Divorcing Tony

AARON ANSAH-AGYEMAN

DIVORCING TONY

Tony looked at his shattered wife for a full minute, evidently battling with himself. His hand idly rubbed his daughter’s back as she slept with her head on his shoulder.

The courtroom was silent, and just as Judge Darteh was contemplating a response, Tony finally spoke.

“Yes, Liz, you’re right,” he said, and his voice was almost sad. “Not in front of the children. Gracie, seems Ceci is asleep. Please, could you be kind enough to take her and Junior outside for a while?”

Grace, visibly shaken and traumatized, stood up dazedly from the second row behind Liz and approached the witness box.

“Junior, come with me,” she said as Tony carefully handed Ceci to her.

 

The little girl tightened her arms a bit around Tony’s neck, obviously reluctant to let go, but she was tired and drowsy, and eventually allowed Grace to take her.

Junior stepped out of the witness box with a troubled expression on his face. Grace took his hand and they began to walk towards the side door at the far end where the Baidoo family was sitting.

Tony sighed and leaned back in his seat with a slight scowl on his face watching his son’s back. He noticed how the boy’s shoulders had drooped and how his head was suddenly down. His walking was slow, almost as if he was dragging his feet. He looked up once and watched the crowd, and then he bowed his head again.

“Your Honour,” Tony said quickly as he looked at the judge. “Can I please speak to my son?”

 

“Yes, sure, Mr. Siaw,” Judge Darteh said. “Go right ahead.”

“Thank you,” Tony said.

Junior stopped walking and pulled his hand from Grace’s grasp, but he did not turn. His head was bent, and suddenly his shoulders shook pathetically.

He was weeping and trying not to show it, and it cut Tony to ribbons. He stood up and left the witness box, quickly approached his son and knelt on one knee suddenly.

“Look at me, Junior,” he said gently.

 

The boy did not want to turn, but Tony took his shoulders and turned him around to face him. Junior’s face was awash with tears. Without a word Tony put his arms around his son and hugged him. The boy sobbed and wrapped his arms around his father’s neck tightly, and then he began to weep strongly.

He did not cry loudly, but his little body shook hard as he wept.

“It’s alright, my boy,” Tony said gently. “It is okay. Everything is fine. Now, stop crying and tell me what’s bothering you.”

Junior nodded and stepped back with tears on his cheeks. Tony Siaw took out his handkerchief and gently wiped his son’s tears.

“What’s wrong, boy?” he asked gently.

 

“I’m so sad,” Junior said in a tiny voice, his earlier exuberance deserting him. “I’m so sad, Daddy. It feels like me and Ceci won’t be happy again.”

“No, my son, don’t say that,” Tony said and put his hands on the boy’s shoulders. “Why are you saying that? What is wrong?”

“It is the divorce thing, isn’t it?” Junior asked, his voice still small but amplified by the microphone latched on Tony’s lapel. “Aunt Stacy said it is the divorce thing and the judge woman would say you and Mommy should not stay together again and, and, and, and that we will live with Mommy in Grandpa’s house and if we say we drank the Suprumanchu thing we will never see you again!”

 

“Junior, my son, we spoke over that already, and you told the truth, and Daddy is very proud of you,” Tony said in a rush. “There’s nothing to be sad about, my boy.”

“Then why are you still here in that box talking about painful things, Daddy?” Junior said, his voice stronger now. “You’re still doing the divorce thing, aren’t you?”

Tony said greatly. It was evident that he was greatly troubled.

“Yes, my boy, we are, but listen…”

“No, no, Daddy!” Junior cried stridently. “Stop the divorce thing, please. I don’t want to live with great-grandma! I want to be with you, Daddy!”

“Me chooo!” Ceci said sleepily on Grace’s shoulder. “Ceci wan Daddiesh!”

“You will be with me, my boy!” Tony said desperately. “I’ll still be your father, your mom would still be your mom, and we would still love the two of you! Nothing will change!”

“But you and Mommy will not be together anymore!” Junior cried.

 

Tony sighed and nodded sadly.

“Sometimes, all the problems can’t be fixed, my son,” he said softly.

“No, Daddy, no!” Junior cried, his voice breaking again as tears fell down his cheeks again. “That’s not what you said. You told us God always makes a way, Daddy! You told us Jesus says we should forgive and forgive and forgive and forgive as many times as the stars in the sky, Daddy! So, why can’t you and Mommy just forgive each other and let’s go home, Daddy, please!”

Tony Siaw rubbed his forehead frantically with one hand and spoke tightly.

 

“You’re breaking me, son,” he said, and suddenly his voice was unsteady and filled with great emotion. “You’re really breaking me. Yes, I said all that, but it is not that simple, okay? This is why I wanted to see you so many days ago, to make you understand this, but they wouldn’t let me see you! Please, when we leave here, I’ll explain everything to you, okay?”

