Mali Drive (Episode 3): Gina Killed A Man

“I’m going to kill him! I’m going to kill him and everyone he loves”, Isaac was furious; he couldn’t believe what Gina had just confessed to him. He headed towards the door but she stopped him. They were in a hospital room where she had just had a hysterectomy; a surgery to remove her uterus because of complications from a miscarriage.  

“Please Isaac, I am begging you in the name of God, don’t do anything that we will regret. Please” she begged but her words turned to ashes before him

He stroked her pale face “get out of my way” he said in a frightening manner

“Isaac please!!” she pleaded but he gently removed her from his way and left. She was weak and could not run after him; all she could do was weep. Weep for her life and what she brought on herself.

The drive home was filled with memories; memories of Bishop Chukwu. The man who changed his life for the better to destroy it later. He wiped the tears from his cheeks and sped on.

Read also: Mali Drive (Episode 2) Introducing Rebecca Amodu

Isaac Ortega met Bishop Chukwu three years ago at a time when he and Gina were living from hand to mouth constantly praying for a miracle. Isaac worked from one construction site to the other carrying and mixing cement until he landed a job working on the construction site of Bishop Chukwu’s church. Isaac was the kind of person who worked with joy no matter the kind of job that it was and on a day when Bishop Chukwu came for one of his regular visits to the church building site; he heard Isaac sing.

“Who is the person singing?” Bishop Chukwu asked the Chief Engineer

“Oh it’s one of the laborers, let me tell him to keep quiet”

“No. Please tell him to see me on my way out” Bishop Chukwu could not believe that someone with such an inspirational voice was wasting away. Their meeting was quick. Bishop Chukwu asked him if he was interested in singing for his church choir and he said only on the condition that he would be paid for it. Bishop Chukwu agreed immediately and they shook on it.

The impact of singing for the Assembly of Christian Peoples’ Ministry was instant; Isaac became the talk of every woman in the church especially the single ladies and soon he was not depending on his salary from the church as church members often gave him financial gifts as an appreciation for his singing talent. Isaac never forgot the man who gave him a chance. He brought his mother and younger sister Gina to Bishop’s house to thank him and his wife for everything they had done for them. From then on Bishop became a father to Isaac and Gina.

The first time Bishop saw Gina, he was smitten. Her youth and fresh-face-innocence didn’t let him sleep that night. He knew he had to have her. Gina was still in senior secondary school and school was her only priority at the time. She was very shy, so she stuck to herself most of the time and whenever she was free she went to church to watch her brother practice for Sunday service.

“I will take care of all your school fees until you finish University,” Bishop Chukwu said to Isaac and Gina, one day in his office. Isaac was extremely grateful. Unable to think of a way to pay this wonderful man back, he burst into tears. “Only God will pay you back sir, we are so grateful” Gina said falling on her knees

“It’s nothing, please stand up”, he announced. “The only way to pay me back is to study hard and do very well in school”. He hugged them both just as a father would but in this case he wasn’t their father; he was a man with cruel intentions.

Bishop did nothing about his passions for Gina in the first two years of knowing her; all he did was call her into his office for conversations and prayers. She was like prey to be nurtured, secretly followed by his men everywhere she went to make sure there was no man around her.

“Two years is a long time to stay away from meat,” Bishop said to himself the day he decided to harvest what he had been preparing for these past two years. It was easy; all he did was send Isaac on a church trip to South Africa for two weeks then pay Gina a visit in school. He knew where she lived because he paid for it and she lived alone because he made sure of it.

“Good evening sir, I didn’t know you were coming” Gina was a little surprised by his visit. He had never visited her in school.

“I just finished cooking, should I serve you?” She asked trying not to be bothered by his sudden appearance but the weight in her chest told her to call a friend to join them in the house. She ignored it.

“I want to tell you something” Bishop started, the look in his eyes intense. “Please don’t judge me, I have tried to ignore this for the past two years but it increases by the day”, he continued as his eyes glistened with tears. Gina was confused; unable to guess what he was about to tell her. She held his hand and he held her’s back, “Gina, I am in love with you”.

His words were like a sledgehammer that fell on the middle of her head destroying the part of her brain responsible for speech. “I know… I know… it is wrong but I can’t help it. I am a despicable person, stupid and foolish. I shouldn’t have told you this. I am worthless to think that someone like you can even love me”, he buried his face in his hands and cried.

Gina watched him quietly sympathetic to his suffering; she had never been in love before and did not know the pain of unrequited love. “What do you want?” she asked softly.

“A relationship” he answered quickly “no one will know. I will be very careful. I know that your education comes first and I will do everything in my power to make sure you finish school, do your master’s degree and get a very good job. Have I ever failed you in anything that I promised?”

“What about your wife?”

“I don’t know Gina. I just know that I love you and I can’t hide it anymore. I’m not going to sit here and say something derogatory about her because she is the mother of my child. I respect her but I am in love with you. Let’s just take it one day at a time”. His eyes were full of honesty and Gina admired it. No man had ever professed his love to her so passionately before and this man was here, his pride and family aside pouring his heart out to her. She was moved, moved to accept his proposal for a relationship.

Their secret affair was a beautiful affair; Gina was every married man’s dream mistress. She did all that he asked and never questioned him while he took care of all her needs; he even bought a car for her mother. Isaac had no clue and just decided that Bishop was a real-life angel. Everything went smoothly until she got pregnant.

“How can you ask me to remove our baby? I thought you loved me”, Gina was in shock. Bishop had asked her to get an abortion and he was not joking. She had done everything he wanted her to do up until that point. “No, I will not remove this child. If you want nothing to do with me again it is fine; I will raise it on…”, a devastating slap from Bishop interrupted her. “If you won’t remove the child, I will remove it for you”, his kicks and blows were aimed at her belly. Bishop kicked Gina until he saw blood gush down her legs.

***

The unbelievable things Gina confessed to Isaac about Bishop had grounded him on his bed. He was supposed to leave for church that morning but singing and killing weren’t going together in his mind. He knew that the Bishop and Rita were going to visit the President later that day, so it was his chance to sneak into their compound and shoot the bastard. The next thing was to get a gun.

As he plotted a way to get a gun, his mother called him on the phone, she was hysterical “Gina is dead oooo! Your sister is dead oooo!” she cried into the phone. Isaac said nothing, he just cut the line and left. Bishop was a dead man visiting the president as far as he was concerned.

It took Isaac four hours to get hold of a gun; the elation he felt when he got the gun made him forget that his sister was dead for a mini second. He changed his clothes to all black and made his way to Mali Drive.

By the time he snuck into the compound, he could hear Bishop beating up Rita. So he hid in a small bush close to the kitchen. When he sensed that Bishop was done he made his way to the kitchen window but the sight of Bishop having a glass of water stopped him abruptly.

He would have shot him from where he was but he couldn’t; he pointed the gun at Bishop but the finger on the trigger lost its muscle strength. Just as he decided to leave, he noticed Bishop struggling for breath; wondering what it was he moved closer just to see blood gushing furiously from the back of Bishop’s head. He had been stabbed.

Isaac quickly looked around but there was no one, he ran to the other side of the compound but there was no one. He thought about going inside the house but a neighbor’s security light came on all of a sudden and he had to leave quickly. Isaac wept like a baby on his drive home; he had lost two people he cared about in one day. Bishop was a monster but he couldn’t help but cry for the man who took him out of the dumps of the treasure basin of the nation.