The week had passed seamlessly, like the graceful gliding of swans over a lake. I had submitted my assignment and received better-than-expected results, for which I owed a debt of gratitude to Nio. His guidance and support helped me to achieve academic success.
But the success of the week wasn't just limited to academics. The dinner with Nio had been a great success as well, both spiritually and emotionally. It was during that dinner that I had found the courage to speak to Nio about my beliefs and my sense of faith.
I couldn't help but feel that God had a hand in bringing all of these events together. His mysterious ways had given me the confidence to share my faith with Nio, and the support and guidance of those around me had helped me to achieve success in all aspects of my life.
Today was Saturday, which was also known as wash day. I sorted my laundry into different piles based on colour, starting with the whites, then moving on to the pinks, reds, blues, and finally the blacks. I made sure to handle each item of clothing with care and placed them securely in a laundry basket.
I tied a flowery doek around my hair and plugged in my earbuds, ready to listen to my gospel playlist. The colourful doek not only kept my hair out of my face while I worked but also added a touch of style to my outfit.
As the music started playing, I couldn't help but feel my spirits lift. There was something powerful about the uplifting messages and soulful melodies of gospel music, and I found myself lost in the rhythm and lyrics.
Despite the noise and distractions around me, the music provided a sense of calm and focus. It was as if the world around me faded away.
"Tats, I'm going to the laundromat!" I shouted, patiently waiting for her reply. Hoping she could hear me over the vacuum that ran loudly from her room.
"Okay!" she shouted back.
With my laundry basket in one hand and fabric freshener and laundry soap in the other, I made my way through the mid-open door and into the deserted hallway, with a tight squeeze. Despite the fact that this building was a student accommodation, I had never encountered anyone else on this floor aside from Thato and myself.
In the past, my paranoia had often gotten the best of me, especially when walking alone at night. However, as the weeks passed, I had started to feel more comfortable and secure. I reminded myself of the words of Psalms 23:4, which provided comfort and strength during times of fear and uncertainty.
As I repeated these words to myself, I couldn't help but feel a sense of calm wash over me. The hallway, which had once seemed empty and foreboding, now felt familiar and safe. I made my way towards the communal laundry room, ready to tackle the task at hand. The psalm went as follows:
Yea, though I walk through the
Valley of the
shadow of death,
I will fear no evil
for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
And now I was just giving him the praise he deserved, "If creation sings your praises, so will I. So... Will I. God of your promise, you don't speak in vain, no syllable empty or void. For once you have spoken, all nature and science follow the sound of your-" I stopped my soft singing as I jumped, startled by the sound of a door opening.
A man dressed in comfortable joggers and a t-shirt stepped out of the door on my left. From his side view, he looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite place him.
However, as he turned around to face me, I was surprised to see that it was my good friend Samuel. He too was holding a laundry basket with a few clothes inside.
I couldn't help but smile as I greeted him, happy to see a familiar face in this otherwise deserted hallway.
"Destiny?" he smiled, his blue orbs glowing with surprise.
"Hey, Samuel. What are you doing here?" I had not been expecting anyone to be living here, least of all him.
Smirking, he walked up to me, "Shouldn't I be asking you the same question?"
"Well, I have been living here for the past two almost three weeks now and I always pass by this way but never saw you or anyone else for that matter," I explained as I felt the laundry soap start slipping through my fingers. Argh...
"Do you need any help?" he asked.
"Yes, please." I watched as he took the soap that was about to touch the ground and held on to it. "Thank you," I smiled. I was sure all my soap would have spilt on the carpet and I would have to buy another one, with my non-existent money and to make things worse I would have to scrub all the power from the carpet. So I was highly grateful.
"I moved in just yesterday and saw no trace of anyone living on this floor. It was dead silent," Samuel said pressing the call button on the elevator.
"Thato and I must've been at the campus at that time," I explained as he nodded in understanding, having already known Thato.
We stood together in comfortable silence as we waited for the elevator to arrive. When it finally dinged to alert us of its arrival, we stepped inside and watched as the doors closed behind us.
As the elevator began to ascend towards the top of the ten-story building, I decided to break the silence. "So, how's college been treating you?" I asked, eager to catch up and hear about Samuel's experiences.
Samuel let out a sigh and ran his hand through his stubble. "I can't really complain," he said, "but the assignments can be pretty overwhelming at times."
I nodded in understanding, knowing all too well the feeling of being buried under a mountain of coursework.
"I guess we have to grow accustomed to university life as we have more work than we had in primary and high school combined," I agreed with a nod.
"Yeah, but look on the bright side, no parent supervision, which means more freedom," he smiled.
"More freedom to do what?" I curiously asked ad the elevator dinged once again, opened and we stepped out.
