PSALMS

Chapter 19 of the book-“NON-CONTRADICTORY CONTRADICTIONS”

XIX Psalms

23  1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Psalms: Chapter 23:1-6 (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

In this chapter we continue the story from chapter 13-1 Chronicles-where we left Peter about to accept an attractive offer for the purchase of his blog-“The Gossip Column”-by a South African Newspaper.

1

Peter had always loved flying and it was, therefore, not surprising that he was in a very good mood as he landed at O R Tambo International Airport, in Johannesburg, South Africa. This was his second trip in as many weeks after his successful negotiations on selling his blog to a South African newspaper. The negotiations had led to the formation of a company in which the newspaper was to have a controlling shareholder stake of 60%, with Peter retaining the balance of 40%. Peter was being paid a substantial sum for the 60% portion of his blog and he was quite pleased about that because in reality (as far as the work was concerned), he was going to continue to have full control.

The South African Airways Airbus 319-100 landed smoothly and quickly taxied towards the terminal building. Peter could not stop thinking about how lucky he had been to get this deal. During the negotiations, the editor of the paper had revealed that he had a lot of leads for stories which Peter could pursue and consider publishing. These were stories that the paper itself could not publish right away because some of the sources of the stories had not been fully substantiated. Peter’s blog, however, being a “Gossip Column”, could release these stories straight away and worry about the consequences later. There was always a way in which a “Gossip Column” could get away with publishing stories that had “suspect” sources.

Peter’s plane had landed a long way from the main terminal building. The route to the terminal involved crossing two run-ways as the plane taxied on the ground. It was during the crossing of the second run-way that the accident happened. An Emirates Airbus 380 that had presumably been cleared for landing, came swooping down on the run-way that Peter’s plane was crossing and virtually started landing on Peter’s plane. The huge Airbus 380 hit the smaller plane with such force that one of the wings on Peter’s plane sheared off and the engine on that side of the plane caught fire.

Peter could not believe what was happening. Such accidents are not meant to happen. There were 97 passengers on the plane and pandemonium soon ensued as people scrambled for the emergency exits. Peter was also panicking but he managed to slide down the emergency shoot on the side of the plane that was still intact.

Amazingly, everybody who was on board the plane managed to get out. None had serious injuries. Peter did not have a single scratch and that was true for most of the passengers. They were being directed away from the plane as it was now on fire. Fears were that the plane could explode at any time. This did not happen, however, because the fire fighters did a splendid job of extinguishing the fire.

Some more fire engines were racing towards the huge Emirates Airbus 380 which had managed to lend safely despite some extensive damage to its under-carriage. What a day, Peter thought and thanked GOD that he was alive and virtually unscathed.

2

In the first few weeks that followed his dramatic entry into South Africa, Peter settled into his new surroundings without experiencing any more surprises or shocks. He was working mostly from his apartment in Sandton, which was now home. He only went to the newspaper offices if he wanted to meet with the Chief Editor to discuss some leads.

The stories he published in the first five weeks, although of much interest to his readers, were, nonetheless, far from being controversial. It was only in the sixth week that he touched on a “hot wire.” As with most of his stories these days, this one came through a source provided by the newspaper.

The story was political. Somebody had got wind of a plan by one of the political parties to infiltrate the youth wing of a major rival party and destabilise it from within. The source claimed that this plan was already in the implementation stage. To add some veracity to this story, there had been several recent high level defections between the two political parties in question. What was not certain was whether the plan for destabilisation was really a fact.

Initially, the newspaper had wanted to run the story but it was later decided that it might be better to test the waters by running something in the “Gossip Column”.

3

When Peter published the story it caused quite a sensation. In fact, he started to get some death threats via the comments section of the blog. At first, Peter did not take these threats seriously but he changed his mind quickly when on one evening he came out of a restaurant to find that all the tyres of his BMW had been slashed. This had happened while he had been having dinner with a friend from the newspaper. They had parked the car is a supposedly secure parking area but this had not stopped whoever had slashed the tyres from doing so. It was, obvious that whoever had done it wanted Peter to be frightened and discontinue following the “pseudo-defections” story.

