Introduction
The Modern Day Samson– This is the story about the strongest man of all time who lost everything for a woman.
Chapter 1: The Prophecy
Friday, 16th May, 2003—that was when his life began to change as a little boy of ten years old. He got very angry at the bullies at school, carried a cafeteria table, and threw it at them, earning me a suspension. This made everyone wonder who he was. It made them fear him. Trust me, he literally feared himself. His mother called him one evening and told him everything.
“Son,” she said, “there’s something I need to tell you. When I was pregnant with you, I had a dream. In the dream, I was at home in the living room, just as we are, with a very fine gentleman in a glimmering white robe seated across from me. He told me what was in my womb was more unique than a mere foetus. He told me to keep you away from alcohol and dead bodies, and most importantly, he told me to never cut your hair.
As you can see, your hair keeps growing beautifully, and you keep getting stronger.
God gave you the strength you so much fear, Samson, so own it. Showcase it for the world to know you have something greater.”
The funny thing is that he had begun to realise the weirdest thing: the longer his hair grew, the stronger he became; his biceps were like those of John Cena.
Chapter 2: His Buff
Ladies see him for the first time, or even for the umpteenth time, and still look at him twice. After looking at him twice, they stare, flutter their eyes, and display flirtatious gestures at him. I wouldn’t call it hyperbole, but a complete fact, when I say he could carry an entire city on his shoulders.
At age 18, aside from being the Head of the Church Organizing Team (mostly because of his buff), he had always wanted to be a trainer, so he took a bachelor’s degree in Sports and Physical Therapy and a master’s degree in Kinesiology (Exercise Science). This got him a successful job at 24 as a gym instructor and manager of the famous Gotham Gym in New York.
Clearly, the gym would have a greater population of ladies than guys because Samson happens to be a ladies’ man. However, he was a sucker for love.
Chapter 3: Purpose
On Saturday, 7th July, 2018, Samson was celebrating a one-year anniversary since he became a trainer and manager at Gotham. He was doing circus tricks with a pair of dumbbells and uploaded them to his Instagram. This made Bob, a renowned retired wrestler, send him a DM. Bob told Samson how he could make Samson a famous wrestler in a few weeks.
In order to take on Bob’s offer, Samson had to request weekend and night shifts at Gotham. He wrestled with world-renowned wrestlers and emerged victorious, seemingly fulfilling his purpose. He made it all the way to the championship effortlessly. He became the best wrestler of all time.
Chapter 4: Saviour Samson
One night, Bob and Samson had a meeting at Peter Luger Steak House to discuss strategies for sponsorships coming through and whether to wrestle against notable competitors.
After the meeting that night, Samson decided to drive through Brooklyn to clear his head when he saw the worst thing. It was like deja vu as he watched a group of men bullying a helpless young man. He immediately got down from his black Cadillac Escalade SUV and approached the brawl.
He tried to be a bit diplomatic, considering he had become a widely renowned wrestler.
“What’s going on here?” he asked, but no one paid attention to him. They kept beating the poor young man black and blue.
“Calm down. What’s going on here?” Samson intercepted the brawl after they ignored him the first time.
“You better mind your business, sir, before we make meat out of you!” One of the violent men said.
There were four men. They had been sent to teach the young man a dreadful lesson.
“Whatever it is, let’s talk it out like adu…” Samson was on the verge of peace when a punch landed on his cheek.
He carried the man who punched him over his head and dropped him on the floor, and immediately he heard some bones crack.
He thought the other three were going to run for their lives, but they were foolish enough to engage in a brawl with the wrestler of all time. Samson punched the second man in the face. With the way the man fell to the ground, he was likely to face some brain bleeds.
Samson then held the other two men by their shirts and crashed their bodies against each other three times. They were already unconscious before the third crash. He beat these bullies mercilessly, like he was a street boy.
After taking over the brawl successfully, Samson took the victimised young man to Maimonides Medical Center and settled his bills. Then he made sure they had reached the victim’s folks before driving home.
Despite his night of war, destiny graced him with the queen of his dreams the next day.
Chapter 5: Love at First Sight
After the bloody, bone-crashing incident, he went to Gotham to train throughout the night to calm his nerves.
He was lifting heavy pairs of dumbbells early the next morning when he saw her. She was in one exclusive sports bra and a pair of yoga pants. She walked into the gym arena with a towel around her neck, then straight to the rowing machine. He had to move from where he was because she would have been behind him. Samson had been struck by her beauty.
He walked towards the leg press machine right beside her and stole intentional glances at her.
When she realised she had Samson’s attention, she smiled, and that was the signal Samson needed.
“I’m Samson.”
“Delilah.” Her smile swept him away.
