Born Bad…

AARON ANSAH-AGYEMAN

BORN BAD

A ChrisEffe Thriller

 

CHAPTER 3

The man that wants to kill himself is a hunchback.

He has been begging on the streets of Densua for a long time. He has no place to go, and that day has been particularly hard for him because no one has bothered to give him even a pesewa, and he is so hungry.

He is twenty-two years old, and he has been alone all his life. There had been a time he had lived with his parents and his two siblings in the town after Densua, but when he was six years old his parents had left the town, and left him behind.

No one knew where they went. It was evident they didn’t want him.

Some neighbours had tried to help him, but eventually they had all left him to fend for himself.

His name is Kuntukununku Obotan.

Those who know him call him Kuntu.

Life has been hard, very hard, for him, and now he has given up all hope of living. For some days now he has come to realise that he cannot live with the pain, the loneliness, the rejection and the dejection he feels every day.

He knows that his life will never change. He will always be a beggar, and people will always hate him because he is a hunchback, and they will always find him repulsive.

That fateful Friday, in the late afternoon, he enters the forest on the outskirts of the village to kill himself. He feels that death is better than the misery he goes through every day. No one cares for him, and no one is going to miss him when he is gone. He has no parents and no relatives. The few people he knows in Densua will probably be glad that he is gone.

 He walks deep into the forest, where he sometimes spent the night.

As he draws nearer to the spot he has chosen to hang himself, he begins to cry pitifully.

He cleans his face time and again with the back of his hand.

There is great sadness in his soul. Finally, he comes to the oak tree he has been heading for. It has a strong stout dry branch jutting outward.

It is very quiet in the forest.

It is a Friday so farmers and hunters of Densua do not venture into the forest or their farms because they believe it is a day for the gods, and the forests are haunted on those days.

Kuntu is therefore confident that his body will not be found until the next day, and that is fine by him.

He drags some fallen logs under the branch and stands on them so that he can easily reach the stout branch of the oak tree.

Kuntu then pulls a thick strong woven cord from his pocket.

He ties one end as strongly as he can around the branch of the tree, and tests it by pulling it hard a few times. By now he is weeping uncontrollably, and he can hardly see through his tears.

He ties the other end of the rope into a noose, and then gets down.

He looks around him, and for a moment he is very lonely and scared. For a horrible moment, it dawns on him that what he is about to do is evil and ugly, and that he should stop immediately.

But then his stomach rumbles, and he knows there is no life of happiness for him. It will always be like this! For the rest of his life he will beg for alms, and go to bed hungry, and sleep in the rain, and be miserable! Even his own parents have rejected him.

He has no room, no place to stay.

Sometimes when he sleeps in front of stores or someone’s veranda, and oversleeps, the owners threw cold water on him. Sometimes they even threw urine on him and rained insults on him. This is because in Densua, being a hunchback is considered a bad taboo that brings bad luck to people who associate with hunchbacks.

Kuntu sighs with dejection and climbs back on the log.

He puts the noose over his head and lets it slip around his neck.

He pulls it tight against his neck, and then he hesitates for a moment as he weeps violently.

This is it. Death is now knocking on his door. The moment he kicks off the log he is going to hang free, and death will claim him.

He is weeping heartbreakingly now.

“Dear Lord, you made me. You created me. My life has been filled with pain and strife! I’ve been rejected, abused, and I’ve lived in pain. This earth is not for me. I know you don’t like people who commit suicide, but sometimes it seems to be the only way out. I beg of you, I’m coming home, Lord. Please accept me into your bosom!”

Just as Kuntu is about to kick off the log, weeping and gasping, the leaves part in front of him and two men come into view. Kuntu freezes with shock and misery at the sight of the two strangers.

 They are dressed in faded jeans. One of them is wearing a blue shirt whilst the other is wearing a black T-shirt with the words: FUCK YO MAMA!

Kuntu sees that one of them, the one in the blue shirt, is tall and extremely handsome, and his dark eyes are expressionless as he surveys Kuntu.

The one in the black T-shirt is shorter, lean and appears a little older. They are eating bread filled with papaya. The short one is holding a black polyethene bag in his free hand, and he looks at Kuntu with his mouth open with shock.

Kuntu is still standing on the log, and the noose is still around his neck. The short man suddenly dashes forward and stands in front of Kuntu, gazing up at him with frank interest.

