”Obra nye woara abɔ”. This old akan adage literally means that ‘life is how you live it’ and that you reap what you sow.
Billy was so preoccupied with chasing after girls that he had lost all sense of what was right or wrong. Apart from Safoa, Amerley and a host of others, he still found the time and space to date anyone he encountered casually.
As for KK, he had tried as much as he could to avoid having anything to do with her. She had seen him with some of the girls a couple of times so she felt she was losing him. She wasn’t even aware that it was because he found her repulsive now that he knew she was a priestess. But occasionally, she managed to catch him indoors to extract her own share of his conjugal prowess and she had seen that he really wasn’t into her as before. He had awoken to the fact that it’s not all ‘Bush Allowances’ that must be signed in for.
”If shove must come to push, so be it,” Kutorkor said to herself in her attempts to brainstorm on ways she could keep Billy for herself.
”He’ll soon find out that he has bitten more than he can chew. ‘Wɔnoa no dɛn na w’amben,” she said and went into the stool room of the Palace to continue with the rituals pertaining to the Kusikye Festival.
Mr Bediako, on days that he managed to go to Mantsekrom, had seen what was going on and had warned Billy on countless occasions of his lifestyle. As an older person and wiser to the pitfalls of life, he advised him to slow down and turn away from the path of destruction he was on.
”Mark my words. You are on the road to disaster and you better put a stop to it before it leads to a disaster,” he warned the young man he had come to love so much.
”Thank you so much, Mr Bediako. God bless you for this advice, ” Billy said in humility.
”Thank you too. You have a bright future and I wouldn’t want you to waste your youth,” Mr Bediako said and told him he had tendered in his resignation and had recommended him to take over from him. It was a promotion which came with perks attached to the post. He was leaving to properly manage the family business.
Billy was overjoyed. He was because he wasn’t going back to the office with its stuffy atmosphere. Especially, to Mr Krampah and his negativity.
He was in charge.
And so KK came. Safoa came. And Amerley, the star girl in his life who had shown him how Tom Tom could be used to send him to higher heights, also came. Even Akos, the one he met at the riverside became part of his harem. They warmed, bedded and massaged his over-bloated ego.
He sometimes wondered how Mary was doing but was relieved that she had stopped bothering him with her issues. She was a nice girl but he had no space for her in his life.
He loved being in Mantsekrom. He was regarded as an opinion leader whose counsel was sought in other issues other than agriculture and most of the Elders secretly hoped he was going to notice their marriageable-aged daughters.
He was the most eligible bachelor in the village and its environs and took full advantage of it. Needless to say, there were a lot of angry boyfriends in the village, and he met one of such on his way home from work one fateful day.
”Billy goat.” the young man greeted.
”Mɛpim wo!” he responded with a big smile.
”Billy the Goat,” the man said again with a smile of his own.
”Mɛpim wo!. No size,” he replied again and dipped his hand into his pockets and neared the newfound friend with the intention of giving him money as a reward for the praise, but he was met with a very large slap in the face with a calloused palm that sent him sprawling on the dusty ground. He almost blacked out from just that single slap from a hand that had held cutlasses for years but he fought it off and took to his heels in a manner that could be the envy of any world-class sprinter.
He needed no one to tell him that his assailant was a much stronger person and that running away was the best option. He ran home and went straight indoors. Even the presence of KK who had been waiting for him couldn’t get him to pause. He ran past her and unlocked the door and went in. If she hadn’t followed closely behind, he would surely have locked her out.
He regarded her cagily as he lay there, breathing heavily from the exertion. She looked at him in disgust and wondered what could have happened to him.
She knew about his womanizing and her plans of trapping him with a pregnancy hadn’t worked so far. She desperately wanted to be married to him as he was the most educated person she had ever been with. They sat in silence and didn’t say anything to each other until he calmed down enough to acknowledge her presence.
”So, you haven’t seen me, erh?” she asked him rudely.
”I have seen you, but as you can see, I am not feeling well. Can we make it another time? ” he said trying to get rid of her.
”You must be joking,” she said, fuming ”You want me to go so that your other girlfriends would come, right?”
”Which girlfriends?” he asked evasively. He didn’t want to incur her displeasure. It could lead to her making her gods beat him too.
”Don’t annoy me, Billy Goat.”
He almost responded with ‘mɛpim wo’ but stopped himself on time.
”If you think that I, Kutorkor would stand aside for you to use and discard me just like that, then you don’t really know me,” she said forcefully, her eyes boring holes into him.
”What do you mean by that statement?” he asked, his mind on all the curses she could place upon him.
”I am saying I will not allow you to treat me like that. Even the Nananom would not allow that,” she said angrily and on the verge of tears, left the house banging the door behind her. He watched regrettably as she left.
”I should have ‘pimmed’ her before she left,” he said and thought about the man who attacked him. As far as he knew, he had never met that man before and so, couldn’t have offended him in any way.
”Maybe it’s a case of mistaken identity,” he said and shrugged it away mentally.
