Tosin called Sasha and the kids to dinner, when the scraping of the chairs had ceased and everyone was in place, Sasha looked lovingly around the table, his eyes lingering happily on everyone. Heads were bowed reverently as little Funmi asked the blessing. The blessing contained a phrase that was not in the blessing said at most homes in the gold mining town, but then six weeks ago there wouldn’t have been any blessing at all on the food at Sasha and Tosin`s table.
“Why thank God for it?” Sasha had challenged when Tosin had brought it up once. “I work hard for it and I risk my life everyday for it. I have every right to eat it.” Then what happened six weeks ago had changed the whole course of Sasha`s life and the general opinion was that it had changed some other lives too.
It had all started out to be an ordinary day, the commercial bus stopped at the entrance to DOMINANT ARMY GOLD MINE as usual and `Big Sasha` could hear Remi`s cheery whistling above the roar of the rollers and the whining of the huge fans that ventilated the mines. Remi`s whistling irritated Sasha, he had religion and was so sold on it that he thought everybody would like it too. `Big Sasha` had listened to `Preacher Remi` with the greatest skepticism and annoyance. `Big Sasha` had declared that there was no man on earth who could be a Christian, he had being duped by a man who called himself a Christian once and he never forgot about it. Tosin had tried to keep the children in Foundation Bible School, but he had kicked against the idea. “I don`t want my children growing up becoming a bunch of hypocrites, I would rather see them be on their two feet and be up and doing”. He had raved.
Some meters back from the entrance, the workers left the sign in office and went on their various jobs. All morning Sasha glowered at Remi when he had to work around him, while Remi on his part just whistled or kept quiet; finally Remi started singing “I am so glad that Jesus loves me…”. This was too much for Sasha, “Why don`t you just shut up and work for a change, I am getting sick and tired of hearing you sing that song. However, whatever made you think that Jesus loves you, do you think that you are someone special to him?” Remi loaded some unrefined gold and turned to him: “In answer to your first question, I am working and in answer to your second question, the Bible says that Jesus loved us first before we ever knew him. Knowing that we were separated from sin by God, he laid down his life for us. Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friend. He even laid down his life for you and me”.
As Sasha stood there thinking of all the hypocrites that he thought the church contained, an unreasonable anger gripped him: “Shut up right there, I would like you to understand that your preaching is enough, cannot even ask you a question but you start on the Bible, I don’t want your goody-goody doctrine, get out of here-out of earshot, do you hear? Down here, telling me how I should live, even though you did not say it, it was written all over you, get away from me, get out of my way, oponu osi”
Sasha was livid with rage but Remi would not fight, He took a step or two away as Sasha flexed his muscles; “Why, I did not mean to offend you, you asked how I knew Jesus loved me and I told you, of course if you don`t want to know…” Remi broke off with a smile and continued working. “Big Sasha” slowly untensed his huge muscles and turned away, you could not win an argument with Remi and he would not fight; not that Sasha would like a show of physical strength since Remi had not worked enough at the Gold mine to feel it but his strength was not what it once was. Mr. Oginni, the foreman was coming towards them, Sasha noted out of the corner of his eye.
“Remi, you and Sasha knock of here, the rest would load the remaining gold, I need you two strong men to put up some pillars”. The foreman led the way to a new mine section and the two men worked silently and methodically. The temporary concrete roof was bad and when Sasha worked on a bad roof, he was always afraid as he thought of beautiful Tosin and his children under such a roof. He took a step backwards to get a better holding on the pillar that they were raising, suddenly there was an ominous cracking sound overhead and Sasha felt a violent push from a strong hand of Remi`s from behind and he stumbled forward, he regained his footing as a huge mass of concrete fell where he had stood a few microseconds before. There was a convulsive moment, a hair rising cry, a scream of anguish and a cry of terror. Sasha stood petrified; Remi was under all that granite, sand and steel making up the cast concrete. Sasha screamed and he heard his voice reverberating through the mine corridors. He clawed savagely at all the concrete covering Remi`s body , other workers were soon beside him and the debris was removed from Remi`s mangled body but it was too late.
Once, Remi`s eyes fluttered open and Sasha kneeling beside him asked him brokenly that “Remi, you saw it coming, why did you lose your chance for me?” Remi`s face twisted with pain said “You-you-you aren`t re-re-ready b-but I was, and-and your-your wife and-and child-children. Je-Jesus lo-loves yo-you”. Remi`s voice trailed off and he sank into oblivion.
Sasha dropped his head into his blood stained hands, what was that scripture “Greater love hath no man…” Sobs shook “Big Sasha`s” muscular body, Remi`s last sermon had not just been preached, it had been demonstrated. No one laughed when “Big Sasha” prayed audibly to Remi`s God to forgive his hardheartedness. They were miles underground and so near death. Oh how Sasha wept and cried, shedding tears of regret and agony, wishing that Remi would wake up but alas, it was real, not a “Shakespeare comedy”.
No one laughed either when three times daily “Big Sasha”, Tosin and their children after the blessing on every meal said this phrase; “Thank God for the man who died for Daddy and God who died for us all”
© Oluwabunmi sasaeniapaul;(2010)
