Dark Light
AARON ANSAH-AGYEMAN
DARK LIGHT
A ChrisEffe Bliss
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The Author
EPISODE 16
The tall, extremely handsome man looked at Effe with a slight scowl on his face. For a moment he seemed undecided, and then he slowly slipped the skin-toned mask over his head and pulled it down in place.
It transformed his face into a bearded, elderly face. He sighed and moved towards the bed where she was lying. Carefully, he put his hands under her and lifted her off the bed.
“Have you lifted me, Uncle Weeman?” she asked softly.
“Stop being childish and immature,” he said irritably. “Stop calling me that.”
“Then give me a name to call you by,” she persisted stubbornly.
“No.”
“Okay then, Uncle Weeman it is!”
“I’m not your bloody uncle!”
“Mr Weeman then, yes,” Effe said, exasperated. “Oh, come on! Tell me your name, please! What’s all the secrecy about anyway?”
“Christ!” he muttered with a deep sigh. “Give it a break, would you? You don’t need to know my name. Get well and get the bloody hell outta here!”
She was beginning to know when his voice sounded angry, so she sighed with exasperation and kept quiet.
Her sense of hearing and smell had been acutely enhanced since her condition, and that was how she knew that he had not smoked that dastardly marijuana. For once, he was also not smelling of alcohol.
She heard the whimper of the dog as a door was opened.
“Hello, Destiny,” Effe said brightly and was rewarded with a happy bark from the dog. Over the last days, she and the dog had bonded. She had gotten over her fear of dogs due mainly to the fact that the dog seemed to like her, and there was nothing she could do about it.
The dog always came into her ward and nuzzled her cheeks with his cold nose, making happy whimpers when Effe spoke to him. This dog always had a clean smell, and gradually Effe had grown to love it in just a few days and cherished the moments the dog came to her ward.
“Destiny?” the man asked, and she was happy to hear that the angry note had gone from his voice, and it had its rich, deep, pleasant cadence again.
“I gave the dog a name,” Effe said. “Destiny.”
“Nobody bloody asked you to name him!” he said immediately, just as Effe had expected, and this made her giggle in his arms again. “And secondly, Destiny is female. He’s male, and his name is Dog!”
“His name is not Dog, come on!” Effe said with a giggle. “You’re too mean, mister! That poor dog is practically your only companion. If you don’t have a name, he definitely has one. I’ll call him Dezzy then, sounds masculine. Unless, of course, you want to call him Kuntakinte or something weirder. Wouldn’t put it past you.”
“What’s the matter with you?” he asked softly, but his voice was not angry this time. “Do you know you’re a bloody nuisance?”
“No, actually,” Effe said softly. “Eyram has always been the noisy one, and me the reserved twin. And I’ve always been accused of being too quiet, especially after…”
Effe’s voice trailed off as she recalled the savagery of Tim Kedem, and for the first time, it dawned on her that for the two weeks she had been in the company of this strange man of the bush, she had barely thought of Tim Kedem!
If he noticed the sudden lull in her earlier vivacity, he said nothing as he walked to the end of the long, wooden pier. Gently, he descended to the moored canoe below the pier and dropped her gently on a makeshift cushion bed.
There was an excited bark and the huge German Shepherd dog jumped into the canoe.
“Dog!” the man said sharply. “You wait.”
The dog whimpered sadly.
“Don’t mind him, Dezzy!” Effe said, raising her voice. “Come to me!”
The dog barked happily and moved to squat beside the bed, and then he nuzzled Effe’s ear, causing her to giggle.
“Ewww, that’s cold!” she said with a giggle. “Where are you taking me, man with no name?”
“To see your people,” he said. “Dog, out.”
“Oh, would you leave him alone, please?” Effe whispered tremulously. “But thank you, thank you so much, sir, for everything.”
“The dog stays,” he said.
“No, please, let him keep me company.”
“You don’t even bloody like dogs!”
