AM (Chapter 10)
A little more persistence, a little more effort and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success – Elbert Hubbard
11:39 pm
“Patience!” Gabriel shouted, his heart in his throat…his heart had just disappeared below water.
He made short work of tearing off the man’s neck, tendon and all and was quite glad at that moment to see his dad running down to the waterfront with troops of soldiers.
Nothing was said, there was no need. With varying degrees of war cries they joined the fray, while Gabriel took off to the water and jumped in with no second thought.
How could she have been thrown that far?
He wondered this as he came up for air, his heart throbbing terribly in exertion and fear that the water had swept her away.
“Patience!”
“Baby,” this one was a cry of despair tearing from his throat.
He sucked in air and dove into the water again, swimming forward, his eyes scanning the dark under water. Then he saw her, the white bra was a beacon that called out to him.
Like a flash, he quickened his tired limbs and grabbed her sinking weight under her armpit, his legs paddling over time to get them to air. His chest burned with the need for oxygen, especially because of the extra exertion in pulling her up; his muscles were threatening to have a pull when he finally surfaced with her.
Gabriel’s concern was totally for her. He supported her head and kept it above water.
“Baby,” he called and cough in his speed to suck in air. He was beginning to be desperate when he saw the life buoy floating towards him. He looked up and saw his dad and some men at the edge, they’d tied a rope on the buoy and all he had to do was hang on and be dragged to shore.
Despite the fact that his muscles screamed in fatigue, he carried Meems considerable weight to the sand which had no atom of dead bodies on it. He wasn’t concerned with the terrifying fact that he’d just fought and killed an uncountable number of men, and their bodies were nowhere to be found.
Gabriel was only concerned for Meems, who didn’t seem to be breathing.
“Patience…Meems…Baby,” the names tore from his throat like desperate cries. He was bent over her, hand over hand, pumping her chest and blowing in her mouth, but nothing was happening.
Someone tried to grab him, someone tried to stop his desperate attempt to bring back the love of his life. He flung his hand and caught his dad in the jaw, the man roared in anger.
“Son, let your mother help her!”
His mother?
That penetrated instantly and he looked up to find his mother, calmly kneeling beside Meems.
“Mom, ca…ca…can you save her?” he was shivering in cold and fear.
She smiled at him and put a leaf under Meems’ nose. It took seconds, she sneezed and coughed and sputtered, water shooting out of her mouth.
Gabriel helped her into a sitting position and hugged her tight, not minding that she was still spewing water from her mouth and coughing.
“You’re choking her boy,” his father, ever the army man, snapped and pulled him off.
“We have less than twenty minutes more,” he said to his son.
Gabriel helped Meems up and supported her with an arm around her waist, his expression was both guilty and forlorn.
“I didn’t save the laptop,” he confessed while his mother considerately threw a scarf about Meems’ shoulder, it didn’t totally cover her, but at least, her chest wasn’t left bare for his father’s men to stare.
“The laptop; who cares about the laptop? She’s the message boy,” he told his flummoxed son and hit him on the back.
“What of the bunker?” he asked with a frown and just then, a crested van drove recklessly into view.
It stopped and some geeky looking guys jumped out. He felt Meems gasp, and he looked at her with concern. She looked pleasantly shocked.
“Baby…,” he growled, his voice gruff with suspicion.
“My bosses,” she whispered, “I work in a tech-business hub, and these are my bosses,” she told him.
Gabriel looked up at the rag-tag group of six or seven guys, all looking too cheerful for comfort, especially in view of present circumstances.
Various degrees of greeting for Meems floated in the air as they strode towards their group. He heard three ‘sweethearts’, two ‘darlings’ and a lot of ‘Meems love’, all from guys, this wasn’t good, and his arm tightened protectively around her shoulder.
They reached and they all wanted a turn to hug her! Not happening, Gabriel thought.
“Hey, we just want to say hi,” one the guys said belligerently when Gabriel shoved Meems behind him and scowled at them.
