woes of koosam 3
WOES OF KOOSAM
EPISODE 3
by Samuel Cobby Grant
Kobina Sam found his routine soon.
Every day, without exception, he cut a little bit of grass in the compound. He was not allowed to make it kɔfe kɔfe(neatly cut)but it ought to have a carpet-like look like a playground.
Normally, it took from two to three hours of his time every morning, after which he went job hunting or to any construction site he might find some casual work.
He still struggled to use the cutlass and had bought some gloves to help protect his palms which had developed some serious scars and blisters. He had also developed a thick skin to the constant caustic remarks from Uncle George who was impatient with the slow pace of the grass-cutting exercise. He was at it one day, a weekend busily swinging his arm in cutting grass as Uncle George sat in the stoep, observing his slow progress. Kobina went on, focused on what he was doing.
The hue of the clouds changed, indicating a possible rainfall. Kobina stood up to regard the changed environment and decided to call it a day.
Uncle George stood up too and smiled at Kobina who had returned to the porch as he had reached his target for the day.
“Ahh, the weather bring himself. Fufu would cry today,” he said, smiled at Kobina and left for Lagos Town for the ingredients he might need for the fufu. He wasn’t going to buy much as the backyard garden already had pepper, plantain and cassava.
Kobina was in the bathroom when the rains came down amidst heavy winds that shook the foundations of many a tree.
Uncle George rushed in, soaked to the skin and drunk to boot. He pounded on Kobina’s door and said to him drunkenly.
“Fufu would suffer today, aboowa. The weather bring himself papa, aboowa.”
Kobina smiled, happy that the man was in a good mood and he stepped back to evade the strong smell of Akpeteshie emanating from him.
Uncle went back to his side of the Boy’s Quarters and proceeded to prepare for the meal despite the wind-sweeping rains that sometimes beat on his back. In an hour, the light soup was simmering on the fire and the fufu was being pounded by Uncle George and a woman who had suddenly materialized from nowhere. She had arrived when he was washing the cassava.
“Abi you said you weren’t coming. Aboowa.” He said when she arrived, also wet.
She didn’t say anything back to him.
“Are you just a common salt that you are afraid of small rain? Haven’t you worn my shirt before?”
Kobina was by then in bed, the only furniture in the room watching football.
He was half asleep when the lady knocked on the door to present a bowl of fufu and nkakra to him. He had tried to refuse it but she persuaded him to accept it which he did in order not to be seen as being difficult. He collected it, set it on the ground and made justice of it, quite surprised at how delicious it was.
“Where’s the Alomo Bitters” he heard her ask Uncle George. He listened with amusement at their banter for a while; she, placatory whilst Uncle George abusive. The increase in the intensity of the rains prevented him from hearing more of their conversations.
The last thing he heard was the loud bang of the door and he knew without any shadow of a doubt that Uncle George was going to enjoy much more than the fufu he had prepared.
It rained heavily the whole day, and one was forced to stay indoors the whole day.
Kobina had no choice but to watch TV the whole day and slept quite early at night.
Sometime during the night, maybe around 10:00 pm, Koosam’s sleep was disturbed by some noises and in straining his ears, learned that they were coming from Uncle George’s room
“Efia, close your eyes!” he heard him say angrily to his little daughter.
“I won’t. I won’t do it again,” he heard the lady scream “Agyee! Stop!”
Then he heard the door open forcefully, and footsteps which could only have been that of the woman, step out onto the veranda.
Uncle George stepped out too, to plead with her to go back into the room, which she did after some time.
Actually, she had no choice than to comply as the whole place was engulfed in total darkness, though there were lights around, but it was a bushy area. There were bushes and large trees along the military part of the community. Always pitch black and one was always in danger of accidentally stepping on reptiles, notably, snakes.
He fell asleep again when the disturbances died down.
He woke up quite early. The rains had stopped. With the outside lights giving illumination, he swept the veranda and was picking up leaves and pieces of twigs the winds had blown onto the lawns when the lady spoke. It must have been his footsteps that had woken up the lady.
“George, wake up, it’s morning. Give me another round before I leave. A hot one for the road,” she whispered and he complied, judging from the grunts and moans that emanated from the room.
Kobina smiled and went about his business, collecting wind-blown debris from the compound. He was done in no time and was in the bathroom when he heard them leave.
Uncle George returned after seeing her off and greeted him with a sweet smile on his face.
“Efia, how are you,” he greeted the little girl who had come out of the room.
“I am fine thank you, and you.”
“I am fine too,” he replied.
“Daddy, last night I didn’t cry when you hit me for opening my eyes,” Efia said to her father.
Koosam looked at the girl, hiding his amusement, and looked sideways at her father who smiled sheepishly but made no comment.
A few days later, Kobina was on yet another job hunting expedition.
He was on his way to the Free Zone area and as usual, walked. He took the bush path that led to the Air force Station. As the untarred road was still muddy from the heavy rains, he walked along carefully to avoid getting his shoes and trousers dirtied. He arrived at the runway crossing point and had to wait with others as the Control Tower’s radar had revealed a plane preparing for the touch down though the plane wasn’t in sight yet. They waited impatiently for close to thirty minutes till the plane, a commercial aircraft, touched down, and taxied to the area near the Arrival Hall and the passengers disembarked before they were given the all-clear verdict and allowed to cross to the other side to continue to their various destinations.
He crossed briskly and passed by the route behind the Arrival Hall and just as he headed towards the Airforce Guardroom side of the road, the horn of a car sounded and he turned his head to see a black Toyota Pickup pulling up by the side of the road. He shrugged and wanted to continue with his walking when the driver drew his attention by blowing the horn again and wound the window down to reveal the smiling face of the man who had been very kind to him some weeks ago.
