One day at a time.

The love i share with my twin brother Joe is more than one can comprehend and those days as kids, we did everything together and in school one of us is always mistaken and punished for the offense of the other,ridiculing people about our identity was funny but not when the teacher's cane is facing us.

Honestly, we were so identical that even our close relatives do not know which is which between us,our parents could not also tell us apart and this made Dad decide to give one of a mark on the face but Mom rejected his idea.

We both wanted to marry twin sisters perhaps that was why it took us so long to chose our brides,it was a sunny day and Mike a good friend came to see us, he told me that he had a surprise for us but we need to pay him some money if we want to see the surprise.

Mike was a funny person and is always taken less serious but he sounded highly serious today so we had a bet to pay him 10dolars if whatever he had will be a surprise to us so he showed us an envelop and said that the content was something special.

Something special i wondered...

As a grown up i knew that there will never be anything special in an envelop but i reluctantly agreed as much as Joe did that there was something special indeed in his envelope. He brought out a picture from the envelop and to be honest, it was more than a special picture to us, the kids in picture were so special and all we wanted was to meet them.

The first time Mike had been serious since we knew him.

The beautiful twin sisters in the photo looked so innocent and what came up in our minds was how they pretty they will be as grown ups.They were the daughters of Dr. Edward, the famous Surgeon.

Our families were in support of our relationship and Dr Edward was always there guiding us morally and the fact that we were all twins and is always in the company of each other made us so popular in town as everyone talked about us.

We play the Lawn tennis very well and was looking forward to professionalize but the arrival of Mary and Martha in our lives changed our entire life plans though things were going on well but many took us to be high profile celebrities so it was not a single surprise when the fitness company called on us to appear on a fitness show.

This show triggered our exposure to the world and every television program wanted to feature us,all the high profile television talk show presenters wanted to interview us, there was always journalists and news men every where we go.

The Beverage company called for us to be a part of their advert and that was when the money began flowing because the four of us featured in the advert so the next thing in line for us was security because people like us are always the target of criminal elements.

There were so many people who do not want to work but want to be rewarded and these are the kind of people we have to secure ourselves from so we hired body guards and had an expert who takes care of our security logistics.

Mary and Martha were the meaning of Joe and Joel, the girls meant so much to us and what we all was looking onto was the day of our wedding, you see though the girls found it difficult to differentiate us yet Mary could tell us with our voices.

Arrangements for our wedding was within the family circle because we do not want a high society wedding,we had a lot of money to lavish but extravagance was no way related to a hard worker and we all worked very hard for our money though we did lots of charity.

April the 27th was chosen for our wedding, it was the girls birthday as well so we have two big occasions to celebrate one day,we were all looking for the most important days our lives, a day we will take our vows and began a new chapter in our lives, a day our dreams will come true because though Martha never cared about getting married to twins but it had been Mary's dream to see them get married to twins.

We were all in the living room making final arrangements for the wedding, Joe was writing out the list of drinks yet to buy when we overheard a load explosion in the compound and upon check we saw four military personals and the guard laid in a pool of blood.

What must have prompted the military to shoot at one of our guards?

We were all contemplating on what the situation was all about when we noticed the men broke down the door and forced themselves into the living room and began hitting us with guns and beating us like we had committed a crime.

They showed no sign of mercy on us as they beat both ladies and men,i guess they would have beaten even a minor if there had been one among us then when they felt that they had finally done well on us, they ordered us all to lie faced down, they tided us with ropes and dragged Mary out of the living room.

They forced her into the trunk of their waiting vehicle and drove off from the compound.

No one could understand what was going on but we managed to untie ourselves and just as i picked up the phone to call the Police headquarters, the unexpected happened.

My cell phone rang and the caller identified himself as a businessman who is simply doing his business, he wants one million dollars in cash if we wish to see Mary alive and we have twenty four hours to pay the ransom or face the consequences.

It dawned on us that we are faced with the Devil and reporting the matter to the Police was out of the question because they have not really helped matters in most of the kidnappings in the country but where do we get one million dollars and not just that but within twenty four hours?

Our whole family was traumatized and the shock was too much on me but i have to get my baby back safe so i made couple of contacts and was able to come up with half a million within a couple of minutes, the caller contacted us as promised and after long negotiation accepted the money we offered so a drop off location was fixed.

I personally decided to take the money to them and get my baby back, of course it was dangerous but i had no other choice so i took the bag of money and drove down south, got to the location on time and met two masked men by the valley then handed them over the bag of money. They pointed down to the left direction and told me to go and fetch Mary over there then they drove off.

