The news spread like wildfire in the Office. Everyone, without exception, was surprised, to say the least. No one in their wildest dreams would have imagined that Billy Gosa, the infamous womanizer was going to get married in a month. And it was to no other person than to a Komfobaa. Most of them actually couldn’t believe their ears even when they made preparations to hire a bus to witness the marriage at Mantsekrom.
”It seemed he had become someone’s else Bush Allowance,” one of his colleagues said with wonder.
”Yes o. The collector of Bush Allowances have been trapped,” Cecilia, a former bedmate of his said to the amusement of her audience.
”Maybe I’ll also find some Bush Allowances there when I go for the wedding,” Kofi said echoing some sentiments of the men around.
”I am so happy for Billy. Maybe this Bush Allowance is special.” someone said and some of them nodded their heads in agreement.
The general consensus was that they were going to be there for Billy Gosa who was well-liked by the staff of the unit.
Thankfully, Safoa, the missing daughter of Egya Mogyahyew made a speedy recovery and was discharged from the hospital after a week. She refused to leave unless Father Samuel took her home.
The Reverend Father who had gone to the hospital in the company of Maame Konadu heeded the elderly woman’s advice to take the girl home until they located her family in the village. Though she had partially lost her power of speech, she was very happy in the home of Maame Konadu. She bonded with Mary at once and just didn’t seem to be able to get herself away from the infant twins. She stared at them as they lay in their cots. With the serene environment and the kindness of both Mary and her mother, she regained her strength and her health improved mighty. She, with her good home upbringing, was a good help to them. Slowly but surely, she regained her power of speech but still couldn’t tell them anything about her past and how she found herself in the town on the day of the accident.
She enjoyed the morning devotions Maame Konadu and Mary had every morning in the house.
”I just don’t know what I would have done without you,” Mary told her one day as she helped bathe the twins.
”I am glad that I live with you and your mother. God bless you,” Safoa replied. They still didn’t know her name. Neither did she remember her name or any other name for that matter.
Father Samuel was a constant visitor to the house and he was extremely happy that she had bonded with the family.
He had now accepted that he must go to Mantsekrom though he hadn’t yet fixed a date. There was so much to do at the Cathedral.
He took time off to meditate on issues. He chose some days on which he prayed and fasted. He went to the newly opened retreat centre to meditate and pray for divine guidance.
He prayed and prayed until deep in the night. He felt the need to free forces of evil he sensed were holding on to the girl from Mantsekrom.
”As long as I am a servant of the Most High God, I send away every ancient power in the mighty name of Jesus. I pray, and I cast away evil spirits in the mighty name of Jesus. I am a servant of the Lord and I raise my hand to still the tempest in the mighty name of God our Father” he prayed unceasingly and felt shackles fall away. He prayed and saw light where darkness had engulfed souls. He prayed and cried on the Lord for the redemption of a certain damsel in a life-threatening condition. He prayed and implored on the Lord and a certain young man in Mantsekrom gained his sanity and saw the folly in his actions. His prayers ensured that Safoa regained her memory. She remembered her name and that of her father.
Father Samuel spent three days at the retreat.
The heavens opened and it rained continuously for three days and God’s favour found its way into the lives of the spiritually imprisoned.
After the end of the three days, he, quite weak from exhaustion, went straight to the home of Maame Konadu and demanded food.
His request was granted unquestionably. He evidently was a man on a mission as he enjoyed the light soup given to him. He spoke serenely to them with his whole outlook being as one on a spiritual adventure. After the meal, he held hands with them and the babies and prayed. A fervent prayer that shook the very foundations of their beings. Even the normally restless twins kept calm throughout the whole prayer section.
”Your name is Safoa, isn’t it” he said steadily to her with no fear of contradiction.
”Yes,” she nodded ”and my father’s name is Safohene Kobina Mogyahyew’.’
”Good’,’ he said, almost in a sing-song manner ”Tomorrow, we will all go to Mantsekrom with the babies.”
Though Maame Konadu had no idea of how the twins could be connected to the trip to Mantsekrom, she said nothing about it since she had come to trust the word of the Father, and accepted it with no hesitation.
THREE DAYS AGO IN MANTSEKROM
The Shrine was a beehive of activities. It was just five days to the marriage ceremony and Kutorkor proved to be untiring. She pushed people around, tasked them, cajoled them and was downright rude to all and sundry to have everything ready for her big day. She even quarrelled with the man who printed the invitation cards for having the audacity to omit ‘Nana’ from ‘Komfobaa Kutorkor’.
”Stupid man,” she had fumed at him when the issue cropped up about a week ago. ”Because none of your sisters is married you don’t know how it’s done.”
