was full of hope and expectation as he took the good news to Rose that evening. If Uncle Sam was eager to have Rose become a member of the Believers Church of God, it could only mean that his mother had given up the fight and had handed everything over to the man of God. With time, he thought, Uncle Sam might come to like Rose and accept her into the family.
But, to Eric’s surprise, Rose declined the invitation to the Believers Church of God. ‘Have you forgotten what I once told you, that I am a Catholic?’ she asked Eric. ‘I would have started attending the parish in this village but my Mum says I should wait for all these rumours to clear off.’
‘But that should not be a problem.’ Eric’s voice betrayed his disappointment. ‘Can’t you see it would bring you closer to my people, which would make it easier for them to accept our relationship?’
‘Once a Catholic is always a Catholic,’ Rose told him. ‘It is impossible for me to change from a Catholic church to a Pentecostal church.’
‘Just regard it as a sacrifice to save our relationship.’
‘What about you: can you do the same? Can you leave that church and come to join me in the Catholic?’
‘Of course, you know there is nothing I would not do for you. If it was the other way round and I had the choice of coming over to join you so that your family can accept me, I would gladly do it. But that’s not the case with this situation.’
They argued late into the night and by the time Eric left, Rose had agreed to come to the Believers Church of God on the condition that he, too, would come to her Catholic church to worship once in a while. But, as fate would have it, the very Sunday that Rose came to the church, Uncle Sam was away on a missionary journey to Abudu, a nearby town. The assistant senior pastor, Pastor John Ukadike, was in charge of the service that day.
As Eric walked into the church with Rose, he was conscious of the disapproving eyes with which the members were looking at them. Fingers were pointing; mouths were whispering into ears. But he did not mind. The fact that Rose was at last in his church and everything would soon be okay was enough to overshadow the cold reception. As it was unacceptable for him and Rose to sit together when they were not yet married, Eric ushered her to a seat in one of the rows while he himself went to another row to take a seat. Pastor John paused briefly to glance at their direction and then went back to his sermon, which incidentally was on the topic: Loving Everyone, Including Your Enemies.
But then, the unexpected began to happen. As soon as Rose sat down, everyone on that row stood up and went to other rows. Alone and Visibly embarrassed, Rose looked frantically around, as if searching for Eric to come and rescue her from the humiliation. Where he sat, Eric was boiling with anger. He was disappointed not just with those who left their seats because of Rose but also with Pastor John, who did nothing to save the situation but went on with his preaching as if nothing was wrong. More fingers were now pointing; the whispering mouths became more audible:
‘Is that not the daughter of that witch from Asaba?’
‘Yes, the one who has bewitched Brother Eric, the senior pastor’s nephew.’
‘What is she doing here? Does this place look like a coven?’
‘So, they are not satisfied with their sinful union but have also come here to rub it on our faces?’
‘What insolence!’
Rose was looking for a way of escape. The opportunity came when the pastor asked everyone to bow their heads for a ten-minute prayer. Knowing that most of the eyes were now closed, she quickly stood up and walked out of the church. Eric, too, stood up and left through the back door.
Rose was almost by the roadside when he caught up with her. ‘Rose, I am sorry. I am very sorry.’ He attempted to hold her hand.
‘Leave me alone!’ she shouted, hitting his hand away.
‘I am sorry. It’s because Uncle Sam is not in church.’
‘I say leave me alone! Can’t you hear? Leave me alone!’ She was now screaming and passers-by were stopping to stare at them. Eric did not say anything more. He followed at a close distance as Rose left the main road and took the street that led to the junction facing her mother’s house. When they got to the junction, she stopped to face Eric. ‘Where are you coming?’ she asked. ‘Go back to them. You have succeeded in tricking me to your church so that I could be made an object of ridicule. What else do you want? Eric Gboneme, answer me, what else do you want?’
She walked towards the house and Eric followed without uttering a word. When she got near the door, she quickened her pace. Anticipating what she was about to do, Eric increased his own pace. Rose got to the door, went into the corridor and began to shut the door on Eric’s face but he was ready for her. He grabbed the door and began to push from outside while she pushed from inside.
‘Leave this door, leave this door,’ she was shouting and panting as she struggled with him.
‘No, I won’t leave.’ He was resolute.
‘If you don’t leave now, I will bite you. I swear, I will bite you.’
‘Are you the only one that has teeth? If you bite me, I will bite you back.’
Rose’s mother was lying on the bed in the room, having a late morning nap, when she was woken by the noise coming from the corridor. She sprang up and hurried to the direction of the noise. Rose was trying to drag Eric’s hand into her mouth while he fought back when the old woman got to them.
‘Stop this nonsense!’ she shouted, trying to pull Rose away. ‘I say stop. Oya, Rose leave him.’
She finally succeeded in disengaging Rose from Eric and directed her to go to the back of the house while she took Eric into the room so he could tell her what the matter was. As Eric narrated the incident that took place in the church, he noticed the woman was looking strangely at him. Suddenly, she got up and went out to where Rose was seated on a bench under the tangerine tree at the backyard. Rose was weeping silently, the tears streaming down her face.
‘So, you eventually went to that church after I told you not to go?’ she said. ‘Ntoy-y-y-y-y-y!’ She had now placed a finger on each cheek, taunting her daughter.
