Eddie sat quietly at the table at the restaurant he had decided to watch a football match before going home. He felt so lonely these days staying in the house all by himself. He knew he was not happy alone, and that might have forced his hand to marry Yawa in the first place after the incident at the University robbed him some memory.

On the table were a bottle of beer, chicken chunks and a big bottle of water. The match had started in earnest, and he just stared at the big screen with little interest. Thoughts of Abla had stayed with her every minute of the day since his visit to Yawa’s parents.

Two weeks had passed already, and Yawa had not attempted to contact him or stop by. The truth was, he had not expected that from her. He had expected her to get angry and then realize that all he was trying to do was save whatever was left of their marriage, but it looked as if she just wanted a reason to leave him and he had given her one on a silver platter.

He thought that maybe it was good things ended that way between them. In reality, he was convinced now that he was not born to be happy in relationships for that matter.

He took a long pull at the glass of beer in his hand and laughed a little at something Abla had said that last day before they parted when he saw her off to her house.

“May your dick shrink every time you dip it anywhere else.”

He wondered how a person could simply vanish from the surface of the earth without a trace.

The thing was, shortly after he left, he had jumped off from the second floor of the University he was studying during a student riot and landed rather badly, hitting his head against a rock on the ground in the process. He had been in the hospital for a while, and the sad truth was that he somehow lost his memory from the point he was in form one in secondary school. His mom conveniently kept the fact that he had loved someone from him for her selfish reasons. Days and months went by, and it seemed he had lost that memory permanently.

He had focused on his education and came out tops in his class. That gave him a scholarship to the United Kingdom for his masters and continued to attain a doctorate afterwards.

He dated a few women, but his lack of commitment always led to the ladies moving on with other guys.

Then, he had decided to come back home to set up a consultancy or help build his motherland.

When he touched down, his mother was waiting for him at the airport. She had driven him straight home. The surroundings looked familiar, but still, it didn’t do anything to his memory.

He settled in quite well and was all over the place in no time. He visited many tourists sites and the schools he attended simply to see if that piece of him that was lost, could be recovered.

Somehow, it looked as though that part of him was lost forever. Then, he met Yawa at the gas filling station when he was topping up on fuel. Dressed in a short skirt and a loose top, she looked really incredible, and something about her seemed awfully familiar to him. She came out of the mart at the fuel station and entered a cab that was also buying fuel. Their eyes met when she got in the back seat and looked out the window, and all he could do was to say something about her beauty and the fact that he would like to see her again. She was surprised at his frankness and smiled beautifully at him.

He managed to get her number that day and things fell into place afterwards. He went to the beach with her one day, then quite suddenly, he had a flashback, a sharp picture of a moment lost, of a face lost, and his confusion had peaked. In the brief flash, he had seen a young girl who looked almost like Yawa, but with much more beauty, more passion, more depth, and they were tearfully saying goodbye to each other. Not sure what that was about, he asked Yawa if she had come to that very beach before.

“Nope, this is my first time at this particular beach. Why do you ask?”

“Nothing, I guess. I have this funny feeling we’ve been here before.”

“In your dreams, maybe.”

They laughed it off and enjoyed each other’s company without any further incident.

When he got home, he asked his mom if she knew about any female friends that he might have had before relocating, but she had answered in the negative with the excuse that he was very secretive with his female friends because his Dad was strict about those things.

He was sitting at the balcony of their mansion when he remembered buying one of the yearbooks from his alma mater the day he stopped by. He dashed into his room where he was sure he kept it and turned the room upside down looking for it, but it was as if the purchase happened only in his imagination.

Eddie was getting more confused by the day, but Yawa filled his time. She was fun to be with and made him feel special. He proposed to her after being together for six months and preparations for their big day got underway in earnest. That night, when he slept, he saw the vision again, of him and that mysterious girl, but didn’t hear a word of what they were talking as they stood facing each other.

It was on their wedding day, when Yawa was on the aisle with him, that he regained his memory and saw Abla for who she was, a lost love.

Not wanting to embarrass the two families, he had gone ahead with the marriage, but he knew his heart would never rest if Abla was still out there waiting for him as he had promised her.

He went looking for Abla everywhere when he got back from his honeymoon, but she was nowhere to be found. After the fire, no one seemed to know where they went. A neighbour had directed him to a close family friend. When he finally made it to her place, the lady was in a wheelchair after suffering a stroke. She had lost her speech and ability to use her hands. Eddie did not even have a picture of Abla to show around and ask about her whereabouts.

When all his efforts yielded nothing concrete, he turned to social media and looked for friends who had been mutual associates to him and Abla.

One friend mentioned the last she heard was her getting married, but she knew no further details about who she married or where they lived.

The marriage bit unsettled him in a terrible way, but that stopped him from further looking for her. If it was true she was married, he didn’t want to complicate matters by showing up.

So, he had diverted all his energy into his work and marriage, and things worked for him until now.

***

Pinned against a wall in the living room, Yawa had her legs wrapped around Kwesi as they danced to the only music only the two of them heard.

That was how they had spent the past two weeks- sex, booze, and more sex. They had been indoors most of the time, with Kwesi stepping out a couple of hours a day to attend to other business. She was living the life she had always wanted.

Yawa knew she was making a mistake the day she walked down the aisle with Eddie, but somehow she went through with it. It was not like he maltreated her or anything, but the truth was she was not really into him. She felt they were opposites in character and their differences were big. Eddie was too gentle for her liking when it came to sex, but he had treated her well, made her feel like a princess all the time she stayed with him. And he was always able to satisfy her regardless.

When they reached the summit, they held on to each other as if it was the end of the world.

Kwesi had showered quickly and left for town shortly afterwards.

Left to herself, she took a long lazy bath, and when she finally stepped out and entered the bedroom, she felt a walk around town or a visit to a friend or two would do her some good. She needed to breathe in some fresh air too.

When she looked through the wardrobe, she did not find anything comfortable to wear. The fact was she had not even had time to go serious shopping after storming out of her parent’s house two weeks ago. She had just ordered some essentials online, and they were delivered without delay.

She pulled on a pair of jean shorts that exposed about eighty per cent of her thighs, and ordered a cab with her phone, remembering to send a quick text to Kwesi that she was stepping out for a few hours.

After rushing through traffic for close to forty-five minutes, the cab carrying Yawa Worwornyo-Kai pulled up in front of the house she had shared with her husband for five years.