The chief of Mantsekrom was a worried man indeed. The life of his only daughter hung in the balance as she lay comatose on the hospital bed. He was thinking of whether to transfer her to a well-equipped hospital where she could be well taken care of.
”What is the world coming to,” he said to himself for the hundredth time ”and then, there was that unfortunate incident involving the young Agric man”
”I must sit up if I want to remain in charge. Strange things are happening right under my nose,” he said again at his wit’s end on what he could do to arrest the situation.
”Maybe I should ask Komfobaa to consult the gods on these matters” he said because of the fact that traditionally, the priestess was the mouthpiece of the gods and he felt she could help shed light on the happenings.
Safohene Kobina Mogyahyew was a broken man indeed. Even though the young man hadn’t mentioned his name to the police when he was questioned, he continued to have trepidations about how things were going to pan out. He had a very strong foreboding of future events not being to his well-being. He, as the Safohene, the Warrior King, had seen everything there was to see in the world. He had faced formidable adversaries and had always come out victorious, always with a wry smile on his face. He had encountered death and spit on its face.
What had broken him now was how he had almost murdered the young man in cold blood when it was obvious that it was his daughter who willingly went to him. A daughter he had not set his eyes on since the night of the incident. He had big plans for his beautiful daughter and had been incensed when he saw how she stealthy went to him.
”Ohh, God, where’s Safoa my princess?” he asked no one in particular as he covered his face with both palms in anguish.
The day his wife gave birth to her was one of the happiest days of his life. He watched as she blossomed into a beautiful young lady and he had hopes of having her get married to an influential man of her own choice and clearly, that vagabond didn’t seem like the influential man he was thinking of.
‘A man of wealth and power’ was his idea of an influential man.
”I will consult Komfobaa on the matter,” he resolved though he really had no intention of letting her know anything that could land him on the wrong side of the law.
”Yes, Komfobaa Kutorkor would know what to do.”
Komfobaa Kutorkor was in a jubilant mood. She realized that she was very close to achieving her aims. She was diabolically ecstatic. All hindrances and obstacles were in the process of being cleared from her paths. When she was desperate and didn’t know what to do, her problems had come tumbling down one after the other.
First, it was Amerley who had been cast out of the way for being a pest and a pain in the ass.
And then there was Safoa, who on her own accord provided the antidote for her own elimination. As for Mogyahyew, he was going to be perpetually tamed.
She sang sweet songs as she prepared to go and visit Billy Goat at the hospital. She had felt some bad vibes between him and the nurses when she visited him the other day.
”No girl born of a woman can take him away from me,” she said as she powdered her nose in preparation for the visit. She was going well prepared. It wasn’t going to be like the last when he made her feel like a stalker and unwanted. Now, it was going to be very different. She was going to claim her man.
”He has no choice whatsoever in the matter.”
Mary, on the other hand, had moved on knowing that there was no need mourning for a man who had no intention of being with him. Her belly had gotten so big that some of the nurses began teasing her with it.
Even Auntie Mary was part. She teased her about her being ‘atta maame’ Her visits to the hospital were always in two parts. One: for her antenatal, and two: to catch up on things with Dr Nat. He was a nice man and always made her laugh with his outrageous jokes and dark humour. He always made her wait for him so that he could drive her home.
”The twins are really going to love him,” Auntie Mary said breaking into her chain of thoughts.
”Hu. Who?” Mary asked, rolling her eyes.
”Your babies. They’ll love Nat when you marry him,” she teased.
”I won’t mind you,” Mary said and smiled at the woman who played the part of a loving mother. ”More so, who said I am carrying twins.”
”You be there and do ‘two know’ ‘two know’ for some desperate nurse to snatch him away from you,” she said half serious. She knew that Dr Nat liked Mary a lot but she was too stubborn to see it. Mary, on the other hand, liked Dr Nat but only as a friend.
”Who in his right frame of mind covets a heavily pregnant woman,” she said softly but the elderly woman caught a whiff of what she said and they argued about it, albeit, playfully until the suspect, done with his shift, sauntered over to them, his infectious smile in abeyance.
Auntie Mary screwed her face in comic annoyance and left them. Mary laughed teasingly at her and turned to face the approaching doctor with a radiant smile on her face. He proffered an arm which she clutched at, and they left. She saw from the corners of her eyes how the midwife was looking at them with admiration. He guided her courteously and attentively out of the maternity section, down the hallway towards the large holding area that served as a place for outpatients.
