Kuukuwaa was in front of the kitchen.
It was rather dark inside and so she had come out to wash the dirty dishes.
She had two large pans of water and a huge basket in front of her as she washed the pans in soapy water, rinsed them in clean water, and then arranged them in the basket.
She was sitting on a small stool with a lantern on a table by her side.
Suddenly she saw a shadow thrown on the ground, and looked up, expecting to see her mother, but it was Zack. He was holding a small stool which he put beside the pan of clean water and sat on it.
Kuukuwaa, hands deep in soapy water, looked up at him with calm eyes, but deep inside there was turmoil in her chest.
Opanyin Amoah, who had arranged his reclining chair near the entrance of the house, hesitated in the process of lighting his pipe and looked at them.
His wife, sitting on a high-backed chair, followed his glance, and when she noticed the patient sitting beside their daughter, she smiled and tugged at her husband’s huge shorts.
“Sit down, my lord! They’re okay!” Obaapa said. “Drop your cantankerous attitude for a while.”
Opanyin Amoah sat on his reclining chair slowly without a word.
“Want to keep me company? There are a lot of mosquitoes and ticks around. You better get inside. You’re still not well enough, you know,” Kuukuwaa said, not taking her eyes off Zack.
Zack smiled and leaned forward. He took a huge napkin she had draped across her shoulder.
“The exercise and the air will do me a lot of good,” he said calmly and began to rinse the bowls Kukuuwa had put in the clean water.
She watched him as he rinsed, dried each with a napkin, and then put them neatly in the basket.
She did not speak again, but as they washed the dishes, she found the glow within her heart spreading all through her.
When all the dishes were done, she drew the pan with the clean water near and put her hand inside to rinse the last two.
Zack quickly put his hands in the pan too to take them from her, and she chuckled and tried to block him.
Their hands touched in the water. Both of them went absolutely still as she looked at their hands in the water, and then he reached out and took her small perfect hand in his big one.
Kukuuwa almost stopped breathing.
She allowed him to press his fingers around her hand, moving them gently through her palm. Almost gasping for air, Kuukuwaa also clasped his hand, and for a few minutes, they just sat there holding hands, gently moving their fingers, clasping and unclasping their fingers.
“I see you, Zack,” she said breathlessly.
“And I see you, Kuks.”
She stood up abruptly and lifted the basket with the clean dishes, and carried them into the kitchen.
When she came back outside, panting, he was gone, probably to his room, and she felt the sudden crushing weight of disappointment.
She had wanted him to be there.
She quickly covered the dishes in the kitchen, warmed the rest of the soup, put out the fire in the fireplace, and then she went to the bathroom to take a bath.
She was in her room, wearing a long dress when the door opened.
She swivelled from the window, alarmed, expecting to see Zack, but it was her father.
He was still in his djokoto, which is a huge, white pair of shorts with oversized pockets, and his pipe was clamped in his mouth, unlit.
He looked at her, and she saw the concern on his face.
She walked towards him slowly and stood facing him, her face worried. She bent and touched his right foot, and slowly straightened up.
“I have offended my father, haven’t I?”
Her father reached out and put both of his hands on her shoulders, and looked at her with loving eyes. He spoke gently but she felt the weight underlying his words.
“The gods have blessed me with a daughter who never offends me. But, your father is worried, dear child.”
He dropped his hands and sat heavily on a chair in the room.
Kuukuwaa went to his side and sat on the floor.
She held his leg and rested her head on the side of his thigh.
“It’s about Zack, isn’t it? You’re displeased,” she said softly.
He put a hand on top of her head and ran it gently down her hair.
“Displeased? No, I don’t really think it is displeasure. But it is a genuine worry of a father for a beloved daughter.”
“You don’t approve of the stranger, Papa?” she asked, and her voice was sad.
Her father sighed. “I’ve never judged my fellow man, nor deliberately found fault in any man. I watched you grow from a tot to the most beautiful woman in the whole universe. I’ve seen how, after joining that church, you stayed clear of the lecherous advances of horny males whose only intent, I felt, was to own you. That is the only reason why I allowed you to remain in that accursed church house.”
Kuukuwaa smiled against her father’s thigh and squeezed his calf.
“I’m going to make a Christian out of you, Papa.”
The old man smiled.
“Pardon me if I still find it hard to believe that a day will come when a white man will descend from the skies with a trumpet and burn me with fire.”
Kuukuwaa laughed, aware that it was fruitless to pursue it. Her father knew the Bible alright. She had preached to him often but she knew he was an old conservative who believed firmly in his local gods, yet she knew that she was not going to rest until she made a Christian out of him.
“What is your worry then, dear Papa?”
“You’re of age, my dearest, and I’ve noticed how the Prince of Densua, the future king, has been showing interest in you. I’ve noticed too, your apparent reluctance to accept him as your life’s partner. I know too, that he can be a most unpleasant person if he chooses to be.”
