Childless – Episode 5

CHILDLESS Episode 5

KWABENA

(defensively)

Daddy! I love her! She’s been good to me! She took care of me and Mommy! She paid my exams fees with her profits! For the last couple of years we would’ve died if she hadn’t been there for us!

OBAAPA TAKYIWAA

(afraid)

Tutu, don’t be like that! This girl is an angel! Your son cannot get anybody as good as this girl! And she loves him with all her heart!

TUTU DOMPREH

(angrily)

Cut that crap right now! Does she want money? I will pay her off with interest if that’s what she wants! But you’re not going to spend the rest of your life with a woman who cannot move in the same circles as you! Put sentiments aside, my son! This is the real world! You’re going to take over my companies one day! You need someone who befits you, not this degenerate! I’ll not allow it! Look, get that thing out of my sight, okay? Tomorrow I’ll write a cheque for you and you can cash it for her. That girl is not bearing my grandchildren, God forbid!

Tutu Dompreh turns and leaves with a dirty look at Dede.

The poor girl hadn’t understood all that was said, because they spoke in English, but she saw the absolute disgust in her future father-in-law’s eyes, and slowly tears of anguish spill down her dear cheeks!

PRESENT

The stranger stops speaking.

He reaches across for another chicken wing from Baaba’s abandoned plate, dips it in source, and pops it into his mouth.

The whole place is so quiet that a feather dropping on the glass would have sounded like a bomb.

Tears have welled up in Kwabena’s eyes, and now slowly spilling down his cheeks.

Tutu Dompreh’s face is a map of abject misery as he feels all the accusing eyes on him.

Suddenly he has lost his aura of invisibility, his almost god-like stature as he is exposed for what he really is: a monster!

His lips move, as if he is trying to speak, but he cannot say nothing.

Some of the young women are slightly trembling, and some have put their hands on their hearts.

Akua shakes her head slowly as things soon begin to make sense to her, things she had hitherto not understood in a long time!

The stranger picks a bottle of water and carefully breaks the rubber seal.

He uncaps it and drinks, and then he sets it down carefully.

THE STRANGER

Well, Kobby took poor Dede out of the house. He spent an emotional time with her, promising her that he would never leave her, even if it meant losing his father’s riches. But he had a plan! He had a very wonderful plan. He convinced the poor girl that if she got pregnant, his father would have no option than to allow them to marry. This was much against Dede’s belief, because her mother was a staunch Christian, and she did not want to disgrace her mother. But she was so much in love with Kwabena, and did not want to lose him, and so she finally gave in. Kwabena took her on a one-week holiday in a hotel, in the mountains, and finally succeeded in taking her virginity. Dede Naar became pregnant…

FLASHBACK

Kwabena’s visit to Dede is frequent after that wonderful time at the hotel, and he tells her that his father is slowly coming round.

And then, one evening, in her room, Dede shyly shows him a pregnancy test result.

KWABENA

(shocked)

What is this, my love?

DEDE

(happily)

God blessed us, my love! I’m pregnant! Our plan has worked!

Kwabena whoops with joy!

He is so happy!

He kisses her hard and long.

KWABENA

(elated)

Oh, my darling! I’m going home right now to show it to Daddy! We’ll be married within the week! We’ll go and bring your mother to the city! Oh, our precious baby! I love you, my love!

Weeping with extreme happiness, Dede sees Kwabena off to his car.

And that is the end.

She doesn’t hear from him again for one month!

She calls the number he has given her, but the phone is always switched off!

The poor girl is slowly dying inside!

She visits her mother in the village and tells her everything, and in tears she asks for forgiveness from her mother.

Her mother, MADAM BAJOE NAAR, gladly forgives her daughter, and asks her to go to the city and bring all her stuff, and forget about the ungrateful boy.

Dede agrees and returns to Accra, but her heart is in pain.

She loves Kwabena too much to leave without hearing from him.

Desperately, she needs to say goodbye to him, at least.

She then summons enough boldness and visits Kwabena in the house.

She is horrified to see that there is a great party going on in the house that day.

Scared, she inquires from one of the guests outside, and she is informed that it is a send-off party for Kwabena.

He is going to the United Kingdom to further his studies in just two days!

Poor, poor Dede!

She cannot believe it!

Emboldened by the sheer cruelty of it all, she goes straight into the house and enters the garden where she sees her Kobby dancing wildly and happily with some ladies.

She forces her way to him and pushes the ladies aside, and stands in front of him with tears falling down her face.

DEDE

(heartbroken)

Kobby! You can do this to me? After taking my virginity and making me pregnant?

There is a great silence.

Kwabena stares at her, unable to speak, and then Tutu comes around them, and some of his big-shot friends are also around.

Tutu glares at Dede with hatred, and then he turns to his son.

TUTU DOMPREH

(menacingly)

Is it true, Kobby? You impregnated this girl? If it is true, then you have to stay in Ghana and take care of your baby, and your whore!

Dede turns a broken face to Tutu Dompreh.

DEDE

May God have mercy on you, sir!

