Vanity – Episode 29

VANITY EPISODE 29

When the pastor asked if there was anyone who had a reason as to why Stella and I shouldn’t be allowed to marry, from nowhere the old man(Mr Ansong’s boss) popped up with 3police men following him, he claimed my father-in-law had been extracting money from him with the assurance that he was going to give his daughter to him for marriage, you needed to see the temperature in the church by then, my mother-in-law nearly collapsed because she never had any idea as to what the oldman was saying but he came with a written proof to back his claims, any amount he gave to my father-in-law, he made him sign his signature attached to the money, the pastor asked him his intention for coming to the church and the oldman replied that without his money in his hands the wedding won’t continue, it was a hard nut to crack that faithful day. We were invited to the pastors office so we could resolve the issue but the oldman came with a different motive which was “No money, No wedding”. I asked him what the total amount was and he boastfully said one hundred and seventy five thousand cedis(175000), he taught it would be an amount to scare me off or ki*ll my spirit, I whispered to my best man to get my cheque book from one of my cars outside, as he came back with it, I wrote a cheque of one hundred and eighty thousand cedis(180000) to him but he refused saying he wanted cash and not cheque. Looking at the time the banks who operated on Saturday’s were about closing so I called my accountant to enquire from him how much money he had with him at the office, he replied one hundred and eighty five thousand cedis and I told him to come to the church premises right away with the money and in some few minutes time he got to the church with the money and I handed it over to the oldman thinking the moment I gave him the money he will turn and go. He told us point blank that until he had finished counting the money he will not still permit us to proceed with the wedding, my mother-in-law was so angry with her husband that if we were not in the house of God, she would have fought with her husband for treating her daughter badly and disgracefully, Opana finished counting the money after the long wait and he even couldn’t confirm that the money was even in excess, he left feeling very ashamed because he couldn’t achieve his devilish aim, we continued our wedding and we were giving our wedding certificate as man and wife. I must say shortly after our union my business moved to a different level where I was even shocked with how the progression came about, my mother-in-law fell sick and died even though we tried our best to save her life but the doctors couldn’t save her life, when it happened so my father-in-law also went back to his drinking attitude and one day he slept after drinking without food and that ended his life also, when we were done burying him, I decided to set a business up for my wife without her knowledge so I bought a place for her to use as a resturant and on her 30th birthday I surprised her with it so it gets her busy rather than being a housewife. Some few months later my wife gave birth to a handsome little boy which I named after me but as he came to the world, today he would be admitted at the hospital tomorrow he will be discharged, that was the trend of his livelihood but as if that was not enough, my trusted accountant stole millions of cedis from my company and shortly after that the revenue authority came chasing after me because my boss Mr Muller was dodging tax payments and when I took over too my accountant took money to pay that but he never did, my taxes had accumulated to an unthinkable sum and the penalty alone for me to pay was enough to shut my business down. Remember I told you my rival(oldman) was the revenue boss? When he realised the company belonged to me he came to me and swear on his life that, for the insult my wife and I gave him, he will shut down my business even if that will be the last thing he will do on earth before he dies, truly too he kept his word and M2 Logistics Limited became history, I was left with nothing and because of the heavy debt the company had incured I had to start selling my properties to pay my debt. I sold all my cars and even went further to sell my house but yet still my debts had not been cleared, we decided to move to my late in-laws house but his relatives wouldn’t permit us because they had taken over the place, my flamboyant life now was withering right in my sight without me doing anything to save the issue, the little money left on me we got a 2bedroom house to rent on a storey building, my wife now turned to the man of the house who fed, clothed and paid the bills of the house, I combed the whole city for employment but no company was even willing to take me as even a cleaner or even a messenger. I remembered I had a car at the workshop so I pleaded with my loving and dependable wife Stella to borrow me money so I fix the car with it, she didnt like the idea of me turning into a commercial driver but I knew at least that work will help put food on the table at the end of the table and also take a little burden on my wife. I started my commercial driving work and things changed a bit for me because at least I could leave money behind for the running of the house, one unfaithful day I developed a failure of break and my car went to hit a car which was parked infront of me in a traffic and guess whose car it was? Yes your guess is right it was the car of my only enemy on earth, the oldman came down from the car and when he saw I was the driver he called the police in, my driver’s license had expired by then so my offense was doubled which made them to lock me up in police custody, the amount of the damage alone was more than the price of my car, who was going to intervene on my behalf now because the only thing he wanted was for his car to be fixed and that was also not possible as I was locked up behind bars, my wife went to him to plead for mercy for me to be granted bail and the oldman said the only way that will happen was only after he has slept with my wife, can you imagine the nonsense?
My wife left his place and upon getting to her resturant the unthinkable had taken place at her restaurant…………