Peter knew that some of these political thugs could really be dangerous and he was now seriously worried. He left the car where it was for the entire night and only made arrangements for it to be collected by people from his BMW service centre the following morning. That same day, he discussed the episode with some of his close acquaintances at the paper and everybody encouraged him to continue with the story.

Peter was not so sure about this. He was genuinely worried that he could come to some harm. These other guys were tough, seasoned journalists who were fearless and that is why they found it easy to encourage Peter to continue with the story. Peter was not made of the same mould. He was scared.

What was he going to do?

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JOB

Chapter 18 of the book-“NON-CONTRADICTORY CONTRADICTIONS”

XVIII Job

1  6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. 7 The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”

8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

9 “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

12 The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”

Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were ploughing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”

18 While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind, swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!’

20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.

The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”

22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

Job: Chapter 1:6-22 (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

In this chapter we continue the story from chapter 12-2 Kings-where we left Dwayne considering a job offer from a Mrs. Harper. Dwayne’s current boss, the restaurant owner, Mr. Rawlings had just shocked Dwayne by indicating that he was the one who had recommended Dwayne for the driver’s position at Mrs. Harper’s.

1

The fact that Mr. Rawlings had recommended Dwayne for the job at the Harpers had settled the issue for Dwayne. Such a recommendation was really an “order” for him to accept the job offer. There was no way now that he would even think of not taking the job. 

The moment that Dwayne got back downstairs to the restaurant, after assuring Mr. Rawlings that he would accept the job offer, he went to the pay-phone booth and called Mrs. Harper. Joyce Harper was delighted that Dwayne had decided to accept her offer.

“Are you able to start immediately, Dwayne? I want you to be with Luke for his last week at work,” Mrs. Harper asked. Luke was the driver who was retiring.

“Yes, Mrs. Harper. Mr. Rawlings said he could release me immediately. If it’s okay with you I can start tomorrow,” responded Dwayne.

“Yes, you can start tomorrow. You can come to the house at 9 a.m. Just hold on for Luke and he will give you the directions to the place.”

2

The Harpers’ place was in Kensington. Dwayne arrived at the house a few minutes before nine the next morning. The idea was that Luke would show Dwayne what he should do when looking after the cars. There were five cars at the house but Luke only looked after Mrs. Harper’s two cars, the Rolls and the Range Rover. James Harper had his own driver who looked after the other three cars.

Close to the house was a fully furnished flat where Dwayne was now expected to stay as soon as Luke had moved out at the end of the month. Luke explained that the job did not really have fixed hours. Dwayne would be expected to be on call over the entire 24 hours of the day. In reality, though, there was not much to do. Mrs. Harper usually liked to go shopping on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. She would also combine these shopping trips with visits to her hair-dresser. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she would devote most of her time on painting some landscapes, a great hobby of hers. She would think of a spot, normally just outside London and of course, Dwayne would have to take her wherever that might be. Otherwise Mr and Mrs Harper would spend time together over the weekend, Saturdays and Sundays and only one driver would be required to be on standby on those two days. What normally happened was that the two drivers, Mr. Harper’s driver and Joyce Harper’s, would discuss amongst themselves the weekend duties, with the driver who worked on Saturday taking the day off on Sunday.

Dwayne wanted to ask Luke about “Mrs Harper’s reputed amorous behavioural tendencies” towards other males besides her husband. He did not know how he could phrase the question so in the end he just said lamely, “What sort of boss is Mrs. Harper? Is she easy to get along with?”

“Well, let me tell you this, Dwayne. She is the best boss I have ever worked for. You are going to enjoy your stay here,” said Luke.

Dwayne was not quite sure what to make of this. Was she or was she not the kind of “lady-boss” who liked to fool-around with the help? This is what he really wanted to know so he could better prepare himself to what might come. But he did not ask this direct question. ‘Anyway’, he thought, ‘I am soon going to find out one way or the other.’