“Hey, hey! Are you trying to hang yourself, man?” he asks with frank interest.

Kuntu sniffs and looks at him without speaking.

His face is covered with tears and snot, and he looks miserably at the short man.

The short man turns and looks at his tall friend who is still looking at Kuntu without expression.

“Hey, C.B. I think this silly sod wants to kill himself, man,” the short boy said.

The tall man says nothing as he lifts his bread and bites, and then he cleans papaya cream from his lip with his forefinger.

The short man turns back to Kuntu. He drops his polyethene bag, and some unripe papaya rolls out. Kuntu can see a loaf of bread still in the bag, and his stomach rumbles.

The short man suddenly walks round Kuntu and when he comes back into view, he shakes his head and wags a finger at Kuntu’s face.

“Listen, man. You’re doing it all wrong! The way you’ve tied the knot, if you swing free and the rope tightens around your neck, you will choke to death, and you will shit into your shorts. When they find your body tomorrow, you’ll be covered with shit!”

Kuntu gapes at the man.

This is so preposterous!

He just cannot believe what he is hearing!

He screws his face up at this man who seems to be enjoying the spectacle of another man taking his life.

He speaks hoarsely, aghast.

“Who’re you?”

The short man turns round and grins at his tall companion who hasn’t uttered a word.

The short man is giggling.

“He’s dying and he wants to know my name, C.B.”

He turns round and gazes at Kuntu, who looks shocked.

“What wrong with you, man?”

“You have a rope around your neck and you’re asking what’s wrong with me? Are you correct in the head? Anyway, my name is Mike Crankson. That handsome devil over there is Chris Bawa. Listen, man, if you die can I remove your slippers and keep them?”

Kuntu chokes and gasps, sure that he has not heard right.

“Oh!” he whispers.

“Shut up there! What oh?” Crankson says with mock severity. “Listen, like I was saying, the way you tied the knot, you will shit yourself after you die, and no one can use your clothes. You need to put a tree stump into the knot, so that when you swing free the tree stump will come down and hit the back of your neck, breaking your neck so that you will die instantly without choking and shitting on yourself.”

And then, as incredulous as it seems, the man called Crankson starts looking around the leaf-strewn floor of the forest until he finds a strong stiff stump of wood, and gleefully returns and shows it to Kuntu.

Kuntu shakes his head numbly.

“Oh, lord!”

“Here, get down and I’ll tie it into the knot for you. That’s the way to do it. It will kill you like the snap of your fingers, no pain. Come on, get out of the rope and let me fix this for you.”

And then, quite suddenly, Kuntu begins to cry pitifully.

He cries so hard that it seems he will never stop.

Without a word, he removes the rope from around his neck and gets down from the log. Crankson looks disappointed for a while, and then he drops the tree stump and bends down.

He rummages inside the polyethene bag and brings out a knife and then he takes one papaya out of the bag and quickly slices it into several pieces.

He cuts a huge piece of bread.

He makes a sandwich cut in the bread and then spreads some papaya into it. He proffers it to Kuntu.

“What now?”

“Here, take it. Last meal. Eat it and kill yourself if you want to. Hey, C.B, want some more papaya?”

The handsome man shakes his head, and his eyes are still fixed on Kuntu. Trembling, Kuntu reaches out and takes the bread. He is ravenously hungry; he bites into it. It tastes so good.

He eats hungrily, wolfing down the bread. When he looks up he realizes that the two men are staring at him with varying looks on their faces.

Crankson looks sad, and in his eyes is pity.

The other man still remains expressionless, but Kuntu sees that his face has softened a little, and his eyes are a little bit less harsh.

Crankson stands up and picks up his bag, and then he walks towards the man called Chris Bawa, and they begin to walk away again. Kuntu gets to his feet groggily, his mouth stuffed with sweet bread, and stares after them.

Before they disappear into the forest, Chris suddenly stops and looks round.

“You got a place to stay?

His voice is well-modulated, pleasant and very masculine. Kuntu shakes his head, and once again tears glisten on his lashes.

“No, no. I have no one.”

“Come with us,” Chris says.

He turns and walks into the forest.

Crankson follows, and after a while Kuntu quickly limps after them. He catches up with them and walks besides Crankson, who smiles bleakly at him.

“You smell like a ghost, Hunchy!” he says with a giggle.

