Quick Recap
Three women, Rose, Mary, and Nana Adjoa, find out that they all share a common problem: a poor sex life because of their overly religious husbands. In the guise of helping Rose, the youngest of the group, to become more prayerful, they form a prayer circle where they can meet without scrutiny and discuss how to improve their sex lives. Rose manages to seduce her husband without much effort for the first time in months, and they enjoy a sex marathon. However, she gets irritated and frustrated when he regrets the encounter the next morning. She’s shocked when she finds out that their lack of a sexual life is because her husband is suffering from Madonna-Whore syndrome after being influenced by his mentor and head pastor, Reverend Akrong.
PART 1
Things were strained between Rose and her husband, as she was too annoyed by the situation to speak to him like she normally would. She wished she had a way to contact the other ladies to discuss her discovery, but they had forgotten to exchange phone numbers, and going to visit them would arouse suspicion.
Her husband, Deacon Kofi, was torn. On one hand, he was afraid to lose his wife. Rose wasn’t one to make empty threats. On the other hand, he didn’t believe that God would allow him to lose his wife because he was dedicating his life to him. That was what Reverend Akrong had told him when he had tentatively broached the subject of his wife feeling unhappy with him.
“Women can be emotional and shortsighted sometimes, my boy. You must consistently assert yourself as the head of the household, and she will have no choice but to adjust. If you start giving in to her demands and nagging now, she will see you as weak and lose respect for you. You are doing the Lord’s work. She should be honoured that you chose her to be your support on this monumental journey.” Reverend Akrong had ended.
Kofi felt somewhat uncomfortable with his mentor’s words. It didn’t sound right to his ears, and he could just imagine how Rose would react to it. However, he entertained the notion that there might be a sliver of truth to the seemingly crazy words. Reverend Akrong has been married for a significantly longer period than he has, and he was also a powerful figure in the Christian faith. He must be doing something right if it has worked for him all these years. Still, he didn’t like the idea of Rose being unhappy, and he missed talking to her, so he tried to make amends. He got her a box of chocolates and ice cream to apologise, cleaned the bathroom even though it was her turn that weekend, and promised to be a better husband. By Sunday, although he was still sleeping in the guest room and she hadn’t completely warmed up to him, their relationship was better.
Rose was disturbed. The revelation that her husband’s altered behaviour stemmed directly from his mentor exacerbated the situation. And the other women’s situations made it clear that the more Reverend Akrong got his hooks into her husband, the worse their marriage would be. She knew she would have to be very smart to be able to negate the effects of his influence. She was shocked by how gullible all these men were to be taking such advice from the Reverend. She spent a long time in bed that night thinking about what to do. However, she fell asleep after finding comfort in the fact that she wasn’t doing this alone. She had a sisterhood now to count on.
As a deacon aspiring to be a pastor, Kofi was always very early to church, arriving at 6:00 am prompt each Sunday for the 7:00 am service. At first, he tried to make Rose go with him, but he gave up when she made it clear that she wasn’t interested in getting to church an hour before it starts. She was never late, but she didn’t arrive earlier than 6:50 am. So he was shocked when his beautiful wife was dressed and ready to walk to church with him at 5:45 am that Sunday.
“Rose!” he exclaimed in pleased surprise. “You’re ready so early!”
And she was. She wore a two-piece ntama in blue, green, and brown sewn into an off-shoulder kaba with short sleeves and a long slit that hugged her hips and flowed from her knees to her ankles. Her accessories consisted of a bold gold necklace with matching earrings and bracelets. Her makeup was tastefully done, and her hair was mostly covered with an artfully arranged duku in the same fabric as her outfit. Deacon Kofi was awed by his wife all over again, and for a second, a treacherous thought of ditching church and spending the morning in bed with her flashed across his mind.
“You look amazing,” he complimented, trying to clear his mind from the devil’s machinations. He now understood Reverend Akrong’s advice of limiting the time he spent alone with his wife if he wanted to overcome the desires of the flesh to be able to move to the next level in his spirituality. Still unable to help himself, he kissed her softly on the cheek.
“Thank you,” Rosie replied, feeling butterflies in her stomach due to how he was staring at her.
“You look very handsome yourself,” she returned honestly. And he did in his navy blue kaftan.
“May I?” Kofi asked, holding a hand out to her.