3

After Luke left at the end of the month, Dwayne moved into the flat that the departing driver had vacated and quickly settled into his routine. Just as Luke had told him, there was not much to the job. He actually found himself with a lot of time on his hands. He brought some books from his uncle’s place and spent a lot of time reading in the flat.

Joyce Harper, on her part, did not show any signs of being a promiscuous woman. She did not give Dwayne any indication whatsoever that she might be romantically interested in him. After the first two weeks, Dwayne started to relax and decided that his boss had been treated unfairly by whoever had started the rumour that she liked to “fool-around” with the staff.

It was during the second month of his tenure at the Harpers that everybody’s life was turned upside down. One Friday evening, when Mr Harper and his driver were coming from an official dinner organised by one of his companies, the driver somehow lost control of the big Mercedes and the car rolled over several times before it came to rest on its roof. Mr Harper died on the spot but the driver was unscathed. As it turned out, the safety features of the S600 had lived up to their excellent reputation and what killed Mr Harper were not injuries sustained from the accident. Mr Harper had a heart-attack, precipitated of course by the shock of the accident. His driver hardly had any scratch on him and was discharged from the hospital they had been rushed to on the very same day.

Mrs. Harper took the death of her husband really badly. Two weeks after the funeral she still refused to go out of the house even to her hair dresser’s. Friends and relatives who tried to get her to start leading a normal life met with stubborn resistance. For her the mourning period was going to take a long time.

4

James Harper had been a very wealthy man. When his will was read, it showed that his net worth had been well over three hundred million pounds. All this fortune now went to his widow, Joyce. The fact that she was now an extremely wealthy woman did not seem to have much significance on Mrs. Harper. Her thoughts only seemed to be with the husband who had been taken away from her.

Under these circumstances, Dwayne was at a loss as to what he should be doing to assist the situation, if anything at all. He now spent his working days either reading in his flat or polishing the five cars. The late Mr Harper’s driver had, of course, not come back to Kensington after the tragic accident. Dwayne tried to persuade Mrs. Harper to start taking up her painting hobby but she did not seem to be interested in anything.

One day, six weeks after the death of James Harper, Joyce Harper seemed to suddenly “come alive.” She instructed Dwayne to drive her to her hair dresser and from there she wanted to go to one of her favourite spots for painting. Dwayne was delighted to see this change in her boss. Over these past weeks, he had grown very fond of her and genuinely wanted her to recover from her loss.

When some of Mrs. Harper’s friends heard that she seemed to have recovered, they started inviting her to all sorts of activities but she refused. She seemed now to only enjoy driving out to the country-side with Dwayne where she would pick a spot and paint for hours. During these periods, Dwayne would just sit at a distance watching her paint. He began to see her not as a boss but as a very lonely woman who really needed someone to lean on despite her immense riches.

Bit by bit, Dwayne began to entertain thoughts of initiating some sort of romantic relationship with his boss. When he first thought about this he laughed at himself. How ironic that when he took the job he thought he would have to “defend his honour” against this lady, now he was the one who was thinking of seducing her. Yes, how ironic!

The request that came from Joyce Harper one day, when they were driving home after yet another pleasant excursion, was quite surprising. It was the last thing that he could have imagined.

“Dwayne, you know what I would like to do now?” she said to him. “I would love to do a portrait of a male nude!”

As she said this, she looked at him from across the her seat, for she had long ago stopped the practice of sitting in the back, preferring to sit in the front passenger seat beside him.

“It’s only that I have not had the courage of employing a male model to sit for me,” she continued. “I once asked James to do it but he flatly refused saying that it was the work of professional models.”

“Would you like to sit for me, please Dwayne, so that I can finally paint my portrait of a male nude?” she asked.

The next chapter-Psalm- will be published not later than Sunday, 5 June, 2011

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ESTHER

Chapter 17 of the book-“NON-CONTRADICTORY CONTRADICTIONS”

XVII Esther

5  On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the hall, facing the entrance. 2 When he saw Queen Esther standing in the court, he was pleased with her and held out to her the gold sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther approached and touched the tip of the sceptre.

3 Then the king asked, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be given you.”

4 “If it pleases the king,” replied Esther, “let the king, together with Haman, come today to a banquet I have prepared for him.”