“I call Peace Time!” Junior said, his voice almost a shout, causing Ceci to raise her head with worry on her face.

Junior was weeping again.

“Not now, Junior, please!” Tony said in a tragic voice. “We’re not home now, you see? We’re in a court!”

 

“Then let’s go home and have Peace Time, Daddy, pleaaaaaaase!” Junior pleaded with a face that was torn up. “We can vote, Daddy, like we do at Peace Time. I don’t want the divorce thing. Ceci, Ceci, do you want the divorce thing?”

“Whatcha the vivore thing?” Ceci asked with confusion. “Zit medicine like?”

“No, no, Ceci!” Junior cried as he looked at his sister desperately. “It means Daddy and Mommy and me and you will not be together again!”

“Haaaaaaaaa?” Ceci cried, her little face horrified with comic proportions, but this time no one laughed in the courtroom. “Noch live togedash evers evers evers?”

“Yes, Ceci!” Junior cried. “They would be somewhere, and they would be tossing us from here to there, here to there, like balls!”

 

“Haaaaaaaaaa?” Ceci screamed. “Nooooooo! Ceci noch wan vivore! Daddieeeesh, ano wan vivore chiiiiiiin!”

Junior turned and raced to his mother’s box and looked desperately at her.

“Mommy! Mommy! We don’t want the divorce thing, please, please, please! Ceci and I don’t want it! Two counts, Mommy! Do you want it? Do you want the divorce thing? Can you forgive Daddy for the divorce thing whatever and let us go home please, please, please?”

And Liz’s hands shook violently as she held her cheeks and her tears simply burst out in torrents. Numb with pain and with her heart wrenching out of her chest, she moved out of the box, trembling, and swept her son into her arms.

 

“Yes, yes, Junior, yes!” she wept bitterly. “I can forgive him for everything! I now know things I didn’t know, my son! And I’m so sorry for putting you and my family into this! Yes, yes, I still love Daddy, and yes, I want to stay with him!”

“Liz!” Sandra Baidoo shouted and got to her feet with her fists clenched tightly, her face all working out. “That man took a prostitute –”

“None of your business, Mama!” Liz screamed fiercely at her mother, causing Sandra to flinch with sudden shock, and her siblings to look at her with stunned expressions. “Enough, Mama! Enough from you all!”

As Tony got to his feet, Junior raced to him and held his thighs with tears coursing down his face.

 

“Daddy, Daddy, she forgives you!” he cried. “She doesn’t want the divorce thing anymore, Daddy! That’s three of us. Me, Mommy, Ceci, and only you remaining! You lose, Daddy!”

“No!” Tony cried suddenly and moved away from his son, his face screwed up with pain as he pointed a finger at him. “You have no right to ask that of me, Junior, no, no! Please, don’t!”

“Daddy!” Junior cried as he walked frantically towards his father. “But you told us… your mother and your father did this divorce thing and it hurt you so much! Were you lying?”

“I’ve never lied to you, boy!” Tony hissed in a voice that was shaking.

 

“Then why are you doing the same thing to me, Daddy? To Ceci and me? It is painful! It is making my whole head hurt so bad, and my belly too! Oh, Daddy, why can’t you just stop?”

And, to the horror of everybody, Tony Siaw dropped to his knees and shouted at his son as tears fell down his face.

“Because she hurt me!” he screamed in agony. “Your Mama hurt me so badly and it pains me to the very roots of my heart, boy! Each time I see her my pain just ratchets up and there had been times I just wanted to die! She hurt me bad, son!”

“Tony!” Liz shouted and raced at him.

She tried to hold him, but he took steps back from her, shaking his head as his tears fell.

“What did I do, Tony?” she wailed. “You took a prostitute to our bed…”

 

“After you defiled that bed, Liz!” Tony shouted, the pain tearing him up so that even as he tried to stop crying, he could not.

“Tony!” she screamed in horror and anguish. “I’ve never cheated on you!”

“Yes, you have, Liz, and stop lying or I sweat I’ll break your neck right now!” Tony Siaw screamed. “Two weeks ago, damn you! I came into that room and you were not alone! You were kissing that bastard on our bed!”

And Liz’s face fell apart with horror as she took a step back, and then she simply crashed on her knees, grabbed her husband’s legs, and buried her face in his thighs as she wept blood from the soul of her soul!

 

Aaron Ansah-Agyeman, Divorcing Tony, Aaron Ansah-Agyeman, Divorcing Tony, Aaron Ansah-Agyeman, Divorcing Tony, Aaron Ansah-Agyeman, Divorcing Tony, Aaron Ansah-Agyeman, Divorcing Tony, Aaron Ansah-Agyeman, Divorcing Tony

 

DIVORCING TONY :: CHAPTER 14

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