STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’S SHOE (Part 19&20) – OPEYEMI AKINTUNDE

PART 19
“STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’s SHOE …” S.I.M.S
©️ Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

The Church Driver was the one taking us home, so I couldn’t blurt out my feelings. I did not like the show of pretense Ray put up at the church. I didn’t know what was really eating him up, or was it because I was not a virgin?

The moment we got home and the driver left on foot, I said in submission, kneeling in front of him

“ Apostle, What have I done?, Ever since we got Married a week ago, you have not touched me except once, You have not eaten my food, you lock yourself up , Are you disappointed I am not a virgin?. I told you I lost my virginity during my days of ignorance…or is there something else?”

“ Hey, Happy… There is absolutely nothing you have done to me?” He said very kindly “You are not the problem, I am the one who has the problem”

“ What problem?”

“ It’s personal, I am seriously working on it, and that was why I got married to you, I felt marrying you will solve the problem, because of the strong attraction I had for you, but I guess the problem is something I have to live with for the rest of my life, I guess this is the thorn the Lord put in my flesh”

“ The Lord put a thorn in your flesh?” I asked

“ Yeah .. You know the type Apostle Paul wrote about and how he prayed several times to have it removed but God told him His Grace was sufficient for him..”

“OK?” I said expecting him to tell me what the problem was

“ Hmm… Are you sure you are ready to hear what it is…?”

“ Yes!, I am your wife!”

He held me by the hand and guided me to a seat…

“ Ever since I was a little child, I have had this problem, I always crave for something, but the moment I get it , I lose interest in it and I begin to crave for something else. For instance Anytime Mum took me to the mall and bought my siblings and I different biscuits, I might have been the one who choose my biscuit, but the moment I have it in my hands I lose interest in it. I will be interested in taking my siblings biscuits. Growing up, I always had my way as the only son among four girls, but now it has become a big problem….” he said and took a long pause, he looked very sad…

“ Ok?” I said as I didn’t understand where the story telling was heading to…

“ I believe you understand what the problem is? Right?” He asked

“ No!” I said because truly I was blank…

“ Ok… how do I say this? The thing is, my problem is that the moment I have something I have always craved for in my possession, I lose interest in it….” he said and kept quiet

I still did not get it, but I looked at his eyes deeply and like a brain jolt , I got it. Ray had a problem of liking what he owned. He no longer had interest in me because he was married to me…
I didn’t know what to do, I had tears flowing down my cheeks and the only question that came out of my mouth was

“ Was it the same with Pastor Maggie?”

“ Unfortunately Yes!, Maggie had to cope for those years, she was a strong believer who did not believe in divorce, so she stood by me. We only made love to have children which never came!” he said looking ashamed of himself

“ How would they have had children?” I thought madly in my Spirit

“Maggie knew this about me and knew all the women I had interest in, but the bad thing about this challenge of mine is the fact that my attraction is always towards women who belong to other men. I don’t get attracted to single ladies, but those who are engaged and married. That was why I was attracted to you in the first place. The fact that you belonged to Julius made me crave for you, but now that you are mine, I don’t find you attractive anymore” he said

“Jesus!” I screamed as I started walking around the living room in circles. My head was pounding and I heard voices laughing in my head.

“It is not as bad as it sounds, Maggie was able to cope, She was my best friend, I even encouraged her to have a boyfriend, but she would not bulge. She kept telling me I could overcome this… I prayed and she prayed but I am still the same. Happy, the reason I choose you above other girls is because I believe you will be able to cover me…You are the best person who can fill Maggie’s shoe” he said with a plea in his eyes

I felt like I had been cheated, I felt like I was duped, I felt I was defrauded. To think that Apostle married me to find a good accomplice to cover his sexual sin and not out of love tore my heart into pieces. I climbed up the stairs and went to my room. He did not bother to follow me…

I locked my door from within and cried all day long. I couldn’t sleep either. He came knocking at my door early in the morning but I refused to open.

Later that day, I decided I needed to have a cup of coffee to clear my head. I was shocked to see Apostle and Mrs Beecroft in the kitchen. Mrs Beecroft was the wife of the church treasurer, a well respected member of the church. She was in a very short gown. She was preparing coffee for Apostle…. I didn’t understand one bit what was happening…

“ Hello, Sister Happy, Good Morning…” She said

“ Good morning Ma!” I replied as I looked at her skimpy gown. I had never seen her in such a skimpy wear before..

“ Apostle said you were a bit ill, so I offered to come help you the way I used to help Pastor Maggie” she said

“ Ok ma, thanks.. but I am better now!” I said implying she should use the door and get out of my home.

“ You need a lot of rest!” Apostle said as he moved close to me as if to whisper something, Mrs Beecroft understood he wanted her out of the kitchen, so she left the kitchen and walked up the stairs to Apostle’s room…

“ I wanted to inform you earlier she was coming, that was why I was knocking, she is one of the women”

My legs buckled like someone wearing a high heel sandal, that broke unexpectedly …This Pastor Maggie’s shoe was beginning to show its issues, apart from it not been my size, it was showing tendencies of it being unreliable . I concluded the shoe had a faulty heel that was going to break my leg soon….

My God!

.

