VESSELS UNKNOWN

TWENTY FIVE

Minutes later, we were digging into a big platter of boiled corn, roasted chicken and salad.
         "Sure you don't want a pain med?" she asked again, briefly glancing away from her food.
     I glanced  back in her direction, "No, I feel perfectly fine."
           "Okay. Call your pastor, he may have an insight to what happened to you." She probed again.

             "I don't have a pastor." I replied amidst mouth full.
A wrinkled brow stayed on her face as she looked at me in astonishment.

            "What about the place you spent three days in spiritual retreat?"

The last morsel moved through down my throat slowly, I drank a mouthful to accelerate the process. "Not interested."

           "From your story, they are actually the ones who knows anything you are going through. I'm suggesting we call them so this kind of thing doesn't happen again."

After a deadly glare from my fiery eyes, I left the table and ran back into my room.
By the time I came out again, Nkasi was already on the phone with the church's prayer hotline.
  She was already speaking to someone on the other end before I could even stop her.

           "No! Stop!" I screamed, tugging at her shirt. She signaled me to keep quiet while deliberately moving towards the bathroom. I Rushed after her.

          "Please, don't!" I whispered into her ears. She waved me off, pushing me away slightly.
I made to snatch the phone, but she had already dictated my address without stress.

          Cornered, I screamed at her, tears flooding my eyes. My color faded in and out, terrifying her..... even me.
My life had suddenly turned complicated, yet everyone seemed to be doing all the wrong things to help. Perplexed, she snuggled deeper into the couch, almost melting into it. I caught the terror in her eyes, and retreated.

I had become dangerous and unpleasant. The terror in her eyes was all I needed to distance myself.

        "kasi, are you okay?" I found my voice asking, my hands shaking nervously. My hands reached out to touch her but she moved away.

        A gentle rap on the door interrupted our awkward situation. Pastor Adrian's frame filled the door, his tall self competing with the length of the frame. 

          "An emergency call came in through the church's hotline, "Is everything okay?" He asked.
         "Not him....Not him!" I mumbled nervously.

Before we could even invite him in, he was few feet deep into the sitting room. "Nice place." He observed, looking through the tiny room.

A less worried Nkasi walked up to him, only meeting his gaze with her head stretched like a duck. The man we so tall, it would take binding Nkasi and I together to meet his height.
           "Hmm.......Hmm." Nkasi cleared her throat to get his attention.

Glancing at me repeatedly, he turned to my friend.  "Yes young lady, what seems to be the problem?"

His polo and jeans pants looked good on him. The waft of cologne told a different tale. Even though he tried to look and sound like everyday people, he reeked of wealth.

Nkasi moved herself too steady under the influence of this man, while I watched from the door. "Its my friend. I believe she wrestled against principalities and powers, and now they seem to have done a number on her."

A full throated laughter emitted from the pastor. He bent over and delved deeper into whatever that tickled his ears.

After wiping tears off his eyes, he turned to Nkasi, pointing. " That was a good one, you almost got me there."
My friend didn't share in his humor but looked at him awkwardly. "This is no joke. I believe she went into the lions den this time, only that the lions were really famished and her wrist became the meal. I am still wondering how she escaped."

           Pastor Adrian quickly eased himself into my couch and laughed some more, clutching his tummy.

            "Jesus! Girl, you should try comedy."
           "But this is actually serious." I said, walking towards them. "This is the evidence that I was viciously attacked in my dream."

His ears pecked and he rose to his feet quickly. "This huge bandage you got here came from a dream?"

I scoffed at the shock on his face.
Who was he deceiving? Someone who almost mauled me for taking a globe that fell off his body incidentally. He didn't even know about it until whatever that thing does could no longer be done.

           Reaching for my hand, "Can I?" He asked. I pulled away from him. "Nkasi can show you the pictures."
I caught the quick glare he shot at me, and then smiled when Nkasi showed him the pictures.

Flipping through the pictures on the phone, he turned his gaze on me. "You got this massive cut from a mere dream?" My gaze fell on his buldged eyes.

           "Yes from a 'mere' dream" I emphasized 'mere' with my fingers.

Fed up with his antics, I sat on the couch away from him. On a second thought, I stole another glance at him and the question erupted from my mouth.
          "Why are you really here?" He was about to answer, but I beat him to it.  "You are obviously the boss. This job is for your junior pastors."

He nodded, looking from me to the writing pad in his hands. "You are right about that. But when I saw it was about you, I decided to answer the call myself."

            "Nice." Nkasi complemented. "Its good that General overseers do these things from time to time, it gives the members some form of hope."

             "All glory to God. For his glory shall no man take for himself. Well, that's by the way. "Tell me your dream." He pointed at me.

I gave a half baked story, of how rabid dogs pursued and ate out my wrist. And because i never told Nkasi the dream, she couldn't counter me.
The excited face of the pastor fell when I refused to tell my experience, but he knew he couldn't t expose himself in the presence of Nkasi.

            "And you are sure you don't have anything belonging to the devil in your possession?"

I regarded him for a while before a cold "No." Oozed out of my mouth.

He nodded. Quickly, he held hands with my friend and I, and said a five minute prayer.
I gauged him spiritually and he wasn't even at the starting point of twenty percent. My head shook in disappointment.

Running through his information pad checklist, he ticked the boxes on the form for house calls and asked us to sign.

When he got up to leave, he took in my form intently and pointed slowly at me. "If you have anything belonging to ancestral spirits or altars of diviners, you must release it to the deliverance team. This is one of the sure ways to be free and free indeed."

While he raced to the door to get away from my deadly gaze, I spoke from where I sat.
               "Are you in search for the 'furnace'?"