Wounded Pilgrim 5

LEAVE ME ALONE

As Bartholomew looked at Sister Happiness he could not believe that this same sister that had told him point blank that she was married to a brother who had delivered a fiery sermon was actually not married. This fact alone was still like a mirage to him and he could bring it off his mind for a while.
“What did Eliezer want to tell me that you want to tell me?”, he asked.
“We are currently organizing a wedding committee and we would like you to help us in some things apart from just being a member of the committee” she started.
“Please go ahead and if you don’t mind be brief because I am very hungry” he said like he was setting ground rules.
“But we could buy you lunch provided we get your help on this”
“I want to get to the house to cook myself ugali and some meat stew I had left from yesterday’s supper”
“No way Bartholomew” It was Eliezer joining them in their conversation.
“Why not?” Bartholomew asked.
“We need you to chair our wedding committee as you are my long-time friend” Eliezer went ahead.
“I think you are mistaken. You were to request and not demand because you never involved me in your plans right from the word go” Bartholomew was not going to give in that easily given the fact that he felt the couple were just trying to build upon the friendship history to seek a favour that he himself was not ready to provide.
“You could have asked other brothers in the church that have done this before to help you since I am not in a position to help you with that” he was determined to nail the offer completely so that they stop bothering him.
“Okay if you can’t chair our wedding committee like you did with the funeral of brother …” Eliezer was saying something when Bartholomew cut him short.
“Well that was a funeral and this is a wedding for time’s sake” Bartholomew felt pissed off.
“The way you handled that funding drive and everything really fascinated me. Anyway we need your support then as a member. Support us with your five thousand Kenya shillings and we will be good to go. We are actually pledging that this afternoon under that tree” Eliezer continued to speak. Just then Bartholomew took out his phone and pretended to be picking a call a he moved towards the gate.
“Let me attend to this please” he said as he moved towards the gate. Eliezer and his bride to be moved towards a gathering by the tree where a number of other brethren were sited discussing something in pairs. Bartholomew moved with haste towards the main road and was gone to his residential place. Hunger was not giving him the peace he wanted because he had a lot of things to take care of. He was stressed about his father’s health since the salary had delayed and the boss was not going to give any salary in advance to get medical attention for him.

In coming days he would be working on a report that his boss wanted so badly done before the board of directors arrived for their annual general meeting. The fact that he had failed to be online for more than a week when he bought some bundles to check something his boss claimed he had sent him he was so shocked to find so many unread messages. His phone literally hanged as it vibrated for the incoming messages that showed on his notification panel. A total 200 unread messages was quite abnormal to him to imagine.
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Most of those unread messages were from a WhatsApp group called “Happiness Weds Eliezer”. So had been online he would have known about the wedding prior to its announcement in church. In the profile picture of the group he could see happy bride and bridegroom whom he was disappointed in in many ways. They had indicated they needed five thousand shillings to meet the expenses of their expensive wedding that was to take place in Mombasa while the reception was to be in Bamburi then the honeymoon would be Diani places he only saw on Google Maps. He could not see when the group had been created but all that he saw were people pledging a lot of money towards funding the half a million wedding. He could not believe that not only had the brother been helped to pay dowry but then he had not finished paying it.
So Eliezer actually wanted funded everything from dowry, pre-wedding, wedding, and honeymoon and even have his wife’s delivery done on pluto out of other people’s pockets? Bartholomew asked himself. He knew the guy was very educated and God had given him a good job earning a good salary every month. But now he is getting married and he still wants to beg?

Whatsapp groups have all sorts of characters: from those who think they are funny but not and keep on posting old jokes, to those in business who keep on selling stuff and then those preachers posting bible scripture, quotes and those merry-go-round texts threatening to forward them or what. Watching the chats he wanted to type: “My brother isn’t that not inviting poverty into your house by having such an extravagant wedding? Being prayed for in church after the Sunday service after exchanging vows and rings won’t disqualify your marriage. Stop imposing unnecessary budgets on the brethren.” But then he decided not to do so. He soon exited and deleted the group before texting Eliezer who was also online at that particular moment.
“Brother I think I already contributed to your wedding” he texted him.
“When and how much because I can’t see it in my list.” Eliezer texted back.
“Just take out his calculator and start to subtract all the money you have borrowed from me since you very well that you failed to pay. You will found it is amounting to something more than what you want me to contribute in the wedding committee” he nailed it at last to him and went offline to continue writing his boss’ report.