.
They offered me a cigarette, I said, “thanks but I
don't smoke” Then they offered me a drink, I said, “thanks but I don't drink”
Shortly after that they brought a young woman to keep me company. I did not say,
thanks but I don’t need company”. But I wondered what they meant by “company” The
young woman did not wait for me to ask questions” She was already smiling and talking to me. She asked how my visit to the country was
going? I shared my frustrations with her. We talked about the
weather, my security concerns, the chaos, world affairs, and every other thing
but my wife and children. Perhaps deep inside my mind I thought that marriage and
family did not go with cigarettes, drinks and women. In any case, the young
lady did not ask about my wife and children and I did not tell.
I looked across the table and saw my friends sipping
their drinks, exhaling their smoke, and slowly drifting away from reality. They
were in their own world and I was in my own world with the young lady. So I thought until I realized that we were
actually in her world; a world she had mastered.
It became obvious when she said, How about the Rockets? It was the days of Akeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler and the Houston Rockets so I got excited. Either she did her homework or the devil was working overtime. That devilish duo was trying to break me down! Before I could say a word the young woman looked into my eyes and muted, “quiet place”, all the while waving her manicured fingers toward the stairs leading to the second floor. I hesitated for a second, thinking about how to say no without losing face. By that time I’d realized that the corner of the room where we both sat was her domain and she taking charge.
I am just fine
here” I said in my cracked voice. “Sir, it’s getting loud her and second hand
smoke is not good for us. I promise it
will be worth your while” she said, running her fingers through her long hair
with grace. By this time my spirit was
fighting back. I mustered enough courage to say, “I don't go to a quiet place
with women”. (I lied) “Oh, am sorry sir, would you prefer to go with a
gentleman? We can arrange for that” That was the final nail on the coffin of my
foray into politics and the last time I went out with the big boys.
I opened my mouth but the words choked in my throat.
Suddenly, I had a surge of resentment. There was silence as if the young lady
and I agreed to a truce.
After a few
minutes, she said, “Sir you don't drink, you don't smoke, you don't have fun,
why are you here sir?
My head dropped in shame. Her words were like daggers stuck into my rib cage. The demons had won round one and now they were taunting me. What is a married man doing in the drinking’s lounge with another woman? Then I remembered Psalm 137 word by word, line by line.
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and
wept
when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars we hung our
harps,
for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How can we sing the songs of the Lord in a strange land?
How can I break my vows in a strange place with a strange
woman?
That was many
years ago but I still remember it as if it happened yesterday. The night I
wandered into Babylon and almost broke my vows.
