Checkmate Episode 24 (By Adeyoola Ojemola)

 

Pastor Dave could understand why his wife loved Some Peace and Quiet. It was such a rare place in their ever bustling city. He came here out of urgency and the need for answers.

 

He has not really taken Simon’s actions as something that serious. He has considered it teenage despondency.

 

However, he is wrong, so wrong. It took his wife’s dream to gear him to an awakening. When Bro Joshua shared the dream he had in Pastor Dave’s office, he wondered for the meaning but since they prayed together, he left it at that. 

 

But then when his wife shared her dream with him,  he knew that God had sent him a message and twice. He should have noticed it from Simon because why will a child who can be considered the most behaved boy he knew suddenly turned rebellious?

 

 

As Dave sat on the chair in the lounge he ordered, his Bible and a journal open before him, he revisited some of the things God had said to him in the course of the year; perhaps God had spoken to him and he did not pay due attention.

 

He kept reading many things and God had said a lot! But none of it seemed to align with any of the dreams that had been shared concerning him nor about what was going on with Simon. 

 

He closed the journal, kept it aside, and drew his Bible closer towards him. He was flipping page after page but nothing caught his attention. He went to the book of Psalms yet nothing spoke to the current surging in his heart. 

 

 

Feeling restless and in dire need of God to say something, anything to him, Dave knelt right there in the lounge, raised his hands towards God and said,

 

‘I do not know what to say but I am in need of answers to why I am in the dark about destroying something precious in my home?

Why am I fighting myself with a doppelganger? 

Why does my son seem to detest me and speak to me as though I were a hypocrite?

You have told me that my son will also walk in this calling to serve as your mouthpiece. Is this what the enemy is trying to destroy? He doesn’t want my son, Simon, to take up this calling, hence causing the spirit of rebellion to take charge of his heart?

 

But I have prayed against that in Simon’s life and I know that my prayers are answered. Why am I not seeing any results, Father?

 

Father, my Father, please speak to me. Let me hear you directly. What is in the dark, unknown to me and the enemy is using it against me? 

 

Do I need to confess a sin and repent?

 

Does it have to do with my lineage?

 

What is going on, Lord?

 

Dave did not know when he had prostrated himself before God and was already deep in tears. This was a very private moment between him and God. He had previously taken a prayer retreat for Simon with his wife but nothing changed. He had taken a personal one himself but his son only grew hardened. 

 

He understood that unless light shines in this darkness, God’s own light, there will be no comprehension and darkness will soon overtake him and his family. 

 

Not knowing what else to say in his understanding, he began to pray in tongues. He was mindful of the policy in the place he was so he didn’t raise his voice. 

 

He spoke in the Spirit for long such that he did not recognise when he was raising his voice and he heard a double tap on his door alerting him to disturbance. 

 

He kept still, waiting to listen if God had anything to say to him. 

 

He waited,

and waited,

and waited…

 

Then, Bambam flashed across his mind. 

 

The remembrance of Bambam jolted him up. 

 

Bambam???

 

How? 

 

She has not even crossed his memory in like 16 years?

 

He last saw her 27 years ago?

 

So what has this got to do with Bambam. ‘I don’t even know where she is or who I might even reach out to so that I can connect with her.’

 

Bambam?

 

Father, You have to speak in a language I’d understand… We have parted ways in about 27 years now… And for all the wrong I have committed against her, I have asked for Your forgiveness when I came to Jesus and I know without a doubt that I have been forgiven.

 

So what about her Lord?

 

Vera and I have prayed concerning the hurt I caused and asked that the enemy will by no means use it against us. So what is it about Bambam that I need to know?

 

Do I need to intercede for her?

 

Or do I need to ask her forgiveness too? If I know where she is, I will, Lord. 

 

By this time,  he was already pacing the brief length of the room out of restlessness. Suddenly the room felt stuffy and he badly needed a surge of fresh air. He went out of the room towards the water fountain area. He found a seemingly secluded space and tucked himself there. 

 

He noticed a young man reading a book a little distance away. Dave felt he looked familiar but he dismissed it. Right now, that does not matter to him. 

 

Dave placed his head in his palms and bowed it as his mind drifted to the time he met Bambam. He had just left home to resume university in a bigger city. He had never been exposed to that level of freedom before and it made him feel good.

 

He was no longer under the watchful eyes of his parents and the community of people he grew up with. He was his own man. He intentionally chose a school that was far away from his parents and as the simple-minded people they were, his parents had no issues letting him go. 

 

His parents will always say that he, Dave, was God’s son, hence, God will always take care of him. He did not care much for that then, but now, he took it seriously. Far away from his parents, Dave explored the kind of life he could never live out  in his parent’s presence.

 

Before gaining admission into the university, he had always thought that as an only child, his parents were too expectant and forced all their hopes on him. So he took the opportunity of the university to break himself free or so he thought. 

