dial episode 53

DIAL
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Sequence 53
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For a brief moment we were all still, stunned to the very core of our souls.
This brutal murder had shocked all of us looking on, and it would forever leave a sour taste in our mouths.
Nana Bosomba nonchalantly selected another apple from his pile and bit into it, and then the white cloth he was sitting on lowered slightly, and turned round so that he was face to face with me, and he stared into my hate-filled eyes.
“You murdered him!” I hissed fiercely, disregarding the tears on my face. “You vile murderer!”
He shook his head sadly at me.
“Mr. Biko, the world is not a nice place,” he said calmly. “You don’t know what that man did. You would’ve been the tenth human he buried alive, and that would’ve elevated him to a higher plane in the spiritual realm. Are you telling me you would’ve been happier if I had not put in an appearance today?”
I glared at him, but he had me.
If he hadn’t come to my aid I would’ve been the one dead in that hole, buried alive to die a slow, painful death.
“You see, you can’t answer,” he said, his voice almost sad. “In this world, we normally reap what we sow, and face the same sword that we brandish in various ways, Mr. Biko. Now, be free, both of you!”
The cords fell from my wrists and ankles, and I bounded to my feet with a half-moan of relief. Abena Adobea was free too, and she came tearing toward me, her face shattered, tears drenching her.
“Oh, Yao, my love, my dearest love, oh, Yao, Yao, Yao!” she wept as she fell into my arms and grabbed me so fiercely that I could barely breathe. “Oh, I thought I lost you! I thought you were going to die! And I couldn’t take it, I couldn’t take the fact that you would die without knowing how deeply I love you, Yao! You have my heart, oh you have all of my heart, Yao!”
I held her fiercely as my own tears fell.
In the aftermath of the horror, our hearts had finally made that leap of faith, and now they beat in tandem, filled with mutual love and craving.
“Abena, Abena, my love, my sweet love!” I whispered tremulously. “How I love you, Maa Abena, my dearest love! How I love you so!”
She wound her arms around my neck, and even though my face was covered with dirt in thick volumes, she clamped her lips to mine and kissed me fiercely with abandon.
“Stop that nonsense, would you?” Nana Bosomba’s voice cut through our mad passion. “Show some respect to your elders! And you better cover up your nakedness, Mr. Biko! It is sickening looking at your flat buttocks!”
We broke apart with soil in our mouths. I saw my clothes on the ground beside King Obiba, and I walked toward him. He was a mess of a man now, and he watched my approach fearfully.
I stopped just a step away from him, and I glared at him with blazing eyes.
“I forgive you for trying to kill me,” I said softly. “And I forgive you for spitting on me, and for hitting me, Obiba. But I’ll never forgive you for putting a knife to Maa Abena’s throat.”
I sank a fist into his stomach, and he bellowed with pain, doubling over, and I landed a hard left right punch into his mouth. He collapsed on the ground with a broken tooth and shattered lips.
“You ever come near her again and I’ll kill you, do you understand?” I hissed at him nastily.
He lay on the ground, bleeding in the mouth and holding out a trembling hand protectively across his face and nodding furiously. In the end, he was just another coward and a detestable bully.
“I’m sorry, please don’t hurt me,” he whispered miserably.
I put on my clothes quickly, and when I turned I saw Abena Adobea kneeling on the ground in front of Nana Bosomba and weeping silently.
“I thank you for saving Yao today, Nana,” she said tremulously. “Indeed, I have no regrets that this evil man Basabasa perished. Indeed, he murdered my father and separated me from the love of my mother. Now, I’m covered with shame because of how I treated my own mother!”
Nana Bosomba nodded once and threw the pith of the apple away.
“Life’s like that, my dear,” he said kindly.
Abena Adobea looked across her shoulder and saw me standing and looking on. She motioned me forward, and when I joined her she patted the ground beside her.
Taking a deep breath, I sank to my knees beside her and in front of the levitated Nana Bosomba. She reached out and took my hand, gripping it firmly in hers, and imparting some of her warmth and strength to me.
Nana Bosomba looked beyond us at the whimpering King Obiba.
“Hey, you, get out of here before I do something nasty to you!” he said, still in his overbearingly calm voice.
King Obiba uttered a pitiful groaning sound, and then he stumbled blindly into the forest, where he soon began to bray rather noisily as he fled. Somehow, it seemed to me that he was never going to completely get over what he had seen. It would haunt him forever, like me.
I looked at the four killer dogs still slumbering on the ground under Nana Bosomba’s command.
“What about the dogs?” I asked in a sickened voice. “Surely, you don’t mean to kill them too, do you?”
Nana Bosomba looked at me with sad and pained eyes.
“I’m not barbaric, Mr. Biko. The dogs will follow you when they wake up,” he said calmly. “You of all people should understand where I’m coming from.”
“He does, Nana, we do!” Abena Adobea said frantically as she looked at me with a warning, then turned imploring eyes back to Nana Bosomba. “We have something to ask of you, Nana.”
He sat forward on his white cloth and looked at Abena Adobea with kind eyes.
“I do know what you’re going to ask, my dear,” Nana Bosomba said softly. “Believe me, I don’t even want you to beg me before I give you my answer. I have, indeed, witnessed how Mr. Biko’s heart has changed for the better.”
“You can’t call me Yao, even now?” I asked quietly. “You still want to call me Mr. Biko.”
“Yes, Mr. Biko,” he said gently. “I don’t want to like you, Mr. Biko. The time to call you Yao may come, yes, but not now. This dear girl reminds me so much of my Akos. Her fiery temper, her determination, and her protective character. Above all, the way she readily accepts her faults and apologizes rather gladdens my heart. If there’s a goodness I can do her, I won’t hesitate.”
