the second floor, carrying some important documents for my boss, when I came across the new applicants. I couldn't help but LOOK at them seated as I passed. There were many who had the images of important personalities hovering above their heads; these were the fellas with 'connections'. A few had the blue flames of pure academics lighting up their auras. Some of them were spiritually drenched in alcohol, but most of them dressed in false hope. They had come for this interview but had already convinced themselves that they wouldn't get the job because they didn't have connections. In so doing they attracted failure to themselves. This was so because even those who couldn't see could feel their hopelessness and invariably were repelled by it.
I was silently reminiscing on all of this when I saw her. She was bent, head down in her books, trying to gather a few more points before she was called in. As I came closer she looked up- and what I saw took my breath away. She had the cutest big brown eyes I had ever seen, sited evenly atop a little, well chiseled nose and lovely brown lips. Her hair was made in braids and tied in a neat bundle at the side of her head. She looked, in every sense of the word, beautiful.
Then I looked and saw her wings. Magnificent. Purest white and fanned out perpetually behind her like a protective shield. And then there were heavy metal chains securely holding the wings in place. Her sins, you see. Most people had them. Hers were unique in that they were made of gold. And I honestly didn't know why.
She caught me staring at her and blinked in indignation .
"What? Any problem?" She asked.
"Na..nothing." I stuttered. " You've got the biggest pair of wings I have ever seen."
I swear, i didnt know when i said it. And it was after I said it that I saw her bosoms. Yeah, they were huge too.
The whole corridor went quiet, or at least I think it did. She stared at me, mouth open, a look of shock on her face. This was quickly followed by anger, especially as she thought I was looking at her chest.
"That's not what you wanted to say abi? Pervert! Abeg leave me jo!"
I felt like the ground should open and swallow me up. I tried to apologise but then the public address system system sounded:
Nina T. Please come in for your interview.
She got up, gave me the meanest look I had ever seen, and stalked into the interview room. I was helpless. I tried to apologise one more time. She hissed and kept on walking, but I thought I saw something like the flicker of a smile just before she entered the office.
I turned and walked slowly to my boss'es office. I could see the snickers and amazed looks of those who had heard my embarrassing dialogue. As I was about entering one of the cleaners brushed by me and whispered "Correct man!" before hurrying on.
I spent the rest of the day hiding in my office. As I was closing up I saw that the candidates were still waiting for the interview results. Nina stood, easily recognizable in the small crowd. I walked towards her, thought better of it and moved towards the exit, thought again and went back to the corridor. She didn't notice me until I was up close to her. She glared at me once she recognised who I was.
"I am so sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. And I wasn't talking about your...er...those, either" ( I saw her eyes go dangerously thin-better not bring that topic up again). What i wanted to say was you have big eyes. I mean, not big in a bad way, but good, I mean not akpolo eyes but, but..."
I had made a mess of things again. I tried grinning in a helpless bid to save myself but that only seemed to make things worse. She hissed and looked away. I sighed and stood very still, not knowing whether to save what little dignity I had left and melt away or stand my ground. I ended up standing there, waiting to see the results of my own impromptu interview with this angel. Thirty minutes later the list was pasted and her name came out. She was ecstatic. She celebrated her success with the few others that had been chosen. When it was time to leave she walked up to me.
"Listen oga, I don't care what position you hold in this company, you can't start insulting me like that! Don't you have a sister? How dare you look at me like a piece of meat? I-
"I wasn't looking at you brea-sts!" I yelled angrily. She took a step back in shock. I was angry but mostly at myself for messing things up. I tried to bring my voice down.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you the way I did. Honestly I didn't notice , ah, never mind. Congratulations on getting the job. I just wanted to let you know that I was sorry. That was why I waited. And since I've made a mess of everything I might as well let you know you have beautiful eyes too."
I walked away then, leaving her looking stunned. I reached the stairs and was about going down it when I heard her run up behind me.
"I'm Nina," she said, smiling.
"Chuks" I replied, smiling too.
"You are weird, chuks." She said, still smiling. "Weird but nice. See you at work tomorrow?"
I thought: Armageddon wouldn't keep me away. I said: " maybe, yeah, ok."
She smiled again and went back to her friends. And me? I danced all the way home. Inwardly of course.
We grew fond of each other soon after that encounter. Personally, I think she came closer to me because I seemed to see beyond her beauty(which I literally did) and I came closer to her because, well, because she was beautiful. And intriguing, but mostly beautiful. She was of average height, just a head below me, slim figured with nice curves and a bossom that could only be described as ambitious. And those her wings were glorious. They fanned out ever so often, usually when she was in a happy mood. The chains didnt seem to disturb them so much. And even the glowing of the gold itself added to her beauty. Of course only i could see and appreciate them. Due to her physique she received a lot of stares from the male folk at first until they got used to her. She was quite friendly and approachable too. She had a way of caring for those less oppurtuned than her and was usually seen helping others at their desk. Some misconstrued this as pock-nosing at first but they caved in when they saw her lovely smile and genuineness. Ok, you get it, I guess I was a bit....infatuated with her. Don't ask me why I am using past tense. You'll find out soon enough.
