THE EVANGELIST DAUGHTER

The world came crashing down on me few days earlier. I had just lost my job as a company sales man with Liverson; kicked out without pay after two years of hugging the dirty streets selling insurance to people who didn't give a damn about insurance. My crime was simple. I had refused to roll in the hay with the director's daughter. She had wanted me so bad she was willing to do anything including setting me up on some trumped up charges if I refused her proposal. Of course I did refuse and found my tail hauled off her father's company. If she was beautiful, I would have taken the bait. Problem was, she was as ugly as sin and I didn't want to be embroiled in something I wouldn't come out of easily. So I had packed my few belongings and hitched a ride to Phoda, a town 5miles away for a fresh start.

It wasn't a great town, but then, I didn't have money for great towns. This one was okay by me. I got one of those dinghy rooms, paid a few dollars for bed and lodgings only. No air-conditioning. No heating system. No room service. Nothing. The streets found me wandering at 9.am, banging on doors looking for a job, any job that could keep me afloat for awhile. In the afternoons, i cooled off my heels at one of those ubiquitous eating houses that sold bad coffee and stale bread. At 6pm I was slouching back to my room, dog tired, hitting the sack and going out like a light.

It was in one those outings that I saw Sarah, pretty blue eyed Sarah, passing a few feet from me without a hint of recognition. I was stunned. Was this really Sarah Mark, or was I hallucinating? She had almost disappeared from sight by the time I recovered and went after her. I hurried after her and was just in time to see her slip into a nondescript building whose windows were made of glass and then she was gone. Wow! I checked my time; 5.30pm. I headed for home while my mind did a flashback.

I had met Sarah Mark at Phoda, a year ago while I was doing my insurance thing. She wasn't beautiful in the sense of the word, but she had a great smile that could charm the birds off the trees. Her father was a travelling evangelist who was home one month, and then away for two years.

Sarah and I had taken a sudden liking to each other. It was love at first sight. I had taken her out on the few occasions my job permitted. We had gone to the local cinema to watch Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet, danced a few times at Rizzo even if I wasn't a great dancer, fed our bread baskets at Monterro and had always ended up at her door step at 10.30pm closing the night with casual kisses sweet nothings. Of course, that was as far we got. Further incursion into uncharted territory was greatly discouraged with "drink water from your own cistern. If you want this, then come and see my father". This cat and mouse game went on like that for four months then suddenly, one day she was gone. Disappeared into the blue. Just like that. I had gone bunkers and had haunted her house like a ghoul, more times than I could remember, hoping to see her again. I was madly in love with her. But that was all I got... Nothing until now, a year later.

Next day same time, I was at the spot I had met her, near the building she had slipped into, hoping, begging and praying for her to show up. Well, fate smiled at me and finally she did show up, passing by me again, oblivious of my presence, not even giving me a glance. I let her go a few steps then called her name softly, praying I wasn't mistaking her for another person. To my greatest delight, she turned, but then she suddenly gave me a blank stare and pushed on. I was stunned. I looked at myself again, was I changed? Yeah. Maybe. But not much. I had on a few days of straggling mustache and a slightly bushy beard, plus my clothes were a bit worn and thread bare. On top of that, I wasn't looking healthy and had lost a good deal of weight on account of my frequent starving. That was about it. This current state of being was as a result of my job lose which I could do nothing about. I ran after her, and caught hold of her hand.

"Sarah, it's me Richard, your Richard at Phoda. You remember me, don't you?" I asked desperately, hoping she would say yes, but she shook her head and said calmly;

"I knew a Richard, once, at Phoda. You ain't he. You can't be him. He ain't like you. You look awful. Besides, the Richard I knew died long ago. You better let go of my hand before I scream".

I watch my hand go suddenly limb while she made her way home, not even giving me a second glance.

I got home in state of confusion. Me, Richard dead? What happened out there? Was I so far gone for Sarah not to know me anymore? What was it, the year long interval between us or my abnormal look? The next day, I got ahold of a mirror and found an unkempt and half starved crazy man gaping back at me. I was horrified. Was that why I haven't been able to secure a job yet all this time?

I hurried to the bank and withdrew a great part of my remaining savings, caught a cab to the salon, gave myself a clean cut, took off the mustache and the beard and embraced civilization again. I hurried to the restaurant across the street and gave myself a whole load of breakfast that would knock out three grown men. Thereafter, I bought some new clothes and Cologne at a shop that claimed her products came directly from London, branched at a local drug store to buy some multivitamins then headed home where I spent a good one hour in the bathtub, giving myself the scrubbing of my life, washing away years of filth and scum accumulated from the search of jobs in the streets, took some multivitamins and embraced my bed. I did that for the next two weeks without going out to search for a job or see Sarah and the old Richard came back, handsome, strong and appealing.

I staked her location again after the two weeks of self incarceration, decked with new clothes, weighing almost a hundred pounds and smelling like something straight from the factory. This time, when she saw me, I didn't need to whisper her name. She did the whispering, nay, the screaming. She screamed my name to the high heavens and flew at me, giving me a bone crushing hug and a long bewitching kiss that got me dizzy.

"Welcome back to life Richard", she purred. "I remember you now, the insurance guy at Phoda. Missed you like hell. Please take me home, would you?"