Chapter Two

Again, he touched Thelma’s left breast and closed his eyes. Doubtlessly to enjoy the feeling of

lustful contact with the woman, in full glare of more than five hundred congregants.

“Alleluia! Praise be to gaaad! The sprit of gaaad is in this church forever Hallelujah!” the thin pastor shouted as everybody chorused ‘amen’.

Thirty- two year -old Pastor Chansa had an attractive face with a hoarse voice. His Baptism Unionized Church was one of the most popular denominations of Ibenga town in the Copperbelt province of Zambia. The little town had a tarmac road that cut across the shopping area. Behind each line of the shops was a residential area. At the southern end of the line of shops were churches on both sides of the road. The Baptist Unionized Church was on the Eastern side of the road.

Because of deafening confusion of loud prayers and incomprehensible tongues, Pastor Chansa became very popular among Christians in the town. As a result the church grew bigger and bigger.

On that Sunday, believers had been worshipping for an hour when he was ‘directed by the holy spirit’ to Thelma before touching any part of her body God chose. Faithfully, she let the pastor touch her anyhow ‘with the direction of the holy spirit’. And every congregant believed wholeheartedly that whatever the pastor did during church service had been inspired by God and the Holy Spirit.

Twenty- one year- old Thelma was an icon of beauty in Ibenga. Every man, whether married or single would not just leave the church without shaking her hand with suppressed lust, after every Sunday service, under the guise of Christian love as brethren.

The girl was medium in height with a light bosom above a bulging abdomen that paralyzed men’s thinking faculties whenever she rhythmically shook her behind while passing by. Her smile revealed meticulously arranged teeth and arousing dimples. Her long deep- black hair covered her ears and rested on her back. She was attractively brown in complexion too. Her voice had the sweet lightness of femininity that flowered her beauty to the momentary craziness of men. Meanwhile, her feminine gestures sent electoral magnetic waves of arousal to men who were within sight.

On that Sunday, she was wearing a blue blouse and black skirt that had two slits on the back and front, thereby flashing her thighs in a sexually tempting manner, with every step she took. To her it was just an innocent attire, yet every man she met had to hurt his neck looking over his shoulder; admiring her deliberately, meticulously and creatively carved thighs take turns flashing into sight.

Innocent as she was, Thelma did not know anything about the bombshell impact of her beauty to the community. However, what she was fed up with were incessant love proposals from courageous up-to-the-challenge men, most of who were, according to her, way below her class. Furthermore, she had never in her life imagined falling in love with someone as religious as a pastor.

Therefore, as the prophet and Pastor Chansa touched her all over her body in the name of the Holy Spirit, she did not think of anything sinister about that. To her, he had been inspired by the Holy Spirit to prophesy something about her life. As she seemed to be deeply comfortable with the prophet’s actions, the man made another step.

“Thelma, you have to remain after the church service so that I can pray further for you. You have a spiritual husband. That one has to be got rid of because every man who makes advances at you will die. Moreover, the spiritual husband could infect you with sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS” he prophesied while tapping her behind.

At the mention of ‘spiritual husband’, everybody in the congregation either held his mouth, chin or back of the head in fear and sympathy for the young woman. Others had their mouths suddenly open wide with shock.

When Thelma saw the facial expressions of the congregants, she was convinced about having to follow what her prophet was saying. The girl knew that she had no option but to get rid of the spiritual husband who would stop her from marrying any man in the future.

Suddenly the pastor touched her forehead. Then he patted her bosom again, as if feeling for something. Suddenly the man rested his right arm around her shoulders; his hand resting on her firm right breast before he strode forward to the pulpit.

The pulpit was made of a plank nailed to a rectangular piece of wood at the bottom and a flat wooden surface at the top on which some blue Bible lay on a white piece of cloth. On the left was a door through which the congregation thronged in and out every Sunday.

As Thelma pondered the terror of being in love with a spiritual husband, she just felt a hand touch her shoulder. When she looked up, her eyes starred into a loving sympathetic face.

“Take heart dear. Life is about problems. Let the man of God exorcise you of the spirit, whatever it is. You will find us at home,” Monica, her mother said piteously.

“Yes dear. But be careful. I did not like the way he limitlessly touched you all over even if he is inspired by the Holy Spirit. He looked more amorous than inspired by the spirit,” said Grace her best friend who had flanked Monica.

Monica was still an angel of beauty in her late forties despite a few laugh marks and wrinkles in her face. Her body showed that in her hey day, she had the capacity to force a proud minister’s car to stop just to admire the rare beauty and take her wherever she would choose to go. Frankly, Thelma had taken after her mother though the woman was more glittering in her days at Thelma’s age than her daughter. The woman was a staunch believer in the prophet too.