Back in the city, Mary was holding herself up quite well despite the circumstances. She had stuck to her resolve of not allowing mistakes of the past to affect the future. She ate well for the baby’s sake and blossomed. She told anyone who cared to know that the father of the babies had travelled. She always left it vague and most people just assumed that he could have gone to either Europe or the US. Another major thing she did was to move out of her mother’s home to live in a rented place that was big enough for the baby and herself. It happened to be the home of a colleague whose husband had asked her to go and live with him in Kumasi.
Mina Aba, the kindly looking landlady was satisfied with the arrangement and took to her as if they were more than the tenant and house owner they were. The new place offered her the peace and quiet she craved, the direct opposite of the verbal attacks and angry outbursts from her own mother. Mina Aba showed her so much love that her worries which had been a heavy weight upon her dissolved into thin air; as least, some of them.
Maame Konadu understandably was saddened by her daughter moving out and blamed herself for constantly being a thorn in her flesh, with her chiding and all. She beat herself for being such a bad mother and felt that she had failed in properly guiding her young and inexperienced daughter. It was her fear of public opinion that led her to be such a monster. She constantly prayed for Mary and the baby. She was so assailed with guilt that she got sick.
It was at a time she was brooding about her actions and inactions concerning the upbringing of Mary. She squeezed herself in pain and nausea assailed her.
”Maybe I have to see the doctor,” she said and as a reflex, wondered how her daughter was doing once again.
Billy had now resorted to treading carefully and had stopped going to far-flung areas without company, seeing every deserted place as a harbour for assailants and assassins. Nevertheless, his escapades with women went on unabated.
Trouble again reared its head when Amerley informed him that she had taken seed. None of the sugar-coated words he used in order to get her to abort the foetus worked on her. She was adamant that could not be considered. She wanted marriage and no other option was on the table as far as she was concerned.
”I think it’s time for you to see my father for my hand in marriage,” she stubbornly stated.
Billy stared balefully at her and wondered about how the most unattractive of his women expected him to marry her.
”Why should I,” he asked rudely.
”Why shouldn’t you?” she asked and swirled around like a model. “Look at me, am I not fresh?”
He gaped at her and tried to hide the horror he felt.
”How on earth can I marry this ugly cow,” he said to himself.
He raked his brains for a way out of the quagmire he found himself in and tried to buy time for himself.
”You know that I am just starting life and can’t take care of a child at the moment, ” he said sweetly.
”That shouldn’t worry you. My father would take care of everything. After all, he’s the Chief and he’s rich,” she proudly said as she began to touch him.
”I know but I want to properly marry you before you give birth to my piesie,” he said cunningly, banking on her naivety and gullibility.
She gazed into his eyes adoringly and happily smiled.
She pushed him to lie on his butt and sat on him. He allowed her to satisfy herself in a way she only knew how to do best. It was her hallmark and as the harm had already been done, he allowed her and willingly gave himself up for it. He felt he needed to please her to make her heed his reasoning.
”Hmmmmmm. The things we for freedom,” he said as he surrendered himself to her lovemaking.
Kutorkor meanwhile, had carefully and with amorous intent, freshened up. Had dabbed herself with her special body splash. She wore underdrawers that were of the same red colour as the clinging dress she wore which accentuated her large shape. She went to visit Billy with only one thing on her mind. She was going to give him such a great time that he was going to have no choice but to make her the only woman in his life. She went, like a woman on a mission. She was resolved not to let him slip through her fingers despite the annoying presence of all those ‘fianga’ girls clamouring for his attention.
”I am a full-blown and desirable woman and my body alone would ensure victory for me,” she said as she neared the house. On, and on she went as she acknowledged greetings from people she met on the way. As the ‘Komfobaa’. she was an important member of the village and as such, was accorded due respect.
She got to his door and was in the process of raising her hand to knock when she heard the voice of Amerley, her friend talking about pregnancy and marriage.
She stopped to listen to all they said. Shocked, she sat on a nearby kitchen stool as she listened to the drama unfolding within. Tears cruised down her face. ”So Amerley, the Chief’s daughter is also part?” she thought sadly.
She almost died at the ugly sounds that came out of the room when they began to make love that hot afternoon.
She didn’t know when or how she got up and went away from the house to go home. All she knew was that the sound of them making love was driving her out of her mind. She got home and fell on the bed and cried till she fell into an uneasy sleep. But the torturing dream she had was all about Billy and Amerley making out.
As usual, their mating had been amazing.
”Ohh, why do you have a face like a boxer whose face has been battered’,’ he mused as he fell into a deep sleep due to exertion.
”Billy, no matter what you say, I am going to tell my father about my pregnancy. And he is going to pay for the wedding and everything connected to it without a pesewa from you” she said and left without wearing the pantie she couldn’t locate.
Billy was stunned. He actually thought he had softened her stance.
”So all the work I put into it was for nothing” he mused in defeat. He was at the end of his tether and didn’t know what to do about it anymore.
Running away from Mantsekrom was out of the question as it was going to mean he was going to leave the work as well. Applying for a transfer could take a very long time for it to be finalized.
”What a dilemma” he said and wiped the sweat from his brows.
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