“I like Dezzy now!” Effe said desperately. “He’s been keeping me company a lot, and I think he likes me too.”
“He doesn’t like you!” he said suddenly, his voice harsh, taking Effe by surprise.
“Yes, he does, sir,” she said with a sad sigh. “I know you don’t like me, but Dezzy does, and there’s nothing you can do about that.”
The tall man looked darkly down at her for a moment, and his eyes blazed with sudden fury. He checked himself and moved towards the outboard motor.
He reached into his pocket, took out a sheet, and read what he had written on it carefully. A moment later, the sound of the outboard motor filled Effe’s ears, and the huge man moved the canoe slowly off the pier into the deeper expanse of the lake.
He heard the chimes of the huge bells when he was almost at the meeting point, and he knew that the woman’s people were already on the banks of the lake waiting.
It took him forty minutes to reach the secluded edge of the lake. He eased the canoe into the space he usually anchored it, and then he moved to the bed and picked up the irritating woman.
The huge dog followed him as he waded through the knee-length water to the edge.
He carried Effe to the huge landing platform and put her down on the raised wooden plank as his eyes scanned the ominous woods. He was just turning away to ring the bell and hide when he heard a woman’s shout, and he looked up suddenly with anger.
A young, incredibly beautiful lady whom he assumed was the twin sister of the sick woman came flying out of the woods. She was wearing blue jeans and a pink blouse. Her hair was covered with a fetching scarf, and her face was filled with anxiety as she raced towards her sister.
“Oh, how dare you, sir!” Eyram shouted when she neared the tall, grim-faced, bearded man. “We have been waiting right here for more than two hours! They informed us you usually showed up at noon, and we were here before noon! And we were waiting and waiting and waiting, growing scared by the second!”
The man looked at her with very cold eyes.
“You bloody wait if I’m not here, even if it takes the whole day!” he said darkly and with so much fury that Eyram gasped with dismay. “And you were not supposed to see me, fuck it! Were you not told that?”
“Please!” Effe said desperately when she heard just how furious the man sounded. “Please, I beg of you…she’s my sister, and I know she was concerned!”
“Ef!” Eyram screamed with unbridled joy and shock when she heard her sister’s voice. “Oh, Effe, you can speak again! Ef!”
Eyram rushed to the wooden platform and stood looking down at Effe with absolute shock and wonder!
Effe’s face was no longer twisted!
Her features had not quite set into their right positions yet, but the change was staggering!
Indeed, her nose and mouth were still a little bit twisted, but she looked almost back to normal! Her eyes, which had been protruding horribly as if being yanked out of their sockets, had set completely! The skin around the eyes was dark, but they were normal!
Behind Eyram, Ken and Ivy Kedem also appeared!
And with them were four men from the Barina village, but they knew the Gandun Daji Ubangiji, the Supreme Being of the Forest, did not want to be seen, so they kept their backs to the shore and did not look at him.
“Rammy!” Effe wept bitterly. “Oh, Rammy! Where’s mom? Did she come? And dad?”
“They’re all here, Ef, they’re all here!” Eyram wept as she bent and embraced her sister.
“Afi!” Ivy Kedem cried in a trembling voice as she approached them. “Is that Afi speaking? Oh, dearest Lord, is that my Afi?”
“My mother!” Effe whispered, and suddenly she began to weep horribly. “Come, my mother! Please forgive me for hurting you! Daddy, I’m so sorry! I was so lost and in so much pain! Please, please, forgive me!”
“Oh, Afi, Afi, Afi!” Ivy Kedem cried as she wrapped her arms around her daughter and her tears fell in torrents. “Afi, you’ve made my heart come back to life, my dear daughter!”
Ken Kedem, weeping hard, approached the grim-faced man standing just beyond the platform. He reached out his hand to shake the man’s hand.
“Thank you so much, son, for what you have done for my daughter!” Ken said in a voice that trembled terribly. “She was dead! I never expected to hear her speak again! But, she’s looking so much different now! Thank you, son! Thank you so much! I’m Ken Kedem!”
