Mr Bediako has been dealing with several issues pertaining to his family and he thereby needed Billy to cover for him on several occasions. It was proving to be hectic for him to be at Mantsekrom while dealing with family issues at home at the same time, so Billy had been handling issues at the village single-handedly most times and had even been writing the weekly reports in his stead.

Even the occasional treks to nearby and far-flung communities to confer with opinion leaders on problems with agricultural issues had landed on his young but able shoulders. He really was a brilliant young man and was widely rewarded with large amounts of foodstuffs by the villages, and Mr Bediako had nothing but praises and recommendations for him.  And he got a lot of allowances from it; be it Trek Allowance or Bush Allowance. And the ever-capable Billy rose to the challenge concerning the bush allowance, signed and approved by him alone.

His enquiries on the identity of the black beauty he saw the other day on the route to the riverside had revealed to him that her name was Safoa, a Senior Secondary School graduate awaiting her results and that she was the only daughter of Safohene Kobina Mogyahyew.

Through a go-between, she was invited to the greenhouse by Billy,  who released some winning combination of flattery and sweet words that got her all mellowed and before he was halfway through it, she had fallen and was already eating out of his hands. She was indeed flattered that a man of his position and calibre saw her worthy of his attentions and accepted his proposals without dilly-dallying. Sadly, it wasn’t only her that saw the man in him. He had become a bit of a hot cake and the ladies were crushing on him like swarms to sugary crumbs.

A few days later, he was home writing a report for Mr Bediako when Mary called.

”Billy please I am dying here, I am now five months pregnant and mother have been continuously raining insults on me. Please come and say something to her,” she said without preamble, an indication of her frustration.

He tried to get her to calm down but she saw nothing fruitful in what he said. To her, it seemed he was just stalling and patronising her.

”Billy, I wish you’ll be a man and take responsibility for your actions. I really love you,” she said, confessing her love for him out of frustration. 

He had known about it for a while now. From their times in school when she used to pay for things for him when he had no money on him and to the time she had given herself to him with the hope that that was going to make him be with her long enough to get married to her.

He found her an easy person to be with.  She was pleasant and neat but the very idea of a future with her had not crossed his mind ever. He hadn’t considered it and he wasn’t considering it now.

He was about to say something to placate her when Safoa knocked at the door. She had never visited him before due to her strict father’s constant monitoring of her movements. He ended the call unceremoniously and switched off the phone.

”I won’t keep long o. I have just fifteen minutes and I’ll go,”  Safoa said as soon as she went in and sat on the edge of the bed as he was sitting in the only chair in the room.

He smiled and went to sit beside her as she smiled back at him.

She repelled his initial attempts to touch her but when he persisted and managed to fondle some sensitive parts of her body, she gave in wholeheartedly and even participated in getting him and herself totally naked and before long,  she seemed to be more aggressive in lovemaking than he was. Her beautifully mounted breasts with their dotted nipples boosted his ardour as they pointed directly to his face excitingly in desirable defiance resulting in an explosive coupling that left both of them panting for breaths after the resultant epic climax.

The fifteen minutes she had said was the duration of time she was going to spend there elapsed and became an hour before they were satisfied enough to let go of each other and it was a well-satisfied Billy who lay in bed with a triumphant smile on his face when she left finally.

***

Mary had become a shadow of her former self. Her usual vivacious outlook had left her and had been replaced with only sadness, and her brave smiles had shadows of pain behind them: the kind of pain unreturned love tends to invite itself into people’s lives. That’s the pain of unrequited love and the pain of feeling alone in the world in the midst of one’s difficult moments.  The pains of heartbreak.

She felt helpless and was at her wits end on what to do about anything anymore but when she saw the pains of childlessness in married women,  and the joys of mothers as they held their newborn babies to their bosom during testimony times at church,  she realised that no problem was too much for anyone.  Hers included.  She resolved to persevere and move on regardless of how Billy and society behaved towards her.

With that resolve, she decided that she was going to dedicate her life to ensure the good health of the baby growing in her belly and to also take care of her own physical and mental health.

***

Billy was shocked, to say the least. He had gone to the Palace Grounds, as had most of the villagers to witness the performance of the Rituals that ushered in the commencement of a whole lot of activities towards the celebration of the annual Kusikye Festival. It had always been a joyous ceremony where bonds were established by family and friends even though it wasn’t actually the main event, and it offered a chance for people like Billy Gosa to mingle and make friends. The drummers, the drums and the dancing virgins were a sight to behold for him until the tone of beats took an exciting and charged turn, making a kon-kon-kon, kon-kon-kon sound. The gongons joined with gidigidi gidigidi,  and a little child jumped into the clearing wearing only a raffia skirt, whooping and catapulting to the beats of the drums as people watched with admiration at how artistic it was.