“A handshake would do, she isn’t properly dressed,” he growled, and they all just then realized that his shirt was soaked with blood, and it wasn’t his.
“No harm done, man. We understand,” one of the guys came forward and shook his hand, his eyes caught the wedding band on his left hand, and he discovered, later on, that the guy was his name's sake.
“He’s the protector,” one of them said in realization.
“I’m a detective now,” Gabriel answered.
“Still in the protection business,” someone muttered, and they all laughed. They really were a cheerful lot, it was quite annoying, and he wondered why they’d been graced with their unserious presence.
“What are you guys doing here?” Meems asked in an awed voice, which did nothing to reduce his increasing angst at a bunch of guys that she knew better than him, clearly, he was jealous.
“They are the bunker child, and we need to hurry,” Gabriel’s father said and herded the motley crew to the van.
Gabriel didn’t understand his father until he saw what was in the van, the thing was wired like what he assumed NSA looked like.
“To answer your question, Meems,” one of the tech guys began, “We’ve been in communication with all the hubs in the country and this broadcast is set to begin nationwide. In one word, we’ve synchronized this entire exercise. Whatever you put down on that laptop, is going to appear on every device without the use of data. In fact, we’ll be making the video form of it for TV and voice recording for radio and that’s why we’re here.”
Meems smiled and willing sat in front of a laptop that was way better than hers. She didn’t say a word, and everybody watched in awe as her fingers flew on the keys, and words appeared on the screen.
Gabriel fully understood then the connection of everything that had happened. Meems bosses were an integral part of the overall plan and he felt guilty for thinking they were unserious; at that moment he actually appreciated their weird humor as it made him smile a couple of times and relaxed his tense muscles.
Everybody had roles, someone, was on a Skype call to a lot of people, young people, at the same time. Others just fiddled away with their laptops as Meems continued typing, looking lost to their presence.
It was complete.
Meems stopped typing, turned to him and fell face forward; Gabriel was quick to catch her.
She felt dizzy and wondered what was happening to her now, would she die?
Relax, you’re okay.
She smiled then, her head voice hadn’t left her, then she sighed and lost consciousness.
00:00 am…the message
I place no hope in my strength, nor in my works: but all my confidence is in God my Protector, who never abandons those who have put all their hope and thought in Him – Francois Rabelais
Faith rests in understanding.
The understanding that God never leaves His children desolate; that He’d never forsake them, that His thoughts are good for them.
But Hope…
Hope is the will, the staunch decision to stand by the understanding created by faith; the WILL to overlook and stand strong despite present circumstances.
Nigeria where is your hope?
Your faith lies buried, like trickles of water running deep under the earth, waiting to be dredged. But where is your hope?
Faith teaches, prescribes, and directs, how the Creator works, saves and wins our battles.
But Hope…
It stirs up the mind that it may be STRONG, BOLD and COURAGEOUS, that it may suffer and ENDURE adversity, waiting for better things.
You have forgotten the teachings, the prescriptions and the directions, WAKE UP! Time to be strong. You have let your mind go into hiding; you have allowed it to be timid in the face of difficulty.
Not anymore – Do not be afraid…be courageous!
Faith has taught us to cling to the WORD and the PROMISE of the thing promised.
But Hope…
It looks upon the THING promised in the word.
We know the promise of the thing promised, it’s there, though buried, but it’s there. We need hope to reach for the THING promised.
Nigeria, allow your FAITH to HOPE!
Faith is the beginning of life before all tribulation.
But Hope…
Hope proceeds from tribulation.
Your faith is buried and forgotten because it flourished before the problems.
Now is time to AWAKEN hope! This is your salvation – Hope in the recall of faithful words, words of DELIVERANCE, words of God.
Faith though forgotten, taught and judged and fought against errors of heresies, judging spirits, doctrines, DOUBTS.
