Dark Light…

AARON ANSAH-AGYEMAN

DARK LIGHT

A ChrisEffe Bliss

EPISODE 3

Chief Inspector Jonathan Afful turned from the window with a grimace as he cast a baleful look at the ceiling fan. He was in his office and it was so hot; it felt as if the ceiling fan was just circulating a blast of heatwaves. The air-conditioning unit had broken down and he could barely stand the heat.

His coat was off and his tie was undone. He had taken off his wristwatch and rolled up his shirt sleeves to minimize the effect of the sweltering heat. He walked to the small refrigerator, took out a box of chilled fruit drink, opened it and slugged it thirstily.

Jonathan belched loudly and walked back to his desk.

The office door opened and a tall white man with dark hair entered. He was wearing black jeans and a frilly African shirt. He smiled briefly at Jonathan as he stood behind the huge desk.

“Hello, Rupert,” Jonathan greeted as he took another pull at his drink and then flopped into his swivel chair. “How’s the drug case going?”

Rupert Henderson shrugged noncommittally and glanced at the air-conditioning unit.

“Bloody hot in here, Jon,” he said in a pleasantly deep voice.

“Yep, the bloody old machine gave out on me,” Jonathan said sourly. “Techs are supposed to be working on it but I can’t find the bloody lazy cocoons.”

Rupert chuckled and put a blue manila file on the desk in front of Jonathan.

“Month report,” he said.

“Any progress?”

“Yep,” Rupert said. “We gonna nail some real big-fish cocaine bosses soon.”

“That’s good news,” Jonathan said and nodded.

Rupert, a South African, was the leader of a six-man Interpol team from the United Kingdom now in Ghana to chase an elusive drug lord. The drug cartel’s channel of operations was the vastly unsecured African corridor. The team had been given an office in the Central Police Station to operate with a monthly report written for the station chief, Jonathan Afful.

“Really lucky break,” Rupert said, and then he paused when he saw Jonathan looking at the television on the wall with a sudden look of disappointment. Rupert turned and saw a beautiful girl on the screen, a girl he was vaguely familiar with because he had seen her in Jonathan’s office on a couple of occasions.

The girl was crying happily as a dark, handsome man slid a ring on her finger.

Rupert raised his eyebrows and looked at Jonathan with some unease.

“Isn’t that the lady who’s been coming here sometimes?” he asked softly.

Jonathan shook his head once. It was quite obvious that he was greatly agitated.

“No, that lady is Eyram,” he said, striving to be calm. “That’s her twin sister, Effe, the famous fashion designer. She’s the latest trend in fashion and even at this young age, she is quite rich. Seems that buffoon finally proposed to her and she accepted.”

Rupert glanced sharply at Jonathan because he heard the note of pain in the man’s voice.

“Seems you’re quite close to those…twins,” he noted calmly.

Jonathan shrugged.

“Known them for ten years or so,” he said with a great sigh. “I was just a sergeant the first time I saw them. I was at my first station. One night I was having a card game with the boys when a half-naked weeping fifteen-year-old beauty blasted in with a pathetic story. Obviously, she had escaped from her uncle’s house where she and her twin sister had been locked up and raped repeatedly.”

“Shit!” Rupert said with sudden feeling as he glanced at the television again. “That was fucked up!”

The volume was muted so he could not hear what was being said but the headline banner was succinct enough:

Fashion Designer’s boyfriend proposes on an emotional night of awards!

Jonathan nodded grimly.

“Real fucked up, yeah. I looked at that traumatized girl and I just wanted to kill that bastard who did that to her. We went with her to the house and sure enough, everything she said was true!”

“Her own uncle?” Rupert said with distaste. “Fucking asshole!”

“An asshole, yeah,” Jonathan said grimly. “Hell, I gave him a couple of punches, man. Wanted to kill that son-of-a-bitch. I became friends with the sisters afterwards.”

“Aha,” Rupert said with understanding. “So that’s why her sister’s been visiting you?”

Jonathan nodded miserably.

“Effe used to come too until that bastard suddenly came into her life five years ago,” Jonathan said grimly.

He picked up the remote and changed the television station and once again Rupert raised his eyebrows.