“I haven’t seen you around here before.”
“Really?” She asked. “Do you know everyone who comes here?” She asked again, and she rowed harder.
“Just the pretty ones.” He paused for a moment and chuckled at his corniness.
“That’s a very bad pick-up line.” Delilah teased. That was it. Samson was in love, and no one could convince him otherwise.
Chapter 6: Sucker For Love
Delilah had it all– beauty, brains, and a good sense of humour. Samson told his parents he wanted to marry her immediately. However, they were barely three months into a defined courtship. His parents were surprised.
“Don’t any of the beautiful ladies at church please you? Why do you need to go in for a non-Christian?” His mother questioned him, and he laughed.
“Only Delilah pleases me, mother. She’s the lady of my dreams.” Samson told his mother.
Delilah was the air that he breathed, the dumbbells he lifted, and the love of his life.
After convincing his parents to accept his choice, they went over to meet Delilah’s parents. Then, they got married.
Chapter 7: Lady of His Dreams
Delilah joined Samson for most of his training sessions at the gym when she was not working, and she also cheered him on at all of his wrestling matches.
A few months into their marriage, she got very curious about his strength. She said she feared that he was going to hurt her, but he told her that he loved her too much to even think of hurting her.
One day, after a victorious wrestling match, she asked him a question on their way home.
“Where do you get all the strength from? What’s the secret? Can you ever lose your strength? What will make that happen?”
“Love, calm down.” He got confused.
“Don’t you want to tell me?” Delilah was on the verge of tears.
“Perhaps someone would have to tie me up with seven fresh, new bowstrings. That might weaken me.” He told her, and then she stopped asking him.
They went to bed that night, giggling and rewatching some highlights of the wrestling match posted on Twitter, and even in those highlights, he could hear Delilah’s cheer. He knew that he had made the right choice with regards to marrying her. Delilah was the lady he had always wanted, and he was helplessly in love with her.
When he woke up the next morning, he found himself tied to the bed with new bowstrings, and he sprang out of it with one stretch.
“Honey, why did you lie to me?” Delilah immediately asked him.
“But, Lilah, why did you tie me up?” He was confused.
“I was confirming what you told me, but apparently it was all a lie.” Delilah was already in tears.
“Just in case this worked, you would have ruined my career, babe.”
“Is your career more important to you than I am?” She got angry and stormed out of the room.
Chapter 8: His Delilah
Delilah gave Samson the silent treatment from that moment on. When they went to his wrestling matches, she didn’t even applaud him, much less cheer from the audience.
There were times he tried to touch her after their argument, but she wouldn’t let him. She would get out of bed immediately with a frown on her face.
Unfortunately, she had a one-month business trip a few days after Samson had lied to her, so she had to travel. This made Samson lonely most nights. Hence, he resorted to night walks and night jogs.
One night, while he was jogging, a vehicle crossed him and released two dogs, who barked angrily at him. The driver of the vehicle set him up with two huge K9 dogs. But that was an easy battle. He ripped their mouths into two, driving the driver away in fear.
First, he held the two dogs by the tail and spun around with them till their barks got weaker. Then, he held the lower and upper jaws of one while placing the other down for him to bark and whimper at the sight of him shredding his counterpart to pieces.
After that, he did the same to the other dog, who had been a spectator for the moment.
A month later, when his wife came back, he hugged her and told her how much he had missed her, but she met him with the only question on her mind:
“Where do you get all your strength from, Samson?”
He told her two additional lies: that it could probably happen when he’s tied with new ropes or his hair is woven to a loom. Delilah did all that to him. She was curious to figure out what would make him weak. He didn’t quite understand her—how curious can a woman get?
Delilah, on the other hand, was getting very impatient with him. A few days after telling the third lie, she decided to leave their matrimonial home. However, her last words before she stormed out of the house scared her husband.
“How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you don’t even trust me? You refuse to tell me your secret. This is the third time you have made me look foolish. You haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.”
Chapter 9: I Love You
The next day, when Delilah hadn’t reached out, Samson looked for her at her parents’, and she was there waiting for his grand gesture.
When he rang the bell, her mother opened the door, immediately let him in, and directed him to Delilah’s room.
“Babe,” he said immediately as he entered the room. “I can’t make a mere secret destroy this wonderful love.”
“I don’t think you love me at all, Samson. I think I want a divorce.” Delilah was ready to call it quits.
“No. No. No, Delilah. You’re the queen of my dreams; you’re much more important than my strength.”
“Then tell me. Where do you get your strength from?”
“Can I at least sit?”
“No, Samson! I will file for a divorce if you don’t tell me where you get all your strength from!” She screamed.