But Hope…
…is the general or CAPTAIN of the field, BATTLING against tribulation, the cross, impatience, heaviness of spirit, weakness, DESPERATION and blasphemy. And it WAITS for good things EVEN IN THE MIDST of evils.
Hardship had conquered your faith and buried it in times past. Doubt in God and His word crept in and spread DEPRESSION OF THE MIND and will. The devil labored to extinguish your faith with wiles and lies.
But Hope…
Feel that bubbling STRENGTH awakening in the pit of your stomach. FEEL it, ACKNOWLEDGE it, USE it!
That is hope!
Allow it to WRESTLE and TAKE HOLD on the things revealed by faith. Allow it to use the KNOWLEDGE of faith to OVERCOME the devil which warred against faith.
After this sure VICTORY, you, dear Nigerians, will bask in the brilliance of PEACE and JOY as God made it to be.
Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of out burden behind us - Samuel Smiles.
THE COUNTRY WAS SHOCKED out of their numbness with the broadcast. It had never been done before, but the tech geeks had pulled it off with Hubitz at the helm.
Hubitz was trending, the idea of voice recording which had been their main option had turned out best. Different spoken word artists had been commissioned and in different languages too.
Internet based speakers had been strategically planted on every street corner. An almost impossible feat, but Gabriel’s dad had made it possible, he wouldn’t say, though, who his sponsor or partner was.
But it was generally agreed that only an act of God had accomplished such a feat successfully.
The positive effect wasn’t immediate, but faces were bright again, brains were sparking and hope flowed eternal.
~EPILOGUE~
Hope is the pillar that holds up the world – Pliny the Elder
Anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles is not a realist – David Ben-Gurion
11:05 am – December 25th, 2018.
I woke up disoriented.
The whole of my body hurt, so I tried to recall what I might have done to cause such pain, and it came flooding back.
I jerked as waves of terror rolled through me. I shouldn’t be sleeping; I should be awake and alert, ready for whatever.
But as I tried to get up, not even recognizing the room I was in, an arm tightened around the softness of my belly. My eyes widened and slowly followed the sinewy muscle, from my stomach, upward and finally…
Sigh
Though his visage was boyish in sleep, and he was the most handsome man in that moment, I regretted hitting him with those stones. I know I wasn’t to blame, but it meant I hadn’t been strong enough to resist the devil.
“Stop it,” he suddenly said. I started when I heard his gruff whisper and looked to see his warm, brown eyes staring softly at me.
“I’m sorry,” I said, our eyes not looking away.
“For staring?” he asked with a twitch of his lips.
I turned in his arms and fully faced him, my eyes were serious, “For this,” I touched the bandage on the side of his head.
Gabriel’s arm tightened, bringing me flush against him. My very soft chest was smashed against his quite hard one. I breathe deeply to try and control my racing heart, but I needn’t have worried because his own raced alongside mine.
“Patience, what happened?”
Few words but I understood his question and I didn’t want to talk about it. It probably had shown on my face, or he’d known from the weird sixth sense thing we had going, all he did was shake me gently.
“Tell me," His eyes and voice were so warm with concern I blurted out my stupid past.
“I was just superstitious. Now that I think about it, I feel foolish,” I mumbled.
“Don’t say that babe,” he gently shook me again and smiled.
“I believed that my name influenced my nature. I really could persevere a lot of rubbish from friends and especially from…boyfriends. They practically walked over me, and I did nothing about it,” I shrugged then, “It made me feel better to be called Meems.”
“Meems was free; she could do anything without worrying that she’d offend anyone. I could sass anyone…”
“Which would be me,” Gabriel said in a matter-of-fact tone, and my heart skipped.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he grinned then, “I enjoyed our morning sessions. Though yesterday’s own was the best, we skipped the small talk.”
I couldn’t help myself, I giggled uncontrollably, and he joined me, and it turned into a full guffaw.
“It’s wedding first before the honeymoon,” Gabriel’s father called through the door.
