Heart Of Gold

Episode 24

FINAL EPISODE

The next day, Frank returned to the herbalist and told him he was ready to kill his wife if that was what it would take for him to escape the impending doom. The herbalist gave him a white substance and told him to use it in cooking for her.

“Once she eats the food that you cook with this substance, she will die peacefully in her sleep and nobody will ever suspect you. That way, you will be free forever but you have to make sure that you use it today” the herbalist said while handling him the substance.

From the shrine, he returned to Abuja and branched to the market where he got ingredients for the rice and chicken curry sauce that he wanted to prepare for her. He had opted for chicken and curry sauce because it was one of her favourite meals and he knew that the substance would bled well with the curry sauce.

Liz was surprised when she saw her husband with ingredients after he got back home.

Liz: “what’s up, sweetheart. You didn’t tell me that you were going to the market when you left the house this morning” she said to him.

Frank: “well, I decided to surprise my wife. Guess what, I am making dinner tonight” he said.

Liz: “you, make dinner? When did that one start? Anyway, you can’t do that today, I already made dinner and I have served it on the dining table. I was waiting for you to return so that we can eat” she said to him.

Frank: “you already made dinner? Why?” he asked getting worked up.

Liz: “why what? I mean its past six and usually dinner ought to be served by now. This is not the first time I am doing it” she said to him.

Frank: “but you should have called to ask if I wanted you to make dinner for me”

Liz: “is that a new rule? I never call to ask if I should make dinner for you. It is my responsibility and until today, you didn’t have a problem with me doing so. You are the one who ought to have called to notify me against making dinner since you want to cook today”

Frank: “yeah, you are right. I actually forgot. Anyway, you have to clear your table o, I am going to the kitchen to cook for you and you have to eat mine. Guess what I will be cooking for you, white rice and chicken with curry sauce”

Liz smiled. “We think so much alike. That is the same thing I made. So, no need cooking yours tonight. Just preserve the perishable ingredients in the refrigerator, then go shower and let us eat. You can cook for me any other day”

Frank was confused and agreed to what she said but then he recalled the warning by the herbalist that the substance must be used that same day.

Frank: “baby, I have to cook for you today. I have decided to do it, please don’t discourage me, who knows if today will be my last day on earth and that is why I am in the mood to cook for you” he said.

Liz: “God forbid. Today cannot be your last day on earth o. if you insist on cooking for me, fine even though I don’t see what difference it will make since you will be preparing the same dish I made”

Frank: “it will make a lot of difference. Remember how you used to enjoy my cooking back then in school” he said and made his way into the kitchen.

Liz: “I will join you in the kitchen so that I can help out” she said but her husband declined and told her to sit and relax while he gets everything done.

After what seemed like eternity, Frank came out of the kitchen with a bowl of steaming hot white rice and chicken sauce.

Liz: “why, the aroma is killing me” she said getting up to join him on the dining table.

Frank: “yah, you married a great cook, you know” he said setting the dish before her.

Liz: “why is it this small? Where is yours?”

Frank: “I actually cooked a little just for you and you alone. You know what they say that if you stay in the kitchen and cook, you won’t be able to eat the food. That is happening to me. I feel so full right now”

Liz: “ah no, we have to eat together, we have always done it like that” she said.

Frank: “don’t worry, you just go ahead, I may join you before you finish eating. Right now I need to watch a Champions league match” he said and left the dining area for fear that she may force him to eat out of her dish.

Liz got up from the dining table without tasting the food and decided to join her husband on the settee so that she could watch television while eating. Few steps away from her husband and she slipped and fell, pouring all the food on the floor. Her husband screamed and jumped up.

Frank: “What did you leave the dining table for? You were supposed to eat there” he said getting worked up.

Liz: “I am sorry; I wanted to join you on the chair so that I can eat there while watching TV”

Frank ignored her and went out of the sitting room in annoyance, leaving her surprised. If only he had the means, he would have forced her to eat the food she had thrown on the floor.

Frank returned to the shrine the next day and after explaining everything to the herbalist, the man gave him another substance to pour in her food that same day or face grievous consequences.

He returned home to discover that his wife was not home yet and so he ran to the kitchen to prepare another meal. When it was time to pour the substance, he searched his pocket for it all to no avail. There was one explanation and that was that the substance had fallen off from his pocket while he was sitting on the bike that took him from the herbalist’s shrine to where he had packed his wife’s car since he couldn’t drive his car to the shrine because of the bad road. His legs began to quiver when he thought of the warning that the herbalist had given him.

