Chapter 41: Bad Guys In Church

…continued from 19 June 2026…

FIRST TIME HERE? NO PROBLEM – START AT THE BEGINNING – WARNING YOU WILL BECOME ADDICTED TO THE STORY.

Wasiela got up to join the rest of the parishioners in singing another hymn. Malik stood up and held the hymn book with her, pretending to sing as well. He looked around without making it too obvious. He realised that the church could probably seat about 100 people comfortably. He figured that during important religious events like Easter or Christmas, churchgoers would probably not mind standing at the back of the church or in the isles if there were not enough seats available.

After the service, on exiting the building, he noticed how people milled around, chatting to each other, exchanging pleasantries. He also noticed that there were several stalls set up at an acceptable distance from the church doors and not too far away from the entrance to the car park. In-fact you could not avoid the stalls if you needed to head out of the church grounds.

The stalls were manned by parishioners selling baked goods and typical Catholic nick-nacks like “holy” water dispensers, wooden and plastic crucifixes, the church newsletter, fruit jams and preserves and various pamphlets advertising handyman services which could be supplied by small businesses owned by parishioners. 

An idea began to take shape in Malik’s mind. He rightfully assumed that the church got a cut from any service or sale that was made at the stalls. He also rightly imagined that the stall-owners had to pay for the privilege of putting up their stalls on church grounds.

When they eventually got home and Malik had changed out of his church clothes, Wasiela said: “And so, are you going to explain?” 

“Explain what,” Malik said with a wry smile. He knew that his wife knew him inside out and he also knew that she would wait until this moment to question him about his church attendance.

“Well, I think we need to put our heads together and maybe you can help me with a situation that has come up,” he said to Wasiela. 

Now she was thoroughly intrigued, because for once she could not imagine what on earth Malik would want to do that involved the church.

Over in the Parkwood community, Stanley also found himself singing his heart out in church while holding hands with Aletta. Unlike Malik, Stanley was a regular church-goer.

Regular that is since he met Aletta and realised one of the ways to guarantee repeated access to Aletta’s hidden delights was to share, or at least pretend to share her passion for church. After all she was the daughter of a dominee.

Continued tomorrow 21 June 2026, before 12pm

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