The only exception was on the weekends, then, time could stand still, and one could pretend that the real world with all its responsibilities did not exist, for a few blissful hours.
Morenike shifted slightly and nudged her husband Emeka with her left foot. He grunted and turned over, promptly going back to sleep. She groaned softly, it was Sunday; surely they’d be going to church? She grabbed her cell phone from under her pillow and peeked at the time, it was 7:45 am. The service at their local church started in less than an hour. She guiltily remembered that they hadn’t attended service last week, or the week before either. They’d intended to, put had been kept out late at the birthday party of a friend and the housewarming bash of another the previous two weekends.
She tried to push the guilty thoughts away as she burrowed back underneath the warmth of the blankets. They would get up and go, eventually, after she rested for another five or ten minutes.
After what felt like a few minutes, she awoke with a start. The rain was still pouring hard, Emeka was still fast asleep, and it was a quarter past 9am, they were thirty minutes late for the service!
“Emeka!” she tapped him lightly on his shoulders “Wake up jo, we’re late for church”. He barely shifted. She held him by his shoulders and shook him harder.
“Whaa-?” He mumbled, as he stretched. “Aren’t we going to church?” Morenike asked “we should you know?” She stood up from the bed and flipped on the water heater switch. “Oya now, we are so late! What are you wearing?”
Emeka shrugged “a Polo shirt and jeans?” he suggested. Morenike frowned “Honey, jeans to church? Haba now, come on, pick out a decent outfit” She flung their cupboard doors open and quickly scanned through her side, “ I think I’ll wear this my purple H&C shirt and grey trousers, why don’t you wears yours as well so we’ll match?”
“What, trousers to church?” Emeka said sarcastically as he searched under the bed for his bedroom slippers. Morenike narrowed her eyes “What do you mean? Since when do we believe in all that religious talk?” Emeka found his slippers and slipped it on “since when do we believe wearing jeans to church constitutes a sin?” he retorted as he entered the bathroom and closed the door behind him.
Morenike glared at the shut door behind him as she brought out the ironing board and switched on the iron. That husband of hers could drive her crazy at times, how he managed to do it first thing in the morning was beyond her understanding. She brought out his matching purple shirt and a pair of formal trousers and placed it on the bed beside hers. Where on earth was the spray starch? It wasn’t on top of the cupboard where they usually kept it. She just bet Emeka had carelessly left it somewhere else. She marched over to the bathroom and flung open the door. Emeka was zipping his fly as he flushed the toilet. “Honey, where’s the spray starch?” She asked him. “I don’t know” he replied calmly as picked up his toothbrush and began brushing his teeth. “What do you mean you don’t know? You were the last one to use it” She said.
“Well I can’t remember, check the room now, it must be there somewhere” He reasoned. “Yes but where?” She asked “we’re already late, and I can hardly afford to spend precious time searching for it right now” Emeka sighed as he spat into the sink. “Okay you know what? Why don’t you have a bath while I look for it? I’ll iron the clothes as well” He said quickly before she could complain.
Morenike thought about it for few seconds, letting him do the ironing would make sense, then she could have a bath and start to dress up while he took a quick shower. “All right then, hurry up though” She said as she stepped into the shower.
Emeka rinsed his mouth and slipped back into the bedroom, a quick scan of the top of the cupboard showed him that the can of starch wasn’t there. He frowned; he could have sworn he’d left it there the previous day. He moved closer and peeked into the narrow space between the cupboard and the wall. Bingo! He’d found it. He picked up Morenike’s clothes and began to iron them, when he was done; he carefully hung them up and proceeded to his cupboard where he selected a pair of dark blue denims and a green Polo shirt. Whistling to himself, he straightened then out and placed them gently on the bed as Morenike came out of the bath wrapped in a bathrobe. “Honey are you done yet?” she asked him. “Yes I am” Emeka replied as he quickly entered the bathroom, followed a few seconds later by his wife. “Honey! I though we agreed on the purple shirt?” She asked him. “No, we didn’t” he said “ you suggested, and I said nothing”
She glowered at him, then tried a different tactic “but I thought we were doing and Co?”
“Why?” Emeka said “everyone already knows we are married, I don’t see how dressing like identical twins helps us in the slightest”
Morenike narrowed her eyes at him, “Fine then! Go ahead. Wear whatever you like!” she exclaimed as she stomped out of the bath and back into the bedroom. “Why thank you, I most certainly will” Emeka muttered under his breath as he turned on the shower.
Morenike began to dress up, as she mentally tired to calculate how much of the service they had missed. Thankfully, the church was only a ten minute drive away. If only Emeka would hurry up they could be out of the house in less than ten minutes.
Just then, Emeka stepped back into the bedroom. “Don’t you think you should ask Mama if she wants to come along with us?” He asked his wife “I’m sure she will”. Morenike stared at him “What do you mean? Mama ke?”