Kuntu stares at him with shock, and then he begins to laugh.

And he knows that somehow, life isn’t going to be so horrible in the future because of these two new friends he has made.

***

The knock comes on the door.

Elaine, who is straddling the hard body of Chris Bawa and moving up and down sensuously as they make love, looks round and scowls darkly at the door.

She is almost nearing a climax, and judging from the way Chris has also started to grab her waist tightly and thrusting into her, he is also close to exploding.

Both of them ignore the knock and concentrate on each other, but the knock comes again, sharper and maddeningly insistent.

Elaine moves faster, with more frenzy, but the knock comes, and this time it is a thumping on the door, a continuous incessant probing that cannot be ignored.

Elaine looks down at the strained face of Chris, and sees her anger mirrored on his face, but as is so natural to them, they both begin to smile with their frustration, and she reluctantly gets off him.

He stands up with a little curse, and she giggles at his erection which is still wet with her flowing lubricants.

She tosses a cloth to him, and he drapes it around his waist and walks towards the door.

It is a clay house he has built in Densua, one of the few that is coated with cement.

It is a huge, circular house with many rooms.

Chris had built it first with his own hands, and it had been just a couple of rooms for him and his mother, AKUA FOSUAA.

The land had been for his mother, and a rich man had almost taken it over, but Chris had not allowed it, fighting nail and teeth at the palace to retain a land his mother had bought through sweat and toil as a kenkey seller.

Now, as the years went on, Chris had expanded the building, adding more rooms to it.

The place, found a little on the outskirts of the village, is known as THE CHRIS GHETTO. This is because it is filled mostly with homeless children who otherwise would have had no place to stay.

That is the way Chris is.

He has never known his father.

He has grown up in Densua with his mother.

The story he has been told is that his mother had once been in the big city, working for a rich family as a maid. She had been taken to the city by an aunt who is dead now.

Chris’ mother had been wooed by the only son of the rich people. She had gotten pregnant, and the parents of the boy had driven her out because the boy had refused the pregnancy, saying vehemently that he was not responsible when he was asked.

Chris’ mother had been driven out of the house, with nothing, and had eventually made her way back to Densua.

Chris had known hard life.

His mother had been an outcast in the village because they said she had lied about how she had gotten a son. They had said she had been a prostitute in the city, and life had been very hard for her and her son.

She had named her son Chris Bawa, the name of her late father.

And when Chris grew up, handsome and proud, he had felt the pain of other homeless people, and he had always brought them home, providing them with a roof over their heads.

Presently there were about sixteen of such people in the house, both male and female, of varying ages, who considered Chris an angel, and totally dotted on him.

Chris also has a rented room within the village which he shares with Elaine alone.

Elaine Boateng hails from the next village.

She had been a senior in the school Chris had attended. She had been living with an uncle and his wife since her parents died in a car accident when she was only six.

She and Chris had been very fond of each other, and when she confided in him about how her uncle had been sexually assaulting her when she was just twelve years old, Chris had brought her home to stay with his mother.

The uncle had been incensed with fury, and had brought police to arrest Chris, but when Elaine later testified about his sexual sins on her, Chris had been released, and the Uncle had been imprisoned, much to the chagrin of the inhabitants of Bomofo, Elaine’s village.

Wisely, Elaine has remained with Chris ever since.

Chris Bawa throws open the door now and stands there regarding the worried face of his friend, Mike Crankson.

Mike is like a brother to Chris.

They have grown up in Densua together, and both of them were hated and rejected by the people of Densua.

Mike’s mother left the village when he was six years old. She had left her marriage and eloped with a Cocoa Clerk to the big city.

Her husband, who had loved her very much, had been reduced to a drunkard after his wife betrayed him. He died three years later. Mike’s mother had never returned to the village. After the death of his father, Chris brought Mike home to live with them, and they have been together ever since.

People who do not know the real story think they are real brothers.

“Whatever it is better be good, Mikey,” Chris says darkly.

Mike’s face is greatly troubled.

Crankson sounds worried.

“It’s Mama, Chris. I found her lying in her room!”

Chris doesn’t wait for more.

He comes out of the room in a rush and runs to the room opposite, his mother’s room.

Chris finds his lovely, slender, grey-haired mother lying immobile on the floor.

His heart hammers through his rib cage with instant fear.

