Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: TRAVELER (01/28/16)
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TITLE: Oasis of Love | Previous Challenge Entry
By grace olumayowa aideloje
02/04/16 -
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"Lord, I’m so angry at my mum and at myself and at Jessie."
Why did she agree with her mum to go out with Titus? The name sounded pious enough and her mum had described him as one of the good brothers in church. However, mid-way into their date, he was almost over the table, trying to grope her. She had told him off and returned home.
Her mother’s wrath greeted her this morning. “You arrogant, ungrateful girl, how could you be so rude to that gentleman?”
Still bristling at her mother’s harsh words, Jessie, her assistant had called in sick. She knew how awry a day like this could go if she didn’t do anything about her attitude. “Lord, help me control my emotions. Let your light shine through me to everyone that will come here today.”
Blind dates are over for her.
“Lord, that’s it,” she muttered. “You will have my man walk to me and propose. I’m tired of these dating games. I trust you to give me a man after your heart.”
She sighed and returned to her mission of running Oasis, her Café, situated in the Lagos Airport Terminal. Famed for its honey-coated croissants and other dainty pastries, the Café, drew passengers waiting for their flights.
“Sorry, your order is forty-five seconds late.” Sade apologized to a young woman as she placed a tray on the table.
“It’s okay dear,” the woman winked and waved a collection of little colorful cards tied with shiny ribbons. “Waiting here blesses my soul with your Cute Cards. This one says, ‘God has a unique and special plan for everyone. We are all different but equally valuable. Knowing this helps us to be content with who we are and what we have.’” She cast a reflective gaze at Sade and said, “thank you.”
Sade’s heart leapt with joy at the woman’s appreciation. That was just what she needed – a doze of kind words; to know that, in her own little way, she was blessing lives with God’s inspiring words. Her mother’s insults about not being able to attract a decent man at thirty-eight faded.
************
The next morning, Sade was at the cash register, while Jessie attended to customers.
“Hello,” she looked up with a smile… and froze.
The tall man before her smiled and waited.
“Deji, what happened to you?”
He shrugged.
She just couldn’t believe he was the same man; her ‘Mr. Handsome.’ His angelic eyes had sunk into gaunt cheeks.
Almost every Friday, for over two years, Deji had lounged at Oasis while waiting for his flight to Calabar. Sade had been attracted to him from the first time she saw him but had cured herself of her infatuation when months later, she saw a wedding band on his finger.
While serving him one morning, he had read aloud from her Cute Cards.
“It’s difficult to understand why God sometimes lets His children suffer. In hard times, just trust Him that He will work things out in the end for your good.”
“Really?” He had asked, looking despondent and she had nodded. That had started a chat about God allowing Christians to face trials. Deji had informed her that his wife of eight months had cancer.
“Doctors say she would be gone in a matter of weeks. We have been Christians since our teenage years. Why should this happen to her?”
Sade had encouraged him with God’s word every time he came to Oasis and together, they would pray for his wife’s healing. After a while, he stopped coming… until now.
“What happened to you?” She asked again.
“She’s gone.” In his intensive gaze, she saw the remnants of his grief and her eyes welled up with tears.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
He nodded. “It was devastating. It’s been over a year now and I need to put my life together again. Will you help me?”
Sade blinked several times while he smiled, slowly.
Seven months later, as Deji slipped an engagement ring on her finger, she remembered the day she prayed, “Lord, You will have him walk to me and propose… I trust you to give me a man after your heart.”
Fiction
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