The dawn of the next day and Frank was back at the shrine. This time around the man was furious and told Frank that he had only one chance to kill her himself and that was by stabbing her that night.

Herbalist: “this is your last chance. If you don’t kill her tonight, you will be in big trouble” he said and ordered Frank out of his shrine.

Liz returned home tired that day because she was on dry fasting and prayers. She was praying for God to grant her a child, protect her and her husband and help him secure a permanent job. That night Frank waited for his wife to fall asleep but she stayed up late into the night, reading her Bible, praying and singing hymns to God. By the time she finished praying around 3am, Frank had already fallen fast asleep. She woke him up the next morning at about 7am so that they could have their morning devotion. Frank knew that there was no way he could kill her that morning in the manner the herbalist had instructed him to without attracting the attention of the neighbours and so he knew that he was doomed. For fear of what the herbalist will say to him about his carelessness, he refused to go back to the shrine and after three days, he was struck with a strange ailment that defied all medications.

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The hospital had no option but to discharge Frank when his wife could no longer afford to pay his medical bills and also the fact that his decomposing body parts was omitting an offensive odour that was a threat to the health workers as well as patients and their relatives.

Liz worked her hands off taking care of her husband at home and cleaning up his mess. At the same time, she did not relent in praying.
During the course of their going to Church for prayers and night vigils, Stacey and Liz became good friends as the two women had similar plights and that was their husbands whose ailments had defiled all medical explanations. Seeing how devout and steadfast the faith of the two women were, their Church organized a vigil and declared a seven days fasting and prayers by all its members for the recovery of their husbands.

Even though Stacey’s husband was confined to a wheel chair, he would follow his wife to Church and the two of them would pray and declare healing with their mouth.

The reverse was however the case with Frank as he refused all entreaties by his wife to follow her to Church. His condition was deteriorating, his manhood was decaying with pus and maggots coming out of it and at the same time he could not control his urine and feaces and so he was always defecating on himself.

His mother who was heartbroken by her son’s condition died of high blood pressure few months after her only son was struck with the mysterious ailment.

Liz: “baby, it has been over a month since you were discharged from the hospital and right now I have exhausted all my savings on your medical bills. I have also resigned my job because I have to be around to clean you up always. Please allow me to take you to Church. Today is the end of our 7 days fasting and prayers and God will heal you if only you will believe in Him” she said to her husband whose facial expression had been altered by the ailment.

Frank: “leave me alone to die. I said that I do not believe in any God. God cannot heal me because I brought what I am going through upon myself, I just want to die so that this pain will cease”

Liz: “don’t give in to despair, my husband. How can you say that you brought this ailment upon yourself, what did you do, please tell me. I am your wife and we are not supposed to keep anything away from each other” she said.

Frank: “I cannot tell you. I will rather commit suicide than say it out”

Liz: “okay, if you will not tell me, then confess to God and repent of your sins in your heart and He will forgive you and welcome you with open arms because His word makes us to understand that His mercy is endless. Confess to God in your heart and accept Jesus as your Lord and personal savior and I am sure that your healing would come”
“I said I don’t believe that any God can forgive me because I did not offend him. Just let me be” he said getting irritated.
Liz: “okay, who did you offend? Tell me the person and I will go and help you plead with the person even if it means me rolling on the floor until the person forgives you” she suggested.

Frank: “I said I will rather die than say anything about what I have done, is that too big for you to understand? What is it seff, if you are tired of staying married to me because of my condition, just say so instead of beating about the bush” he said and she began to weep.

Liz: “I am sorry for upsetting you, I only wish that you can regain your healing once again” she said and hugged him not minding the fact that he was all messed up and smelly.

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Liz helped her husband retire to bed and then she got ready and ran off for the all night crusade. It was an intensive and praise filled prayer session that saw many miracles being performed by their pastor and the invited ministers of God.

After hours of prayers and praise, a call was made for the anointing of the sick and because of Declan’s faith in the power of God to heal him, he received his healing and jumped up from the wheel chair, completely healed and began to sing praises to God.
The resident pastor continued to pray in different tongues and then suddenly he went quiet after seeing some revelation about Frank.

He called Liz and asked where her husband was and she told him that he was at home because he had refused to follow her to Church.