“You love her,” he stated simply.

Jonathan looked at the South African sheepishly and then he smiled coldly.

“No use denying it,” he said in a tight voice. “Yes, I fell in love with her.”

“If she prefers someone else why don’t you make a move on her sister?” Rupert asked. “They look the same to me.”

“They don’t look the same once you get to know them,” Jonathan said with a chuckle. “Eyram is a free spirit and Effe is a calm angel. Never got the chance to tell her how much I loved her, though.”

“Tough luck, you should have,” Rupert said. “Seems someone made the right move and snatched her.”

“Yep, she’s finally gone,” Jonathan said coldly.

They spoke about other things for a while and then Rupert stood up and walked towards the door.

“Rupert, hold on a sec,” Jonathan said sharply and slapped his forehead. “There’s a favour I wanted to ask of you!”

Rupert was intrigued.

“Sure, anything, Jon,” he replied as he came back into the office.

Jonathan Afful rummaged through a drawer on his desk and then he picked up a brown envelope and handed it to Rupert.

“Had been meaning to do this for a while but always forgot somehow,” he said.

Rupert looked into the envelope and extracted two things: a picture of the man he had just seen on television with Effe, and a white sheet of paper with the name: Steve Hollison.

“Effe’s fiancé?” Rupert asked calmly.

Jonathan Afful nodded.

“Guy was slick as hell,” he said coldly. “Came to town five years ago, went to Effe’s main shop at the headquarters and purchased an awful lot of expensive suits in one day. According to Eyram, he spent a little fortune that day in the shop.”

“And definitely Effe noticed him,” Rupert chipped in.

“She did,” Jonathan said. “Guy was smooth like silk. Got her laughing and all happy. Next thing, they were having lunches and dinners. The rest is history. I tried to find out a little about him but what I got was sketchy, more like a blank wall of sorts.”

“And you want me to find out what I can about him?” Rupert asked.

“That’s the idea, as a favour,” Jonathan said. “Please? Interpol has a more sophisticated means of tracking a guy, right? I’ll be grateful.”

“Don’t worry about it, buddy,” Rupert said as he walked towards the door. “Gonna look into it for you.”

“Thanks, Rupert.”

***

Two weeks after returning to Takoradi, Effe Kedem drove to the Eden Hospital to see Doctor Gabriel Anaman, the elderly physician who had been their family doctor for as long as she could remember.

She sat opposite him in his comfortable consulting room and told him about the spells of dizziness she had been having lately, sometimes accompanied by severe headaches and sharp pains in her back around the spinal cord area.

He checked her thoroughly.

He later filled out a lab request form and handed it to her.

“I want those tests done, my dear,” he said gently. “I’ll call one of the lab technicians to assist you.”

Effe looked down at the number of boxes he had ticked on the form and her beautiful eyes filled up with sudden apprehension.

“Is everything okay with me, Uncle Gabriel?” she asked softly. “Seems to me this is an awfully long list of tests.”

He smiled reassuringly as he reached for the receiver of a phone on his desk.

“Nothing to worry about, Effe,” he said. “My initial assessment showed everything is okay with you, but I don’t want to leave anything to chance. These are just lab tests to help me eliminate some possible causes and hone in on the probable cause. I’ll give you some medications and injections after the tests. Hopefully, everything will go back to normal.”

She smiled with relief.

“Thank you, Uncle Gabe,” she said. “I really appreciate it.”

He called an elderly lab technician to help Effe with the lab tests.

It took almost an hour to go through the tests. Afterwards, Effe went back to see Doctor Anaman who gave her the medication and two shots. He scheduled an appointment for her in three days.

Effe thanked him and left his consulting room.

She took out her phone, navigated to Eyram’s name and called.

Eyram was a senior nurse at the Eden Hospital and Effe wanted to know if she were around. It pained her that she and Eyram seemed to be drifting apart. Her sister was the one person Effe loved very much, but the little block of misunderstanding that had sprung up between them was getting bigger. Eyram simply could not understand Effe’s decision to cut off their parents from her life.

Nowadays, she and Eyram rarely met without getting into an argument of sorts over their parents. Secondly, Eyram had developed a great dislike for Steve, perhaps blaming him for Effe’s continual aversion to forgiving her parents.