Meanwhile Grace, twenty-two, was short and stout with a pumpkin shaped head and medium body. During her childhood, people used to tease her as overburdened because she looked too tiny to support the abnormally big head. When she grew up, people teased her behind her back as Miss Pumpkin. She was Thelma’s dearest friend who would be by her side whenever there was something that challenged the beautiful girl. From the association between the ugly and beautiful girl, residents concluded that every angelic lady had some hideous friend and that the gorgeous one was usually influenced by that particular person.

Monica and Grace were the last people to leave after encouraging Thelma to stay strong. When they left, she sat alone in the church waiting for someone to direct her where to find the prophet.

Ten minutes later, a young man in his late teens walked into the church. He was wearing a blue pair of trousers with holes on the knees and thighs, and a faded black T-shirt. He sprung his feet when walking as if there were thorns all over the floor.

The handsome tall brown boy strutted towards Thelma before extending his hand for a hand shake. Then the boy smiled, glanced at his lap and suddenly drove both hands into his thigh pockets a moment later.

“Let us go to the prophet’s room,” Simeon said while moving his waist from side to side.

Then he stepped backwards twice, turned and walked away. Thelma hurriedly stood up and followed him. The boy took long strides, so Thelma had to step quicker to catch up with him as they turned around the church to a room of the building which had a blue door near which the boy stood and knocked.

As he knocked, one could notice that the young man was nervous. Meanwhile, Thelma was even more anxious. She was suddenly in a world of confusion. What would that meeting with the pastor result in? Would he clear her of the spiritual husband? And what was a spiritual husband anyway? What had that husband been doing to her? Had she been sleeping with a ghost? If so, how long…?

Suddenly the door squeaked open and the pastor peeped before making a come-in gesture Then Simeon stepped aside and walked away before Thelma walked in.

When Thelma stepped into the door way, she noticed a single bed along the wall of the tiny room. Some of the pastor’s clothes were on hang wires supported by nails on the stained unpainted wall. The floor was smoothly polished with reddish staff. The roof was made of iron sheets. Meanwhile, there were cobwebs in each of the top corners.

Carelessly placed in the far corner were two pots, three plates and spoon, as if he had just had a meal. Some women cooked for him if he had to stay longer on some Sundays before travelling home. Thirty centimeters away from the cooking utensils was a pair of shoes which the pastor had won in church.

The bare chested pastor was wearing black shorts which had been cut at the knees from a pair of trousers. Meanwhile chills ran down Thelma’s spine when she noticed the black hair on the man’s chest and belly. The man gave her way before he closed the door and sat on the bed. Thelma stood like a dry tree. The pastor sat on the bed before he spoke.

“Feel free child of God. You have come to the right place.

There is absolutely nothing to fear hear. I will pray for that spiritual husband to leave

immediately.

Just sit down please,” the man said excitedly.

Thelma’s heart pounded her ribs a thousand times. Suddenly sweat flowed down her forehead before she landed her behind on the soft bed with a creaking sound.

Then the man smilingly moved and sat next to her.Suddenly he stood up and squatted in front of Thelma and held her by the legs.

“We are going to pray now. Close your eyes,” he commanded her.

Suddenly the pastor broke into a long prayer and screamed louder and louder while moving his hands romantically up and down the girl’s thighs. He would move them all the way to her hips and back to the knees.

Suddenly the pastor stood up and asked the girl to do that too. As soon as she did, the pastor grabbed Thelma by the waist before bursting into tongues which no one, let alone the pastor, understood. The more he prayed, the tighter he pulled her against his body. Under her blouse, she could feel his hairy chest rub against her body.

“Ashalalalabada ashalalalalabada ashalalalalabada badabadabada.Ashalalalabada Ashalalalabada badabadabada,” shouted the pastor as his hands alternately went up and down her back.

Meanwhile Thelma stood helplessly in the tight grip. Suddenly the right hand penetrated her blouse, grabbed the left breast and moved gently on it. Then he gently pinched the tip.

“God, I can feel that the spiritual husband has repeatedly touched these breasts. I command him to leave this girl alone and never touch her again. You are the Lord of Abraham. Nothing is impossible to you, “he said amid heavy panting.

The man moved his hand to the right breast, the back of her neck and ears. Suddenly it returned to the left breast. Then it went down to her tummy…

“The spiritual husband will never stop you from conceiving. You will marry a great husband and this belly will conceive. Your first child will be a bouncing baby boy. God is great,” the man prophesied while moving his right hand up and down her back before raising the blouse.

Suddenly the pastor moved his hands to her behind and squeezed it against his groin, as the girl’s hands lay straight on her body. The pastor breathed heavier and heavier.

“God is great. There is no problem that he can fail to solve. Just have faith in the living God. The Lord has told me that he is already intervening in your problem. God is good all the time,” he whispered into her left ear.