5 “Bring Haman at once,” the king said, “so that we may do what Esther asks.”

So the king and Haman went to the banquet Esther had prepared. 6 As they were drinking wine, the king again asked Esther, “Now what is your petition? It will be given you. And what is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”

7 Esther replied, “My petition and my request is this: 8 If the king regards me with favour and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and fulfil my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for them. Then I will answer the king’s question.”

Esther: Chapter 5:1-8 (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

In this chapter we continue the story from chapter 11-1 Kings-where we left Tambudzai in a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa where she was expecting to give birth to a baby boy. We also know that after her “strange dream” she had resolved to call the baby, Nelson in honour of Nelson Mandela.

1

To everybody’s relief, despite all the problems that Tambudzai had experienced during her pregnancy, the actual birth of the baby went smoothly without any complications whatsoever. Her husband, Jabulani was present in the delivery room during the process.

A little later, Jabulani watched mother and child as the baby was being fed from the breast. It was a pleasant sight.

“He is a big boy,” Jabulani said proudly. “He is going to run this country one day.”

Tambudzai was amazed that Jabulani should say this. She told him about her strange dream in which she had dreamt “re-living” Nelson Mandela’s triumphant release from prison. Jabulani agreed to name the baby, Nelson as he was also a great admirer of Mandela, as were, of course, a lot of people in the world.

2

Tambudzai’s mother, Chipo came to the hospital later on that day. She was accompanied by her husband, Richard Rawlings.

When Chipo held her grandson in her arms she was filled with great emotion. She felt her eyes water as she thought back to the time she had given birth to her own children. First, had been the difficult birth of Tambudzai’s brother, Nhamo. Chipo had only been twelve years old at the time that she had given birth to her first child. She remembered the pain she had experienced and how close to death she had come because she had been too young to be a mother. Now she was a grandmother at the age of forty but filled with tears of joy.

Tambudzai watched her mother closely but was not concerned because she knew that the tears that dropped from her mother’s eyes were tears of joy. She, of course, knew how her mother and both her brother and herself had struggled in the early days of her childhood. But Tambudzai also remembered that her mother had managed to give the best care she could to her two children under very difficult circumstances. She hoped that she was going to be as good a mother to Nelson as her mother had been to her.

3

Chipo and Richard managed to stay with Tambudzai and Jabulani in Johannesburg for a period of three weeks before they had to go back to London. It had been one of the happiest periods in Chipo’s now joy-filled life. Chipo was determined to come back and visit the young family as soon as she could because she knew the importance of being close to one’s loved ones.

On the day that the Rawlings were to leave for London, it started to rain quite heavily early in the morning. Jabulani called the South African Airways office to make sure that the London flight for that evening had not been cancelled. Jabulani could have been forgiven for being concerned because thunderstorms had built up just before they were about to leave for the airport. The airline, however, assured him that the London flight was expected to take-off on time despite the bad weather.

Tambudzai decided to join her husband, Jabulani on the ride to the airport as she wanted to continue seeing her mother up to the very last moment. They left the baby home with the maid and drove through the rain towards the airport.

The rain continued to pour down quite heavily and it was now affecting visibility. Tambudzai prayed silently, asking that they be delivered to the airport and back home to Sandton safely. Just as she was thinking and praying for their safety, she suddenly found herself screaming as their car was hit by a truck coming from an opposite direction. The car was hit directly on the driver’s side and rolled over twice before coming to a rest with its wheels up in the air.

Tambudzai felt blood all over her face as she struggled to get out the car. She had been sitting at the back with her mother as Richard sat in front with Jabulani who was driving. Tambudzai could see that her mother was also trying to struggle out of the car and so was her step-father, Richard. The only person who seemed not to be moving was Jabulani.

Finally, Tambudzai managed to crawl out of the wreckage. She turned back to see if the others were managing to free themselves. This is when she saw that Jabulani’s neck was turned at an abnormal angle, suggesting that it could have been broken. She also noticed that Jabulani’s eyes were wide open but they seemed to be staring unseeing into empty space. She knew straight away that she had lost a husband and the father of her young baby.