He kneels by his mother’s side and cradles her head.

He calls her repeatedly.

“Mama? Mama? Please, Mama? MAMA!!”

Mike and Kuntu are now in the room too, peering over Chris’ shoulder.

Elaine enters now, dressed in a pair of jeans and a pink blouse.

She is holding Chris’ clothes and his trainers.

“We better get her to the hospital, Chris. She doesn’t look good!” Kuntu says, scared.

“I’m going to get a taxi, bro!” Crankson says.

“Chris-Love, you better get dressed, please!” Elaine says tenderly.

Chris stands up, and Elaine drops to her knees and checks the woman’s wrist for a pulse.

“There’s a pulse, love. Maybe she had a heart attack. We better get her to the hospital.”

Chris, fighting back tears, quickly gets into his clothes.

He knows his mother has a weak heart. She has been in and out of the hospital quite a lot in the last couple of years.

 

The doctors have told Chris that she needs a heart bypass surgery, valued at thousands of cedis.

Chris has been trying to raise the money for some time now.

“Don’t die on me now, Mama! Please don’t die on me!”

“She’s going to be fine, love. Just be strong for her,” Elaine says gently.

Dressed now, Chris gently lifts his mother into his arms and heads outside with her. He sees an approaching taxi.

Mike jumps from the taxi even before it comes to a full stop.

Chris puts his mother in the back.

Elaine sits beside him.

Mike and Kuntu cram themselves in the front seat.

Many of the people in the house have come outside with fear and worry on their faces.

Some, the younger ones especially, are weeping openly as the taxi takes the woman to the new Eden Hospital.

***

Doctor Aku Norvisi, wearing a doctor’s tunic over her beautiful dress, enters the Visitor’s Lounge where some people are waiting.

Dark and beautiful, with flecks of grey in her hair, her kind eyes seek Chris Bawa, and when she sees him standing rigidly by the window with his friends by his side, she begins to walk towards him.

He sees her, and he meets her, his face rigid with worry and fear.

She tries to remain calm, but she knows she is bringing the young man news that is not going to be pleasant.

“How’s she, Doc?” Chris asks anxiously.

Doc Norvisi holds up a gentle hand and speaks gently.

“It was close, Chris. Mild stroke, but she’s stable now. I run a few scans on her. I’m afraid her heart can’t take another blow like that, Chris. She needs that surgery.”

Chris Bawa clenches his teeth and runs a hand through his hair. He nods his head once, and his eyes become harder.

“At thirty thousand cedis,” he says.

The doctor sighs and remains silent. There is nothing to say.

Elaine, who has joined them, gently puts an arm around Chris’ waist.

“We have close to ten thousand in the account, love,” Elaine says gently. “We need to raise just a little over twenty thousand.”

Kuntu draws a quick intake of breath as he stares dazedly at them. How on earth are they going to raise that kind of money?

“We have an Emergency Fund here, Chris,” the doctor says. “Usually donated by kind Philanthropists and the Eden Foundation. I put in an application for your Mom about a year ago. I called the Chairman a few minutes ago before meeting you. They have approved five thousand for your mother.” 

Chris looks at the kind doctor, and silently he takes her hand in both of his and looks intently into her eyes.

“Thanks, Doc. I can’t thank you enough.”

“You’re welcome, Chris.”

“Please, can I see her? Can I be with her for a few minutes?”

The doctor scowls and purses her lips for a while.

“Well, she’s still under medication because we want her stable for some hours to enable her to regain some motor sensibilities. Yeah, you can see her for a few minutes, young man! Come with me!”

Chris follows the doctor through some halls and some doors until they come to the female intensive wards.

His mother was lying on a hospital bed. Several cables are fixed to her, and some machines keep beeping.

He stands by the bed and looks at his frail mother.

She looks so still, so weak, so forlorn! This woman who has cared for him with her strength, with her love, with her breath!

There she is, dying, and he doesn’t have the money to take care of her, to save her as she had saved him.

Chris’ lips tremble, and tears come to his eyes.

“Hang in there, Mama. I’m gonna get the money, and I’m gonna save you.”

He turns away sharply and leaves the room.

Doctor Norvisi watches him through the glass panes of the ward, and she grinds her teeth tightly to stop her own tears from spilling down her cheeks.

Silently she leaves the ward too.