“Fuck off!” the man said savagely. “I’m not your bloody son!”
“Ei!” Ken whispered with sudden apprehension and took a step back.
The huge man turned away from them.
“Dog!” he said sharply. “Come on!”
The dog barked sharply and bounded into the lake behind his master.
“No!” Effe shouted. “Please, don’t go! What’re you doing?”
The dog whimpered at Effe’s plaintive tone and came to a halt, swinging his tail slowly as he looked first in Effe’s direction, and then at the tall, dark man still wading towards the canoe.
“Stop him!” Effe cried in agony. “Please, don’t let him leave!”
“But what’s wrong?” Ivy Kedem cried. “Is the treatment over?”
“No, mother,” Effe said desperately. “Some time to go yet. He’s just…angry you people saw him, I guess.”
Ivy Kedem raced towards the dark man. She moved into the water and held the man’s huge, muscular arm.
“Sir, please, forgive us, forgive us!” she said with tears on her face. “We are so sorry! We thought we lost her, and when we were waiting, we were all mourning! That is why we forgot we had to stay out of sight until you were ready! Forgive us, please, and help my daughter!”
“Take your hand off me!” the stranger said and wrenched his arm from Ivy’s grasp, causing her to fall into the lake. “Come on, Dog!”
He was walking quickly away.
“No, please, don’t go!” Eyram cried as she chased him. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please! Forgive me for shouting at you, sir, please.”
She tried to hold him but he pushed her back savagely, and she toppled into the lake too.
She saw the grim look of wrath in his eyes for a moment, and then he moved past her angrily and got into the canoe.
“Dog!” he roared.
“Dezzy!” Effe shouted. “Don’t go, Dezzy! Don’t le leave me alone, please!”
The dog whimpered and looked at his master in the canoe, and then he took slow steps towards the canoe.
“The dog’s going to the canoe, my darling,” Ken Kedem said desperately.
“Dezzy! Come here, come here, Dezzy!” Effe cried painfully. “You’re my only hope, Dezzy! Oh, God, touch their hearts, please!”
And then the dog whimpered again and bounded to the wooden platform to squat beside Effe. Dezzy was obviously quite distressed and made low sounds of agony.
The dark man in the canoe was shocked.
He stared at the huge dog with narrowed eyes.
“Of course, a bloody woman!” he muttered furiously.
He started the outboard motor and moved the canoe frantically into the lake.
“Oh, no, no, no!” Ivy wept bitterly. “What’s wrong with him?”
“That man is a seriously bothered man!” Ken whispered. “I’ve never witnessed such fury all bottled up inside one person!”
The dog jumped into the water and wailed forlornly; his eyes were fixed on the fast-disappearing canoe.
“Dezzy, come!” Effe said, acutely distressed. “He won’t leave you behind, I know. He will come back for you.”
But the sad dog remained standing in the lake and brayed forlornly as his master disappeared around a bend in the lake, hidden by the vegetation.
Effe’s family grouped around her.
“Rammy,” Effe said softly. “Before we go on, I want you to know that Steve and Elaine are lovers, and they’re responsible for everything that happened to me…”
So, for about an hour they talked, and wept, and let the love of their bond heal wounds that had festered for many years.
***
“He’s not coming back, Ef,” Eyram said with great sadness as the sun began to set, turning the sky into a deep amber glow.
They had been on the lake for close to two hours now, and dusk was fast approaching. The dog was now lying forlornly on the platform with his huge head on his paws.
“He’ll not leave the dog, I know,” Effe said, and she sounded as if she was trying to convince herself. “Just leave me and go, please. He’ll be back.”
“No, baby, no,” Ken said with fear. “It is getting dark, and you can’t move! We can’t leave you here! It is too dangerous! What if he doesn’t come back? You lying here helpless with wild beasts around. No, princess, don’t tell us to leave you. We won’t!”
