Dial episode 49

DIAL
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Sequence 49
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Abena Adobea took the food to my dining-room.
She entered the new house and just came to a stop, looking around her with an expression so startled that I almost laughed, but I restrained myself. The gadgets, furniture and sheer finery of the room knocked her down for six, but she was a very strong girl and managed to compose herself after the initial shock.
As I ate she moved around the house, looking intently at everything, reaching out to touch some of them tentatively with a little scowl on her face. Her food was delicious, and I wolfed it down.
Afterwards, I took her to the kitchen, opened the tap in the sink, and as the water began to flow she gave a startled yelp and jumped back, colliding into me. This time I laughed as I held her to steady her. She smiled ruefully as I showed her how to turn the tap on and off.
The power plant was on, and I got myself a bottle of iced water from the fridge. She washed, and I rinsed and cleaned. At first she didn’t want me to do that.
“It is a woman’s job, please,” she said with a scowl.
“No job is marked as a woman’s, Adobea,” I returned. “It is fun if we do it together.”
She frowned again, slightly, and then she turned to the chore of washing up.
When we were done she looked at me with eyes that seemed a little bit troubled, and then she informed me she needed to check in on her mother.
Just then I heard a scream in the yard, and I looked out the window. I saw that, getting to the centre of the establishment, Brian was showing the men how the pump of the borehole worked, and as the water began coming out Tawiah and the former guards started screaming with glee.
When I turned Abena Adobea was looking at me in a funny kind of way.
“What’s wrong, Abena?” I asked quietly.
She sighed and looked down for a moment, and then her eyes came up slowly.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked quietly.
“Oh, it’s nothing, really,” I said with a little sigh. “Initially I wanted it to be just a small settlement for your mother, because her house in the forest was really a terrible place, and her daily battles with snakes were unacceptable. And I thought others might come and live with her. However, I’ve changed my mind about all that. I want this place to be a full village, so that people around can come and stay here, and leave that village for the king and the priest all alone.”
“Your own revenge,” she said hollowly.
I didn’t bat an eye.
“Yes, my own revenge, but not for what they did to me, no. But for what they did to your mother, to the prince and his mother, to a lot of people they have ruined one way or the other. But, most of all, I want to see the people happy, and comfortable.”
She frowned.
“These things you have done,” she said slowly. “They must have cost an awful, awful sum of money, Yao. Why? What do you expect in return?”
I looked at her for a long time, and then I beckoned to her.
“Come and see something, Abena.”
She walked to my side almost timidly, and then I pointed out of the window.
The prince, his mother, Aba and Maame Ntiriwaa had joined the men near the borehole, and they were taking turns at the hand-pump, just screaming and laughing with uncontrollable pleasure as the water gushed out, clean and pure and free.
“You see that, Adobea?” I asked quietly. “That is happiness. There was a time I only thought of what I would get out of everything I did. I was motivated by profit, and profit alone. But, being able to fill someone with that kind of happiness, outweighs any profit I could’ve made here. Do you understand that?”
She didn’t speak, but she nodded once, and then she turned away abruptly.
“I’ll check on my mother then,” she said hurriedly.
“Would you come back?” I asked when she neared the main door.
She stopped without turning to look at me.
“Do you want me to come back?” she asked in an unsteady voice.
“Yes, Abena,” I answered. “I always want you to come back. Always.”
She stiffened, and then she quickly opened the door and went out. I stood looking at the door for a long time, and then I sighed. I went to the bathroom, filled the tub with cold water, and slipped in.
It was a most glorious feeling indeed after the slight jolt of pain that flashed across my still tender back. Afterwards, back in the bedroom, I slipped into the huge, comfortable bed, and the sleep just knocked me out.
The screams woke me up!
They were strident shrieks that made me come awake with confusion.
Wearing only a pair of trousers, I rushed blindly through the house. It was quite dark, and I put on lights as I rushed to the door and wrenched it open.
There were a lot of people outside now, and they were screaming because the huge lights had come on. I stopped abruptly, and then I chuckled when I looked at the great number of adults and children screaming and prancing around with incredible happiness.
It seemed most of the villagers had come in already, and I wondered how they were able to overcome their dreaded fear of the nsamanpowmu so quickly.
“You have brought a happiness I have never seen to my people,” came her cool voice in the darkness on the veranda, and I turned toward her.
I had not noticed her in my rush from the house. She was leaning against the wall in the far corner. She had plaited her hair in long trails on her head. Her skirt was just above her knees, and her blouse had small straps. Her incredible figure was accentuated, and her face, devoid of make-up or anything artificial, simply took my breath away.
“I didn’t see you,” I said, quite needlessly. “Who are all those people?”
“Oh, the men went to the village roadside, not into the village, and informed the farmers about this town, and the wonderful things in here, especially the water. They came to find out for themselves,” she said with a gentle smile.
“I see,” I said and chuckled. “Seems to me we need to hurry up with the rest of the buildings.”
“Yes, indeed,” she said with a smile. “Some are going back for their things. They would sleep in the open, they say, to wait for their rooms.”
We laughed softly at that, and then I walked toward her.
“You came back, Adobea.”
“. I came back, but you were asleep,” she replied gently.
“You should have woken me up,” I said, and she giggled and shook her head.
“You were sleeping so soundly like a baby, and not an old man,” she said.
And then, suddenly, at that particular moment, it became very important that she didn’t see me as an old man anymore. It became very important that she saw me as a man, a real man, and not the withered grey-haired man I represented at that moment.
“Please, come in, Abena,” I said softly. “There’s something I want to tell you.”
She looked at me, her eyes troubled.
