Chapter 13

Deciding to visit his mother had come easy but then Serwaa had said something that had stuck with him making him ponder all night long and he had come to a decision. Although it wasn’t easy he finally took it, just like a bitter pill to cure one’s ailment. And that was the reason why he was currently driving to his mothers place on a Saturday morning at six am. Oh how she was going to be pleased to see him, and shocked too. He hoped it made a nice surprise for her.

Another reason he was leaving so early in the morning was to be able to control his nerves for the daunting task he had placed before himself, before he actually lost the courage to go at all. He turned to the right and nearly bumped into a parked car right in the middle of the road. To say he nearly got a heart attack would be an understatement, the man thought his heart was going to fly out of his chest. But for him quickly applying the brakes he would have run right into it and that was definitely not how he wanted this day to start. Pulling to the side of the road, he got out and headed to the dark red Toyota Camry. A man was out by the front kicking its tyres, panting as he yelled at no one in particular.

“Excuse me but you do realize you are packed in the middle of the road. Any problem?”

The man dressed in a dark suit over a lemon green shirt opened at the neck stopped his kicking but couldn’t stop panting as he stared at  Daniel, his tall sturdy frame towered over him slightly, “Yes! I do know it is in the middle of the road! It is red, anyone can see it!”

A car drove by honking angrily at him as it had to drive around him and over the pavement   before he could move forward. “Yeah I know! No need to honk, it’s six-twenty am. If you want a honking contest I’ve got one too!” he turned from yelling at the car and opened his door before realizing Daniel stood there.

“What are you staring at?!” the man yelled pulling off his suit, tossing it onto the driver’s seat and pushed the arms of the sleeves up to the elbow.

Daniel could feel his ears vibrating; did he have to yell when he stood just in front of him?

“I was asking if there was a problem with your car?” he replied calmly.

The man looked him up and down as if to analyze what sort of being he was, “And If there was, what is it to you? What could you possibly do about it?!”

He was sure his patience was just hanging by a thread as he did his best to ignore the demeaning tone in the man’s voice. Patience, he prayed. God please grant me patience, and help choose the words to speak.

“Actually I am a mechanic"

The man’s angry expression earlier disappeared, as he regarded him silently. Daniel, not really ready for a staring contest, looked at the car to find any fault and located a rear flat tyre. “Do you have any spare tyre?” he asked.

The man cleared his throat speaking in a calmer voice then, “No, I do not have any. How was I supposed to know this was going to happen? My day can’t get any worse a faulty car, and my phone decided to go off. My day just cannot get any better than it has already began”

Daniel decided it was time he gave the man a friendly advice before he infected him with his mentality, “I know nothing about the phone going off, plus don’t you think you are counting too much of the bad things in your life, perhaps there is a good reason for everything happening like why your car developed a fault. You should at least be a little grateful for the life in you this very minute, count your blessings at least” the man stared at him as he spoke his mouth agape as though no one had ever spoken to him like that before and never should. “Now what I can help you with is your car that is if you would like my help unless you think it will also go wrong”

The man was still staring, so Daniel entered his car and drove it positioning it at the front of the man’s car and proceeded to join the cars together by a cable he had pulled from his car.”So where are you headed?”

The man shrugged, running his hands on his face, a look of arrogance appearing on his face, “You wouldn’t know it’s two towns from here”

An eyebrow raised of its own accord on Daniel’s face. Who was this man? “Well I'm headed for the town before it, and yes I do know the town you are talking about. I could drop you off at my town then you head to your destination from there”

“You would do that?” the man asked staring at him incredulously, “Wait, why would you do that?”

Daniel could not understand the man in front of him, he could have easily turned entered his car and left but he felt he needed to be here, something told him he was there at the right time, “Well because it would be the right thing to do? I’m Daniel” he stretched his hand.

He stared at Daniel's hand for a moment before he took it and gave a quick shake before sliding his hands into his pocket, “But do tell me Daniel, why would you stop when no one stopped?”

“I would love to answer your questions but we could do so in my car. Not to rush you but we’ve got to get your car from the middle of the road”

The man nodded and slammed the door close before following him into his car; Daniel did not miss the distaste on the man’s face as he looked around the car. Sure his car was worse for the wear, the leather seats were ripped in some places showing the faded once yellow foam now a yellowish brown colour but in this situation, his car, the not so fancy one was the one doing a huge help to the elegant one.

“So Mr...?”

The man spared a glance at him before answering his eyes on the Albert Einstein bobby head on his dashboard, “I’m Fred, listen I really appreciate you doing this for me”

Smiling, Daniel responded, “No problem, just glad to help”

Fred leaned into the seat slowly as if testing the strength of it to hold his weight, when he assumed it strong enough he placed his head on the headrest and cleared his throat, “My yelling was uncalled for.  You were right I shouldn’t have let how the day was going dictate my attitude. If I were you I would have left me right there and then but you didn’t and for that thank you. I do apologize for my yelling at you and my attitude towards you. Was just in a foul mood at the moment” 

“It’s okay, for a while I nearly gave in to the temptation of leaving you there” Daniel smiled, “We all have bad times sometimes but we shouldn’t let that dictate how we should act, in the end it affects those around us. Control your words before they hurt, they may be invisible but they hurt more than you will see, that is my motto now.” he remembered the times he had let his mood dictate his actions and specifically Sophia’s name popped to mind. He cringed slightly remembering how he used to talk to her, and when she had concluded he hated her. Right now he would be able to say it, he had never hated Sophia, nor could he ever hate her.