Kuukuwaa looked up desperately into her father’s face.
“My father, you’re the only man I’ll never go against, or seek to displease because I love and respect you so much! But you know the customs! The Prince will be given two stool wives, three even if he chooses to accept. And I’m quite sure that Prince Obodai will accept a third wife. That will make me the fourth woman should I choose to marry him!”
“Not the fourth woman, my gem. You’ll be the Queen, the woman who will be with him all the time,” he said gently. “There is a separate room in the palace where he will entertain his stool wives, which wouldn’t be that frequent.”
“I don’t care if he pleases them often or not, Papa!” she articulated passionately. “I won’t have that, Papa! I won’t share my husband, and I won’t be a part of a harem! Moreover, that is against the dictates of my religion!”
Her father became still, and she turned to him fully, her face seeking his understanding, his compassion.
“You know that if the prince wants you, he’ll have you,” he said softly.
“No, Papa, no! I don’t love him! That is the most important thing, Papa. And don’t tell me love grows, because I still won’t believe it! I won’t marry someone I don’t love!”
Opayin Amoah put his head to one side and regarded his daughter. Then, he brought out his pipe from one of his pockets and sat looking at it for a long time, and then he sighed while looking up at the stubborn daughter in front of him.
“The prince is going to make a lot of trouble, Kuukuwaa, my treasure. He wants you, and as I said, he has a cruel streak in him. I foresee a lot of strife for us by your attitude, daughter.”
She grasped one of his hands and looked pleadingly into his face.
“You want me to be happy in marriage, don’t you, Papa?”
“Above all else, I want you to be the happiest daughter in the universe,” he stated sadly.
“Then please understand me, Papa. Please support me! I don’t love Prince Obodai.”
He looked at her thoughtfully. “And the stranger? You think you love him?”
Kuukuwaa looked down sharply, and when she looked up again her face was shining, and she looked flushed and nervous… and worried.
“It is a bit too early for love, don’t you think, Papa?” she asked softly, shyly.
“You don’t know that? You want me to tell you that?” he expressed with raised eyebrows at her.
She sat sideways in her father’s lap and put an arm around his neck, and then she put the side of her face on his big chest.
“He makes me feel butterflies in my belly, Papa. He makes me feel things I’ve never… never felt for any man, Papa. Maybe it’s nothing…”
The old man sighed worriedly and rubbed a hand gently down his daughter’s back, and when he spoke his voice was bothered.
“If you should choose a total stranger who doesn’t even remember his name over the Prince of Densua, we’ll be in a lot of trouble, my treasure.”
“But he makes my heart beat so, this stranger! He affects me so!” she cried desperately.
The old man gently pushed her off his lap and got to his feet.
Without another word, he headed for the door, opened it, and then he stopped.
He turned halfway into the room and spoke slowly.
“You’ll do yourself, and us, a lot of good if you’ll forget about the stranger, my treasure. He might not be the right man for you. I’m inclined to think that if you don’t stop feeling the things you do for him, you’re going to get hurt very, very badly.”
Kuukuwaa stared at her father, and her face was very wounded indeed.
Her lips trembled, and she shook her head numbly. “But why, Papa? Why are you saying these painful things to me?” she asked, shattered.
Her father’s face was grave now.
“Because I’m older than you, my dear, and a whole lot wiser. There are some things you don’t know about this stranger, daughter, things I wish I shouldn’t be the one telling you.”
“What, Papa? What?”
“His wounds were not all because of the accident, my treasure. You saw the wounds in his upper chest, near his left shoulder?”
“Yes, I said that one healed quicker than the rest.”
“Yes, my treasure. I took a bullet out of it. That man was shot about two days before he had the accident, daughter.”
Kuukuwaa gasped and stared at her father with sudden horror.
She knew her father will never lie to her, and so the news shattered her completely.
“Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord, Lord, Lord!” Kuukuwaa began to weep.
“I’m afraid so, my pet. You know the police have warned me repeatedly to report any patient I treat for gunshot wounds.”
Kuukuwaa shook her head, and tears fell down her cheeks.
She ran forward and clasped her father’s hand desperately.
“Please, please, my father! Don’t do this! Please don’t report him to the police, I beg of you! Maybe there’s an explanation for the bullet wounds! He doesn’t look like a criminal to me!”
“Love blinds, my gem! Love blinds! And I want you to take a very careful look at his left finger, the one closest to the little finger.”
“No, no, no, Papa!” she wept, her horror mounting.
The old man nodded sadly.
“Yes, my gem! There is a circular mark on his ring finger, quite deep and enhanced. It means he had worn a wedding ring for a long time, my daughter. Maybe the boys who brought him here stole the ring on the way when he was still unconscious. You better stop fantasizing about Zack, my dear. He is a married man, and probably a gangster.”
The old man turned and hurried out, closing the door gently behind him.
Kuukuwaa rushed to her bed and fell on it.
Her shoulders heaved as great tears racked her body.
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