“Let us give thanks for breakfast,” Rita says as they settle at the dining table. Her heart is full because her family is finally complete. She had always dreamed about this as a young girl. Sitting at the head of the table is Joshua, her boyfriend, who moved in with her three months ago, after six months of dating. Joshua is the CEO of a Real Estate firm while Rita is a university lecturer. Across the table from Rita is her ten-year-old daughter Chloe, who she had from a previous relationship.
When they decided to start living together, Rita and Joshua decided that Rita’s house was the most ideal. Joshua is building his own house; it is a five-bedroom mansion that impresses Rita every time they visit the construction site. Before moving in with her, Joshua was living in a one-bedroom apartment which would not suit Rita and Chloe. Rita’s house is a three-bedroom apartment.
Joshua and Chloe bow their heads, and Rita leads the family in prayers. She thanks God for the food and also asks God to guide and protect them in their daily activities. After the prayer, Joshua and Chloe attack their food as Rita watches in satisfaction. Today she has prepared pancakes and fried eggs, and that is what they are attacking with relish.
Rita loves cooking, and she has always enjoyed cooking for her daughter. She has taught Chloe how to cook, but the girl doesn’t enjoy the task. So Rita cooks most of the time, and Cloe cleans the dishes. Now that she has a man in the house, Rita is even happier to see him enjoy her meals day in and day out.
*
Rita thought she would get married right out of college. She met Luke, her first boyfriend, when she was a third-year student at the University of Nairobi. She had just been nominated as the Christian Union Secretary at the University of Nairobi Chiromo Campus. Each of the campuses of the University of Nairobi has its own independent Christian Union. However, the Christian Unions come together in a loose affiliation known as the Joint Coordination Council of the University of Nairobi Christian Unions (JCC). The purpose of the Council is to explore areas of collaboration between the various Christian Unions and to find joint solutions to emerging challenges.
Each Christian Union is represented at the JCC by its Chairperson and Secretary. Upon being nominated as the Chiromo CU secretary, Rita became a member of the JCC together with her Chairman, Arnold. It was at the JCC that she met Luke, who was the Chairman of Kenya Science Campus Christian Union. As it happened, their colleagues at JCC elected them to lead them, so Luke became the JCC Chairperson while Rita became the Secretary.
That is how their friendship began, which a few months later morphed into a relationship. They had a lot in common. For starters, they were both from Tharaka Nithi County, and they soon started bonding in Kimeru on the phone. Second, their courses were related; Rita was pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry, while Luke was pursuing a Bachelor of Education degree specializing in Biology and Chemistry. They both loved the outdoors.
At first, they did their best to maintain sexual purity as their faith demanded. They met in public places and avoided physical contact. But one Saturday they went hiking the Ngong Hills. Both of them loved the outdoors, and they aimed to climb Mount Longonot. But they wanted to use Ngong Hills as a test of their physical and psychological preparedness.
They set out early and were in Ngong town by 7 am. Before that, Rita had taken a matatu from the CBD and alighted at Ngong Road, where Luke lived in a bedsitter. It was the first time she was getting to his house. They took black tea with mandazi and then set off. Rita left her handbag in Luke’s house as they went out, with Luke’s backpack holding their bottles of water and their snacks.
They took a matatu and alighted at Ngong town, where they began their ascent. They were determined to climb all of the peaks. They were both physically fit and so consumed in their conversation that they did not feel tired, neither did the sun, which was blazing by eleven am, bog them down.
They got to what they thought was the final peak at 4 pm and overcome by emotion, they hugged happily. Before they broke apart from the hug, Luke tilted Rita’s face and kissed her on the lips. She resisted at first, but seconds later she surrendered and then kissed him back intensely.
“I love you, Rita,” Luke said breathlessly when they unlocked their lips.
“I love you more, darling.”
There was palpable sexual tension between them in the descent, although neither of them spoke about it. But they held hands, which made the currents even more intense. It was already dark when they got to Ngong town, and took a matatu to Luke’s house.