Fred turned his head on the headrest to look at him, “You sound like you know much in the area of controlling your words”

“Not really, I mean not at first but now I’m trying to turn over a new leaf. I’ve witnessed how letting what overwhelms our feelings, be it situations, bad news or even just a confusing feeling, can affect those around us and trust me it is not something I want to see ever again.” He paused as he remembered Sophia’s outburst the Friday night he felt close to losing his willpower. He did not want to see that again.

Silence flooded the car as they all went silent relishing in their own thoughts. That was till a phone rang, cutting through it, Daniel looked as Fred pulled out a phone placing it on his ear. He thought the man had said his phone was off.

“I said I’m on my way” his tone was raised like he was trying to control his temper; he took a deep breath before speaking calmer. “Sorry doctor, I’m just a little..it doesn’t matter. Please tell me they are okay”

Daniel heard him sigh heavily, “Thank you for telling me, I really appreciate it. I’ll be there soon”

“I thought you said your phone was off”

Fred looked at him and raised a power bank before putting it back inside his pocket, “Yeah but I was charging it.” He sounded tired making Daniel curious to know what he had heard on the phone to cause that.

“Would you mind talking about it?” he asked but quickly added, “But if you don’t want to talk to me, its fine. I do understand that I’m being nosy”

Fred gave him a small smile that didn’t look anything like a smile but rather more like a grimace, “The mother of my child tried to kill herself, well both her and the baby seeing as she’s still pregnant” he closed his eyes for a minute when he opened it his eyes glazed with unshed tears.

Daniel could finally understand the man’s reason for being in such a foul mood. “I’m sorry about that. But why do you think she would do that?”

“I don’t know, maybe hormones, anger, guilt, plus she’s been depressed. I just don’t know what to do to help her”

The guilt part stuck out to Daniel, so he asked, “What guilt could drive her to do that?” Harry froze in his position making him realize he did not want to go there.  “Sorry didn’t mean to pry. But if you want I can pray for her”

“That makes sense”

“What does?” Daniel glanced at him and cast his eyes back on the road.

“You” Fred went on to explain, “You are a Christian, aren’t you?”

“Yes. Yes I am, you got a problem with it?”

Fred shook his head quickly a frown on his face as if he was repulsed by that thought, “On the contrary no, I’m glad I met you. I am a Christian too” he paused, “But lately I don’t think so much about it. Christian life that is, the world is choking me from all corners and it seems I just don’t care. I’m swimming along with the current letting it take me wherever it wants. Not that I don’t see where it is taking me, I do but I just might have put that mentality of ‘out of sight, out of mind into work in my life”

Daniel stared out the window listening to the man talk. He sounded as though one who had accepted defeat, he had the good sense to keep quiet as the man poured out his thoughts, if they could be called that.
He went silent, “Here I am pouring my heart out to a total stranger, a stranger who picked me up despite my rash attitude.  Are you sure you are not an angel?”

A deep laugh burst out of Daniel before he could stop it, “I promise I’m not. By the way I don’t mind you pouring your heart out. My guess is you just want to talk about it and its okay to me”

“You don’t think I need to get back on the narrow path. Or that I need a wakeup call” he asked raising his head from the headrest and staring intently at Daniel who shook his head, “It is up to you if you would like to know my honest opinion”

“Go ahead, I’m all ears”

“For one, the best wakeup call you need must come from you personally. Do you know what you want to do with your life; do you want to live for God or for yourself? Do you want to acknowledge the still small voice calling you to the right stand or you would rather ignore it and go on the path that you very well know will take you nowhere”

The man in his passenger seat went silent as he turned into the road leading to both towns. No movement or anything of the sort. He stayed in his frozen position for a couple of minutes before picking up his phone and texting someone. Soon they came to the crossroads each leading to their respective destinations. Daniel pulled up by the side of the road. 

“Would you like me to take you to the place you are headed, or will a towing truck be coming for your car?”

“No, no, that won’t be needed. Thank you for the lift, really appreciate it. And yes a car will be coming for me but not for my car”

“So where will your car be then?” Daniel asked confused.

Fred smiled, “You did say you are a mechanic right? So you could take it along and fix it”

“You are giving your car to me to fix it; do you trust me with your car? Seeing as you just met me?”

The smile on Fred’s face went wider, “Well you see the car has GPS so I doubt you can steal it”

“And it would be a bad decision to tell me that because I could just disable it. I’m a mechanic remember?” Daniel couldn’t help but tease the man.

“Oh true. But I would also like to see you and speak to you again concerning my life direction. You know what I mean”

Daniel nodded. He was trying to use his car as an excuse to see him again, not that he had any problem with that. Rather he found it surprising that the man who had been screaming at him just minutes ago wanted to see him again and was using his car as bait.

“I am glad I met you today, so your address?”

“How about we exchange numbers so I text it to you?”

“That sounds good” they exchanged numbers. Not long after a car appeared, “There’s my ride, I’ll be seeing you soon Daniel. Thanks again for the ride and the talk. And yes I will appreciate it if you pray for them”

“I would love to”

Right after they said their farewells, Daniel let out a prayer for healing and peace of mind for the young woman. Before praying for himself as he realized he was drawing nearer to the time for him to take the second to biggest decision he would ever make in his life.

A/N
Hello folks, Confidence here. It's an update! Yeah you know that. You just finished reading. Sorry it was so long (word count:4715 words minus a/n, my longest so far, so I had to divide it into two parts)  I had my groove on and I couldn't stop. But I will take care of this once I'm done and editing. 😁

This chapter is dedicated to mangobite95 thanks a lot for the support Manda 💕

God bless you all ☺

Ko si se me te monka.... Stay blessed. ☺ ☺