Woes of Koosam 11
WOES OF KOOSAM
Samuel Cobby Grant
EPISODE 11
That day was a very stressful one for Kobina Sam. Both emotionally and physically. Even though he was exhausted when he got done with work, he still made his way to Abena’s end to congratulate her on her new job. He found her dancing and gyrating her body to the beats of a track by Mariah Carey. She switched off the sound system when she noticed him. Her radiant and flushed face changed. She frowned at him.
He noticed the change in her demeanor and remembered how she had been when she asked him about ejection from the Boy’s Quarters.
“Good evening,” she greeted him formally, which was so unlike her. Normally, she would have pulled him into her arms to get him to dance with her and even slip in a couple of jokes to have him unwind from work stress.
Even though he noticed the change, he chose to say nothing about it.
Kobina, feeling uncomfortable, asked to leave and she nodded her assent. He turned and left.
The loud music as he walked away told him that she had switched the sound system back on and could be dancing again. He shrugged mentally and left.
He had hoped that he was going to get something to eat at Abena’s end but her attitude had prevented him from requesting food.
Miserable, he went to Lagos town intending to buy banku and okra stew, and also visit Auntie Serwah to give her the half piece of cloth he had bought for her with his first month’s salary but hadn’t had the opportunity to give to her.
Auntie Serwah was overwhelmed with gratitude and joy. She had always felt a little guilty for the way she got him ejected from the room.
“God bless you, my son,” she said effusively and invited him to join her in the fufu she was about to have. Though he was having pangs of hunger, he tried to excuse himself from partaking in it but she insisted.
She insisted so vehemently that he had no choice but to join her in enjoying the delightful meal of fufu and light soup that had a lot of freshwater fish, beef, mushrooms and momoni; just like how his mother prepared her light soup and found himself eating with gusto.
His stomach busting, he went to Joojo for a visit. They conversed for a long time, just as they used to.
Kobina told him about his job, Uncle George’s wahala, Abena, and his life, generally. He left nothing out.
Joojo listened and made the right responses.
“Have you been hearing from Akosua and Asantewaa?” Joojo asked out of the blue.
Kobina was surprised by the question because he thought Joojo was going to say something about the things he had just told him.
“I have not seen or heard from either of them for a couple of weeks now,” he replied.
“They are no longer here o,” Joojo said “Their father has sent them to live in Accra. Asantewaa is at Legon while Akosua is at Regional Maritime.”
“Eeii, I see,” he said and left for home without the intended buying of food. Auntie Serwah had more than satisfied with that aspect of his need.
He tried to call Abena but her phone was off.
TWO DAYS LATER
Kobina got up quite early as it was his last day at the Boy’s Quarters. He packed his belongings, tidied up the whole place and waited for the arrival of Godwin to take him away to the Transit Quarters Amankwaa Mireku had offered him. Then, Captain Omar summoned him inside.
“Your eviction order has been reversed,” he said crisply.
Kobina said nothing. He was going to leave anyway.
“Our compound has been adjudged the best well-kept compound by the High Command and it’s all thanks to you. You don’t have to leave anymore.”
He stared at the Captain who was trying to save his face without apologising. He was leaving for his own peace of mind and safety. Living there came with its own myriad of issues.
“I am sorry, sir. My boss has already found accommodation for me. I am most grateful to you and your family for your immense help in the short time I have had the privilege of being here,” he said, feeling uncomfortable.
The Captain gazed at him steadily, nodded once and wished him the best of luck in his future endeavours.
Not long after, Godwin arrived to drive him with his things away to the new place at Sikafo Ambantsem No. 2. It was a new building. A duplex of two bedrooms and a hall, air-conditioned, with manicured grass in front and coconut and plantains at the back. It had a mechanised bore-hole with a reservoir. It was really a comfortable place to live in.
He had Godwin go and pick up Abena for an impromptu housewarming party. He hadn’t told her that he was moving that weekend.