Just as the fresh breeze devoid of hospital scents hit her nostrils, they almost collided with a fat and fair-complexioned woman in a yellow shirt that had some top buttons opened to expose her massive bouncy breasts.
Nat jerked her away in time causing her to wince in discomfort. The lady who didn’t seem to have seen what she had caused swished past them with no offers of apologies. Both Mary and Nat stared after her with disapproval mirrored on their faces.
Nat noticed how her plump body wobbled in the jeans she had on anytime she took a step. He felt it was ridiculous for her to wear that considering the fact that a simple kaba and slit could nicely compliment her great body. It was crass, the direct opposite of the classy look she wanted to portray.
”Now that you have had your fill of her, why don’t you look back at me?” Mary said playfully but her flared nostrils betrayed the fact that she wasn’t being all that playful. He stared at her in surprise and drove her to her place of work. As they went in silence, Kutorkor was well pleased with herself. She had deliberately worn jeans and a yellow shirt to show off her voluptuous shape. She knew many men liked what she had. She liked looking at her exposed boobs as they vibrated. That was even the reason why she almost crashed into that doctor and his pregnant wife at the entrance of the hospital.
The perfume she had on was a powerful one. It was supposed to make the man whose name she mentioned when applying in find her irresistible. And the powdery substance in her bag was for backup but as a last resort. She made her way to the Surgical Section, her inappropriately long heels making clip-clop, clip-clop sounds as she walked along the corridor to the Ward Billy was in.
She went in and saw him talking to that same nurse she had seen by his bedside the last time she visited. He was even holding her hand.
”Eeiii, Billy Goat,” she said in greeting.
”Mɛpim wo!” he replied automatically before he saw her and extricated his hand from the nurse’s.
”I can see that you are well,” she said as she went and sat beside him on the bed.
Billy just stared at her with a look akin to revulsion.
Kuukuwa the nurse stared at the fair lady who had so rudely interrupted them. It wasn’t even time for visitors and she saw that her presence greatly agitated the patient; just like the last time she was there. She was on the verge of telling her to leave until it was time for visitors when the Senior Ward Nurse who was jealous of her closeness to Billy chose that material time to get her to go to another ward on the same block for some items.
Kutorkor breathed a sigh of relief at being free from the suffocating presence of that nurse.
”I don’t think you should just pop in anytime you feel like it,” Billy told her defiantly ”This is a hospital, not a shrine.”
She gaped at him and wondered where his bravado had come from. The Billy she knew was too docile to say anything to hurt anyone. She was hurt, to say the least: after all the efforts she had made to visit him. Even when she had cleared the small small girls from his life, he still felt emboldened to spew such trash at her.
”Well, if that’s how he wants to play it, so be it,” she said to herself and went closer to him but he turned his back to her with his face to the wall. She stared at him for a long time and sat on the bedside chair to wait.
”You really shouldn’t be here at this time, you know,” said the Senior Nurse from behind her.
”Please, I am sorry. Let me sit by him awhile and I’ll leave. When is he being discharged anyway? ” Kutorkor asked
”The Doctor said something about discharging him tomorrow to continue with his treatment as an outpatient ” the elderly nurse said, beginning to get annoyed with her.
”Okay. I’ll come and take him home tomorrow then.”
”Just leave and let us do our work”.
Elated, she left and went back to Mantsekrom. She sold ten of her sheep to enable her to prepare for her august visitor.
She went back to the hospital the next day. Meanwhile, nurse Kuukuwa who had already told him that she was going to take him home, with which he was in agreement with, arrived at the hospital to take him home as it happened to be her off-duty day. When his Medical Records folder was signed as having been officially discharged, Kutorkor arrived to take him home too.
”Please, KK go home. I am going with Kuukuwa,” Billy told shocked KK to her face.
Kuukuwa smiled triumphantly and left, swinging her hips from left to right to search for a wheelchair as it was the hospital’s policy for discharged patients to leave in a wheelchair.
Kutorkor, left alone with Billy, smiled wickedly and opened her handbag, took out a small sachet of the type favoured by pharmacists and poured some of its brownish powdery contents into her palm. She mentioned Billy’s name softly and when he impatiently turned to look at her, she blew them into his upturned face. A glazed look fell upon his face. His gestures became jerky and he became docile to her.
”I am taking you home,” she told him slowly. He nodded and went to stand beside her.
Kuukuwa, pushed the wheelchair into the ward to see them standing close to each other, her hand on his shoulder. She looked at him enquiringly and he in answer said monotonously.
”I am going home with KK.”
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