Eric was at a loss. He had thought the woman would plead his case as she often did when he had minor quarrels with Rose; now, she was pouring fuel into an already burning fire. When the old woman was satisfied with taunting Rose, who was now crying more loudly, she went back into the house without uttering a word to Eric.
For a long time, Eric stood where he was; he realised he could neither go to the daughter nor to the mother. After a while, he decided to go home. He knew it was not proper to leave Rose alone in her present mood but also knew that his continued presence in the house would do nothing but bring back to her memory the ugly incident that happened at the Believers Church of God. He was also afraid that if he got closer to her, it might trigger another bout of emotional outburst. He had since known that, just like her mother, Rose was sometimes unpredictable, especially in the heat of tension.
With this in mind, he began to walk towards the corridor. He was about to step into the narrow passage when he heard Rose’s voice: ‘Eric, please come back.’
He turned and walked back towards her, noticing that she had shifted on the bench to create room for him. Eric quickly took the offered seat, afraid that she might change her mind. When he was sure she had completely calmed down, he took her hand and she did not resist.
‘I am sorry,’ he told her. ‘Believe me, if Uncle Sam was in church, what happened today would not happen. He would have known how to handle the situation when those idiots, who call themselves Christians, were misbehaving in the house of God.’
‘I, too, am sorry for being rude to you,’ Rose said. And then, she went on, ‘Eric, you must promise me that you will never ever again talk to me about going to that church. I can never step into that church again. My Mum warned me not to go but, to please you, I disregarded her warning and went. Look where it has landed me. Imagine the way they were moving away from me, as if I had shit on my body.’
‘Rose, after what happened today, no one would blame you if you decide not to go to that church again.’ Eric was not happy at the thought but he knew he had to agree with her for the sake of peace. With time, she might change her mind. ‘I will not force you to come to my church if that’s what you want.’
‘That’s what I want!’ she snapped. Her voice was beginning to rise again. ‘Why do you make it look like I am being too difficult? Do you know what I went through?’
‘It’s okay,’ Eric said, patting her reassuringly on her back. ‘I just told you, I will not force you to come to the church.’
When Eric left, that day, he was a happier person. Rose had completely forgiven him. But her mother did not answer his greeting as he left. Rose told him not to worry; she would talk to her and calm her down.
When Uncle Sam came back the next day and heard about the incident that took place in the church, he summoned Pastor John to the church office. The senior pastor was not happy with his assistant for not having the maturity to handle the situation despite all the training he got at the Seminary.
‘The house of God is made for sinners to come in and get transformed,’ he told Pastor John. ‘Our master, Jesus Christ himself, ate and dined with them when he was here on earth. Why then should we, who profess to follow his footsteps, behave like the Pharisees and chase away people from the church because we perceive them to be sinners?’
‘I am sorry, pastor,’ Pastor John said. ‘I wanted to reprimand them when they started leaving their seats but I was afraid that people might start leaving the church if I did that. You know the tension this girl and her mother have generated in the church over the past couple of weeks.’
‘Is it the people you should fear or God?’ the senior pastor asked. ‘Is this how you will handle the church when I eventually leave for Lagos and you become the senior pastor? Will you be preaching what the people want to hear or what is right in the sight of God?’
That evening, Uncle Sam called Eric and asked him to take him to the house where Rose and her mother lived. The man of God had decided that the best way to appease the girl and her mother was to go and apologize to them before it became too late. He also decided to go there himself, instead of sending one of the church workers, so that the apology would carry enough weight and have the desired impact. Eric was not sure it was time for any member of the church to go and see Rose and her mother when they were still smarting from the incident of the previous day. But he could not muster up enough courage to tell his uncle.
Rose and her mother were as usual at the back of the house cooking when Eric and his uncle walked into the long corridor. Eric saw Rose whisper something to her mother and at once, the woman stood up and made for the corridor.
‘Yes? Who are you looking for?’ The anger in her voice was also evident in the expression on her face.
‘Good evening madam. I am…’ Uncle Sam began.
‘I say who are you looking for?’ Her voice had risen and before Uncle Sam or his nephew could say anything, she continued in the same anger-ridden loud voice: ‘Get out of here now! I say get out of here!’
‘Please, Mama, I am here to apologize over what happened yesterday,’ Uncle Sam started again.
But she would not let him finish. ‘Okay, you don’t want to leave, abi? Wait for me.’ She disappeared into one of the empty rooms along the corridor.
From where she stood at the end of the corridor, Rose was frantically signalling at Eric and his uncle to leave. While Uncle Sam was contemplating how to handle the unexpected development, Rose’s mother suddenly came out of the room. She had a basin of water and before the unwanted visitors could duck, she poured the smelly content on them. It was when the water hit its target that Eric and his uncle discovered it was water that had been used to ferment cassava. They quickly made their way out of the house, the heavy stench following them. A little crowd had gathered outside but neither uncle nor nephew paid them any attention as they walked towards the junction near the house. When they got to the junction, Uncle Sam stopped and turned to Eric.
‘Don’t ever go near this house again,’ he told him. ‘The evil lustre I saw lurking in that woman’s eyes was like hell. It was burning with a strange fire of bitterness and hatred. That woman is indeed evil. You may associate with the girl in school and try and win her to Christ but don’t you ever come to this house again. Am I clear?’
‘Y-yes,’ Eric answered hesitantly. The hope of Rose getting closer and accepted into his family was now receding into the horizon of despair and he was completely devastated at the ugly development.
Adapted from the novel, Why Are We So Dark?
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