How can this be and why me, where is God? This whole questions exploded in my brain when i saw Mary laying on the ground and from the distance i was, i knew that she was not okay but come to think of that why did they extort money from us and as well killed my baby.They killed Mary and dumped her corpse here. Wonders shall never end.

Everyone was devastated at the news of Mary's death and the Police department blamed us for not informing them but how can we inform an institution which has previously helped in ending kidnap cases end sour,we did the right thing not to have involved them because they wouldn't have done any magic to save my Angel from the hands of brutal men.

Funeral arrangements were made and what suppose to be our wedding became a funeral,i could not stand the sight of my beloved been lowered beneath the Earth, this was not our plan and was never our dream but God, our dear God has the final say.

The absence of Mary shattered my life and messed up everything about me, Joe was not enough to give me happiness and so many occasions, i felt that killing myself was the best thing to do but Joe and Martha was always there to comfort me.

They gave me all the moral and spiritual support i needed because Mary's death though a blow to all of us but it left a vacuum in my life and i didn't know how fast time flew as it is not eight months since her death.

Joe and Martha later tied the knot with my support and i was the best man during their wedding which was the only day i ever laughed since the tragedy that befall our families.

Accepting the fact that Mary is gone was not all that easy to others but they all overcame it because nothing will bring her back but it was hard for me to conquer, if she had fallen sick and eventually died or even killed in a motor accident, that would have been justified but to be killed in the manner she was killed was hard for me to accept.

How could someone do this to me?

Two years has gone and there is no information leading to the kidnappers, the police force which promised to get to the root of the matter had stopped communicating with us and i have lost all my major contracts and adverts so seeing Joe and the pastor that morning was no big deal to me.

What will he say that i have not heard a million times?

That the Lord loves me is not new to me or that God is in control so i was highly reluctant listening to all he was saying but today seems different as all he said was directed into my soul.Yes Job suffered and caused the day he was born, he lost his wives and children and his entire possessions yet God was mindful of him.

It was a direct message from God to me that day and i was somehow relived from all my stress then by the time the pastor finished praying,i made up my mind to give my life to Jesus Christ.

He is sweet said the Pastor.

I began attending more of church activities than my regular business activities, to Joe and Martha, i have to allow Mary's soul rest in peace and give life a trial once more.It was obvious that i was simply grieving for an Angel in Heaven as i came to realize that God was watching down from Heaven the day Jesus Christ was killed and he was also watching from the same spot the very day Mary was killed.

Accepting Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior brought greater joy into my life and the Pastor was right, he is sweet. Sweet Jesus so i found a big space in my heart to forgive those killed Mary and i forgave myself too for all the grudges i have stored in my heart.

Everyone was happy to see me a happy man once again and Joe threw a party for me but they had something attached to that party, Martha wanted to use it as an avenue to introduce her cousin Franca to me.

I later was re-contracted by the two firms that previously dropped me because of my inability to cope with the adverts.

Franca was a nice person and had striking resemblance with Mary and Martha, they were cousins anyway but though i had to get married yet i felt that i need to commit it to the hands of God so i made it clear to her that we need to pray over it and see what God has in stock for us.

Now six months since i came in contact with Franca,though i always dream of my dear Mary but i have learned to take things easy and just the way they come and it has been three years since she is gone.

But something happened two days to our wedding.

Emmanuel walked into the compound looking tarted and grieved, it is now two years since he disappeared and every member of the family had been worried about him, barely one year after the kidnap and subsequent murder of Mary, another family member of ours disappeared with no trace so we all were happy though shocked to see him that day. He was our first cousin.

He walked into the living room and broke down in tears, he could not look me at the face and he kept crying without speaking,we felt that something strange must have happened to him

His shocking revelation was rekindling the pains the entire family had forgotten, It was Emmanuel our own blood who organized Mary's kidnap and it was him who killed her, he strangled her to death when Mary saw her face among the kidnappers.It was all his plans.

His confession led to the arrest of his four accomplices.

Standing right in front of the Judge to testify against Them was Justice to me though i have forgiven them long ago but the law has to take its course.I know that within my one self that if i am given the chance to rule on the matter that i would set them free.

I kept on praying for their redemption throughout the three months the case lasted but felt that at last my Angel got her Justice though i never wished them death but may God have mercy on their souls.

Now Ten years since i came in contact with Christ Jesus,i am happily married with one other Angel missing in Heaven,we are both blessed with kids like Joe and Martha and i have learned to always take it one day at a time.