Amid all the happenings, Billy Gosa conducted himself as if he wasn’t in any way involved. He did whatever he was assigned with no complaints and to the letter.
That night which was the night before the wedding, Father Samuel prayed a prayer of indignation. It was a prayer against the evil ones that had filled the earth with their filth. It was also a prayer of emancipation for the weak in spirit who had been taken hostage by agents of the devil. He went to bed happy. Pleased in the knowledge that the Lord had done it once again and freed the sufferer from bondage.
Billy woke up from his dreamless slumber when he heard some commotions from outside. He glanced at the deeply asleep KK lying on the other side of the bed. He went out only to see people talking excitedly and going to the Palace. His enquiries revealed that Amerley, the Chief’s daughter who had been prematurely discharged from the hospital because they felt hers was a hopeless case and that there was nothing they could do to help as all her organs were damaged and was going to die within a few days, had miraculously been healed. She had surprisingly gotten out of bed, and had a very much needed bath. She had amazingly eaten two balls of banku with okro stew. Her father and other onlookers watched on tongue-tied, quite astonished.
Billy bravely went to the palace to see things for himself and was astounded by the sudden turnaround of her health.
He went back home. As he got to the compound, he retched and vomited.
It was gut-deep, putrid, and of a very dark hue. He bent over and retched and retched, making wheezing and guttural noises that shook his body.
After what seemed like a very long time, he got up and went into the bedroom he shared with Kutorkor to find her in bed still.
He looked at her in her nakedness, aghast that he had stooped so low to have chosen to be with her.
”I wonder why I thought I could be with such a woman. She is not in the class of Mary. I wonder how she is doing,” he said all this to himself as he packed his things into the suitcase.
In the early hours of the morning, just when nature was getting out of its slumber and the crickets and nocturnal creatures had quieted down, the silence was violated by a cacophony of sounds.
Bare-chested men and women carrying crude forms of musical instruments hewn out of wood and metals arrived in a hired minibus. They disturbed with their careless chatter as they disembarked with their bags and instruments. They were expected and anyone who saw them knew exactly who they were. They were fetish priests from another area who had arrived to support their sister. No sooner had they settled down did they proceed to beat their drums and gong-gongs energetically to usher in the beginning of the marriage rites.
Father Samuel also went on the journey to Mantsekrom in a grand manner. He had gone to his rich family’s house and requested a car. His choice left his travel companions open-mouthed when the roomy silver-coloured 4×4 Mercedes which could easily have taken eight passengers comfortably was sighted.
He took off with Safoa sitting in the front with him to give him directions. That left Mary, her mother and the twins enough room in the back seats to manage among themselves. They were more than comfortable in the car which was as comfortable as a cruise ship. With his rosary hung on the steering wheel, they made good time and were in the village in no time.
Safoa took them home to her father and it was a joyous reunion. Mogyahyew who seemed to her as if he had suddenly become older than he was couldn’t stem the tears that cruised down his face as he welcomed his lost and found daughter. He seemed to have lost the fire that had always been his hallmark.
”I am so sorry,” he said over and over again as he stood apologetically in front of his daughter.
Father Samuel and his entourage explained the circumstances under which they were there and he joined them in the car and went with them to the Palace where they made their mission known to the Chief and his Elders who were there to celebrate with him on the miraculous recovery of his daughter, Amerley.
”We were led here by the Holy Spirit to combat the forces of darkness that have taken root in this village,” Father Samuel explained and prayed. It was a powerful spirit-filled prayer that soon had all of them joining in.
After a long while, the visitors, including Safoa and her father who could not wrench himself from the side of his daughter went to the home of Billy Gosa who was feverishly packing his things to escape from the village and the clutches of Kutorkor. He knew most of what happened to him was spiritually inclined and that his eyes had been opened by some divine intervention, and as such, felt that he had to be as far away from Mantsekrom as possible.
He stared at the gentle knock on the door and a man in a cassock whom he recognized as a priest entered to lay his hand upon him in prayer. Billy felt a powerful and searing heat consume his whole body and later replaced with a relaxing sense of release that coursed through him. He shut his eyes tightly and thanked the Lord over and over again.
After a while, when the prayer had ended and calmness had settled upon him, he allowed the strange man to lead him out only for him to behold the most beautiful sight ever.
Mary, her mother and Safoa and his father who he knew instinctively posed no danger to him at all were standing against a 4-wheel drive. His steps faltered and he came to a stop.
With evident shame, he looked at them. At the encouraging smile from Father Samuel, he went and knelt before them with tears in his eyes to ask for forgiveness for all the difficulties he had put them through.
It was at that same time that the bus carrying his marriage-attending work colleagues arrived.
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