She rolled towards the car and let out a loud scream as the true realisation of what had just befallen them came to her in full force. Jabulani was dead!

The next chapter-Job- will be published not later than Sunday, 1 May, 2011

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NEHEMIAH

Chapter 16 of the book-“NON-CONTRADICTORY CONTRADICTIONS”

XVI. Nehemiah

9 7 “You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham. 8 You found his heart faithful to you, and you made a covenant with him to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites and Girgashites. You have kept your promise because you are righteous.

9 “You saw the suffering of our forefathers in Egypt; you heard their cry at the Red Sea. 10 You sent miraculous signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which remains to this day. 11 You divided the sea before them, so that they passed through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters. 12 By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take.

13 “You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. 14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. 15 In their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them.

16 “But they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not obey your commands. 17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, 18 even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.

Nehemiah: Chapter 9:7-18 (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

In this chapter we continue the story from chapter 10-2 Samuel-where we left Sipho Dlamini contemplating a decision he had just made about doing something to satisfy his lust for the teenager, Nokutula who also happened to be the farm manager’s sister.

1

Sipho Dhlamini had hardly slept at all that night. He kept on seeing those “bouncing breasts” and thinking how he was going to enjoy fondling them at long last. He “made love to Nokutula several times that night.” This was, of course, all in his obsessed mind. He could have done what he had been doing the previous three days, that is, make love to his wife whilst imagining “doing it” with Nokutula. But tonight he did not want to do that. He wanted to conserve all his strength as he was determined to ambush Nokutula during her jogging run in the morning.

Morning came at last and Sipho quickly got out of bed. He mumbled something about “work” and “early” to his wife but if she heard him at all, she did not show any acknowledgement. In effect, she was really still soundly fast asleep. This was not wholly unusual, Sipho leaving the house so early in the morning. Farm work sometimes demanded that one wakes up in the early hours of the morning to attend to one thing or the other.

The sun had not come up but it was beginning to get clear with darkness disappearing by each passing second. Sipho wanted to make sure that he would be well ahead of Nokutula so that he could choose a perfect spot along the jogging route to way-lay her.

2

Because it was still very quiet that early in the morning, he heard her coming when she was still a long way off. His heart began to beat extremely fast and he started experiencing shortness of breath. “This was it,” he thought to himself. This was one experience he was going to enjoy tremendously.

Nokutula saw him standing in the middle of the path at a distance of about 40 or so metres away. He was so confident of himself that he had not made any attempt to hide amongst the trees. Although he was still a bit too far away to clearly make out his features, Nokutula knew who it was because she had noticed the way Sipho Dlamini had been looking at her these past few days. There had been no mistaking what his intentions could turn out to be.

She did not break her stride as she was prepared for this encounter. As she came near him and muffled a “Saubona” greeting whilst trying to side-step around him on the narrow path, Sipho grabbed her by the hand. She did not scream out or attempt to pull away her hand and Sipho thought that his friend Peter had been right after all. This girl was ready for action!

As he tried to pull her close to him, already drooling with anticipation, he found himself violently tripped to the ground. He had not seen that coming but somehow this girl had found a way of wrestling him to the ground. What he had not known was that Nokutula was actually a judo expert. She stood over him as he lay on the ground not knowing what was to come next. Unbelievably, she started taking off her track suit top, exposing a bra that was holding “those massive breasts” in place.

“Let’s do this properly, Mr. Dlamini. Take off your pants, I want this as much as you do,” she whispered.

Sipho could not believe his luck. He quickly took off his pants and shirt and in no time at all, he was just in his boxers. Nokutula pretended to come towards him but in one swift motion kicked him hard in the groin and Sipho doubled over in pain. Before he could recover, this mad girl was holding his hands behind his back and tying them up with a rope that came from one of her trouser pockets. He tried to struggle but she knew what she was doing. She forced him down onto the ground, face down and tied one leg to the rope around his hands behind his back.