Sometimes when I was watching her, I would see the manifestation of her wings and the gold chain would clink and jingle. This usually happened when she was in deep thought and at that time she would look sad, forlorn. I tried to look harder, to see more, to know what it was that was bothering her so much but I never saw beyond the gold chains. I previously mentioned Pachios. You remember. My guardian Angel. He usually kept out of sight and only appeared when he needed to alert me of something or if it seemed I was unduly worried. He sat beside me now at my desk as I was watching her gold chains glimmer yet again.
"Leave her be." He said. "If it was meant for you to help her you would have seen more by now."
I sighed. "But, pachios, come, haven't you seen anything like gold chains before? I'm interested, what do they mean?"
Pachios kept silent. By now I had learnt that when he was this way it was either he didn't want to get involved or he genuinely didn't know himself. I sighed again. The gold chains didn't seem threatening, only maybe set off a kind of sad aura. Maybe she had commited a very grevious sin....or maybe her destiny had been tied by some evil relative....my mind went from one possibility to the other. I had tried asking her if there was a problem on various occasions but had come up with nothing.
Suddenly she looked straight at me. She paused for a moment from what she was doing and smiled. I smiled back. She rounded up whatever she had been doing and crossed the office to my side.
"Hey weirdo." She grinned.
"How are you doing breastina." I answered good naturedly. She laughed and punched me on the shoulder. It hurt a bit.
"Have I ever told you how strong you are?" I asked, rubbing my shoulder.
"Nah. I know you just say that to make fun of me", she replied. From the corner of my eyes I saw her chains glow briefly. Guilt? Did they glow when she felt guilty? I chased away the thought.
"Come to fellowship with me today." She said.
I groaned. For a few weeks now she had been insisting that I follow her to a new fellowship that had opened close to the office. She said the pastor there was preaching 'fire' and was really sound.I grunted, unconvinced. Don't get me wrong. Its not that I don't go to church. I am as christian as you'll get and a little bit more too for obvious reasons. But then there was my Sight. Most times when I was invited to a prayer house or meeting or fellowship there was the tendency for me to cause a scene. I tried not to but in the end I usually ended up being the one to cast out the demons or loose those that were chained. Pretty exhaustive work which was made occasionally more exhausting if the person I was casting out the demon from turned out to be the pastor himself. I ended up worshipping in one of the orthodox churches. They had a tendency to be more peaceful.
Today Nina was being extra persuasive, giving me a sad, puppy dog kind of look that would break anyone's heart. I felt myself giving in but held on to my decision bravely.
"Why not? What's your reason this time?" She asked.
"Well, l have that report to submit tomorrow and it kind of looks like its going to rain."
"I'll help you with the report. I just finished the one oga gave me and its not like I'm doing anything else this evening. Plus it will give me an opportunity to know your place. Well? What do you think?"
She wanted to know my place?
I gave in.
The venue for the fellowship was a three room apartment that had apparently undergone some structural changes. The door had been widened and the walls freshly painted. Rows upon rows of wooden benches lined the hall and brand new speakers decorated an immaculately white alter. The flowers used for decoration were huge. Apart from the ceiling fans, tornado standing fans had been installed at intervals along the aisle. Huge multicoloured banners decorated the side walls. At the head of the alter a large banner declared in gold letters "BOUNCING IN FAVOUR CHURCH INTERNATIONAL". The place was getting filled up pretty fast when we arrived. Nina led me down to the middle aisle and sat next to me. The choir was belting out a popular rendition and I was already getting a bit nervous. Nina looked at me and frowned.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Er, nothing...nothing." I smiled gamely, trying to ignore the vulture sitting on top of the choir mistress' head. Most of the other choristers were alright though for some strange reason I kept on seeing them singing with their eyes closed, like they were actually sleeping. I faced the alter and joined in the singing. Nina sang along and suddenly everything seemed so peaceful. Her voice was an amazing soprano. Every note that came out of her mouth was silver lined, like she belonged in the choir more than anyone else. I sighed to myself. What a woman. Surely this was love? I mean, logic told me that if everyone was hearing her the way I was, she'd be a music star by now. So either other people weren't hearing her the way I was, or I found her so attractive that anything she did amazed me.
We sang for a while more then the pastor came onto the alter. There was wild applause which he received humbly then he motioned for us to sit and began his service.
Interesting!..lookin forward to d concludin episode
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