In the beginning... darkness was upon the face of the deep... and the darkness He called Night.
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Jason woke up from what felt like endless hours of sleep. He turned to check the time on the digital wall clock beside his bed: it was 5:59am. At that instant the clock alarm went off as it turned 6:00am and he bolted out of the bed and into the bathroom. While brushing his teeth over the sink and humming a song, he noticed a red spot just above his left eye brow. He touched the area and rubbed it. It didn't hurt neither did it come off. He rinsed his mouth and washed his face to remove the mark but it didn't go off. He decided to leave it and continue with preparing for the morning.
Twenty minutes later he was out of the house - his family house, dressed in a black t-shirt, loose sky blue jeans trousers, a pair of brown leather safety boots, and a face cap that did well in hiding the very obvious spot on his fair skin. The junction where he had to wait for the company bus that picks him up was only a couple of blocks away. So he eased his pace as there was still time and strolled, enjoying the fresh, dust-free cool air. The road was quiet with only a handful of people on the street, and a few cars driving by occasionally. He adjusted his laptop bag to the right shoulder just in time as a lady brushed past him in a hurry, heading towards the same junction. She was also dressed in boots, but with a tight fitting pair of black jeans trousers and a red top. The front zip of her laptop bag was open and the contents of the bag almost falling out, unknown to her.
"Hey," he called out to get her attention to it, but she didn't slow down. Then a piece of paper fell out of the bag and he picked it on his way to meet up with her.
"Honk! Honk!" The company bus pulled over at the junction and she hopped into the bus. He also did.
"Oyibo. Good morning," the driver greeted him as he stepped in.
"Good morning man," he replied patting the elderly man's hand as he passed. He found an empty seat in the almost full bus and sat down. The lady, he observed, had taken a seat by another lady and was chatting away. He reconsidered his intention and chose to wait until later to give her the paper, so he put it in his bag, brought out his head phone and relaxed in his chair to listen to some good country music.
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"Stacey, you live on the same street with Jason? Wooow," Chika whispered teasingly. She turned to steal a glance at him and smiled at her friend.
"What is wrong with you? Please stop putting silly ideas in my head. This," Stacey replied rolling her pointed fingers, "is an attempt to ruin any formal relationship we would have had as collics. Don't you ever think outside the dating box?"
"Oh, sorry Mother Mary. I forgot your oath of eternal celebacy," Chika answered in a sarcastic tone and sneered at her friend. "Don't miss your chance."
Stacey just shook her head and brought out her bible to read for the rest of the journey to the office.
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When the bus arrived the gate to the company site, Jason checked his wristwatch - it was five minutes to seven am. He pulled the headphone down to his neck and stood up, making his way to door, as the bus entered the compound and parked at a corner. Everyone signed in for work at the gate and went straight for Toolbox meeting because it was already 7am.
The Site Manager came out to give a quick talk on safety on the site. "Here in Blue Energy Ltd, we practice 100% safety so each and everyone of you must be safety concious everytime and everywhere. You must be dressed appropriately around the work area. You must handle your working tools with care..." he continued, addressing everyone.
The meeting took another ten minutes, and after that everyone was dismissed to their various departments. The Supritendent for the Mechanical Department asked all members of that department to assemble at the site by 7:20am for a brief meeting before work commences.
Jason left for the Mechanical Department office to change up and met Stacey along the way.
"Hi," he greeted her, feeling his pocket for the paper. It wasn't there. So he checked the bag.
"Here. You dropped it on your way to the bus." He gave her the paper and walked forward without even waiting for an appreciation.
Stacey looked at the paper. It was the same one on which she'd scribbled some Bible references and other official notes. She shouted a thank you after him and moved on.
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During lunch break, Chika came over with her tray to seat by Stacey at the cafeteria.
"Sharp sharp girl. After all your nyanga I still saw you this morning o. What did he give you?" she winked at Stacey and adjusted her chair closer.
"Chika," Stacey looked at her and sighed, "let me have a break. Please."
"Have your break. Are we not on break? Is it not a simple question I asked? Chill jor," Chika said and started eating.
"I'm not interested in this dating thing, especially with a colleague and I'm sure the guy is not. He just joined us yesterday."
"I hear. Oyibo not interested. Lemme not just catch you because I'll be watching you henceforth," Chika pointed at her. "Mother of God."
"Is it because I advised you to mind how you flirt around with these men on the site, you're making all these funny statements?" Stacey asked point blank.
"It's because I want to prove to you that I'm human and so are you! So you stop judging me," Chika answered her and left the table to another one.
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Jason and Stacey came down from the bus across the same spot where they entered in the morning. Stacey had made up her mind she wasn't going to get any friendly with him to avoid eventualities so she walked slowly, allowing space in between them as he went forward. Jason realized it was just the two of them that came down from the bus and it was a bit awkward that he'll just walk away without interacting with her, for colleagues’ sake. He turned around, clutching both straps of his bag and waited for her as she came forward walking ever so slowly.
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"Hi," Jason said to her when she had come three feet away from him, "Is there a problem?"
She looked up at him with a frown.
"Sorry, I mean, just this morning you sped past me. So I was wondering..." he joined her. "I'm Jason."
"Jason, thanks for this morning. I'm Stacey," she replied with a smile. But inside, she was wondering what on earth made him stop.
"That's a nice name. You live around?"
"Yes. Down the road,"
"So... We'll see again tomorrow then," he said as he halted just in front of a beautiful brown gate, "I live here."
Stacey looked at the house in admiration - it was magnificient. Then she turned to him, "Lovely. See you tomorrow."
Jason knocked as she walked away and a security guard looked through a peephole before opening the gate to let him in. He entered the compound and went straight into the main house.
"Sup mum?"
"Jason. You're welcome Son. How was work today? Did you eat something before leaving," his mother continued, walking over to meet him and embrace him, "Anything the matter? You don't like it there?"
"I'm fine. Thank you, mum. Work was fantastic today. Anything to eat?" he dropped his bag on the couch and went for the wine bar.
"I'll ask Ledum to bring you something to eat, dear," and she went inside calling the Kitchen servant as she did.
Jason poured himself a half glass of wine and took a sip. It tasted good. He took the bottle and glass of wine into the sitting room and sat before the TV. The last thing he wanted to watch was some hypocrites staging drama before a blind stupid congregation, so he reached for the remote and changed the channel to a sports station.
"Now that's better," he said to himself and relaxed to watch soccer.
"Yeah it is," he heard a voice say in his head. He adjusted and turned around. He was alone.
"You can't shut me out Jason, you can't shut out the truth that you know."
"I can. And I will," Jason replied speaking out. "And I'll make sure I keep my sanity." He stood up and went back to the counter to pour himself a glass of red wine. He emptied the glass in a minute and poured another one.
"Your food is ready sir," Ledum the maid came in and told him, bowing her knees in greeting.
"Thank you."
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Stacey got back home and went straight into her room to pray after greeting everyone. She was in her room for about ten minutes when her sister, Lois, came in to greet her but saw her praying seriously.
"Father I thank you for stalling every attempt of the enemy to engage me in spiritual battle. I thank you also for victory over every spirit of malice. I rebuke the devil concerning my colleagues..."
Stacey was kneeling down, backing the door. Her sister waited a bit, then left the room closing the door behind her.
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