Lola's Story✔️

Chapter Thirty six

Chapter Thirty Six

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That Sunday morning started off dark and gloomy, for reasons we could not decipher until much later.

The church service had left me with a lot to think about. Pastor Ola had hammered on the message of forgiveness so much, I felt he was speaking to us, to me especially.

"Forgiveness," His raspy voice echoed in the large auditorium that chilly morning.
"Brethren, forgiveness is a mystery all unto itself but it does work miracles when extended to the recipient as well as the person who forgives." He exhorted, he went on, giving instances from the Bible and stores of personal experiences,

"So, I implore you as a child of God, to let go of that chip on your shoulder and forgive whoever has wronged you." Pastor Ola ended his exhortation but his words rang in my heart even after the church service.

Those words had definitely struck a chord, they had me reflecting on the awry turn of events in my life. I had suddenly become so bitter, spiteful, angry and even unproductive. I hated how heavy my heart was beginning to feel and I knew God did not want that for me. Amid my fiery outbursts, in a bid to express how hurt I felt, I had begun to push everyone away, people who meant so much to me were beginning to feel like distant memories all because I held some sort of misdirected animosity. In all, I had to forgive and let go of everything in order to not deviate from the path God wanted me to follow.

"Lola?" Ima called, placing her hand on my right shoulder. I hummed absentmindedly in response.

"We're home." She said and I jerked out of my thoughts and true to her words, we were parked in the premises and from the look of things we were the only ones outside. I must have gone really deep into my thoughts to not notice when we reached.

"Yeah, um thanks." I said and she nodded, stepping out of the way so I could get out of the vehicle.

"Are you okay?" She asked, concern laced in her tone. I gave a slight nod, before locking her in a tight embrace.

"Whoa!" She exclaimed, tensing a little before relaxing into my hold. She rubbed my back soothingly as I gushed about how sorry I was for the way I had acted, the last few days. Of course, being the sweet and ever caring person she was, she never held a grudge and understood my plight.

That was one weight off my shoulder. With that out of the way, I trudged into the house, repeating the same routine with each and everyone. Grey and Travis apologised for not being there for Laila and I and promised to make amends. Laila and I finally settled our scores and I filled her in on my visit to Gerald. We all apologised to one another for all our undoings and the family seemed to be in one piece again, something that hadn't happened in a long time.

It was all smiles and laughter while we chattered at the lunch table, I was thankful for it. I felt peace to some extent, I wasn't done with all the tiffs I had to settle but majority of them were now a thing of the past.

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It was still Sunday afternoon. We were all seated in the lounge chatting away, cracking jokes and all what not, when mum came in with an evident frown and worry etched on her face. She stepped out to receive what I assumed was an important call and came in looking like that.

"Doctor Gavor called." She spoke up, making us end our chatters abruptly. We turned to her, mirroring the look on her face.

"Mum, is there something wrong?" Travis asked, going to stand next to her.

"He told me that he wants to see us." She said after much hesitation with emphasis on the second 'he'. I'm sure you know who she was referring to.