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AARON ANSAH-AGYEMAN

DARK LIGHT

A ChrisEffe Bliss

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EPISODE 12

 

They arrived at the Kedem Residence at two o’clock in the morning.

Eyram had called earlier to inform her parents, so the elderly couple was waiting with bated breaths when Effe’s car, driven by Eyram, turned into their beautiful compound.

Even so, their grief was hard to behold when they welcomed their dying daughter. Their tears of anguish seared through Jonathan and Rupert who were looking on helplessly.

And as Rupert beheld their agony, he knew without any doubt that if his suspicions about Steve Hollison were right, he would go to all lengths to find a modicum of revenge for these wonderful people.

 

Mr Ken Kedem, Rupert, and Jonathan had to wait a while in the living room whilst Eyram and her mother cleaned Effe in one of the bedrooms. They changed her clothes gently, and then Eyram fixed the intravenous fluids that would act as food for Effe.

Later, they joined the men in the living room.

Mrs Kedem prepared a delicious cocoa drink for Jonathan, and even though it was an ungodly hour, she insisted they should eat to make her heart happy.

Eyram prepared coffee for Rupert.

She and Rupert sat side by side and spoke gently. Eyram expressed her gratitude to him for his decisive and prompt response. She insisted on knowing fully what he had learned, and as Rupert told her about what he had unearthed about Steve, her eyes widened with shock, just like her parents.

 

“I knew that bastard was up to something!” Mrs Ivy Kedem cried. “Effe’s sickness was too sudden!”

“Please, please,” Jonathan said quickly. “It is all conjecture at this point. The fact that Steve’s former wives died through similar – or almost similar – causes, doesn’t mean there’s any foul play. From what Rupert told me, each death was passed a clean certificate with no suspicions. Absolutely natural causes.”

“But Mr Henderson doesn’t seem to believe that,” Ken Kedem said icily.

Rupert shrugged.

 

“Let’s just say that in my line of work, I’ve seen too many evil things to take anything at face value,” he said calmly. “I’ve witnessed how sick some human beings could really be, and the sickening lows they could drop to. I’ve seen man’s inhumane treatment of man, and the rot that the mind is capable of dredging up. So, I guess I’m always suspicious. But, with this issue with Mr Hollison, I have a gut feeling about it, and I’ve learned to trust my gut feelings wholly. So, let’s say I’m not going to let this die. If there’s something evil behind it, I’ll find it.”

 

“Oh, God bless you, my son,” Ivy Kedem cried painfully. “I do not trust your kind, but today I’m grateful to you.”

Rupert smiled wanly.

“My kind as in being white?” he asked calmly.

“Yes, your colour,” Ivy said with a little smile. “But today you have convinced me that maybe I’ve been wrong my whole life about the white man and that they do indeed have good people among them.”

Rupert smiled again.

“Well, I’ll take that as a compliment then, and as a sign that I can continue chatting with this wonderful woman by my side.”

 

“Aha!” Ken said quietly. “Man does not do anything for free.”

This made all of them laugh for a while, and it was a needed balm for their frayed nerves. It was a tourniquet of sorts for the bitter emotions that had been expressed so painfully with the arrival of Effe.

There was silence for a while, and then Ivy spoke calmly.

 

“I had a unusual conversation with my neighbour last night. She’s Hassana Larry Ibrahim, and she just came back from Bolgatanga. She told me about this strange man who resides in a forest in Barina Village. She says this man, whom the villagers call the Gandun Daji Ubangiji, which means the Supreme Being of the Forest, has been there for about six years now. He lives deep in the forest and does not allow anyone to see him.”

“Ivy, dear,” Ken said with obvious unease and his wife looked at him with a slight frown.

 

“I’m not losing her, my dear,” Ivy Kedem whispered, and tears slowly spilt down her cheeks again. “I’m not losing my daughter, no, not now! No daughter of mine is going to die before I do! God has made that promise to me, and I’ll follow God’s direction in whatever crazy and unreasonable form it is presented!”

Eyram sighed and looked at her mother sadly.

“What are you talking about, Mom?” she asked.

 

“Well, dear, according to Hassana, that strange man is a great healer. The story is that one of the villagers, a hunter, was bitten by a deadly snake and would have died in the forest. However, he said this strange man in the forest found him and treated his snakebite. The hunter lived. You see, the strange man found the hunter beside a lake. When the hunter came back to the village with the news, a woman who had a bleeding problem that made her stink badly went to the forest to sit by the lake. The villagers had driven her out of the village, you know, because of the stench.”

 

She paused and dabbed at her eyes.

Eyram was leaning forward now with expectant eyes, and so was Jonathan. However, Rupert and Ken Kedem had rueful and disbelieving expressions on their faces.

“And what happened, Mom?” Eyram asked.

“Well, the woman’s family had previously sent her to many hospitals, but the doctors declared her condition incurable. The villagers said she was a witch. She went to sit beside the lake for two days, and the strange man came to her. He told her to close her eyes and she did. He blindfolded her. Then he took her deep into the forest and kept her for a week, giving her medication and applying balms. And she was healed completely. The man brought her back to the lake, and she came to the village.”