“Whoever tells you that life is a bed of roses is a liar and whoever tells you that life is a bed of thorns is a devil; take that from me today”…………
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As my wife Stella got to her restaurant her place was on fire and even though the fire service were already there to put the fire off, their efforts proved futile because there were too many explosives inside the kitchen. Her place got burnt that even a plate couldn’t be taken from that place, when the news was conveyed to me in cell I nearly collasped because that was the families source of livelihood, as if that was not enough for the day, that same evening my little girl was knocked down by a motorbike when her mother sent her to buy some foodstuffs she was going to use to prepare food for the family. Those around who would assist for her to be rushed to the hospital stood there looking unconcerned, my wife waited for long in the house but as our daughter wasn’t coming she decided to make a follow and before she got to the gate of the house she heard noise outside the house and as she came out of the house she saw the bicycle our daughter went out with lying down in broken pieces and the foodstuffs (eggs, flour, sardine, oil etc) scattered all over the ground. She rushed to pick our daughter up from the street but she was long dead, the guy on the motorbike seeing what he had done, run from the accident scene without assisting my wife to send our daughter to the hospital. As if by magic or whether it was orchestrated, I was released from police custody without even knowing who came to bail me, I only came back to meet the devastating news of my daughter’s demise, hmmmm my life was coming to a stand still all of a sudden. We buried her and man had to still survive because the stomach never knew if it’s owner was rich or poor, I gathered some small money and started ice cream business on the street, yes I started selling by the roadside at where there was serious traffic jam and on one sunny day, I came across my long lost friend Eddysongs driving a very nice car. I didn’t recognise him until he called my name, he pulled over by the roadside and I joined him by his car, he was really surprise to see me by the roadside selling ice cream knowing how brilliant I was back at school. I tried explaining myself but he told me that was the wrong place to do that so I should hop into the car so we go home because one of his houses was not far from where he met me, I obliged and he drove me to a very nice house and served me with a very nice drink, he told me he was surprise to see me doing such business because he knew how smart I was and the bright future I had ahead of me so if I don’t mind I could tell him my story. I told him everything about me without leaving a single important thing out of my narration, he really felt bad for me and told me he will like to help me but first he was travelling outside the country for a few months for some business transactions and that his flight was that evening so he gave me seventy five thousand cedis (75000) now seven Ghana cedis fifty pesewas (7.50) and his complimentary card to call him in 2months time since he will be in town by then. I left his place very happy knowing very well that God had sent my helper to to me to elevate me back to my level again, I changed the face of my business to selling of cassette tapes by the roadside and in some few weeks time my wife broke an exciting news to me that she was 3months pregnant, I was so happy that at long last my son will get either a brother or sister to play with, one Sunday afternoon after church I was in the room with my wife relaxing when the man I taught was my landord came to call me for a meeting downstairs, he told me it’s a general meeting for all the tenants with his boss who was the real landlord of the house, I stopped everything I was doing and as I got out of my room I saw a car parked downstairs, the car looked familiar to me but I didn’t step out for that purpose so I descended down to the place the meeting was going to take place. All my fellow tenants came to take their seats and shortly after that the caretaker landlord introduced into our midst the real landlord. He came out from the caretaker landlord’s room and my heart skipped a beat because the real landlord was my rival oldman, he gave me a devish smile and started asking each tenant where his or her room was and when I spoke he told me my room was a place he wanted use as his storeroom for his poultry feeds so I should fine a new place to move to and that my balance left on the rent will be paid to me right after the meeting, my heart stopped operating for about 30seconds and as if that was not enough problem my worse crisis came to my life that if any prophet prophecy that such thing will ever happen to me, I will call that prophet a very big liar, my dear the thing that happened is something I can never ever forget in my life.
(Nana Yaw filled his glass with the fruit juice infront of him and wiped the tears that was dropping from his eyes to continue his life story)

To be continued…
©Akoto Alexander
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