 

When he resumed his first year in the university, he refused to attend any campus fellowship as his parents had admonished him to. Perhaps with the determined aura he had within him to not associate with Christ in school, he found those of like minds pull towards him as friends. 

 

One of them was Bambam.

 

Bambam was his class mate but was a year older than him. She was such a young lady that easily outshined others with her outspokenness. 

 

The first time they met was when she came late to class and she snuck in with her small stature through the back door when the lecturer was not looking. She didn’t even ask for an excuse; she used all of her weight to push Dave so he could create a space for her to sit. 

 

The lecturer did not notice the whole ordeal. After she had settled in, Dave looked at her in amusement and she gave him this ‘whatever’ look.

 

The next thing Dave heard from her as he took notes was ‘Ahah, you have a fine handwriting o. I like it when people have nice handwriting. Mine is better anyways.’ Bambam said with glee.

 

 

Dave took a peep at her notes and he could barely make sense of a sentence without squinting his eyes. He almost burst out in loud laughter but caught himself in time. 

 

That was the beginning of an academic session  of friendship. 

 

Bambam’s real name is Bamidele Bamidupe, hence the alias. She was also an only child like him but she had dwelt in so much freedom.  Not spoiled, but much freedom. Her parents rarely said no to her. When she said she did not want to live on campus like the rest of them, they got her a flat in town, fully furnished with everyday necessities. Her father worked for one of the big corporations in the country. 

 

Bambam and Dave soon became best buddies and everybody knew them together. They were rarely apart during the day and occasionally in their first semester, Dave would sleep over at her house in their first semester. 

 

Bambam took Dave to a night club for the first time in his life and soon it became a weekend thing for the both of them. One thing they both agreed on was to never try drugs and not join any cultic group. Every other thing was permissible to them. 

 

Without any formalities to their relationship, they had begun to have sex together. 

 

Bambam had from the onset invited Dave to move in with her but Dave had always found that ridiculous. Moving in with a woman who was not his wife? No way!

 

However, the torture of being far away from her while on their inter-semester break made him have a rethink. As soon as they returned for their second semester, Dave did not return to his bed space in the hostel on campus. He resumed straight into Bambam’s apartment. 

 

At their end of session departmental dinner and award night, Bambam and Dave were officially the best couple of the year. Even those who were not in their department knew them. 

 

Due to Bambam’s personality, she often drew attention to herself, but she always found a way to make friends with people. 

Dave at some point in their first year had a clash with a spill-over student who was to retake a course in their level. This guy walked up to Dave and asked him to do his assignments and let them sit together for their tests and final exams. 

 

Dave, knowing the full implications of what could be if they were caught, blatantly refused the offer. He’d have no part in it.

 

The senior was a key member of a notorious group on campus. They began to find ways to deal with Dave. Bambam heard about it and in her own unique way was able to put a rest to the soon to be uprising against Dave. 

 

Bambam took him to the senior’s lodge off campus and the both of them knelt outside his door until he opened it and Bambam requested an audience with him. 

 

He obliged her and for about 10 minutes, whatever Bambam did or said in private is still unknown to him till today. They went in after that and the senior let him know that Bambam saved his life. 

 

Later, he found out that another student in their class helped the senior and Bambam had a hand in their connection. 

 

One day, his parents came to visit unannounced. They headed to his department upon arrival and soon enough, they were able to locate him. As Dave saw his parents, he pleaded with Bambam who was beside him to please not come around. He was scared of having them find out that he was now living off campus and with a lady at that. 

 

As soon as Dave went to greet his parents and lead them to the Students’ Courtyard, Bambam came along and greeted his parents with so much enthusiasm. She introduced herself as his close friend and that she had heard a lot about them from Dave.

 

At that juncture, Dave knew he was in for it with his father. 

 

Somehow, Bambam noticed a change in his father’s countenance and she excused herself after a little more pleasantries. As soon as she left, Dave’s father requested that they go to his hostel so they could drop his stuff. 

 

Dave had to think very fast on convincing his father that his hostel room needed fumigation so he had to move in with a friend in another department off campus. 

 

His father said nothing after that. His mom spent some time interacting with him and after about one hour, they were set to leave for home. Before they boarded the taxi headed for the bus pack at the school’s gate, his father quoted one Bible verse to him, ‘David, when sinners entice you, do not consent!’ And with that, they left. 

 

Flashing back now, Dave understood better what the Bible meant when it said there is a way that seems right to a man but the end of that way leads to destruction.

 

 

Catch up on the last 23 Episodes here.

 

 

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Wheeeeew! 

We can never find true freedom outside God. How does it feel like to finally have a glimpse into Dave’s past?  Share your thoughts in the comment section.

 

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Checkmate Episode 25