With Sunmola Olowookere
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Her shrill voice could be heard down the lane. It was obvious that trouble was brewing in the mission house. It was the voice of the prophetess who owns a church in our neighbourhood. She was known to be a woman of peace and has many members among the residents of our neighbourhood.

However, she was not towing the path of peace on this fateful day. She was shaking with negative reaction. She was on the warpath as her usual calm voice was fraught with tension.

“Leave my house this minute! You filthy pig.” She shouted at “daddy” hysterically.

Daddy was the man the prophetess has plans of marrying after staying a widow for almost ten years.

She dragged him out bodily from inside the mission house.

Her eyes were spitting fire. She did not care who may be hearing her among the members of the church who were living in the mission house. She seemed to have had enough.

She refused to listen to her members who were suing for peace. ” how could I stomach it? I can not conceive how my intended could be making passes at my daughter. I had to forcibly restrain myself from putting a curse on him as its effect could be disastrous”.

A deadly hush fell on the whole group. How could daddy do such a thing? was the thought running through their minds as he too made no effort to defend himself. The prophetess was beyond caring what people would say. She too was shocked that a man she considered her husband could stoop so low.

It was a tough pill to swallow for everyone present there.

Middle aged and with her beauty fastly diminishing, she had felt humiliated and degraded at her fiancé’s increasing and indecent interest in her daughter.

Hence it was not only anger she felt but embarrassment and humiliation.

Before the ruckus, she had always felt left out and jealous whenever they were discussing; they had such beautiful rapport .

However she was thankful that they could hit it off because any friction between them would have had a detrimental effect on their relationship.

The prophetess began to have an inkling of something sinister when some of her faithful members had been dropping hints of seeing her daughter and “daddy” together mostly at her school, and sometimes outside her school.

Although their hints had been innocent and devoid of any suspicion, she began to smell foul play.

She could no longer contain it, she called her daughter and asked her.

“Seun, is it true that Dapo comes to take you out at school without my ‘knowledge?” She asked in a voice that brooked no argument.

She answered with her eyes on the ground.

“It is true mummy,” she said and rushed on like a dam.

“Mummy please, I did not want to tell you because it would hurt your feelings. But yes, uncle has been making passes at me whenever he takes me out.

‘But I always refused him, you trust me. I would not do a thing like that. Mummy, don’t you?” She concluded, pleading with her eyes that her should believe her.

She had drawn her into my arms and hugged her tight. “Nobody would separate us, never!” She vowed to myself.

She had cornered Dapo in his room. Under her intense scrutiny, he squirmed like a politician on a hot seat. She knew that he would have heard of her confrontation with Seun.

“Why are you doing this to me? After all I have done for you, you are an ingrate.”

He cut off her tirade with a snarl. “That is enough! What did you expect me to do? You have been neglecting me shamefully. Whenever I want to touch you, you will forestall me with one excuse or the other. Are you the only prophetess around? I am tired of your frigidity. Now let me be!” He finished brusquely.

That was when she lost her temper and ordered him out of her house and church.

Dapo was a widower who joined the fold eight years ago. He was very close to her. He made her feel like a woman, and she came to rely on him, she never knew he would ever treat her in such a cavalier fashion.

He had been very active in the church. He ascended the rung of the ladder to be made the General Superintendent.