Pastor: “I just received a revelation that his healing is here if only he will have faith, confess whatever wrong he may have done and believe in the supremacy of God.

Liz: “I tried my best to bring him here all to no avail”

The pastor instructed his driver and some Church members to drive home with Liz and help her bring her husband to Church.
After several minutes of persuasion, Frank agreed to follow them to Church and the driver and Church members helped carry him into the car since he was too weak to walk to the car.

At the Church the pastor tried to preach to Frank to make him give his life to God but he refused and remained adamant.

Pastor: “Mr. Frank, God is willing to forgive, heal and accept you back if only you will believe and confess your sins. I urge you to do so please”

“Well, tell your God to keep his healing and every other thing to himself because I am not interested. I will rather die than confess. By the way, if truly you had seen a revelation about me, why don’t you tell the world my sins then and save me the stress of confessing by myself?” he asked.

Pastor: “I saw a revelation that there is an un-confessed sin responsible for your plight. God did not show me what the sin is because he is not one to tell on His creature. As a matter of fact, you don’t have to confess it out for us to hear. Just confess in your heart to God, ask for his forgiveness and mercy, accept him as your Lord and I am sure you will receive your healing. Afterwards you can go and make amends with those you have offended, please Brother Frank, give the angels in heaven the opportunity to rejoice over your soul today”

Frank became violent and commanded his wife to take him back home if she didn’t want him to place a curse on her.

She complied when he began to scream at the top of his voice and the driver that brought them helped take them back home.
Frank left the Church the way he had entered because of lack of faith whereas Declan and other people left completely healed because they believed in God.

Few weeks later, Liz and Frank were back to the hospital after his condition began to deteriorate and when he saw that he had no hope of survival, he called his wife to his bedside and confessed to her, starting from how he had raped her to how he had attempted to kill her to escape the punishment.

Liz: “how could you do this to me? I loved you so much and yet you betrayed me. It is okay, I have forgiven you but you need to give your life to God so that He can heal you. There is nothing that is too difficult for Him to do”

Frank: “it is too late. God cannot forgive me, in fact I don’t deserve and I don’t need His forgiveness because you have a golden heart and gave me the purest of all love and yet I betrayed you. Promise me something” he said looking up to her.

Liz: “Anything for you, my husband”

Frank: “promise me that you will not mourn me for long and that you will remarry after I am gone because you deserve a better man than I. Promise me that you will love again and get married and have all the children that what I did in the past prevented us from having” he said.

Liz: “you will not die, Frank. I believe that you will not die. I am going to call the pastor to pray for you” she said and stood up.

Frank: “if you have ever loved me, then make this promise. It is my dying wish, Liz please grant it and then you can go and call the pastor even though I don’t need his prayers”

Liz: “Okay, if that is what I need to do before you give your life to God, then I promise. Even if you must die, I want you to die at peace with God so that your soul will not be sentenced to eternal damnation…” she was saying and heard him let out a heavy and long breathe.

Liz: “Frank? Frank Answer me” she said and ran to shake him. When he didn’t respond, she ran to call the doctor who confirmed him dead and gone forever.

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After they returned home from the crusade, Mrs Ogar called Declan and confessed to how she had used fetish means to cast a spell on her husband so that he could ask his son to donate his kidney to him. She had hoped that Declan would die during the transplant so that her sons could inherit all of her husband’s properties. She also confessed to striking Declan with the strange ailment after his father willed all his properties to him. The strange ailment was to make him spend all that he had inherited from his father on medical bills and then make him useless afterwards.

Happy parents with three kids taking self portrait
Fortunes changed for Declan who began to succeed in all his endeavors after his healing. His wife also got a better job and soon, they were smiling to the bank with millions of naira in their account.

Liz became a close friend of the family and remarried a medical doctor after mourning Frank for three years. She also got in touch with her friend Ann and apologized to her.

Mrs Ogar developed kidney issues few months after her confession and because she didn’t have enough money to buy another kidney from a donor, she died after her sons refused to donate one of their kidneys to her even though the tests carried out on them proved that their kidney matched hers.

Sas, Tam and the other friends who helped to organize the rape repented, called Liz and apologized to her after they heard what had happened to their friend.

Years later, Liz relocated to London with her husband and three children and they lived happily ever after, the memory of her first marriage completely erased from her heart.

THE END!