Rita’s heart was conflicted. She was afraid that if she went to his house, they would fall into sexual temptation. She felt she should just go straight to her house. On the other hand, her keys were in her handbag, which was in Luke’s house. Besides, while her Christian soul wanted to avoid sexual sin, her body was aching for it.
When they got to Luke’s bedsitter, he did not waste time. He locked the door and started kissing her.
“Wait, babe,” Rita said after the first round of breathless kissing. “I don’t think we should be doing this.”
“Why babe? Don’t you love me?”
“Of course, you know I love you babe. But we are Christians and sex before marriage is a sin. We should wait until we get married.”
“Sex before marriage is only a sin if you don’t get married, babe. Because then it becomes promiscuity. But read the Bible. If a young man had sex with a young woman out of wedlock, he was required to pay her bride price and take her as his wife. That is exactly what I intend to do.”
Before she could respond, he took her into his arms and started kissing her again. This time she did not resist but surrendered to the delights of his lips. Then he removed her clothes, and his own, and carried her to the bed.
*
Rita and Luke became regular sexual partners, and even though she felt guilty about it, Rita found comfort in the fact that they intended to get married shortly after campus. But it was not to be. In the second semester of her fourth year, Rita fell pregnant. They had not been using any contraceptives, but somehow she had avoided pregnancy for months. Until it happened.
When she told Luke about the pregnancy, she expected that they would accelerate their wedding plans. Quite the opposite, he became hostile and started accusing her of being a promiscuous seductress who had lured him into sexual sin. He told her that he wasn’t responsible for the child and that she should ask her ‘other boyfriends’ to take responsibility.
Rita was crushed. She could not believe her ears. It was Luke who had broken her virginity, and he was not only the only man she had ever slept with, he was the only man she had ever desired. As if that was not enough, he started spreading rumors about her pregnancy, claiming that she had been cheating on him. Soon she was confronted by her own CU executive committee led by Arnold.
She admitted that she was pregnant, but refused to say the father. She had already decided that she would not be drawn into a contest with Luke. He had already denied her baby, and there was nothing she could do to make him love her and her baby. Mentioning his name would only sound vindictive, and she did not want to get into an open conflict with him. She became the promiscuous villain, and he the saintly victim.
Christianity is all about forgiveness, but as Rita soon found out, Christians are also the most judgmental people in the world. She was practically ostracized by the Christian Union community because of her pregnancy. Her former ‘friends’ avoided her as though she had leprosy. This hurt her as much as Luke’s betrayal.
The final months of her campus life revolved around classes, the library, and her room. Already a bright and hardworking girl, her last semester was marked by a furious determination that saw her smash straight As in all her subjects, giving her the final push to a First Class Honors degree.
*
Rita’s parents are devout Christians, but they supported their daughter throughout her pregnancy. While the pregnancy became fodder for gossip in the village and local church, they stood by and protected their daughter. When Rita got a scholarship to pursue a Master’s degree in Biological Chemistry at the University of Vienna, they urged her to go, assuring her that they would take care of her eleven-month-old baby.
Rita returned after two years and was reunited with her three-year-old child who had blossomed under the watchful eyes of her grandparents. She got a job at her alma mater as a lecturer and started teaching alongside the men and women who had taught her a few years earlier. She immediately enrolled for a Ph. D program in Biochemistry which she completed in four years and was promoted to be a senior lecturer.
Rita is an accomplished scholar; she has written numerous articles and scholarly papers on biochemistry. She has also authored two books and co-authored one. In addition to her teaching job, she is a consultant for many organizations which she finds not only financially rewarding but also professionally fulfilling. Earlier this year she was promoted again and became an associate professor of biochemistry.
