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THE LIBERATOR – EPISODE 2

culled from; www.naijastories.com
The miraculous encounter with the older lady changed the lunch and dinner of the old clergyman and his family members that Thursday evening. Gbemi had been sent to collect food stuffs on credit from the family’s usual messiah – Iya Alate. But as fortune would have it, the beautiful girl had encountered blessing. If not for the blessing, the family would have needed to eat a fishless eba, accompanied by a tasteless egusi soup that afternoon.
Mama Abiye was unshelling melon seeds when her daughter rushed into their compound to deliver the great testimony to her. Without much ado, they changed the planned meal. They equally prepared enough so that either their visitor joined them for lunch or dinner, there would be enough for all.
Pa Fakunle – popularly called Baba Abiye, due to his spiritual gift in making barren women deliver easily, ate calmly with great relish that afternoon. His wife served his foo foo with well stocked efo riro and special ogunfe. That afternoon, he ate and forgot about his problems. His problems had been responsible for their current family insufficiency –some nomads had led their hungry cattle to graze his corn field thoroughly. It hadn’t been taken likely when the cattle rearers claimed ignorance at first, but as a clergyman, everyone expected him to take the situation lightly. After all, Jesus had thought us to turn the left cheek when the right had been struck. Even if he didn’t want to agree with the Jesus philosophy on the matter, the entire village expected him too, judging by his posterities’ value.
After eating, he sat on his wooden chair outside the compound, using a goodly shaped bone from his meal as toothpick. He leaned and enjoyed the fresh air that visited his home.
Gbemisola stood in front of the huge mirror in her parent’s hut. From there, she could barely hear her parents’ discussion outside, but that was not why she chose to be there. – The mirror in the room had suddenly become Gbemi’s best friend. It was almost the same height with her, so her appearance was crystal clear in it. She looked for what had captured the lady’s attention in her earlier encounter, but couldn’t figure it out. She pulled her skirt up quietly – fresh yellow laps peeped at her. She lifted the skirt a little more,…and then again, until she knew that going any further would reveal her panties. She frowned suddenly, letting the skirt drop. All that she saw was fresh skin. Her next action would need much caution. Gbemi reached for the small stool in her father’s bedroom, pulled it closer to the window, stood on it and peeped to see that her parents attention was far from the house. It obviously was. Both of them were talking about how nice Esher was when she served as the choir mistress of their church. Gbemi knew that her parents were particularly talking about it loudly so that if Esther came in around that time, she would hear nice things about herself.
Gbemi resumed her position in front of the mirror, her fingers gripped the first button on her blouse, she shivered. She stopped to stare at the door – it was closed. She pulled the button off, and then the second button too. She pulled her bra down. Her left breast dropped out into full view.
‘What is special about this now?’ She wondered, it was a fresh skin there too and she didn’t even consider its size any big. It was hers anyway, so it was quite hard to tell if its size was of any advantage. ‘But the lady was staring!’ She recollected. If there was nothing special about it, she wouldn’t have. Gbemi suddenly realized what she was doing and frowned. She pulled her bra up quickly and buttoned her blouse. She crept quietly to the small stool which was still resting on the alcove beneath the window and peeped.
“I hope Esther would at least attend a fellowship at the church she once choired before leaving for Kano.” Her mother was saying.
The small bamboo gate flung open, and Esther emerged. Gbemi stared at her from the window. Unlike when they had met earlier at Iya Alate’s house, Esther had cleaned her face of any make ups. She now looked more like the decent good girl Gbemi had seen in the picture. She wore a lemon coloured scarf, and her permanent smile. Gbemi took time to admire her elegant steps until they bent at the knees in decent greeting to the elderly ones sitting in the compound. Gbemi ducked her head to avoid being caught, she returned the stool to its former post and walked out of the compound as if she hadn’t noticed the visitor’s emergence.
To be continued…

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