Abena Adobea looked up at the Fetish Priest of Wowo with tears in her eyes.
“Oh, Nana, there is a favour!” she said in a broken voice. “Yao was a hateful bastard, no doubt! When I heard of the way he treated your only daughter, Akos, I was so furious and angry with him! I hated him even! But he has changed, Nana! He isn’t pretending. He has really seen the world as it is, and his pompous, irresponsible and despicable attitude has changed! Just a few minutes ago, when I thought he was going to die, I found out just how much I love this man, Nana! I love him with all of my soul!”
Nana Bosomba rubbed a hand across his face, and then he sighed heavily.
“Oh, I did badly, Nana Bosomba!” I said tremulously, and although I fought it, the tears cut tracks on my dirty face. “I was a beast in the way I treated innocent women. Now I know that if any man treats my daughter like the way I treated Akos, and if I had half of the powers you have, that man would not live. Yes, I don’t think I deserve to live.”
A very sad look came into Nana Bosomba’s face, and his lips opened, and for a brief moment a look of sheer pain crossed his face; obviously he was remembering his dear daughter again.
“Buy you gave him a second chance, Nana,” Abena Adobea said in a trembling voice. “Although you put a curse on him, and he’s growing old, it was still a chance. And within that period, he has found peace, and has become a new man. And we’ve fallen in love, Nana! Please, I beg of you, have mercy on him, and reverse this curse on him.”
I leaned forward and fell on my hands too as my heart beat with pain.
“The Dial List is useless, Nana Bosomba,” I cried with genuine regret. “It was just the vain and stupid plaything of a boy who lost his father and didn’t know how to deal with the pain! I’m going back to Accra, and I’m going to delete it without a second’s pause, and then I’ll marry Maa Abena. I beg of you, have mercy on us!”
Once again he sighed and rubbed his hand across his face, and then he shifted on the white cloth so that his legs dangled over the edge! Once again, I marvelled! It was as if he were sitting on a piece of wooden plank and not just a piece of cloth.
“I have seen more than any of you know,” he said softly, and an expression like shame crossed his face for a moment. “Believe me, I have seen the folly of my ways. I won’t lie to you, no. If I were able, I would’ve removed this curse on Mr. Biko the moment he helped your mother and that little girl Aba. But alas, I’m not in a position to remove the curse.”
It hit me with the force of a bull’s kick. My whole body went numb, and sweat broke all over me.
“What?” I whispered with horror. “You can’t remove the curse on me?”
“Why, Nana?” Abena Adobea wailed with anguish. “Surely, something can be done?”
Nana Bosomba looked really down-hearted and in pain as he looked at us.
“When I put the curse on you, Mr. Biko, I was a wounded father, filled with revenge for the injustice my daughter went through,” he said painfully. “The curse I put on you has no reversal spell, unfortunately. There is only one way that it can be broken.”
“What way?” Abena Adobea asked earnestly as anguished tears fell down her face. “Whatever it is, tell us, Nana, and we’ll do it! I can’t live without Yao’s love, please.”
“How can the curse be broken?” I asked painfully. “Tell me, Nana Bosomba, please. I will do anything!”
“Would you, Mr. Biko, would you?” he asked softly. “The only way to break the curse is to get married, Mr. Biko, to Akos…”
“But she’s dead and buried!” I screamed with pain.
“You didn’t let me finish my sentence, Mr. Biko,” Nana Bosomba said calmly, his eyes turning cold again. “Either Akos, or someone Akos approved and loved. In this case, her aunt, Dede. That’s the only way the curse can be broken. You must marry Dede, my sister.”
Abena Adobea grabbed her heart, and for a moment she could not breathe as acute pain washed through her.
“Marry Dede?” I asked hoarsely. “How can that be possible, Nana Bosomba? You told me yourself that Dede isn’t meant to be with me! You told me she would marry a white man!”
“Mr. Biko, yes, I said that, but I don’t know everything!” he said calmly.
“What the fu*k you don’t know everything?” I asked, my heart beating with pain.
“I’m not God, Mr. Biko,” Nana Bosomba said gently. “Only God knows everything. I thought Dede would marry a white man, but I was wrong. She came back to the village last week wanting to see you. She claims she still loves you, and wants to be with you, Mr. Biko. So that’s the way it is!”
“But I love Adobea!” I screamed shrilly. “What Dede and I shared was special…yes, very special! But now I know what real love is! It is Abena Adobea I want!”
“Is it because she’s a virgin, Mr. Biko?” Nana Bosomba asked.
“No!” I screamed shrilly, as I got to my feet, my torture unbearable. “I don’t care if she has slept with a million men or she has a thousand children! Look, I feel it deep down here, in my heart! She’s the only one for me! I can’t see my life with anyone else, please!”
Nana Bosomba pushed away from the edge of the cloth and sat down well on the cloth.
“Abena Adobea, my dear, I’m very sorry for causing you pain,” he said carefully. “I want you to know that if there had been a way, I would have freely and immediately given it. But, sadly, you two have only two choices now. Think about it carefully, and then decide together.”
“There’s no choice!” I cried in agony, my face shattered. “I love Abena Adobea, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life with her!”
“Then it will be a short life, Mr. Biko,” Nana Bosomba said. “You’ll grow old and die. If you want to live, come to Wowo, alone, and marry Dede. She’s waiting. Your curse will be broken, you’ll be young again, and you’ll enjoy many years of happiness. Stay with Abena Adobea, and die of old age!”
Before I could speak again the white cloth shot into the sky, going past the branches, and taking Nana Bosomba away.
Abena Adobea stared at me…and there was real horror on her face.
Choose Abena and die…
Choose Dede and live…
A devil’s alternative…I knew I was in very, very deep trouble.