“Can’t we speak out here?” she asked softly. “The night is beautiful.”
“There are mosquitoes and ticks here,” I said earnestly. “And I don’t want the sight of all those people distracting me.”
She nodded, like she usually did, and followed me inside.
We sat down on the huge comfortable chairs, and then I began to speak slowly.
I told her about the Dial List, about Akos of Wowo, and finally about all that had happened to me since Nana Bosomba came into my life.
She never interrupted, but her face underwent many changes as I spoke…from anger at first, to horror, to astonishment, to pity, and finally to great sadness by the time I was done.
“That is sad,” she whispered painfully. “That is indeed very sad.”
“You believe me?” I asked earnestly.
“Why shouldn’t I believe you?” she replied, and somehow that statement alone brought tears to my eyes.
“And you’re dying?” she asked sadly, miserably. “But that shouldn’t be so…oh, Yao! That is horrible! Let’s go to this man, this Wowo man! Surely, he must see the change in you, in your attitude! Surely, something can be done! I will go with you if I have to!”
I smiled sadly at her.
“That is one of the sweetest things I’ve ever heard you say, Adobea,” I said.
And when we looked at each other, I saw through a haze of tears that her dark cheeks were glistening with tears too.
She sighed and got to her feet, her face absolutely miserable.
“I don’t want you to die, Yao Biko,” she whispered tremulously.
I wiped tears from my eyes and stood up too.
“Oh, I’m not scared anymore,” I said with a shaky chuckle. “Death’s eventual. Comes to us all in time.”
“Stop saying that!” she said sharply. “I don’t…I don’t want you to die!”
She walked, agitated, to the window, leaned against the wall, crossed her arms, and stared outside.
I walked toward her slowly, and stood just behind her.
“The other woman, Yao,” she said in a little voice. “This…Dede, the man’s sister.”
“Yes?” I replied. “What about her?”
She turned suddenly, her back against the wall, and looked at my face earnestly, her eyes searching my face.
“Do you still love her?” she asked suddenly. “You wanted to marry her.”
“It doesn’t matter now,” I said softly. “It doesn’t matter, Adobea. She’s not in the country any longer.”
“That is not what I asked you!” she said, her eyes blazing as the old Adobea I used to know began to emerge, the fiery one, the slapping Adobea. “Yao Biko, I asked if you still love her!”
I smiled at her.
“I miss this Adobea sometimes, you know,” I said gently.
She pushed me in the chest, quite hard.
“Don’t you play games with me, Yao Biko!” she whispered fiercely. “I’ll leave right this minute if you don’t stop your teasing! I’m serious, Yao! Do you love Dede?”
I sighed heavily and ran my hands through my braided hair.
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“There was a time, before I came here, and even after I came, when thoughts of her filled my head every second,” I said carefully. “I couldn’t breathe, and I just felt this ache deep inside me that just wouldn’t go away. I missed her so, and I needed her so!”
Her lips trembled, and her face looked troubled for a moment, and her eyes became dark and unfathomable.
“And now?” she asked in a quavering voice. “You still feel…feel those strong emotions for her?”
“The pain is less, Adobea,” I said quietly. “I haven’t thought of her for a while. Moreover, her brother said she would marry a white man. And she told me she would not come back again. However, one thing is for sure, Adobea.”
“And what’s that?” her voice was very small indeed, and that incredibly-beautiful face looked troubled, and suddenly I didn’t want her looking anything but happy.
“Ever since I kissed you…I haven’t felt the pain again, Adobea,” I said.
She looked at my bare chest then, dropping her eyes from my face.
“Don’t lie, please,” she said softly. “You kissed me to teach me a lesson. It didn’t mean anything to you. You just toyed with me. Maybe, it just gave you an urge to add me to this…this awful list you have.”
“Breaking away from that kiss that day, was the hardest thing I have ever done my whole life, Adobea, you damn witch!”
She looked up at me, startled.
“I’m not a witch, you silly bastard!” she whispered fiercely. “That is what you want, isn’t it? To write my name down in your list…number what, forty-seven? Abena Adobea of Etwe-Pe-Kote!”
And just about that moment the air changed around us, and became colder and sweeter and so very tense.
“When I get to the city, the first thing I’ll do is delete that list, Adobea,” I said quietly. “It doesn’t mean crap to me anymore. In actual fact, it sickens me now, and I wish I can make it right, somehow, by reaching out to all of them, those I can get, and saying sorry.”
Her eyes searched my face frantically.
“And when did you make that decision?” she asked softly.
“Right now,” I said without batting an eye. “Right now, Adobea. Just imagining your name on my Dial List fills me with the utmost disgust, for myself!”
And it did.
For real.
I had never felt so sickened in myself as I did that moment. Suddenly, I saw the Dial List in another different angle. I saw it from the point of view of finding the name of someone you loved on a list like that!
I saw it from the point of view of Nana Bosomba, seeing the name of his beloved daughter on a shitty list like that! And I saw it from my own point of view…wondering how I would react if I learnt that Abena Adobea, of Etwe-Pe-Kote, was on the Dial List of someone like the King of Etwe-Pe-Kote.
It was absolutely the first time I had viewed the Dial List from the eye of someone I cared for, really cared for. Putting Dede’s name on it had been a war, but the thought of putting Abena Adobea’s name on my Dial List so repulsed me that it took my breath away!
Finally, staring at her, I knew the difference between her and Dede.
I turned away from Abena Adobea, filled with shame and self-disgust, and as I made to walk away she sighed, and suddenly she wrapped her arms around my waist, from behind, and pressed her cold face against my back.