Wednesday was the day scheduled for meeting with Pastor. I went with Jane in other to fast track arrangement for the wedding. I however warned her seriously not to repeat the nonsense she did at Mummy’s place. On getting to the church, I left her in the premises and went in alone to see Pastor.

“Kelvin you sounded so urgent while I was speaking with you on phone yesterday. Hope all is well?”

“Yes daddy. It is just that I want to tell you that I have located the bone of my bone.”

When I said that, Pastor looked at me and smiled. He seemed so happy with the news.

“Well, Kelvin this is good news. I have been expecting this from you. In fact, on Sunday, I told your mum that she should be getting ready to give me wedding rice. But then, have you prayed?”

“Yes daddy I have prayed.”

Immediately I answered, my heart judged me but I quickly shrugged it off. After all I am not the first person to do that. Johnson and Mary did it. If there is punishment attached, theirs should be worse. They showed me the way. Pastor asked if the lady I want to marry is our member but I informed him that she was from another denomination.

“Alright Kelvin I will pray for you now and release you to go. But I need to see the lady in question. Make arrangement for her to come and see me.”

“Daddy she is around. I told her to come because I know you will want to see her.”

“That is good. Go and get her.”

I quickly went outside and brought Jane in. Pastor welcomed her and almost immediately started interviewing her.

“Sister, what is your name?”

“I’m Jane, sir.”

“Sister Jane, have you prayed about Kelvin’s marriage proposa?l”

“Yes sir.”

“Which church do you attend?”

“I worship at R.P Church.”

“That is good; make sure that you carry your church along in all the marriage arrangement. Kelvin, before we proceed in the marriage plans, there are some tests you and Jane need to run. Those include the genotype and blood group. After that, we can then discuss about when you are going for the payment of dowry and probably the wedding date. Though, that will depend on when you want the wedding to hold. Note that we don’t encourage long courtship.”

“Daddy we want the wedding as soon as possible. I really wish that we can fix the wedding date today. We have no intention of staying long in courtship.”

“That is commendable, but before we can talk about wedding date, you have to run the tests I told you about. There are many weddings on ground; the next three months are taken, so we will be considering the fourth month which is November.”

“Daddy, November is too far, that will elongate the courtship period. I was thinking of maximum of one month from now.,” I quickly cut in.

If things were normal, I would have seen that as a gift. I had always wished that my wedding will hold in November because that was my birth month. I promised myself that I would give all it takes to make it work. But when Pastor mentioned November on that day my heart sank. I rejected a gift given to me on a platter of gold because I had a skeleton in my cupboard. The most painful part was that my birth day of that year was on a Saturday; which meant that my wedding would have possibly been on my birthday. The moment that flashed in my mind, I hated myself and life in totality. The bible says that the wages of sin is death; the deep truth in it is that sin makes one to die many times even before the real death. I concluded that whatever powers that orchestrated my meeting with Jane meant harm for me. Only God could tell what will come out of it at the end. However, I had already started the game, so I had to continue at least to save my face.

“If you want your wedding in the next one month, it will be a joint wedding with another couple,” Pastor informed us.

“Daddy, I don’t mind.”

“If that is the case, I would need some time to sort things out. You will get feedback on Sunday. But both of you should come back tomorrow by 10:00AM. One of the marriage counselors will accompany you to run the tests I told you about. Let me pray for you before you go. Father I bless you for your children. I hand them over to you. They informed me of their intentions to get married. Lord I pray, if it be your will, let it come to pass to your own glory in Jesus name, Amen.”

**********

I was in my shop Thursday evening when I received a message from daddy and it read:

Kelvin,
Please see me in my office now. Treat as urgent.
Pastor.

“Why will daddy want to see me urgently,” I asked myself.

We were together in his office that morning before going to the clinic to run the tests. He even told us not to bother coming back because the counselor will bring the result back to him. That was why we left the clinic immediately after they took our blood samples.

“But, why am I even bothering myself. Was I not the one that told pastor that I want the wedding as soon as possible? He could be calling me for us to finalize our discussion on the wedding date” I thought. This helped in dousing the tension that was rising in me.

I quickly drove down to the church. Pastor was already waiting in his office before my arrival.

“Kelvin I’m so sorry for the stress I’ve put you through this evening. It was the urgency of the matter I want to discuss with you that caused it. I will be quick in my discussion with you because I have another appointment to catch in the next 20 minutes.”

He paused for a while, took a deep breath before continuing with his speech.

“Kelvin, do you really know that girl you want to make your wife?”

“Yes daddy I know her very well,” I answered, wondering why daddy was asking such question at that stage.

“I asked the question because I did not see any trace of godliness in her, starting from her dressing even to the way she painted her face. I chose to ignore those things anyway since you said that you have prayed and God confirmed that she is your wife. Who are am I to interfere? But something came up. After both of you left my office, mama came to the office. She related to me her observation concerning the lady you want to marry. Did you see my wife when you left here yesterday?”

“Yes daddy. We saw Mummy and the women president standing near the back of the church, so I decided to go and introduce Jane to her.”

“As I was saying” Pastor continued. “Mama told me that she suspects that the girl you are planning to marry was pregnant. I doubted her. Because of that, I instructed Mrs. Marcus that pregnancy test should be among the tests to be conducted on her. Surprisingly, the result was positive. I took that step for a reason. I don’t know how well you know that girl. I don’t want you to get entangled in what you know nothing about. So Kelvin, what do you have to say about that?”

I felt a cold shudder run through me. I was visibly shaking even as beads of sweat formed on my forehead. Fear could not allow me to utter a word.

“Why are you silent; is it out of shock of what you heard or you are responsible for the pregnancy? Anywhere, I have to release you to go now because I have another appointment. You will come back on Saturday by 4:00pm to meet with church elders. You can still see me before that day if you deem it necessary.”