“Now Mr Dlamini, don’t go anywhere because I am going to call my brother and your wife so that they can figure out what you are doing naked, lying around on the ground in this lovely orchard,” Nokutula said. She ran off leaving him struggling in an effort to free himself.

The next chapter-Esther- will be published not later than Sunday, 17 April, 2011

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EZRA

XV. Ezra

9 5Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self-abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the LORD my God 6 and prayed:

“O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. 7 From the days of our forefathers until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today.

8 But now, for a brief moment, the LORD our God has been gracious in leaving us a remnant and giving us a firm place in his sanctuary, and so our God gives light to our eyes and a little relief in our bondage. 9 Though we are slaves, our God has not deserted us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem. 

Ezra: Chapter 9:5-9 (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

In this chapter we continue the story from chapter 9-1 Samuel-where we left Mrs. Martha Matombo being raped by David, whom she had regarded as her future son-in-law.

1

When David had “finished with her”, Martha continued to lie down on the carpet, still sobbing and in great disbelief that she had actually been a victim of rape committed by somebody she had trusted completely as a future son-in-law. After a period of almost an hour, she got up and went to the bathroom to clean herself up. She scrubbed herself so hard and for such a long time as if such action would undo the horrible act she had been forced to be part of.

The thought of contacting the police did not occur to her at all. All she was thinking of was what she was going to say to her daughter, Elizabeth. What was she going to say to her? She had no choice, really, but to tell her daughter that her fiancé had raped her. What was Martha going to say to the people at the church? The shame of it! Would some people, knowing their close relationship at the church choir, think that she had somehow encouraged him and eventually led him to act in the way he did?

She thought about her predicament for a long time and finally decided that she was not going to say anything to anybody. She could not bear the thought of people knowing that David had raped her. By extension, she decided she was not going to say anything about this to her daughter. Although Elizabeth deserved to be aware of something as grave as this involving somebody she had been going out with, Martha resolved that she would not tell her daughter.

2

Elizabeth came home from work that evening before her father did. Despite her resolve, Martha started sobbing the moment she saw her daughter.

“What is the matter, Mama? Why are you crying?” Elizabeth asked her mother. Martha kept on sobbing without saying anything. Elizabeth, on her part, without knowing what was wrong with her mother, also started crying. So mother and daughter hugged each other, both sobbing but the daughter doing so without knowing why her mother had started crying.

At last, Martha stopped sobbing. “It was David...David”, she sobbed. “David! What about David? What has happened to David? I did not manage to speak to him today. Has something happened to him? Is he hurt?” panicked Elizabeth.

“No, no. He is alright,” Martha said. “He came to see me this morning and said he was breaking off the engagement. He said he has been seeing some other girl and he wants to marry this other girl. He could not bring himself to tell you and came to me. I am sorry, Liz but he was adamant that he no longer wants to see you,” Martha finished.

Elizabeth looked at her mother in disbelief. “Why would he do such a thing? What other girl? We have been seeing each other almost on a daily basis. What other girl, Mother? Why didn’t he come to tell me himself?”

“I don’t know, my dear but this is what he said to me this morning,” Martha lied to her daughter.

“I am going to call him now, Mother. How dare he break off the engagement in this manner? Why come to talk to my mother? Is there something you are not telling me, Mother? Is David ill? Is he sick? Yes, that’s it, isn’t it Mother? David is sick. Is he HIV positive? Is that what he actually said to you, Mother?” Elizabeth rambled on and on.

“No, no, don’t call him. He was adamant about that. It’s probably best this way, my dear. You will get over him.”

This was all a bit too much for Elizabeth and she rushed out of the room and ran to her own bedroom where she locked herself in.

3

Martha sat alone in the lounge, thinking. Now why had she made up all these lies? What if David was still determined to continue seeing Liz? No that was unthinkable. Not after what he had done that morning. In fact, Martha was going to ensure that David did not come anywhere near her daughter again. She was also going to make sure that David did not come to church as well. Yes, that was what was going to happen after she, Martha, had talked to him and demanded all these things. He would be grateful that she had not decided to report him to the police. He would do whatever she wanted? Yes, she was going to call him now.

