Chapter 17: Chapter 17
The ferocity of the harmattan winds were beginning to wane. It had been a few dry months. The winds have been pitiless. The earth had been parched, and had drunk a lot of water. The leaves of trees have been pale and brittle. The wooden doors of the convent have been bent, uneven and hard to shut. Reverend Grace’s small car was always covered in a film of red dust. James’s lips were chapped and cracked, the color brown like a shriveled groundnut husk. Moses’s feet were ripped and it hurt him each time he stomped them on the ground. But all that was now coming to an end. The sign in the air showed the coming of rain that would bring a new freshness and beginning. Everyone was expecting the rain. Unknown to them, the much-expected rain had already come.
What held Moses and Martha first appeared like a tiny thread and a fleeting feeling. But that was not so anymore. As each day passed, they grew closer and dangerously intimate and lived in each other’s pockets. They built an impregnable friendship. Sadly, what they had and shared was fraught with danger. But they really didn’t care. Before now, they were two sad-faced youths. The same was not the case anymore. They were now happy in their newfound love. Though the convent was always as busy as an anthill, they always found the time to see each other and spend time together. Moses had never been gripped by such a strong feeling before. It was new and exciting. Martha was everywhere: in his thoughts, paintings and prayers. She was like his shadow. And so it was with Martha. She was in love with Moses and desired to be with him all the time. Most times, they spent time together clandestinely in Moses’s room after the light out hours.
Last night, Moses had left his door ajar, and Martha had sneaked in. They laid on his bed, fondling and whispering to each other.
Severally, Reverend Grace had seen Martha and Moses whispering. However, she did not think there was more to it. Moses was her son and she had raised him well. And while she raised him, she made sure she followed in the same path because she knew that when a child follows in the footpath of his father, he learns to walk like him. And it was also true that when mother-cow is chewing grass that the young ones watch its mouth.
Martha was on the cusp of taking her final vows. And Reverend Grace was sure she would not do anything that would tarnish her name and that of the convent. She had no reason to distrust her or be careful for nothing. She had kept faith in her all this while, why then would she begin to doubt her? So she relaxed and took her foot off the gas.
Yesterday when the sky rumbled, Reverend Grace looked up and prayed for the rains to come. She was tired of the constant swirling of dust in the air and the terrible cold at night. She told Reverend Joy that when the rain comes, that she was certain it would come with angry winds that would blow away everything on its path. The thought that the winds would also reveal the anus of the chickens made her laugh really hard.