Eyram’s phone rang until a mechanical voice informed Effe that the subscriber she called had not answered and prompted her to leave a message at the sound of the tone.

Effe cut the call, waited a minute and called again.

There was no response again so she put her phone in her bag and moved towards the pharmacy for her prescription, all the time feeling a little bit piqued that Eyram had refused to pick her call.

However, when she got to the dispensing area she came to a stop when she saw Eyram emerging from a door with a brown paper bag that had the Eden Hospital logos and brands printed on it. Obviously, she had taken drugs from the pharmacist and was headed in another direction.

She slowed down when she saw Effe and then she changed direction and approached her twin sister. Effe noticed that Eyram looked wan and a little thin. She also sensed the tension in her sister and for a moment Effe felt an emotional urge to hug her.

She had not seen Eyram for a while and it was beginning to hurt Effe. Their last meeting had not really gone well because Eyram had picked up on the issue of Steve and made Effe totally angry.

“Hello, Rammy,” Effe said softly with a warm smile. “I just called you.”

“Ef,” Eyram said with a little smile of her own. “Sorry. I left my phone in my bag. What’re you doing here? Are you okay?”

Effe nodded.

“Oh, I came to see Uncle Gabriel,” Effe replied quickly. “I’ve been having some severe headaches and spinal pains lately so I came to have it checked up.”

“And what did he say?” Eyram asked, her voice concerned instantly. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“Wanted to surprise you,” Effe said gently. “He made me do some lab tests. Results would be ready in three days’ time then he would know what to treat. In the interim, he gave me a couple of injections and prescribed some medication.”

“Alright, sit down here,” Eyram said quickly, indicating a chair against the wall. “And give me the prescription.”

Effe sighed and sat down obediently. Eyram dropped the brown envelope in the chair next to Effe and then hurried over to the pharmacy and disappeared inside. There was a receipt tucked into the envelope that fell out and as Effe reached out to tuck it back inside she saw that it bore the name of Ivy Kedem.

Her mother!

She frowned slightly.

Was the medicine meant for her mother? Did it mean her mother was in the hospital?

Effe’s heart thudded rather heavily in her chest. She had not seen her parents for close to seven years now. She had walked out of their house ten years previously. Then seven years ago they had visited her in the city. Effe had seen them from the window of her house but had refused to come out to meet them. The last sight she had had of them was her father putting a comforting arm around her mother’s shoulders as they walked away from her gates.

Sometimes they called and sent messages on the phone but she never picked up nor read their messages. Sometimes they used strange numbers to call but when she heard their voices, she simply cut the call.

Her phone rang suddenly and the ringtone was the music she had saved Steve’s number with. She picked up the call instantly.

“Hello, darling,” she said. “Missing you so much.”

“Missing you a million times more, my love,” Steve said, his voice concerned. “How did it go? Has the doctor attended to you?”

“Yes,” Effe said tenderly. “Had some lab tests so next meeting scheduled for three days.”

“Would certainly go with you,” Steve said. “Hey, just finished the meeting. Want me to come over?”

“Oh, no,” Effe said quickly. “I’m done. Just waiting for some medicine. Eyram is helping me out so I’ll leave here in the next few minutes. Would appreciate some company at home though.”

“Then I’m going over to wait for you, my love,” he said lovingly. “Say hi to Eyram for me and hope she does not come over to scratch out my eyes.”

Effe laughed softly with pity.

“Don’t worry, my love,” she said. “Eyram would come around soon enough and she’ll adore you.”

“I hope so,” Steve said, still sounding worried. “I hate the fact that she doesn’t like me.”

“Don’t worry. She’ll come around. I know her.”

They spoke for a bit longer and then said goodbye to each other.

Eyram returned with another envelope and handed it to Effe.

“Two medications, both capsules,” Eyram said. “Instructions included on a separate paper.”

“Thank you very much, Rammy,” Effe said as Eyram picked up the other envelope.

“You’re welcome, Ef,” Eyram said as she looked beyond Effe. “I have to run, Ef. Seems Dad is looking for me.”