Emeka frowned “Yes now, she came in last night while you were asleep. I told you she was coming this weekend remember?” Morenike groaned. Emeka was right, she had forgotten all about it. Her mother in-law was downstairs in the guest bedroom. She’d have to go in and greet her, help her get ready for church and probably prepare breakfast as well. At this rate they would never make church.
‘Okay well, get dressed then, let me go and meet her” she said. She took a deep breath as she went down the stairs, not only had she not been awake the night before to properly receive her mother-in-law, now she had to wake her up and tell her to have a bath and get dressed immediately as they were running so late for church. She got to the door of the guest bedroom and knocked gently.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
“Emeka, Emeka, Mama is missing!” Morenike cried as she burst into the bedroom she and her husband shared. Emeka was putting on his shirt. That darn Polo he had insisted on wearing, she thought briefly. “What do you mean missing?’ Emeka asked.
“Honey, I meant exactly what I said, missing. As in nowhere to be found”
“Well”, Emeka reasoned “she has to be around somewhere, did you check the garden outside?”
Morenike sighed “Honey, I’ve checked outside, inside and everywhere in between. She’s not here!”
Emeka grabbed his cell phone “Well, let me call her then”. He held it to his ear and dialed her number. A few seconds went by “Well?” Morenike asked. “It’s switched off” He said.
“Ah!” Morenike exclaimed, “What do we do now?”
Emeka sighed. “Maybe we should ask the neighbors, if anyone happened to have spotted her”
Morenike rolled her eyes “Honey, we’ve only ever said two words to them since we moved in here, won’t it seem awkward?” she said.
“Awkward? I’ll tell you what’s awkward, the fact that my mother has completely vanished under both of our noses is extremely awkward” Emeka replied.
He went down the stairs with Morenike at his heels, and out of the house and stopped in front of the building next door. “You know what?” he said “why don’t you go ask our neighbors on our other side, and meet me back in front of the house in five minutes”. Morenike nodded and set of to do as she was asked.
A few minutes later they stood in their kitchen perplexed. None of their neighbors had seen Mama that morning.
“This would never have happened if we had woken up early this morning” Emeka said. “I did’ his wife replied “and I tried to wake you but I couldn’t and fell asleep again”. Emeka snorted. “Yeah right” He muttered. “I did!” Morenike exclaimed “you were like a log of wood, you wouldn’t even budge”
“Well maybe you should have tried harder. If we’d woken up on time I’m sure Mama wouldn’t be missing right now” Emeka replied. Then as a thought struck him he exclaimed “Oh my goodness! I hope she hasn’t been kidnapped?”. He began to pace up and down. Morenike was frightened “Kidnapped? Surely not, they would have contacted us by now” she said. Emeka sighed. Then he picked up his phone and called his brother “Nnamdi, Good morning, something’s happened, Mama is missing…”
Morenike remembered that a woman she had become friendly with at her local gym was married to a high ranking police officer. She called her immediately and explained the situation. The woman promised to speak with her husband and get back to her as soon as possible.
She began to pray. When Emeka ended his conversation with his brother and realized what she was doing, he joined her.
They stood together for awhile lost in the depth of their prayers. It had been awhile since they had spoken to God like that, without distraction, with no feelings of impatience, just a quiet fellowship filled with hope and faith. They were no thoughts of other activities, reports that had to be filled or calls that had to be made. As their hearts were lifted up, they gave themselves over completely to the leading of the spirit.
This was why they failed to hear the sound of the kitchen door being opened, and the quiet shuffling of feet. It wasn’t until they had said “The Grace” that they realized Mama was standing in the kitchen with them watching quietly.
“Mama!” Morenike exclaimed as she threw her arms around her “Oh thank goodness you are alright”
“Where were you?” Emeka asked “We were so worried; we even thought perhaps you’d been kidnapped!”
“Kidnapped?” Mama said, clearly amused “Why would you think that?
“Well” Emeka said ‘your phone was switched off and you were no where to be found, we didn’t know what to think”
Mama chuckled. “I went to church” she said
“Church?” Emeka and Morenike said at the same time
“Yes “Mama said “I woke up, got dressed and realized you were both still asleep. I recalled passing by a lovely looking church last night when I was coming here. Fortunately, I was able to find it quite easily this morning”
‘Er, was it, the church beside the furniture shop?” Emeka asked
“Yes it was,” Mama replied “why?”
“Erm, that’s our church” Morenike said “we were actually planning on making service this morning but….”
Mama smiled. “I see. Well it was a wonderful service. The minister spoke about the importance of creating and reverencing time for God” She grinned as she recalled “He also used this really funny example of a young couple he knew who regularly got to church so late that they missed most of the sermon. That was when they were able to get up in the morning and make it at all. Most times it was because they spent half the morning getting in and out of silly arguments!”
She failed to notice the embarrassed look her son and his wife quickly exchanged. She already had her back to them as she rummaged through the fridge.
“Well then” she said “What shall we have for breakfast?”
THE END