Smiling at the sweet gesture, she took his hand to walk with him to church. This was the man she remembered, and she hoped he would last.
On the way to church, Kofi couldn’t help but feel bad that Rose was walking. He didn’t mind walking around town, but he was now reconsidering his decision to move to this town without a vehicle. He decided to speak to her about it later. He thought that maybe, if she had a car, she would be more willing to involve herself in town activities. He wanted her to feel at home.
Nana Adjoa was the first to spot the couple when they arrived hand in hand at church, and she felt a pang of envy at how cosy they looked together. She couldn’t remember the last time her husband had looked at her with adoration the way Deacon Kofi was looking at his wife.
“I’m going to help Nana Adjoa arrange the chairs,” Rose said when she spotted her friend across the room.
“Let me walk you,” Kofi offered, moving across the room to where the older woman was arranging plastic chairs for the upcoming service.
“Good morning, Sister Nana Adjoa,” he greeted before leaving his wife with her new friend.
“Hello, Rose, it’s good to see you so early today,” Nana Adjoa expressed after Kofi left, smiling at Rose. “You look very beautiful in that outfit.”
“Thank you, Sis. I was too anxious to talk to you and Mary to wait until after service. Speaking of Mary, is she in yet?” Rose replied in a low tone.
“Yes, she came in a few minutes ago but went inside with Pastor Fiifi. She will come out soon.”
“Good, I have a lot to share with you, and I don’t think I can survive keeping it inside until after church service,” Rose said as she completed the row of chairs her friend was arranging.
Nana Adjoa smiled. “It must be good since you looked happy with your husband when you came in. I must admit that I felt a pang of envy with how cute you looked coming in holding hands.”
Rose huffed, but she couldn’t help the little smile that crept onto her face. “It’s complicated. The short story is that my husband is fairly new and hasn’t been fully corrupted yet. He is still being influenced, but not as much as your husbands are. How many years have you been in this church?”
Before Nana Adjoa could answer, Mary emerged from one of the meeting rooms, smiling and quickening her steps to join the women when she saw that Rose had arrived already.
“What a miracle!” she exclaimed. “Rose is here before service starts.”
The other two women laughed, then hushed guiltily when they got curious glances from the others working in the church with them.
‘I was shocked myself when she arrived with Deacon Kofi,” Nana Adjoa teased in a quiet tone. “And guess what? They walked in holding hands!”
Rose chuckled. “I came earlier today to talk to my new friends,” Rose admitted, pleased with how quickly Mary had warmed up to her. She already seemed lighter and happier. Rose wondered if she had had some luck with her husband too.
Mary was very happy to see Rose too and could not believe that the young woman wanted to be friends with her and Nana Adjoa. Partly due to always being her husband’s shadow and also because she hadn’t bonded with any of the other women apart from Nana Adjoa, she was pleased to make such a bubbly new friend. It reminded her of who she had been before marriage and kids.
“Obviously, my dear, something has worked for you. Was it a Bible quotation? Share it with us and free us from our misery,” Mary teased.
“Can you believe that I forgot about the memory verse? I’m such a terrible deacon’s wife,” Rose confessed, sending all three of them into quiet laughter.
Across the room and undetected by the three women, Reverend Akrong watched them thoughtfully with mixed feelings. He had seen his deacon look rosy-eyed as he had walked into the church with his beautiful wife, and Rose looked happier than she had been the last time he had seen her. There was an obvious change in the young couple, and he couldn’t decide how he felt about it. Had Rose impressed Deacon Kofi so much with her new prayer skills to draw them closer? Watching the three women now, he wondered if he had made a mistake asking the other two to mentor Rose. There was something different about all of them, and the way they were interacting with each other had an air of closeness that made him uncomfortable.
Feeling as though she was being watched, Rose suddenly looked over and saw Reverend Akrong watching them. She bristled immediately and then worked to smoothen her expression.
“Ladies, say hello to Reverend,” she said loudly to alert the other women that they had an unwanted audience. They turned in the direction Rose was looking and raised their hands in greeting. Reverend Akrong returned their greeting and, with one last look at Rose, left to join their husbands to prepare for service.
The disgusted look Rose had given him had been short, but he had seen it. It had taken him aback, but he had always known that she was going to be different. Rose wasn’t going to be as easy to manipulate through her husband as the other women in the church were. She was new to the town and too bold for a woman. He was going to have to adopt different methods.