Effe turned and saw her father at the far end of the room near the entrance. He was wearing a nice batakari smock and black trousers. He looked as handsome as ever but his face was a bit gaunter than Effe remembered and his hair was a bit greyer than she recalled.

Ken Kedem was walking towards Eyram but when he saw Effe he stopped suddenly. Effe felt a little twinge of regret when her father slowly turned and headed back for the door. Not long ago, he would have hurried over to her and hugged her. It seemed that her father had finally accepted her anger and resolved to stay away from him.

“Is the medicine for…mother?” Effe asked softly.

Eyram looked at her and for a brief moment, her eyes were filled with cold fury.

“So, you still do not read Mom’s WhatsApp messages, right?” she asked coldly.

Effe sighed heavily.

“You know my stance on that already, Rammy,” Effe said softly. “Stop hashing on it!”

Eyram’s lips became a hard, furious line.

“Mother has been on admission for fourteen days, Effe!” she said tightly. “She had a mild stroke, and she was scared she was dying. Your mother sent you voice messages every day for the past couple of weeks begging you to forgive her and come and see her before she died!”

Effe felt her guilt rising and she fought it desperately because letting the guilt hold sway would erode the pain and bitterness she felt and assuage the anger she was holding on to.

“Stop playing the blame game, Rammy!” Effe cried furiously. “Yes, I didn’t listen to her voicetapes! They lost me as a daughter the day they allowed that beast to go free!”

“Oh, come off it, Effe!” Eyram hissed furiously. “Are you going to live the rest of your life holding on to that?”

She brushed past Effe angrily. Effe hesitated for a moment and then she turned and followed her sister. She caught up with her at the door and held her shoulder painfully to turn her around.

“You’re damn right I’m going to hold on to that, Eyram!” Effe said furiously, fighting back her tears as those horrible memories came flooding back. “It was their responsibility to ensure that man paid for what he did to us, Rammy! That beast defiled us in the most horrible way and our own parents let him go free! That I cannot – and will not ever – forgive!”

“I’m not going over this with you again, Ef!” Eyram said in a coldly furious voice. “I suffered more than you because he took me more times than he did you! But you know what, I’ve never blamed our parents for the actions of a sick man like Uncle Tim!”

“Go to hell, Rammy!” Effe cried passionately. “I’m not blaming them for what he did, but what they should have done when we escaped! They took the case out of court to settle it and never mentioned it! What were we to do? Sweep it under the carpet like it never happened?”

“What did you expect them to do?” Eyram cried so fiercely that some people nearby stared at them. “Goodness me, Ef! The man was virtually taking care of our family! He was so ashamed of what he did that he wrote off Dad’s debts and ensured that our parents were free from the constant fear of being dragged to prison over debts they incurred! They were able to look after you and me simply because Uncle Tim made Dad financially stable again!”

“Well damn that, Rammy, damn that!” Effe cried fiercely under her breath. “I don’t care what he did! I only care for the nightmare he took us through! For the rape, for the abuse, for the terror! Our parents should have let that beast rot in prison, Rammy! They should have ensured that bastard spent the rest of his filthy life in prison! All others were incidental, Rammy! We would have been alright because God would have made a way somehow! Letting that piece of evil go free was beyond reason! I can’t accept their reasons, never!”

Dark Light, A ChrisEffe Bliss, Dark Light, A ChrisEffe Bliss.  A ChrisEffe Bliss, Dark Light, A ChrisEffe Bliss, Dark Light . Dark Light, A ChrisEffe Bliss,  Dark Light, A ChrisEffe Bliss.  A ChrisEffe Bliss, Dark Light, A ChrisEffe Bliss,  Dark Light. Dark Light, A ChrisEffe Bliss, Dark Light, A ChrisEffe Bliss. A ChrisEffe Bliss,  Dark Light, A ChrisEffe Bliss.

Premium Story: A ChrisEffe Bliss :: DARK LIGHT :: EPISODE 2

[stextbox id=”info” caption=”JOIN US ON DISCUSSION“]

Do you want to join other fans to discuss the story you read here?

Learn lessons and chat with others on our WhatsApp Discussion Page.

Click here to join KLEVER WHATSAPP STORY DISCUSSION GROUP

[/stextbox] [insert-comment-form]