“Then go back to where you were waiting,” Effe said sadly. “Please!”
“We can wait there, yes, but we won’t leave until we know you’re safe,” Ivy said sadly. “Oh, may God touch the heart of that man! Satan has his heart! Ah, such fury, such brazen disrespect!”
And so, they said their goodbyes and the family moved back towards the trees.
“Oh, Rammy, wait a sec!” Effe called.
Eyram returned to her as her parents waited.
“Ef? I’m here,” Eyram said.
“So, how does he look like?” Effe asked softly.
Eyram looked at her sister with her eyebrows raised.
“Who, the man? The Gandun Daji Ubangiji?”
“Mm-hm!” Effe said, trying to sound calm.
“Well…tall, dark, but old and ugly,” Eyram said quickly.
“Old?” Effe whispered. “His voice doesn’t sound old!”
“Oh, not old like grumpy old,” Eyram said with a chuckle. “Old, like the late fifties or early sixties, lots of grey in his beard. Don’t go falling in love with this man, Ef. With that fury, he’ll end up beating all of us in the house, please!”
And then Effe laughed, for the very first time in many years that Eyram knew, and she looked up, startled, and saw their parents also staring with great shock!
Maybe Effe had laughed since she moved to the city, but the Kedems knew she had lost her childhood laugh, the one that tinkled like a melodious bell and warmed many hearts that heard it. That laugh had always been special, filled with freedom and the joys of heaven…but it had disappeared after her ordeal with Uncle Tim.
But here it was, once again, like a very rare and extinct gem, sounding brilliantly through the quagmire of hurt, depression, pain and torture…once more, freedom, a laugh that was filled with the very essence of life, and a joy to hear!
“That madman is indeed good for her, my goodness!” Ken Kedem whispered with awe as tears came to his eyes. “Aww, God! I’ll sleep well tonight!”
“Ah, I’m not falling in love ever again, Rammy,” Effe said through the dying embers of her startling laugh. “But, even if I do, it would certainly not be with a bearded, old doctor filled with fury and with a penchant to disrespect my family.”
Eyram forced a little laugh as she continued to stare at her sister.
Yes, the Effe she knew, the one she had had so much fun with when they were young, was still in there somewhere, slowly emerging.
And Eyram was troubled.
Effe had always had a morbid fear of dogs and men, and here she was with both combinations, alone, and instead of frigid fear, she was laughing! Almost unconsciously, Eyram stared across the wide lake and wondered who indeed that man was.
“Rammy, that guy, that Rupert…he’s really special,” Effe said softly. “I owe my life to him.”
“He’s white, Ef,” Eyram said with a broad smile. “A South African by birth, dual nationality status in England. He’s in a dangerous kind of work, sis.”
Effe smiled suddenly.
“You like him,” she stated.
“I like him a lot, especially after his damn heroics in our little problem,” Eyram said warmly.
“Please, send my gratitude to him, please,” Effe said. “And to Jonathan too. I really owe them a lot.”
“Jonathan still has the shivers for you,” Eyram said.
“Ah, but not the last time when he saw me,” Effe said. “I could literally hear his horror. Tell them I will thank them personally soon. They should just make sure to stop Steve, please.”
“I will tell them, Ef,” Eyram said. “Now rest and let me leave this place and hope that old man comes for you.”
The sisters said their goodbyes again, and then Eyram joined her parents, and they moved into the forest.
But they did not go far; they waited just inside the fringes.
Effe was alone on the platform now, and although she tried to be brave and prayed fervently for the return of the man, she soon began to get afraid. She knew that if she had any chance of recovering, it was in the hands of this strange man she had been with for two weeks!
That had been her most dreaded fear, the thought of being with a stranger!
It had taken almost two years of dating Steve for her to be comfortable in his presence. The mere thought of being with a man, alone, triggered off the most painful of physical agonies!