“Sit down,” the man who later introduced himself as Mr Mireku said.
He sat in the car. The car’s air conditioning blew cool air into his system as he secured the seat belt at the man’s request.
The car’s radio was on and as if by design, the host of the morning Talk Show was lamenting on graduate unemployment.
“Now I remember where I first saw you. Have you in any way worked at a mining company in Tarkwa before?” he asked Kobina.
“Yeah, I did my National Service at Sika Kokoo Mines,” he replied, wondering where it was leading to.
“I knew it!” Mireku said” I work there too but my Office is at the Ports as the Shipping Manager, and I can get you employed there too,” he said looking straight as he concentrated on the driving.
Kobina jerked forward in the seat, happy beyond measure at the piece of good news.
“Or have you gained employment now?” he said and glanced sideways at him.
“No!” Koosam said fiercely. “No, I’m still unemployed o,” he said and looked at him whether he was offended by how he answered the question.
Tears of joy flooded his eyes and he muttered his ‘thanks’ when it occurred to him that he had just been offered a job.
The man patted him on the thigh with understanding and offered him a box of tissues to wipe the tears away which still flowed even after he’s cleaned them.
Mireku smiled again and recollected the first time he landed his first job after numerous futile attempts.
It was a smooth ride to the Ports where his office was. It was spacious, and it was modern. It had all the gadgets one could think of; be it a computer, furniture TV and more others. On the instructions of the Manager, Kobina was served with tea with toast and fried eggs. After which he filled out an application form, attaching his ever-present copy of his CV to it. A photographer, who had a studio close by was called to snap passport pictures of him to be attached to the form.
He went through all these with great excitement. In the forenoon, Mr Mireku left him alone in the office while he went out to attend to an urgent business at the customs long room.
He had by then calmed down and felt relaxed, watching a documentary on TV in the spacious and wonderfully decorated air-conditioned room.
At exactly 1:00 pm, he was served fried rice and chicken, something he hadn’t had in a long time. Could be two years or more. He counted himself the luckiest man in the world as he stared at the feast in front of him. He bit into the chicken, and ate the delicious rice with its amazing toppings. He bit and attacked the chicken which truth be told, was the largest chicken thigh he had ever seen. He attacked it on all fronts, with both the cutlery set and with his fingers.
He was tempted to put a part of the chicken into his pocket for later but on second thought, scrapped the idea and bulldozed his way through. He drank the bottle of water and belched loudly and looked behind him discreetly though he was the only one in the office. He wiped his fingers with the soft tissue paper that had arrived with the food and stretched his legs comfortably as the cool air of the AC flowed. Its cooling effects combined with the heavy meal numbed his senses and got him drowsy, and he was in no time, far away into dreamland…
He was wearing a tuxedo, his beautiful mother on his arm, her obvious excitement shown on her weather-beaten face, as he led her to the largest entrance he had ever seen to where a dinner party was being held. It was a spacious and beautifully arranged room. He surveyed the unending sets of tables which were covered with snow-white table cloths, each rounded by white chairs. A uniformed usher led them to their table where a large card had his name on it in the centre of the table.
They sat down and he stared starry-eyed at the many continental dishes on the table. It seemed to him as if everyone was speaking in hush tones and he looked at his mother who was tugging at his arm urgently, trying to say something. He pried his eyes from the food on the table and glanced her way.
“They don’t have akaw and abomu with koobi here,” she said with misery akin to desperation.
He glanced again sideways at the mouth-watering dishes being served and she shook him on the shoulders again, insistently and he opened his eyes and saw that he was still in Mr Mireku’s office and it was he who was tugging at his arm to get him to wake up gently.
He sat up, embarrassed.
“I hope the food was to your satisfaction,” he asked, looking kindly at him.
“Yes, indeed it was. Thank you. It was very delicious,” he said, almost thinking it was the food in the dream that the man was talking about.
Silly, he mused and chided himself.
“Thank you very much,” he said once again.
“It’s ok. I’ll send your CV to the HR Department for their attention. You’ll be notified in about a week or two.
Kobina was so elated by the news that he lost his tongue. He only nodded, once and stared straight at Mireku’s midriff. It was only when Mireku turned away from him that he found his voice and muttered a ‘thanks’ you’
“Just give me a few minutes and I’ll go and drop you off,” he said as he walked to his table, sat and make some entries into the computer.
A few minutes turned into an hour before he was done.
As they stepped out to the car park, Kobina who was in the lead almost bumped into a beautiful dark-complexioned lady but managed to avoid the crash at the very last minute.
“Hey, I know you,” she said in a sweet voice that made him wish he knew her too.
“Do you? Who are you?” he said in confused perplexity.
“Who am I? Is that all you can say?” she said with smiling eyes.
“Anyway, I am a fine black chick, no pimples, without blemish, discovered but untapped and untouched,” she said and smiled, revealing a set of white sparkling teeth that could be the envy of any teeth model.
He laughed and asked her where she knew him.
“I think I saw you some weeks ago when you left your address book at the Chop Bar over there,” she said, a serious look now on her face as she pointed in the direction of the chop bar.
“Oh, the day it rained,” he said and laughed, recollecting how he felt that day as he tried to remove the dirt from his attire.
I’ll come for it tomorrow,” he said, his gaze transfixed on her dimpled heart-shaped face. She left then and he turned to find Mr Mireku standing by the Pickup, an amused look on his face.
“Do you know Abena?” he asked.
“Not really. I misplaced my little book at the chop bar on the very day I met you,” he explained, hoping that he hadn’t overstepped his boundaries.
“She cleans our office on a part-time basis,” he said and they left.
He drove to the Shopping Mall and bought some provisions, two bags full and drove him home to Airport Ridge and zoomed away after handing over one of the carrier bags to him.
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