When Martha got through to David, she was shocked to hear him pretending that nothing had happened that morning. In fact, he had the gall to talk about the wedding arrangements. The “stupid, foolish man” was pretending that he had not come to the house where he committed a despicable act. He was now actually asking to talk to Elizabeth! Martha was beside herself with fury.

“David, how can you pretend that you did not come to this house this morning? I want you to do what I am telling you to do or I will go to the police,” Martha shouted into the phone. On the other end, David sounded quite calm and said, “I don’t know what you are talking about Mother. Did somebody do these terrible things to you? You really should have reported the matter to the police if it actually happened. You say it happened in the morning. Even if it actually happened, which I doubt, the police will wonder why you are only reporting the matter now. Are you okay, Mother? Is Elizabeth there? Let me speak to her. Does she know about all this you are telling me?”

Martha was apoplectic with rage. Who did this man think he was? He cannot get away with this? But what really was she going to do about it? If David continued to pretend that nothing had happened that morning, then what could she actually do? People will think she is the one who is mad, especially after making up the crazy story she had told her daughter. David could prove that there was no other girl and wonder what had gone into Martha’s head for her to come up with such a story?

Honestly, what would she do about it? What could she do?

The next chapter-Nehemiah- will be published not later than Sunday, 3 April, 2011

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2 CHRONICLES

Chapter 14 of the book-“NON-CONTRADICTORY CONTRADICTIONS”

XIV. 2 Chronicles

6 Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud; 2 I have built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.”

3While the whole assembly of Israel was standing there, the king turned around and blessed them. 4

Then he said:

“Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his hands has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father David. For he said, 5 ‘Since the day I brought my people out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built for my Name to be there, nor have I chosen anyone to be the leader over my people Israel. 6 But now I have chosen Jerusalem for my Name to be there, and I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.’

 

2 Chronicles: Chapter 6:1-6 (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

In this chapter we continue the story from chapter 8-Ruth-where we left our main character, Elizabeth watching her “grandmother” who was not her biological grandmother, die in hospital.

1

After the death of her grandmother, Elizabeth knew she now had to make a final decision on what she was going to do with her new-found-knowledge on her real parents who were both alive but languishing in jail. She resolved that she would go and see them both, then make a final decision on whether she was going to have any sort of relationship with either her mother or father or both.

Having decided to see these “two strangers” who had brought her into the world under such shameful circumstances, she wasted no more time and quickly contacted the prison authorities at the two prisons to make the necessary arrangements. She thought it would be a good idea to see the father first as she assumed he might be the stronger of the two and she did not the first encounter to be tearful one. She thought the mother was most likely to cry at some stage during the visit and for that reason she decided she would see the man first.

There were no complications at all with her request to visit both her parents and the very next Saturday, she found herself at the men’s prison waiting with other people to be escorted to the visiting area. She did not know what she was going to say to this man who was her father. After having gone through most of your life thinking that your parents had “long gone to be with the LORD”, it was quite discontenting to then suddenly find out that “not only were both parents alive, but they also happened to be murderers serving life sentences in jail”. But she needed to see them for her own peace of mind. What sort of people were they? Did they regret what they had done? Did they regret having brought a child into this world? What sort of people were they?

When the father was brought to the booth in which she had been waiting to see him, she was surprised to see “a normal healthy man” before her. Perhaps because of what she had seen on television, she had imagined certain characteristics that befit a murderer. After a casual greeting to each other, they sat silent for a long time, just looking at each other. Then without warning, the thing that Elizabeth had dreaded would happen on meeting her mother, happened here with the father. The man just started weeping and saying, “Please forgive me. Please forgive me. Please forgive me”, over and over again. It was quite painful to watch and Elizabeth herself was now coming close to losing her composure although she had been determined not to let herself cry in front of these people.

When he finally managed to get hold of himself, they agreed that it was best for Elizabeth to stay away from both parents and not have any sort of relationship with either one as they were unlikely to be released from prison for the rest of their lives. As Elizabeth left the prison she wondered whether she should still go and see her mother at the women’s prison the following weekend.