But, a week had passed, and she had been in the presence of this man, and she had felt comfortable!
She did not know whether it was because she was paralyzed, or because of his complete disinterest in her. That was also something new. No man, in the past, had ever been able to see her for the first time and not stared at her!
Sometimes, she had seen sheer, raw, lusting, and craving on the faces of men when they saw her. Most men had always rushed to be close to her, to offer help, to know her.
They had dotted on and worshipped her!
But this strange man was different; he treated her like an object, and it was beginning to rankle her.
Maybe it was because she was paralyzed and unattractive. He had seen her at her very worst, physically destroyed and ravaged by a vicious ancient venom, and so he had not had any inkling that she had once been beautiful.
Well, it was not worth worrying over, anyway.
He was, after all, a deeply-troubled old man with his own basket of creepies.
But she had spent two weeks with him – and his dog, whom she was fast becoming attached to – and she had known no fear or pain.
Dezzy barked suddenly, and he sounded excited and very happy. A moment later, Effe heard a splash and knew the dog had jumped into the lake.
“No, no, Dezzy, don’t go, don’t leave me alone, please!” she cried dejectedly. “Stay here, Dezzy!”
And then she heard the outboard motor.
“Dezzy!” she shouted in a frenzy.
But she heard the dog’s excited whimper in the distance.
“Dezzy! Don’t go! If you go your ugly, old owner will leave me all alone here to be killed by wild beasts!” Effe cried with tears in her eyes. “Oh, please, God, let that ugly man come back. I won’t complain about his stupid Indian hemp and his silly drinking again. Oh, Lord, please, let that man come back and help me heal. I promise I’ll worship You with all seriousness, oh God, please, please –”
“Christ!” his low voice said above her as he tucked the sheet of paper he had written on under the platform. “Do you ever shut your bloody mouth?”
Effe was stunned into silence.
He had come back for her!
“You came back!” she whispered tremulously. “You fucking man! Don’t ever do that again!”
“You’re mad!” he said, and then, quite suddenly, he chuckled. “Me…a fucking man?”
“Yes, a bloody fucking man,” Effe screamed as tears of relief fell down her face. “Oh, if I could see and move I’ll scratch out your bloody eyes for you, and punch your fucking face too.”
He chuckled deeply as he put her in the canoe.
“God, give me patience with this bitch,” he said.
And then Effe laughed at that, a lovely tinkling and vivacious blast of pure melodic bliss that made the man look at her suddenly, and there was a strange warmth in his eyes.
The engine deepened as he swung the canoe over in a wide arc and began to send them across the lake.
“Thank you,” Effe said with a deep sigh.
“What?” the man asked.
“I said thank you,” Effe said softly. “For coming back for me.”
The man removed his mask and tossed it aside, and then he looked at her.
“You’re a witch,” he said softly.
“Yes, we fly together on the same broom,” Effe said, and then she burst into laughter again, that amazing sound that made the man look at her, and although she did not see it, he smiled broadly and shook his head as he watched her.
The dog looked at his master strangely, almost with a comical expression; it was the first time he had ever seen a smile on his master’s face, and it confused his simple mind.
“Thank you, Mister….” she said softly.
“You never give up, do you?” he asked softly.
“Not when I set my mind to something, no, I don’t,” Effe said gently, and at that moment she would have given everything just to see his face. “So? Please, I beg of you!”
He sighed deeply.
“Eden,” he said. “You can call me Eden.”
For a moment Effe could not speak, and she folded her lips inside as she looked frantically in the direction of his voice.
“And now she goes dumb,” he said with a snicker.
“You’re not the kind of man I’ve ever met…Eden,” she said gently, and her voice was unstable. “Thank you, Eden, for everything. I’m so grateful to you.”
He did not say anything, but he kept looking at her beautiful face.
And when they were gone Eyram raced frantically to the platform and removed the note he had written. She read it quickly as her parents joined her.
Tackling her paralysis next. Come back in a month.
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