PART 20
“STEPPING INTO MAGGIE’s SHOE …” S.I.M.S
©️ Opeyemi Ojerinde Akintunde

I sat in the living room close to twenty minutes listening to the moaning sound and screaming of Mrs Beecroft and my husband. I shut my ears most of the time, trying to tell myself I was probably hallucinating or hearing voices. I kept walking around in circles, I went into the kitchen to take a cup of coffee, but it did not drown the voices coming from Ray’s room…

I wanted to be sure if What I was suspecting was real, I walked cautiously to Apostle’s room. I saw the door was not locked. I peeped through the open door and met Apostle and Mrs Beecroft in the very act…

“ Jesus!” I screamed…

I ran down the stairs…

I stayed in the living room for another 5 mins before Mrs Beecroft came down..
“ I can’t believe you, Mrs Beecroft, to think you are one of the executives of the Women of virtue, this is crazy… I can’t believe this… Oh my Goodness! How I am so sure Pastor Maggie was not murdered by you and Him…” I stood in her way

“ Get away from me, I wasn’t doing anything with the apostle, we were only discussing something really personal” Mrs Beecroft said

I felt I was going to run mad in the real sense of it…

“ You said what?” I asked

“ We were not doing anything out of the ordinary “

“ So you are telling me I am crazy or I don’t know what I saw!”

“ Exactly, we all know you have bipolar and psychosis , this is probably one of your hallucinations, Don’t you think so?” Mrs Beecroft said sarcastically

“ I am not CRAZY…, Oh! I get it” I clapped my hands in applause to Apostle and Mrs Beecroft. Apostle was sitting on the floor of the last stairs bare chested

“ Happy, I think you need to take your pills, you are imagining things”
Apostle said with a sarcastic smile…

“ Really Ray?” I said clapping “ I give it to you, you are one hell of a smart guy, so I get the plan, you knew I had psychosis and you saw that as a way of blackmailing me… I get this….Tell me I am right… You married me because you know if I try to talk about your private life, you and everyone will say it’s not real and just a figment of my imagination”

Apostle gave a knowing wink instead of answering me… With that, Mrs Beecroft pushed me away from her front… I was so weak by the realization that I was tricked into the Marriage.

My Weakness was being used against me…

“ But I am not mad, I am not mad” I said repeatedly to myself as I saw Apostle walking her to the door

I picked up my phone and called my mother. I narrated in a rush , all that had happened in a week, but my mother didn’t believe me either.

“ Happiness, are you planning to walk out of that marriage? If you do, I will disown you…Your Husband has called me to inform me on how you have been acting strangely of recent to the point that you do not allow him to have s*xual inter course with you…”

I hung up, because it was plain to me that Apostle was smarter than I thought. He had played a smart one on me. He had called the only person who could fight for me.

I sat down in the living room, expecting him to come in. He had escorted Mrs Beecroft to her car and stayed another 10 minutes in her car.

When he came in, I calmed myself down as I needed to ask him some questions…

“ Why did you marry me?, Honestly” I asked

“ I needed a wife for public reasons”

“ Are you a man of God? “

“ Surprisingly, Yes!”

“ And you feel God is not angry at what you are doing?”

“ I know He is, but there is nothing I can do about it, it hurts me that I am doing this, but I can’t help myself”

I didn’t know what else to ask, but I had a request…

“ I can’t stay here and watch this sin, can I relocate to another country?”

He was quiet…

“ I like you happy, it’s just that I am not content with you, you can still stay here and if you accept me the way I am, I will be the best friend and Husband you will have…”

“ What are you proposing?, So you expect me not to have sex again?” I asked since he said he was no more attracted to me in that regard

“ You can have a boyfriend, who I will pretend I don’t know!, we can keep this our little secret and continue the work of God” he said

Words to express my emotions at that point may not be found in the dictionary, then just like a whisper from behind my ear, I heard

“ Greed…”

I looked back and saw no one…

“Was this a show of Greed or something spiritual?” I asked myself

Out of the blues, I saw Apostle prostrating and pleading…

“PLEASE! Happy don’t leave me and don’t take away my women from me!”

I had never been that shocked in my life… But what made me more confused was why God had not punished him for this act of His… Apostle was highly anointed and God was proving Himself in his ministry…

I stood up and found my way to my room, I had no answer to his request, I had to think about it….

**********

In the course of 3 months after the wedding, I had seen about 7 married women in our home, and each time we saw in church, we pretended all was well. Annoyingly, each of the women thought she was the only woman Apostle Ray was sleeping with…He was that smart…

I started getting used to the system as I couldn’t say a word to anyone for fear of being tagged Insane…

At some point I came to the conclusion that it was his problem and I was going to give him 6 months to one year, before relocating to somewhere else, probably Kenya…

It dawned on me, why Pastor Maggie was not friendly with all the women in the church, I believed she felt betrayed by them as they were sleeping with her Husband. No wonder, people didn’t respect her, No wonder, her messages were always watery. No woman in that shoe will be mentally okay to prepare a sermon…

I told myself unlike Pastor Maggie, I was going to enjoy my life to the fullest. I was going to dress to kill, I was going to make the stupid married women look like fools.

I started exploiting Apostle Ray for money, which I was pumping into my business.

Anytime any of the women came around and were on their way out, I will give comments like…

“ Thanks for doing my job for me, please make sure you take some pain relievers when you get home and some anti aging pills”

Most of the ladies will just leave without saying anything, but Mrs Beecroft was high audacious. She was the only one who would give smirk remarks like

“ I like it that way, I know you are just talking out jealousy, I know he hasn’t touched you since you got married, so pathetic…”

I always felt like throwing something at her, but I had a joker up my sleeve…

Apostle had told me I could have a boyfriend, Guess who I had my eyes on, Mrs Beecroft‘s only son… He was 30 years old, single and Handsome.

Apostle and Mrs Beecroft were about to get the shock of their lives. They thought I was crazy! I was about to show them crazy in capital letters…