2

By the time the following weekend arrived, Elizabeth had fortified herself enough in her mind to be able to go through with what she thought was going to be a nasty experience with her mother. Surprisingly for Elizabeth, the mother turned out to be quite strong emotionally. She did seem to have been pleased to see Elizabeth but she was quite calm about it. She did not shed a tear and there was Elizabeth thinking that the mother would be the one to fall into hysterics.

Although the visit went very well, her mother agreed with what the father had suggested that there be no further contact with their daughter as no fruitful relationship could now arise under the circumstances.

Elizabeth left the prison and was certain that, in her mind, “both her parents were going to die again”. She was going to go back to what she had always thought, which was that her parents had long been dead, having been both killed in a car accident. It was best this way.

She had inherited a large estate from Grandma Johnson, and she was now a very wealthy young woman. She was, however, determined to continue with her studies and she enrolled for a post graduate course in Business Studies at the local college. She had obtained an undergraduate Economics degree in the previous year.

3

During the second week after starting her classes, she met a very attractive young man who was also a post graduate student. This young man was studying Accountancy and it was in one of the accounting courses that they met. They soon started dating and Elizabeth was gratified to find out that the young man, whose name was David, came from a very wealthy family. One of the things that had been worrying Elizabeth of late, was that she could end up meeting and falling in love with someone who would turn out to be interested only in her money. This did not look like it was going to be a problem with David as he came from a very rich family.

The two years required for completion of the Business Studies course went very quickly and Elizabeth was happy to have acquired a Masters degree in Business Studies. David also left the college and joined a firm of Chartered Accountants where he was to do his articles. His romance with Elizabeth was quite serious and they had been going out for a period of almost two years. David thought it was now time to propose marriage and this is what he did.

To David’s surprise though, Elizabeth did not say “Yes” right away. She needed time to think about it. What was there to think about, David wondered? Did they not both love each other? He knew he loved her and wanted to marry her. He had also assumed those were the very same feelings that Elizabeth shared. They were already lovers and nothing had prepared David for this hesitation from Elizabeth.

Elizabeth had her reasons for hesitating to agree to marriage. A secret of hers was bothering her. She was bothered by the fact that she had not told David about the “true circumstances” of her birth. She had not told David that her biological parents were murderers who were still alive and in jail. These things bothered her. Up to now, she had thought that she had come to terms with the idea that “her parents had died in a car accident soon after she had been born”. This is what she had told David.

But now that David had proposed marriage, it bothered her that she had not shared her secret with him. What was she going to do? In the end she resolved to tell David the whole story because she knew that she would not be at peace if she did not share the entire sordid details.

She chose her moment and words carefully but she was surprised at how calm David was when she finished telling him the story. In fact, David was relieved to find out that her hesitation had had nothing to do with her feelings towards him. He was quite happy to now know what had caused the hesitation and he was quite understanding about it.

It was only when David told the story to her mother that something of concern crept back into his relationship with Elizabeth. David’s mother said she also had something to tell him. She had not withheld this information from David because it had never seemed to be relevant to him in any way. But now it seemed it was now very relevant.

David’s mother had a first cousin who was serving a life sentence for murder. She and her lover had been convicted of killing two people, one of whom was David’s mother’s cousin’s husband. What David’s mother did not know was that her cousin had given birth to a baby girl when she was already in prison. And from what David had now told her, Elizabeth was the daughter of David’s mother’s cousin. David’s mother had refused to recognise her relationship with her cousin after the horrible events of more than twenty years ago.

David was quite shocked to hear this. Of course, her mother was right that the issue of her cousin had all along been an irrelevant story to David’s upbringing. If David had not met and fallen in love with Elizabeth, the issue might not have come up at all.

What was David going to do about this story that her mother had just told her? Of course, he had to tell Elizabeth. Was this going to affect their relationship in any way? He did not think so but the sooner Elizabeth knew about this the better. In fact, David soon realised that it meant that he was actually related to Elizabeth.

The next chapter-Ezra- will be published not later than Sunday, 20 March, 2011

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