My eyes widened in consternation. Oh my God! I was so ashamed right now.
“I believe this is my apartment, dad,” Gabriel called out and I tapped him arm urgently to stop him from saying anything. I would have preferred he not say anything until his father left.
The older man chuckled good naturedly, “Your mom says you should feed her, so bring her over to the big house.”
“Okay,” Gabriel replied.
“Don’t let him no matter how nice he begs, Patience,” Gabriel’s father called out again.
My eyes widened together with my mouth this time. I gasped and couldn’t get a word out; Gabriel was silently laughing at my embarrassment.
“You hear?” the man insisted.
“Seriously, dad, you want me to talk to mom?” Gabriel asked but grinned and pulled me close, I buried my face in his neck.
“Patience?” the man called again, obviously waiting for my reply.
“O…o…okay sir,” I finally stammered.
“Good,” he grumbled and began walking away from the closed door.
“I’m definitely talking to mom,” Gabriel called out and laughed at my fallen face.
“Come on, you have to get used to it.”
“Why?” I asked wondering what we were doing.
“Oh, by the way, you want to get married, say today?” Gabriel asked so casually I was struck dumb.
“Why?” I asked again in shock.
“Because we’ve been dating in my dreams,” he replied and brought his face close to mine.
“Dating…dreams?”
“Three years, I’ve been dreaming about you,” he softly confessed, and my heart soared in exhilaration.
“So, marry me, today?”
“No,” I blurted with a slight frown, and wondered, who does that?
You will
Fat chance, I thought, as I watched Gabriel recover from his blanched expression and swooped down to softly coax a response from me, with his lips on mine.
Glorious
I went plaint in his arms, he turned me over and climbed over me, resting his hands on the bed, on both sides on my head. He leaned in and I arched up to meet him, but his warm lips landed on my eyelids and then slowly blazed a trail to my neck and then lower…
His breath fanned my naked chest and hardened the nipples to pebbles. I waited with bated breath for the would be satisfying wet connection of his mouth on them.
Gabriel just kissed the soft sides of my bosom and I groaned, frowned and gave him a pointed stare to get on with it already.
“Marry me…”
“Moot point, Gabriel, you could continue,” I snapped breathlessly, still arching up and offering the delectable me.
“I respect my dad’s wishes. Besides, I want this to be right.”
“This is right,” I exclaimed with wide, convincing eyes and he laughed, his chest rumbling on mine.
“Babe,” it was a warning.
“Alright, alright, let’s do it,” I capitulated in exasperation. “But can I have a happy ending,” I pleaded in a really small voice with a coy look.
Gabriel laughed so hard he coughed. “Oh God, baby, I love you,” he said earnestly.
I hummed pleasurably, “I love you, too,” and reached up to kiss his Adam’s apple.
It should have ended there but I dropped a wet one on his jaw and then the corner of his lips. Gabriel growled and took over, from then on things got pretty hot and heavy, until the banging began on the door.
“Gabriel, let the girl out!” his mother shouted from the door, and I could hear his father murmur too.
My God; the embarrassment.
“This is my apartment!” Gabriel shouted, but still kissed me quick and hard on the lips.
“It’s our house,” his father retorted.
“I’m moving out,” he threatened.
“Okay,” his parents replied without hesitation, and we couldn’t help ourselves, we laughed, so hard we coughed…I might have even farted, but who cares.
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
This story was instantly inspired by a very weird dream, were some devil minions were actually trying to collect my laptop from me; in the dream, Joke Silva was my partner. When I woke up, I thought it was cool though to have Joke as an action partner; additionally, Meems’ apartment building was in the dream too, the rest are just imaginations.
And there’s a possibility that it was a malaria induced dream…or not.
Anyway, the dream turned to this, plus I’d been thinking of what insightful story I would write for Christmas. I do HOPE, that this weird story is meaningful, at least to some, if not all, people.
Merry Christmas Folks!
The End.