The Mythical Adventure

It was a cold Saturday…Jane’s family has just arrived home tired from the whole relocating journey stress from the city to her father’s new site, which is now to be their permanent home. It was around November ending her father ‘Apostle Desmond’ wanted her family spend the Christmas at their new home, ‘’at least that will mean an end to the yearly contribution without withdrawal’’ was Jane’s father’s thought, which was why they relocated from Lagoons, Bisolo to Kirodu.

Jane is the first child and the first daughter, Esther is the second and Jude is the last boy and born, so you could call him baby of the house off course, Jane’s father was a pastor in one of the local church in Bisolo before relocating to his new site at Kirodu, he had not really settled down, so he hasn’t figured out what to do and how to go about his stewardship assignment as a pastor, either he would be going to Bisolo from Kirodu or he would join a new church at Kirodu, he was still contemplating as they were trying to settle in and putting things in order. Jane’s mum Clara is a teacher in one of the government secondary schools Bisolo as their biology teacher, as she is also putting one or two things in place; from hanging the curtains to sweeping, to connecting the gas cooker to the cylinder, she had her mind crowded with the thought of how to cope with work as a teacher from Kirodu to Bisolo every day and having to avoid lateness, though she own a car but Lagoons traffic nko? Especially trying to link the express from Kirodu, at times you can be on a stand-still for hours. All these were Clara’s concerns. Esther was assisting Jane in the mopping of the sitting room and corridor along with other little and minor tidying up like; picking up clothes laying on unwanted place, shoes and slippers were removed from where it not wanted and properly placed. Jude was not idle either even if he had wanted to, there was no room for idleness, he also had his room to tidy up even though boys seems not to have too many cleaning to do, this Saturday became a handful busy day for everyone as there were too many cleaning to do. The cleaning was ongoing when they suddenly heard ‘’knock knock!’’, they were all startled and paused to be sure they actually heard the knock on the door. ‘’nothing jare let’s continue Esther announced’’ I thought as much ‘’added Apostle Desmond’’. Few minutes into the when the cleaning continued, ‘’KO KO KO ’’ they heard again on the door, ‘’who is it’’ Clara inquired but there was no response, ‘’who is there?’’ Apostle added, no respond, at this point everyone became restless, this was about few minutes to 7:00pm, ‘’let me go and see who is at the door’’ Jude volunteered, the little man was approaching the door when apostle stopped him ‘’get back I will see for myself’’ so he approached the door as a man of the house. Lo and behold, he reached for the door, opened and checked, to his surprise no one was actually at the door. Clara asked ‘’is anyone there?’’ I’m coming replied apostle as he proceeded to look around the compound asking who is there. Though he had a little fear in him, but as a man of the house he was courageous and didn’t show any fear, he went to the gate and ensure it was properly locked and headed back inside to join his family to round up cleaning, as soon as he entered inside, ‘’Daddy who was there?’’ the children chorused, ‘’nobody, I didn’t see anyone’’ he replied, ‘’what’s happening?, who could it have been, the knocking was so loud here enough for one to have said maybe it’s the next house’’ Clara complained. ‘’It’s okay’’ Apostle affirmed.

As they were about returning to doing final touches to the: seem never ending cleaning. Knock! Knock!! Knock!!! This was the third time at 7:00pm on dot a knock on the door ‘’again! Who is that?! Angrily everyone queried! At the same time as if it was rehearsed. This time there was a respond ‘’it’s me Spiral’’, ‘’spiral’’ Clara whispered as she exclaimed, ‘’who bears spiral as a name’’ Jude asked inquisitively then Jane proceeded to open and see who it was really, as she reached for the door and opened ‘’Can... Can...I hel….p you?’’ Jane stammered as she was dozed and swept off her feet by the sight she beheld, a tall, huge, slightly fair skinned gentle looking handsome young man, with an afro haircut and full bearded face. One can easily tell that Jane was already crushing at the first sight. ‘’please are you the only one here?’’ spiral asked before she could respond her father apostle interrupted from behind ‘’how can we help you’’ ‘’who are you?’’ ‘’good evening sir my name is spiral I stay in the neighborhood same street as you, my house is the seventh house from here, a white duplet, I was just passing by and I discovered someone has moved in newly so I decided to welcome you, that’s the custom here though we are just two who has moved in, in this street and you are the third family sir’’ spiral scripted without a paused ‘’oh! Really that’s very thoughtful of you we just moved in this morning and we are just trying to settle in before thinking of strolling around, but we are yet to round up, thank you for checking I really do appreciate’’ replied apostle. ‘’anytime sir’’ spiral added, as he was about to go he asked, ‘’sir was that your wife who opened the door earlier’’ ‘’are you okay what’s your problem with that’’ apostle thought to himself and quickly snapped back to himself. ‘’oh! No that’s my first daughter Jane, this is Esther, Jude and my wife Clara’’ and I am Apostle Desmond’’ apostle had no choice than to introduce his whole family to a stranger ‘’wow what a lovely family with beautiful and adorable children, you are welcome to the neighborhood once again’’ spiral complimented them. ‘’thank you’’ they echoed ‘’ehm one last thing please, were you the one knocking earlier? Before now?’’ Clara asked spiral, ‘’no not at all’’ he responded ‘’oh okay its fine’’ Clara added as they bid him farewell out of their compound. When he left, there was a strange observation noticed by Jude as he was a very observant, inquisitive and intelligent boy. And what was his observation? ‘’Dad who opened the gate for that man? He asked and everyone’s memory get a reset as if they had a memory loss before, they peeped through the window pointing a torch to the gate and discovered that it had padlock on it, apostle Desmond remembered he locked the gate as soon as they drove in from Bisolo in the morning, and up till now no one had stepped out as they all have been busy cleaning that they even forgot they hadn’t eaten since. ‘’how the hell did he enter?’’ Esther trembled as she inquired ‘’Jude was right’’ Jane affirmed. At this point they were really getting scared as they could not trace at any point where someone opened the padlock gate for Spiral. ’’ Did he jump the fence?’’ Clara inquisitively asked as they were all frightened. This was already past 7:00pm and it was already getting dark, Esther was already fidgeting as she was the most frightened of all the three, Jane too usually once a while get scared but not as much as Esther, Jude the little man is indeed a man as he wasn’t moved at all even though it was getting dark and coupled with what just happened with the strange neighbor, ‘’mummy I’m hungry oo’’ Jude protested, ‘’eh! Eh what are we going to eat for dinner’’ Clara worriedly responded she continued ‘’and it already dark and late to start any cooking now besides I don’t know where to buy things here, this place is a bit far from the market’’ Clara complained, ‘’but we bought some bread at Benson on our way here in the morning’’ Jane remembered ‘’oh! Thanks to the heavens I completely forgot!’’ Clara exclaimed, ‘’finally, we will not starve to bed’’ apostle added, ‘’Jane get the bread from the fridge and some ketchup’’ Clara instructed ‘’okay mum’’ Jane brought the food items to the dinning, everyone reached for their share, ate and stepped it down with some beverages, Jude ate until he was bloated, Esther doesn’t eat much. Dinner was over everyone satisfied, it was already past 9:00pm and everyone was supposed to be sleeping by now. ‘’let us pray before we go to bed’’ apostle requested, so they held hands as apostle led the prayers, throughout the prayers Esther’s eyes were wide opened, as if she could disappear if she shut her eyes for a second, she was that scared.