His heart kicked painfully when the driver returned without her and just as he opened his mouth to ask about her whereabouts, Esi drove in, her car’s stereo system booming and he was happy when Esi, Frankie and Abena emerged from the car, carrying utensils filled with food which they set up on the heavy wooden table in the veranda.
Music blared as they feasted on the food and drinks.
Though Kobina was happy at the thoughtfulness of the food and their company, he found the one he loved quiet and distant. She couldn’t even look him in the eye. He saw her fidgety and uncomfortable as if she was there against her will.
He was saddened and stared at her, a silent plea for explanation in his eyes.
When they left, she was the first to go into the car as Esi and Frank bade him goodbye.
At midnight, he woke up, unaccustomed to the sound bytes of the new area.
After a glass of water, he pulled out an A4 sheet and calculated the number of cement blocks he was going to need for a three-bedroom house. He was tired of living in other people’s houses even though he hadn’t bought land yet.
He had decided to use his monthly rent allowance to manufacture blocks until he had enough to start his own house. Procuring the land in a good area was going to be another plan on its own. He was going to ask those he got into contact with in his daily life about the availability of land from a good and safe area. ‘Operation 4000 Blocks’ was born.
His next line of thoughts was on his girlfriend’s recent behaviour. He dearly loved her but if she no longer loved him, then there was nothing he could do about it.
Auntie Ama went to Airport Ridge to visit Koosam even though she was responsible for most of his problems.
She was informed by Uncle George that he had been sacked from the house. Her enquiry about where he had moved to hit a blank wall.
“Maybe his girlfriend would know,” he said and went with her to point out Abena’s home to her and left her to her devices.
Auntie Ama rang the bell and as fate will have it, it was Abena who answered the bell, she being the only one at home.
“You must be Abena,” she said, without the courtesy of greetings first. “I came to warn you to stay away from Kobina Sam.”
Laughter, laced with bitterness escaped from Abena.
“I think you must be either a witch or a dragon,” she said to the woman.
“If you value your life, stay away from Kobina. This is your first and final warning,” she said with venom to the much younger woman.
“Are you going to kill me just like the way your husband tried to kill him?” she said sarcastically, eager to meet her word for word.
Auntie Ama, her eyes burning with the frustrations of a spurned woman, saw her as a stumbling block in her way.
And Abena, fed up with the woman, turned away intending to leave but the woman touched her at the back of her shoulder in order to stop her from leaving, and she, in all her fury, gave Auntie Ama a heavy backhanded slap across her face that got her staggering back as blood trickled down the corner of her lips.
Dazed, she stared at Abena’s retreating back in fright and astonishment.
Esi, who was presently driving in from town stared at the strange woman who seemed to have been to the house. She parked the car and went indoors.
Her sister was standing in the middle of the living room, her dark eyes burning with such fury that it shocked her elder sister to the bones.
But she chose not to ask her what the problem was. Her sister was bound to explain everything to her whenever she was ready.
Uncle George and Joojo, for some unfathomable reason, found their way to the hospital bed of Mr Eshun, Auntie Ama’s recovering husband.
They showed their concerns and Uncle George asked the ailing man to advise his wife to stop coming to the house to visit Koosam.
Eshun stilled. He listened as they spoke of his ejection from the house.
“Where is he living now?” he asked in a toneless voice, his face was ashen and deadpan.
“He now lives at Sikafo Ambantsem No. 2,” Joojo replied and went on to give a graphic description of the location.
Without seeming to be doing so, he even supplied the times he could be found at home.
“How can one change so drastically like this?” Kobina pondered over the riddle of his girlfriend’s recent behaviour. His numerous attempts to get her to open up to him had yielded no results. She had just clamped up on him.
Esi her sister had promised to get to the bottom of it; which she did at one time but her stubborn sister had refused to state what was bothering her. She had persisted but it had almost degenerated into a heated argument between them. Their first after several years.