 

“Bah!” Ken said disdainfully. “Hogwash! Just fairy tales, dear!”

Eyram looked at her father sadly.

“What if it’s true, Dad?” she asked softly.

“Oh, come on, not you too!” Ken said and threw up his arms. “Effe is weak and frail! She can’t be in a car for fifteen hours to some damn village in the North! I’ve been trying to explain to your mother since last night, but she wouldn’t listen!”

 

“Because it is providence, Ken!” Ivy cried desperately. “Hassana says the villagers kept it to themselves, but slowly it has spread to the other parts too. People go deep into the forest and stay by the lake. They leave descriptions of their ailments on paper if the sufferer is a child! And this man comes! He heals those he can heal and those that cannot be healed, he writes messages and leaves them with the patients, sometimes with prescriptions!”

“But Effe cannot be healed!” Ken exploded. “Oh, Ivy! Let’s make her final days comfortable and peaceful! Let’s try and love our daughter for these last days and give her a sweet farewell, instead of this nonsense about some crazy man inside a forest somewhere! It is madness!”

 

“It is not!” Ivy screamed shrilly with tears in her eyes, and she jumped to her feet acutely distressed. “There are cases that had been declared incurable but he cured those patients!”

“Just hearsay, Ivy, and sensationalism crap! How would you know?” Ken shot back. “Your friend Hassana is a sensationalist, always blowing everything out of proportion! You can’t take her words for the truth!”

 

“And why not?” Ivy cried painfully. “Hassana’s best friend, Mildred, had these strange keloids on her face! The ones that kept growing back after surgery, rendering her hideous, but Hassana took her to the forest, and this man attended to her. Did you see Mildred yesterday? Her face is as smooth as a baby’s butt, and she had been free for several months now! No, Ken! It is not by chance that Hassana came back to tell me this, and neither is it by chance that just as I was wondering how to get Effe out of that house, God brought her here to us! God does mysterious things in much more mysterious ways!”

 

Rupert got to his feet and approached the weeping Ivy Kedem.

“Please, ma’am, don’t get agitated,” he said gently. “Look, I will be able to get a helicopter. If indeed you believe this bushman somewhere can heal your daughter, we can send her in the helicopter to northern Ghana, and see this forest man. If indeed, it is true, we’ll know. And if it turns out to be a hoax, we’ll bring her back in the helicopter. No harm in trying, right? You can get ready today and I’ll make the helicopter available.”

Ivy Kedem just stared at Rupert, and then she took his hand and rubbed it gently.

“God bless you, sir,” she whispered. “Because your presence here is not by chance, but the working of God. Now, I’m more convinced that my daughter will not die!”

 

Eyram stood beside Rupert and passed an arm around his waist. She squeezed him and put her head on his shoulder.

Rupert smiled down at her tenderly. Her action, without words, had touched him deeply, and he knew his heart was getting lost rapidly to this strange Ghanaian girl.

Ken Kedem threw up his arms with resignation.

“May the will of God be done then,” he said finally.

Ivy went to him and sat beside him again, and they held hands tightly.

“I’ll inform Hassana then,” she said softly. “We leave as soon as Mister Rupert gets the helicopter.”

 

“Today, right?” Ken asked in a resigned voice.

Rupert nodded.

“Today, yes,” he responded.

***

They arrived in Barina village around noon.

The helicopter touched down on the only school field in the village, and before the rotors stopped spinning, the helicopter was surrounded by a lot of excited and jostling citizens of the village.

Eyram got down first and was amazed by the extreme heatwave that buffeted her. It was as if her face was on fire, and her breath came in little laboured puffs. The air felt hot in her nostrils so she opened her mouth slightly to breathe.

The village, as far as she could see, was not that big.

 

The houses were mostly roundish and coated with unpainted cement. Most of them were made from clay and had grass-thatched roofs. The men surrounding the helicopter and chattering so excitedly were wearing mostly shorts with singlets or were bare-chested.

The women had clothes tied around their bodies.

The children were wearing patched shorts and slits of cloth panties. Most, however, were naked. Their excited voices were almost deafening, and their interests were mainly focused on the helicopter. This was understandable because it was the very first time they had seen such a machine.

 

Her parents soon joined her, and a moment later Hassana Larry also got down. She pointed to a group of about five men standing stoically to one side; they were holding elaborately-designed walking sticks.

They were dressed in huge knitted shorts and smocks known locally as batakari. Their feet were encased in beautiful cowhide sandals, and on their heads were wide-brimmed raffia hats.

Behind them were about ten muscular men with hideously-painted faces holding spears and swords.

“These men are from the Chief’s palace,” Hassana said gently. “They’ve been sent here to enquire of our business. Please, let us greet them.”

 

She led them to the delegation from the palace and bowed low to them. Eyram and her family bowed too. Hassana began to speak rapidly in their dialect, and the grim faces of the men relaxed a little when they learned the presence of the helicopter did not symbolize a danger to them.

They asked them to bring Effe to the palace first.

 

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[/passster]Premium Story: A ChrisEffe Bliss :: DARK LIGHT :: EPISODE 11

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