With a bellow of rage Tutu charges at Dede to slap her, but he is held back by some of the men around.

TUTU DOMPREH

(enraged)

KOBBY! HAVE YOU MADE THIS GIRL PREGNANT?

Kwabena looks down at his feet, and then he raises his head and looks at Dede with tears in his eyes.

He knows, at that moment, that his father means what he is saying.

If he admits to impregnating Dede, his father will definitely not send him abroad to continue his studies.

This is the moment for him to stand up for his love, to repay Dede with kindness and love.

This is the moment to show his appreciation for all the sacrifices the poor girl has heaped unconditionally on him.

But no!

His studies abroad is more important to him!

KWABENA

(sadly)

No, Daddy! I don’t know what she is talking about.

His mother screams with sudden fear.

OBAAPA TAKYIWAA

(terrified)

KWABENA! MY SON! DON’T DO THIS EVIL THING!!

TUTU DOMPREH

Take this harlot out of my house! Dirty infidel! She wants to disgrace us!

Immediately Dede takes a step back, and she feels a great pain in her stomach!

She feels a sudden movement in her belly, a pain so excruciating that it churns her soul out, and she feels her vision clouding.

She turns and flees from their presence.

Kwabena watches her go!

Obaapa Takyiwaa turns to her husband with fear on her face.

OBAAPA TAKYIWAA

My dear, go after that girl! She is not a liar! If she says Kobby made her pregnant then it’s true! This girl is not a liar! She’s also someone’s daughter. If we had a daughter I don’t think you’ll be happy if someone treated her like you’re-

TUTU DOMPREH

(snarling)

SHUT UP, WOMAN! MY SON WILL NEVER MARRY A SLUT LIKE HER, AND CERTAINLY I’M NOT TAKING A GRANDCHILD FROM SUCH AN INFIDEL, SUCH A WHORE!!

Dede, weeping uncontrollably and with great pain in her belly, walks the unknown streets of the neighbourhood till she sees a taxi and hails it.

DEDE

(weak, dazed, in pain)

Please, I beg of you, take me to the nearest hospital, driver! I’m in so much pain!

She collapses in the backseat.

The driver does not know that she is bleeding.

The driver hears her praying, asking God for forgiveness and wash her clean, and to accept her in heaven, and he later told police that the car suddenly became blindingly bright for a moment, and he almost lost control.

When pressed by the police, the driver, who was also a Christian, replied that he was sure there were angels in the taxi at that very moment.

But of course they didn’t believe him.

The taxi driver arrives at the hospital and turns to inform her that they have arrived.

But Dede is not breathing.

She is dead.

PRESENT

Many people are crying now.

Kwabena Dompreh screams, and tears fall down his cheeks in torrents.

KWABENA

(heart shattered)

Oh, no, no, no! Tell me it’s a lie!! I went to the United Kingdom! When I came back to Ghana I couldn’t find her, or anybody who remembered her! I thought she went back to her mother!! Oh, no! Oh, Jesus! Dede, Dede!! I have sinned!! Oh, what have I done?

And, for the very first time since his wife died, tears form in Tutu’s eyes, and trickle down his cheeks.

TUTU DOMPREH

(hoarsely)

Goodness me! Don’t tell me she died that day, just like that! Oh, no! Tell me she didn’t die!! Tell me I didn’t ki*ll that poor girl! Oh, dearest me! What did I do?

Akua takes a huge shuddering breath as her tears fall down her cheeks, and at that particular moment all the love she feels for Kwabena evaporates.

She looks at him and his father.

Such heartless monsters!

She can’t believe they had been capable of such a terrible atrocity!

Dazedly, she sees how agonized they are, and she is happy.

She wants to take the gun and sh00t both of them, and she has nothing but revulsion in her heart for them.

THE STRANGER

(gently)

Well, I won’t tell you she didn’t die! She died! Your cruelty killed her, and her unborn child, a creation of God! She was the only child of her mother! Well, her friend Mintah went to her village to give them the bad news. A delegation was sent to Accra to bring Dede’s body to the village for burial. Her mother came too. That woman is a great Christian, I tell you, and she wasn’t about to stand by and let you bastards destroy her daughter just like that. She came to the mortuary, and she was the first to see her dead daughter on that cold slab. With tears of anguish drowning her, the poor woman put her right hand on her dead daughter’s heart and prayed…

FLASHBACK

MADAM BAJOE NAAR

(weeping)

My dearest Father above, my God and my Lord, you gave me only one daughter to gladden my heart in my old age, but here she lies, Father! Destroyed by the unfeeling hearts of men who walk in the paths of their own thinking! Father, today I stand on Your word which says whatever is bound here on earth is also bound in Heaven! I bind the loins of Kwabena Dompreh, that boy who did this to my daughter! May he never be able to give birth, and may his father never know the joys of being a grandfather, until they realize the folly of their ways for this evil they have done my daughter, Dede Ahiawey Naar!! This, dearest father, is the only wish of an agonized mother, prayed in the mighty name of Jesus Christ! AMEN!

 

 

Story continues…

©AARON ANSAH-AGYEMAN

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