Wounded Pilgrim 13

RESISTING THE REQUEST

Bartholomew wondered a lot as he tried to digest what had just been said to him just a minute ago. Eliezer had just rushed to pay back what he owed him only for him to throw him a keep a brother request. “Were the couple serious in the first place?” He wondered in his busy mind.
“Brother Eliezer at least you could have told me early in advance to prepare me psychologically about this?” Bartholomew started his protest softly. Happiness excused herself to go into the kitchen and prepare supper. Meanwhile silence took over the room and for a minute or two it was as if nobody was in there. Then Eliezer cleared his throat and shifted his position of sitting to face Bartholomew and Rich who sat side by side on one couch.

“Precious Brother Bartholomew am sorry I didn’t have enough time to tell you this in advance but I am sure we can still get some rapport with the issue.” Eliezer started. “Please come outside we talk”
They both walked outside near the tree by the fence where they stood looking at each other. Happiness could see them from her kitchen window where she faced as she worked on Irish potatoes among other food items she was preparing for supper. She sensed that the two gentlemen were having a challenge trying to agree on the issue of Rich.
“I now see why this sudden kindness after all that long time you have been silent on me” Bartholomew said as soon as they were sure no one was hearing them
“No brother it’s not sudden kindness, its making things right” Eliezer said correcting him. He was sure they would agree in the end since he knew Bartholomew was not a hardliner like other youths were
“Didn’t you know that your kid brother was coming over so that you could have made prior arrangements since it’s barely a month since when you two exchanged vows?” he asked him sharply as he looked directly at his face. He looked away a clear indication it was shot fired at him.

“Honestly speaking bro, I never knew this till this morning when he called me using someone else’s number that he was here in the city and I had to go pick him up.” Eliezer replied.
“And what brings him to the city?”
“Ahaa! He is coming to join the university”
“How come you never knew about your kid brother joining the university? Brother just be honest with me if you want us to agree quickly”
“Off course I did know but that was before the wedding arrangements. I must have gotten really very busy till I forgot about it.”
“But your father could have called you even in the course of last week to tell you about your brother” Bartholomew was losing his patience on him with each statement. He was now detecting a lot of dishonesty in Eliezer concerning his own kid brother. He felt that agreeing to the matter may be simply be entering into something that was still very unclear to him.

“One thing brother you should know is that I am not a bank or micro-finance where you can repay your loan, then go ahead and ask for another loan immediately.” Bartholomew added.
“Brother this is not another loan, its helping my brother as he seeks to get admission at the university since he is coming for a parallel program” Eliezer responded.
“I will want to hear from your dad the whole story before I can make any decisions concerning this matter” Bartholomew said as he made as if he wanted to leave.
“Okay maybe tomorrow or the other day” Eliezer replied as he looked on hoping that Bartholomew was not leaving as he appeared to be.
“Until then have a nice week, am off” Bartholomew was now moving towards the gate. Eliezer watched shocked about what he was seeing happening.
“Brother are you sure you are leaving just like that?” Eliezer asked in disbelief.
“yeah am off.”
“Why without eating? We have not concluded the matter?”
“You could have let me eat first before bringing this issue. You could have communicated in advance also about the matter. I just want to prove all things and hold fast to that which is good as was preached to us a couple of Sundays ago”