“Come on, Delilah!” He immediately sat down and attempted to place his head on her lap when she shifted, causing his head to hit the headboard of the bed frame.
He feigned pain, but she didn’t say a word.
“I promise to tell you, love.” He said, rubbing his head.
“No lies this time, Samson.” She tapped her lap and asked him to lie down. She was stroking his hair with her fingers, and he was enjoying it.
Oh, how he loved Delilah! She was stroking his hair like they were not arguing a few minutes ago.
“I love you.” Samson told Delilah.
“Don’t sleep without telling me the secret, Samson.” She said, and gave him a kiss on the forehead.
“I have never had my hair cut. My mother received a revelation that I was divine. I realised that as my hair grew, my buff increased. So if someone shaved off my hair, I would lose my strength. I would become as weak as any other man.” He could hear himself slur. The strokes she was doing in his hair felt so good, and soon Samson fell asleep.
Chapter 10: Goodnight, Samson
Samson woke up after a few hours of sleep, tied to the bed, and a group of men surrounded him. He tried to stretch out of it like he had originally done, but he couldn’t. He was struggling.
“Babe. What’s happening?” His eyes roamed for Delilah, but he couldn’t make her out until she stepped out in an edgy jacket and dark makeup. She wore the same attire as the men surrounding him.
“Oh Samson, my dear Samson, you messed with the wrong gang. Delilah addressed him with a loud laugh. “Who would have thought it would take a pair of scissors and, well, a beautiful woman to bring you down?”
“What have you done, Delilah?” He screamed, struggling to get out of the ropes, but he couldn’t.
“Will you shut up?” One of the men, who was seated on a chair by the bed, said.
“So was the entire marriage a sham?” He asked, and she laughed even harder.
“Marriage?” She asked while sitting on the lap of the man. “Bald looks good on you, my love.” She spoke to him and placed a mirror over his face.
All his hair was gone. Delilah had cut all his hair off. He realised then that someone had set him up.
First, the man on whose lap Delilah was sitting requested that they untie him. He thought that would at least give him power over them, but it didn’t. He was weak. The men took turns beating him helplessly to the pulp. He could throw a few punches, but they were very weak.
“That’s alright.” The young man giving the orders said, “World-known wrestler, Samson, beaten by street thugs; that will make a pretty good headline, don’t you think so?” He inquired, but all he could do was cough up blood. He couldn’t even breathe. “I lost a drug dealing operation worth billions of dollars because of your little saviour act, superhero. At least this will teach you to mind your own business and not poke your nose in the lives of the streets.
You got three of my guys confined to a wheelchair, and one hasn’t even recovered from a coma. This is all because you wanted to play saviour. Well, save yourself now, Samson. Save yourself!” He shouted at Samson, then commanded his men to blindfold him.
They blindfolded Samson and sent him to an unknown location that smelled like a crowded basement. They held him in captivity without food for several days. Occasionally, one man would bring a cup of water to the ground in front of him and ask him to suck it off. Every now and then, someone would lynch him, progressively weakening him with each passing day.
“Why don’t you just kill me already?” He asked.
“You should have found out first who you were messing with; in that case, you’d not be surprised.”
But in all this, he did not lose faith. He kept praying to God and asking for forgiveness.
“Forgive me, father, for I disobeyed you. Please give me strength for the last time.” He prayed this prayer every day until he realised his hair had started growing again.
Chapter 11: Armageddon
One evening, he overheard a lot of noise and loud music upstairs. The thugs must have been celebrating a win. He crawled towards the pillars and reached out to hold two of the pillars he could touch.
“Dear father,” he said, crying out to God. “You are the omnipotent, the all-powerful one. You gave me this strength for the whole world to see your power and glory through me. I beg you, I ask that you grant me all the strength that I need to put down my enemies.”
Right after saying this prayer, he clinched onto the two pillars and pulled them so hard with all his strength. He tried this three times while praying the same prayer. Suddenly, he heard the walls cracking. He could hear the thugs upstairs screaming out at the sound of the thundering earthquake. Delilah’s scream was the loudest. Her scream reminded Samson of the one mistake he made that had ruined his entire life. Slowly, the building started tumbling to the ground.
The blocks fell down hard, some falling on his head as he screamed. At that point, he gave up and let go. He fell to the ground and watched the building fall on him.
In the midst of chaos, his captors claimed Samson’s life as well. But his legacy lived on, a testament to the enduring power of faith and the consequences of succumbing to temptation in the modern world. Despite the tragic ending of Samson’s tale, his name will forever serve as a symbol of strength, redemption, and the enduring battle between good and evil.
In honour of him, the street leading to his birth home has been named after him. He may be gone, but he will never be forgotten.