22 MANIPULATED

"Why did you allow her to sneak out of the house without stopping her?" The loud angry voice of Eric echoed within the house and Prislla was forced to shut her ears with both hands. "Almost every evening Dralex is always out of the house, aren't you worried."

Prislla knew this was going to happen. She knew it when she suddenly discovered that Dralex had sneaked out of the house without telling her where in the world she was going. Paul, her little brother had said he saw her with a bag containing a few clothes and a makeup kit.

Now, since almost two hours ago she had never stopped wondering what she needed that for.

Dralex had suddenly become a problem in the house the year she finished high school.

Prislla had struggled to stem this ugly trend but it seems Dralex strength was overpowering hers already. She is vibrant, strong, intelligent but with a weakness of going out late into the night without telling anyone where she was heading.

Eric's pastoral ministry has kept him away from the home front and most of the time, she was left to deal with Dralex all alone. Dralex over time has daily appeared to be smarter than her.

She stares at Eric who had not stopped walking aimlessly in the sitting room and at the same time talking, "Should I have a wayward child for a daughter? What have I not done for her? I took her to the best boarding school, meet all her educational needs, and—"

"Yes, you did all that but you were not at home all the time." Prislla interrupted with her hands still placed on her ears because Eric was still shouting.

"I am about my father's business Prislla and you know that. You were supposed to look after her and check her excesses before it got to this level—has Dralex gone insane?" He turned around angrily and gazed at Prislla, "this is how it starts and before you know it, the family is in jeopardy. I can't let that happen in my house."

Prislla's weak body got her so nervous. She had a fever a day before and now everything about Dralex and her attitude weigh so hard on her and almost made her want to throw up, she resisted the urge.

Eric's words kept coming like a lash on her back but she preferred to be calm now. The more Eric's words came straight to her. She knew he was expecting her to respond. She cleared her throat and put her hands down, "not long she started this night outing. The fact she is out of high school does not give her the temerity to be outdoor at this time." She gazed at Eric's troubled face for a while and then continued almost immediately, " a few weeks ago she said she wanted to see a friend but she never says if the friend was a male or female but the way she was dressed gave me the impression he should be a male—"

"A male friend," Eric shouted vehemently. "My daughter is having a date or an affair and you pretend as if you don't even know it, Prislla? Come on talk to me, when has she degenerated to this level. I thought Dralex to be a good child and now—"

"Don't start Eric, I can't raise Dralex alone. You have not been around." She interrupted angrily. "Dralex has grown stubborn and taken advantage of your absence, she needs an iron hand to fix her youthful exuberance and that's why your presence is needed as home as a father—"

"What has come over you, Prislla? I am doing the work of my father out there. I have trained Dralex enough to a point I believe she won't be a source of concern to us but you know what, you never followed up but rather kept on apportioning blames." Eric flared but never stopped walking around. He felt that's the only way he could keep his anger on the low. "Dralex attitude I condemn and I am going to wait here until her return. I don't care when she chose to return but she is going to meet me waiting for her right here, what nonsense."

Prislla knew if Eric was to be around, Dralex wouldn't have suddenly turned into something else. She's getting more mundane and insensitive to godly morals.

She walked closer to Eric and tried to lay her hands on him, "Darling please don't be this mad at me or about what I said earlier. You can go where ever you chose to go. I won't stop you from doing the work of God. I refuse to be a stumbling block to your ministry, Eric." Soon her right-hand fingers reached his well-perfumed shirt and then finally settle on his folded arms. "Paul is getting more of my attention and I never thought Dralex will be this stupid to fall out of control, she seemed to have capitalized on my weakness. I thought she was grown enough to just follow how we brought her up but instead acted weird. I never expected this from Dralex. She has grown above my control and I beg you to stop her, Eric."

Eric sat calmly and then reluctantly stares at the lovely eyes of her wife, Prislla. He could see she is hurting by Dralex's foolish character but didn't she stop her madness when it just started before it became a habit? A habit formed already is always difficult to break and Dralex had formed a stupid one at that already and waiting for someone to break it.

She does not yield to instruction but follow rules she had laid down herself?

What rules?

Eric's mind started working. He knew to raise a godly family wasn't an easy task but with God all things are possible. He eventually sat down but his thought kept on dragging around the fragile cells of his brain. The more he struggled to process them, the more it slipped.

If he is about God's business will God not look out for him also, why then is Dralex falling apart?

Why does she love the ways of the world?

This is not how I raised her, but why is she deviating at this time in her life?

His thoughts never stopped piling within his mind.

Then suddenly it clicked. She was sometimes exposed to sexual abuses in her boarding school and what is showing up now is a carryover of what she had seen, heard, and manipulated to see, the lust of the flesh.

"I thought I have dealt with that already," he whispered to himself but somehow Prislla heard it and reacted almost immediately, "what have you dealt with already, Eric." She fixed her eyes on him thoughtfully.

"It was memories, Prislla, memories of the past. About the other girls in her school that exposed her to sex. I think she still got some residue of those happenings stored up in her mind—"

"But she was counseled and prayed upon—" Prislla looked upset.

"I know," Eric interrupted, "but children have this strange way of seeing and storing things that may be used for a later date or time or in the future and I suspect this is the time Dralex has chosen." Eric's eyes were on Prislla now, but his mind had not stopped working. "Dralex have been exposed already and I see her struggling to experiment what seems to overpower her fresh and the desire to taste is pushing her forward—"

"Taste what? I hope it is not sex you meant to say, Eric? Prislla became uncomfortable in her chair she sat staring into the eyes of Eric.

"Sex is precisely what I meant Prislla, and I am not mincing words. She wants to explore, I am afraid she seems to have neglected our moral principle for her." Eric sat back heavily on his chair, this time, he wasn't staring at Prislla but instead his eyes were on the fan rolling above his head, fixed to the ceiling.

The days of a man are full of many troubles he thought. "When I was young, I have always wished to become a family man and now, I am, Prislla." His eyes were still on the fan he felt had helped cool down the tension Dralex's sudden disappearance had created, "I have two children and I have not been negligent to act as a father should. Now tell me my mistake that is pushing Dralex nut perhaps, I am not seeing it. I asked the Lord to help me fix this. I know deep down within me, I brought her up in the path of the Lord but with this disgraceful show of character and indiscipline. I am disappointed in her, I am going to wait for her return right here to tell me the meaning of her feminine madness."

Prislla's mind has been busy. No doubt Dralex has grown so beautiful over these few months and the attention from the male has been immense.

Is Dralex having sex already?

Who the hell is she doing this with? That is if, she is already into it.