*
Rita’s life has been going on well. She is a respected professor of biochemistry. Her daughter has become a sharp preteen, a confident, intelligent, and kind child. They are both healthy and comfortable. She has everything to thank God for. While she was betrayed by people she had served God with, Rita’s faith in God never wavered, partly because of her parents’ support.
The one part of her life that is unfulfilled, one that she has been praying to God about every night, is her social life. Rita is a family-oriented woman, and she has always wanted to get married despite Luke’s betrayal. But over the years she has just accumulated a string of useless ex-boyfriends. Some, she discovered had just wanted to sleep with her, and when she insisted that that would not happen before marriage, they vanished into thin air. Others looked like genuine prospects, but whenever she mentioned that she was a single mother, they would vanish. Even Luke, now married and with three children, shamelessly tried to seduce her, claiming that he realized his mistake and wanted to ‘make it right’. But ‘making it right’ was not offering financial support to his daughter (he kept whining about the low pay TSC offers teachers) but sleeping with Rita. She sent him back to his wife and blocked him everywhere.
But Joshua has been different from all of them. He is the perfect gentleman. He treats her like a lady. Ever since he moved in, he has been footing all the house bills. He never tried to rush her into sex. And when she told him that she has a daughter, he said that he would love to meet her. Rita hesitated for three months because she has always tried to shield her daughter from her boyfriends, but finally, she introduced them.
Joshua and Chloe hit it off immediately, and have been very good friends. Chloe was particularly thrilled when Joshua moved in. The girl may have been looking for a father figure because she is also very close to her grandfather. It is Chloe’s relationship with Joshua that convinced Rita that he is the right man, and she relaxed her rule on premarital sex and started sleeping with him. Nevertheless, plans for a wedding are underway. Before they moved in together, Joshua visited her parents and declared his intention to marry her. He also introduced her to his mother and sister.
They plan to hold their traditional wedding in August, and the church wedding in December. They will move to the house that is currently under construction in December, just before the wedding. It will be their matrimonial home. As she watches her family having their breakfast, Rita is happy that her fulfillment is now totally complete.
*
“Babe, can you drop off Chloe at school today?” Rita asks as they finish their preparations. After breakfast, they retreated to their bedroom to brush their teeth while Chloe used the common bathroom. Rita is now powdering her face while Joshua is fastening his tie.
“Of course babe. You know I am happy to. She is my daughter.”
Rita’s heart swells when he says that.
“Thanks, babe,” she says as she kisses him on the lips. Then she takes her handbag and breezes out of the room. For the first time in his life, Joshua is happy that he is in love. He has previously been terrified about falling in love because of a mistake he committed years ago. He is thinking about this when a form appears in the room. It appears like fog at first, before it crystallizes into the shape of a woman. A beautiful woman.
“Hello, Josh. I can see you have gotten yourself a beautiful family. Congratulations.”
“What do you want Jezebel?” he asks harshly. “You and I are done. I have repaid your debt in full.”
“You know that is not true, darling. You owe me one final sacrifice.”
“That is what you have said the last three times. The sixth was the last, but you have claimed two more. I am tired now, Jezebel. Kill me if you want, but I am not giving you Rita.”
“It is not Rita I am interested in,” Jezebel says, with a twinkle in her eye. It takes Joshua a minute to register what she is saying.
“No, Jezebel, no! Chloe is just a child. Besides, she is not my lover; her mother is. So she does not qualify.”
“She will qualify because you will sleep with her today.”
“She is a child, Jezebel!”
“You know the drill, Joshua. It is either you give up the girl, or there will be a bloodbath. I will start with your mother, then Rita’s parents, then your sister and her children, then Rita, then the girl, and finally you. In that order. They will all die very painful deaths. So it is either you give up the girl, or you automatically give up everyone.”
Jezebel the ghost disappears after saying that. Joshua bites his lip. Why did he allow himself to get involved with Rita and her lovely family? Why did he convince himself that Jezebel would finally leave him alone? He genuinely loves both Rita and Chloe. Why did get involved with these demons in the first place?
