ONCE UPON AN ALBERT!

... The days went by in a flash, days into weeks and then months. Zona and her mother were back on an easy peasy speaking terms like the last two months didn’t happen. They had moved on and had focused their energy and attention towards the forth coming senior dance and the graduation. Getting the perfect dress for Zona, the corsage, perfecting her speech, and everything in between, it was a wonder the mother daughter duo still found the time for their weekly orphanage visits. The visits had started when their little house Baptist church had received a new reverend.

   

 Rev. Albert was warm, he laughed quite often or so it would seem to little house parishioners given the amount of grumpy ministers they had had in the past. He emphasized the need for charity especially towards the orphaned and went ahead to tell the congregation his plans to rehabilitate the one in their community. The plans had started swiftly, people – females had come out en masse and had taken up the task and in two months the little house orphanage was set. It was like nothing the church had done in the past, the project was a testimony of what one could achieve if one laughed as often as Rev. Albert did. In all honesty, u could laugh like an idiot and still won’t get the carpenter to nail two ply woods together or a church female folk to remove an offending piece of wire to safety. It wasn’t in the new reverend’s warmth or laughter, or maybe just a little of it, it was entirely in his looks. He was what one would call a ‘beautiful man’. He knew it and wickedly used that little knowledge to get almost anything done in the church; he would be smiling whilst soliciting funding for one project or the other. The more his dimpled cheeks shone, the more purse strings were untied.  But the icing on the cake was that he is – was single at the time, recently bereaved actually.

 Little house Baptist members had dropped a great deal in the past decade save for an occasional surge in number, the people had found other ways to fill their Sundays and the owner of the new bowling alley on sterling drive couldn’t complain because business was great.

 The coming of rev. Albert had seen the Sunday routine in the little town of Eastwood reverse and Sunday was once again synonymous to church, it didn’t take long till the church air was filled with smells of new hats, hair fascinators, shoulder high suits and new shoes. The ladies – single and married alike were all out to impress the new beautiful reverend. Obiageli had found the sudden fan fare of hats and doe eyed females in little house Baptist church altogether a bit annoying. Maybe it was because she had been a consistent ‘church goer’ through frumpy grumpy reverends and outright weird ones and felt she deserved to have the new hunk reverend to herself or perhaps share him with the other few steadfast parishioners. Maybe it was because she had developed a bit of a crush on the beautiful man. She never dated, never allowed herself the luxury and the shenanigans of a relationship, all her time was spent on Echezonachukwu and she was, still is thankful it was all worth it in the end. On occasions, Zona had tried to play the match maker to improve her mom’s dating life; she had well thrown in the towel after the unsuspecting gents she had lined up for her mom all fell short of Obiageli’s specification. The last one chewed too loudly and the one before wouldn’t stop talking about his mother’s cat. It was all she could do to keep from strangling Zona when the unfortunate date dragged to a slow end. But the new reverend presented new prospects; Obiageli found herself wishing the man would ask her for a personal favor, or just her name. She would tell him in a heartbeat and then tell him other things he probably didn’t ask, anything to exchange small talks and hear his Creole infused accent from a range much closer than the pulpit. She may touch one of his dimples if he let her. She had never found herself wanting – needing a man since Azuka,his' was a love that left her weary of men, but for some reasons she would put her index finger into the beautiful reverend’s dimple if the opportunity presented itself.

Till another time, aurevoir my friends (hope I spelt that right, pardon my french, literally).

Appreciation: I can't thank you guys enough my darling idoodlers as u will henceforth be referred to as LOL. Cheesy right? am open to suggestions o as to what we shall be tagged. Thank you immensely for the shares, visits and comments. means the entire world to me and then some.

I LABB YEWW ALL...