"Party and explore of course," Samuel said with a shrug. The way he said it made it seem like a normal, casual thing, to party, get drunk and make irresponsible decisions.
"I'd rather stay at home than party and explore and I did not mind my parents' protectiveness cause it shielded me from the dangers and evils of this word," I truthfully said.
"Evil? Dangers? What do you mean?" he furrowed his brows.
"Well..." As we walked through the room filled with washing machines and dryers, I trailed off in my sentence, leaving the word hanging in the air. There were about five other people in the room, all doing their laundry. We exchanged friendly greetings with each of them as we made our way through the rows of machines.
At one point, I recognized a girl from my business studies class and struck up a polite conversation with her. We chatted for a few minutes until Samuel audibly sighed, indicating his fatigue.
"So, you were saying?" He attentively looked at me, his gaze not wavering.
"Well, I was saying that this world is filled with deceitfulness and you can easily find yourself in a sea of-" I was cut off by my ringtone blaring from my earbuds.
"One minute," I said raising my longer finger at Samuel.
I pulled out my phone from my shirt sleeve and saw the name "Nio" flash on the screen. An automatic smile spread across my face, and for a moment, I forgot that I had to answer the call. However, Samuel cleared his throat, bringing my attention back to the present.
I finally answered the call. Nio and I had exchanged numbers during our project hangout, and we had been talking almost every day since then, sometimes even until the early hours of the morning.
"Finally, for a moment I thought you would not answer the call, amore," Nio's deep voice filled the speakers.
"Oh, I was just... busy," I said, leaving out that I was in the middle of a very important conversation.
After I answered the call, Nio's voice came through the speaker, and he asked, "Okay? Nevertheless, how are you?" I could hear that he was slightly out of breath as if he had been doing some physical activity.
"Good thanks, how are you?" I smiled though I knew he could not see me.
"Fine, so what are you doing?" He said before something abruptly dropped, causing rather colourful words to slip out of his mouth.
"Ephesians 5:4!" I snapped, no matter what happened I believed that the tongue held a lot of power and the word uttered from it could be used as a weapon to destroy or a weapon to build and heal as Proverbs 18:21 said.
"Excuse me?" I could detect perplexity in his tone.
I sighed, "Ephesians 5 verse 4 says, And let there be no low behaviour or foolish talk or words said in sport, which are wrong but in place of them the giving of praise. This means that in all ways we should resist the urge to swear, no matter how angry and sad we are. Now when you are swearing I have to tell you or anyone else if something is wrong as I have been appointed as a watchman."
With a hint of amusement in his voice, he asked, "Do you happen to have a Bible stored in your brain?"
"What kind of a question is that?" my brows were now furrowed.
"Well, you seem to know the bible like a calculator knows how to calculate," he started laughing at his own joke which by the way, I found beyond lame.
"That's not even funny," I scoffed making him laugh even more, that I was sure that his stomach hurt from all the laughing.
"Whatever you say, amore," he said sobering up.
"Okay, I will call you back later on." I did not want our conversation to end but I had to cut it off because Samuel was waiting on me.
"Why?" I could aware I heard a whine coming from him or maybe my ears were deceiving me.
"I have to do some laundry and there is someone who has been waiting for us to finish the call," I explained looking at an irritated Samuel, leaning against a washing machine, with his arms crossed over his chest. He must have been annoyed with me as we were talking and I just had to cut our conversation short.
"Who? Thato?" He questioned, his accent making Thato's name sound like Tehto, which made me chuckle inwardly.
"No Samuel, a friend of mine." Samuel's head jerked up as I said his name.
"Samuel? Who is that?"
"As I said, he is a friend of mine," I reiterated.
The call suddenly started beeping to indicate the end of the call, I stared down at it, asking myself if maybe his airtime had finished or I had disconnected it unknowingly, maybe I had been the one to disconnect it. But at least now, I could talk to Samuel, without any hindrances or disturbance, the call, however, was at the back of my mind and that's when I realised that the call does not beep if you disconnected it, only if the other person did. But why? Maybe he was busy?
"I didn't know that you had a boyfriend," Samuel's voice broke me out of my internal turmoil.
"I don't," I replied, and indeed I did not have a boyfriend, what Nio and I had was a friendship, nothing more and nothing less.
"Okay," There was a bit of disbelief in his voice.
"Okay, so as I was saying we live in a-" I trailed off as he himself disturbed me by putting up his right hand this time around.
"Listen, Destiny, I need to get going but I'm sure we can continue with this conversation on another day. Okay?" He left without sparing me a second glance as I replied with an 'okay', which went into thin air.
As I was getting ready to leave, I picked up my laundry basket and noticed that Samuel had left his basket behind, with clothes still inside. I didn't have a chance to stop him, so I decided that I would wash his clothes along with mine. I planned to give them back to him later on when he returned from wherever he abruptly gone to.