Then seven bare-chested white calico-clad girls who shuffled along in a file their breasts in various stages of development entered.

The crowd, especially the boys gawked and catcalled at them until they passed behind the drummers and next to appear was  ‘Komfobaa,’ the Chief Priestess, the reason Billy was in shock. 

She was no other person than Kutorkor.  His own KK. Now he understood some of the statements he hadn’t understood before.  Statements like how she was conferring with her ancestors on Friday and spirits not allowing her to do some things, and other confusing words.

”The world is strange o,” he said with a shiver, ”What if her gods had entered her as I hammer her? They’ll probably pull my penis in anger or make it get stuck.”

He watched as if in a trance as she danced and pranced to the beats of the drums.

Dismally, he left the grounds afraid that her gods were going to see and deal with him.

He made his way to the safety of his room and sagged onto the bed. He could still faintly hear the drums and how they now sounded. Frightful. He imagined how she was dancing and shaking her massive buttocks to the rhythm of the beat. Maybe towards the very room he was in.

The door opened slowly and he almost jumped out of his skin until he saw that it was Amerley,  the Chief’s daughter, a twenty-year-old large-chested girl. She had been sending signals a lot to him with words and body language to show her interest in him but he wasn’t interested.  Her crude features were a turn-off for him. Great body but she was no beauty. He had always felt that it was a criminal offence to go in for an ugly woman when beautiful ones were in abundance and eager to meet handsome men like him.

”Mebedzi ɔha ma w’ahaw me dze, merebedzi apem ma w’apem me,” he said in his local dialect which meant “For me to be punished  for embezzling a mere hundred cedis, I’d rather embezzle a thousand cedis and be pummelled.”

Amerley had no inkling of these sentiments he had of her. She had been after him for a long time but it seemed as if all the subtle hints she had been throwing his way had gone unnoticed and so when she saw him leave the playground,  she followed him.

”If I have to kill an ant with a machine gun, I will do so,” she said as she saw him go indoors. She didn’t even knock. She opened the door, went straight in, found him lying in bed and turned the key to lock the door behind her as he looked on. Without any ceremony, she removed the beautiful kente ntama she was wearing and went to lie on top of him in just a bra and panties.

She kissed him and he responded feverishly.

”Ahh well, in the dark, all cats are grey,” he mused and gave himself up to the moment.

Meanwhile, Safoa had hoped she was going to find Billy at the playground so that they could go to the riverside together after the libations had been poured to the gods for a successful festival but the appearance of her friends had truncated her plans to go looking for him.

”I’ll go and look for him when I get the chance,” she said to herself as her friends laughingly dragged her away.

As for Kutorkor, she had kept her eyes preened for him but she failed to see him. She had wanted to wriggle and shake the buttocks he loved so much for him but he wasn’t there to appreciate her. Even as she danced as if she was possessed, she had the presence of mind to look for him in the crowd. He was soon forgotten as the event went on until libation was poured.

The day was one of the biggest on the calendar of the area and the purification of the river was also part of it, and after that, it became a youth affair as the elderly preferred to remain at home instead of the resultant swimming they had long outlived.

Billy, after a satisfying tumble with Amerley which left him surprised at her adeptness and ingenuity, got up after resting a bit.

”True true, don’t mind the body but mind the engine.  In this instance,  don’t mind the face but mind the body and the engine,” he told himself and laughed at his own pun. She had really proved to be an amazing performer in bed.

After a bath and a meal of rice and salmon stew,  he took a leisurely stroll to the banks of the river where it seemed as if the whole village had converged. For a moment, he thought he was at the Last Hour Beach or Kokrobite because those there were behaving just like youths of any other place with their swimwear and other activities.  He walked around,  observing,  responding to the few that knew him as ‘Billy Goat’.

He finally found a sweet-looking lady standing on a little knoll all by herself looking on with amusement at the activities and antics of the crowd. She told him she was from the next village.  He had guessed right and began chatting her up and throwing compliments at her from all directions.  His eagle eyes spotted both Safoa and Amerley approaching from different directions so quickly, but lovingly he held her hand.

”You have stolen my heart. Meet me at the ‘4 junction’ in thirty minutes,” he whispered into her ears and went away, vanishing from the views of the approaching ladies who were shocked to see that he was no more standing at the place they saw him.

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