Convert

I left the saltmine at 6:30 in the PM and as I drove towards the general direction of Ruai, a good friend called and asked if I wanted to join him at a coffee shop for a few rounds of them amber coloured juice. I told him I was already proceeding towards Ruai, a venture he was very much against on the account that he was broke and so was I. And to rub it in, he reminded me of the critical condition of my tab over at the pub.

So I arrived at the coffee shop and took a seat at one of the empty tables and ordered a bucket of Stella. I was early and already at my second can when this smartly dressed person walked to my table and asked if he could join me.

There are a few banks in the vicinity and by the crumpled, rolled up sleeves of his cotton shirt, double pleated pants and his leather bag, he'd pass for a banker. I don't normally feel comfortable sharing tables with strangers but the dude looked legit and I nodded.

He held out his hands, confidently shook my hand and introduced himself.

"Jonathan Leong", he said.

I offered him a beer but he declined and ordered ice tea instead. And then we talked. He said he was from Malaya and in my backyard for a visit. We spoke of the weather, the flu thing and got into some political discussion because you can never go wrong with politics. Especially local politics.

I was enjoying his company until he asked, and casually too, if I was a religious person. Immediately then I knew where the question was leading.

"Not very. But I do go to church on Sunday's".

It had happened to me countless of times during my college days. And the modus operandi was always the same. Someone would befriend you and then try to make you embrace whatever religion they were selling while you were at your most vulnerable.

"Friend, have you had many dark moments?", he asked next.

I had already ravished four Stella by then and didn't really want to get into any heavy discussion on religion. But because I didn't want to be rude, I decided to make light of the situation before he could get started properly.

"Yeah, of course. Like right now. Being broke, you know. Thats dark to me", I bowed my head sadly.

But the look he gave me made me feel guilty.

"In all seriousness, friend, do you ever pray?"

"Sometimes. When I'm down and I need hope. But right now, I'm all good, really". I tried to slide out of it again but he kept calling me 'friend' and asking me questions that I had to answer 'yes' to.

"Do you believe in God, friend?"

"Sort of. But it's more my own version of God"

And then he exhaled loudly and placed his hands on the table, palms facing upwards. I knew then something big was coming.

"Friend, I am a Mormon", he finally declared.

And the way he said it was like a confession and the words were just left there, dangling in the air like he just told me he was gay or had fucking cancer or something. He looked at me earnestly but I just didn't know how to react.

"Really?", I nodded. "Thats nice".

It was a stupid thing to say but in all honesty, I just couldn't think of anything to say. And frankly, I had a bad impression about these bunch. I've gone through the same thing with the group-that-do-not-believe-in-blood-transfusion years ago and they are alright but a bit persistent. Thing is even though I don't really know much about these Moromon's, folks I know always talked about them in a negative way. But Jonathan was all good. He was cool.

"Friend, if I gave you some of our literature would you be prepared to read it? Don't worry. I'm not going to push anything on you. It's up to you".

"Sure. Why not?"

He then opened his leather briefcase and took out what looked like a thick, hard cover book and a few other materials and placed them on the table. I took one, flipped through and said my thanks.

He smiled and just like that he wished me well and walked away

------------------------------------------------

I read the thick book and found it interesting. Really. I'm not kidding.

Very science fiction-nish. Lots of strange beings with cool names. Like Nephi and Moron.