She saw that though she acted like she was feeling all right, she was suffering and hurting from whatever her issues with Kobina were. She knew how her sister was inside out and could tell when she wasn’t herself.
And Abena Tawiah, her sister wasn’t herself. The spark seemed to have gone out of her life.
“I will surely get to the bottom of this. She’s beginning to behave like a spoiled brat,” she had told Kobina.
A FEW MONTHS LATER
Koosam and Abena kept a semblance of communication. Sometimes on phone calls and sometimes on WhatsApp chats but it was always uncontrollably brief and far in between.
Joojo his friend was the only visitor he had and he was grateful to him for that.
He now reverted to his anti-social life and concentrated solely on work. He was now a bit of a legend at work now.
Kobina so loved what he did that it was like a second skin to him. And his colleagues loved him to bits as he was always eager to help them with their duties when the need arose.
And in doing so, he had managed to learn the art of clearing and forwarding goods from the shipment side of the company. The shipping agents, without exception, had their own private shipping agencies and were so appreciative of his help that they were reciprocal of his gestures by giving him cuts and gifts.
He was a fast learner and before long, he was giving them tips on the best ways to accelerate the clearing of goods.
His likeable nature enabled him to get close to most of the shipping agents at the ports and even the customs officers. Most of them constantly urged him to establish his own Clearing Agency as they found him easy to deal with due to his honesty. What drove him was his ‘Operation 4000 Blocks’ agenda.
He knew 3500 could just make his dream come true and to really have his beautiful dream house, he was prepared to go the extra mile.
“Nam dodow nnsei nkwan,” was his clarion call, which meant many fish or meat in a soup does not make it bad. Already, he could boast of two hundred blocks at the back of the house.
His mind drifted to his mother, who for some inexplicable reason, had been referring to him as ‘Nana’.
She had told him once of their royal background but never ever referred to him that way before until recently.
“Maybe it’s because of the cake and spring rolls I have been sending her,” he said to himself and smiled amusingly.
Thoughts of Abena intruded into his thoughts and his mood took a dip.
He forced his thoughts back to concentrate on his mother who had resorted to speaking to him with reverence which sometimes got him uncomfortable. He was perpetually grateful to the woman who had been in his corner throughout his life.
She was as he normally put it, his coach, his counsellor, and his bodyguard.
His thoughts traversed back to Abena which got him to resolve to see her after work.
“I am going to ask her plain plain whether she still loves me and would like to continue being in a relationship with me or not,” he promised himself.
With that out of the way, he went about his duties with renewed spirits.
He had Godwin drive him to Airport Ridge. With a pack of her favourite chocolate brand in his hand, he knocked at the door and walked in confidently and found the sisters laughing hysterically at something one of them had said.
They both responded to his greetings.
He went straight to the reason why he was there that evening. He, just like both of them, never liked beating about the bush on serious issues.
Abena suddenly went silent but managed to blurt out that her work kept her very busy.
“I have an 8:00 am to 5:00 pm job yet I make time to call. What makes you think you can be so busy than me with your 9:00 am to 2:00 pm job, you can’t make time for me?” he asked in exasperation.
“Good question,” Esi remarked, staring at her sister.
“You can’t surely expect me to be calling every free minute I get, do you?” Abena replied rudely.
“If you still love me, you’ll find time to call and visit,” Kobina told her, aiming at getting her to open up.
“I am not at your beck and call.”
“I will never ask you to be at my beck and call. I love you and I’ll always find time for you,” he went on, trying to reason with her.
“If you love me, you’ll never try to make me your slave,” she spat at him.
He stared at her in confusion.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked quietly “What exactly have I done?”
“Kobina Sam, you have done enough already,” she said and stormed into her bedroom despite Esi’s attempts to get her to stay.
Kobina, feeling despondent, left. He had even forgotten to deliver the box of chocolates.
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