Of course, he knows why. He was trying to save his mother. Joshua’s father had been a civil servant before he died in a road accident. Two years later, Joshua’s mother was diagnosed with cervical cancer, which quickly took control of her body. They spent the little wealth their father had left behind getting her treatment, but rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy were not helping. The cancer left them financially destitute, but their mother was not getting better. It was clear that she was dying.
One day, while he was in the hospital with his sister watching their mother’s life web away, a nurse whispered to him that she had an unorthodox way of helping if was willing. Joshua was ready to do anything to save his mother. He met her that evening at a restaurant. She told him that her name was Jezebel, which he thought was an odd name. Most people avoid the names of villains while naming their children. She told him that if he wanted, she would take him to her shrine where her priest would give him a concoction for his mother. He agreed.
Visiting the shrine was a scary affair; it looked evil from the word go. He did not see the priest; he just heard a voice. He was instructed to take a glass with a red liquid in a corner and drink it. He did. It was salty and warm, and when Jezebel later told him that it was human blood, he nearly vomited. He was then instructed to have sex with Jezebel on a mat that was in the shrine. Jezebel guided him, including showing him how to use a condom. He was a virgin then.
Jezebel was told to help him put his semen in one of the tiny containers within the shrine. She did, and the voice told Joshua to go and feed his mother that semen if he wanted her to live. He was told that the sacrifice for the healing service would be the first six women he fell in love with. Joshua had never had a girlfriend, and the concept was abstract then. He readily agreed. Some strange women for his mother seemed like an easy bargain. Besides, he could decide to become an opus dei member and avoid paying the sacrifice altogether.
It was disgusting, but he fed his mother his semen. That evening he went to see her alone and emptied the bottle in her mouth. When he and his sisters visited her the following morning, she had visibly improved. She was discharged a week later, in complete health, and even doctors could not explain what had happened.
Joshua did not join the Catholic group, nor did he choose a chaste lifestyle. In fact, by the time he started going out with Maureen, his first girlfriend, he had forgotten all about Jezebel and the shrine. Until Jezebel appeared, this time as an apparition, demanding the sacrifice. He did not have a choice about the other seven women. He had feelings for them but refused to ask them out fearing for their lives. But Jezebel always knew, and she would appear and threaten to wipe out his family if he did not date them.
The girls die mysteriously. Jezebel appears while he and the girl are making love. The girl cannot see her. When the act is done, Jezebel demands that he bite the girl’s ear, drawing blood. Then Jezebel sucks all the blood in the girl and tells Joshua to leave immediately. The girls are usually found dead later, with no injuries. Post-mortems reveal cardiac arrests and hypertension as the causes of death.
The seventh and eighth girls were not supposed to die, because Joshua was supposed to have cleared his ‘debt’. But Jezebel keeps coming. This time he genuinely thought it was over, because he had been in love with another girl before, and Jezebel did not force him to date her. She married another man and is still alive. So when he met Rita, he thought his nightmare was over. He has been with Rita for nine months and Jezebel has not appeared until now.
*
“Are you okay, dad?”
Joshua has always been proud when Chloe calls him ‘dad’. But today it hurts, because he knows he is going to betray her. In a few seconds, he is supposed to drag her to her room, tear off her clothes and rape her. How is he supposed to look into her eyes as he does that? She will hate him forever, even though that ‘forever’ will be in the world of the dead.
“I am fine sweetheart,” he says, forcing a smile but regretting his choice of the endearment term. He takes a deep breath and pulls her towards himself.
He will do this to save Rita and her family, he tells himself.
[THE END]
Next Friday I will tell you more about Joshua and Jezebel in the story, ‘The Ritualist’ and the Tuesday after I will tell you the whole story about Joshua, Jezebel, Rita, and Chloe in the novella, ‘Powers of Darkness’.
Previous Novella; Root of All Evil
To purchase any of the other novellas, click HERE.
