7 DAYS OF RETROSPECTION [IV] — AKU TELLS HERS

Abena: Aku, take your son home. Now!

I’d wanted to tell her how sorry I was for how things had turned out, but she wouldn’t have listened, not now. She repeated her order that we leave, this time, she sounded intensely raged with tears stuck in her eyes. I didn’t want to see them fall.

DAY IV.
Paa hasn’t spoken a word since we left Abena’s. He didn’t even wish me a happy birthday yesterday, and he’s still tongue-dead. I watched him leave for school without eating breakfast and saying bye. No mother’s happy to see her child going to school without having breakfast, especially when she’s made it all ready for him to reject it. How long will this… Oh God!! What have I done?!

Agoo… Agoo… Agoo, Aku!!

Aku: Abena hi. Umm… Come in. Come.

She wouldn’t sit. She insisted.

Abena: This is what’s going to happen; this, yesterday’s dinner, this meeting, never happened. I’m getting married to Kobbie in 2 days and we’ll move to the city the day after. Let’s just say I forgive you for involving Paa in all this.

She knew about it all this while? Wow!

Abena: You never loved him anyway. He was young and foolish back then. For God’s sake Aku, he thought you’d gotten rid of the pregnancy 13yrs ago.

Should I be astounded or just confused. She knew all along??

Paa won’t forget about this. He’s too smart and intelligent to let this go. All the while, I kept staring at Abena in complete dismay. This wasn’t what I envisioned when she came knocking at my door. I expected furious screams accompanied by little spits of saliva in an intense setting. Far from that.

She knew all along. Ei!

Abena: I came here to make things easier for us. See, I met Mallam Yusif, the medicine man who’s a few meters away from the town square. He gave me these herbs and said to pour it in Kobbie’s drink on our wedding day; he’ll forget about last night.

Mallam Yusif? His being defines fraud itself. The same medicine man who made a boy identify a red cloak after he’d healed his eyes. Who identifies a coloured cloak after being healed from blindness since birth?

What of my son Paa?

Abena: As for Paa, he still thinks you’re imagining things. I bet he’d want to seek the truth from Kobbie. By then, the medicine would’ve taken effect and we’ll both be safe.

It’s as if I never learned how to speak or express myself. I was dumbfounded. This was someone I thought I’d hurt and disappointed, not knowing she on the other hand kept me in the dark.

Agoo… Agoo… Anyone home?

Abena: Kobbie?

Aku: Kobbie???

She immediately hid herself in the other room just when I stepped out to receive Kobbie.

Kobbie: Hi

Aku: Hi

Kobbie: I like what you’ve done to your hair. I couldn’t get the chance to say it last night after…

Aku: Thank you, Kobina, I mean, Kobbie. If I may ask, why are you here?

He steps closer and hugs me tight, whispering in my ears, “I miss you, Aku, I never forgot about you. Forgive me. Mother and Father found out about the pregnancy and decided it’s best if we were apart. Please forgive me. I’m sorry you had to find out this way”.

I could’ve stopped him talking but for some reason, I wanted Abena to hear him. Was that mean on my part?

Aku: No. No. Do not complicate this. We had a thing in the past, it ended. After years of no communication, we moved on individually and you met someone else you chose to spend the rest of your life with. What’s stopping you?

Kobbie: You are. The moment I saw you, everything changed. You… You still have my heart and I…

Aku: Nothing. We wouldn’t want to make Abena unhappy, would we?

Kobbie: And Paa? You never got rid of the pregnancy, did you? Paa is my son. Tell me he’s my son.

Aku: He’s not your son!!

Kobbie: I will leave and never bother you again if you look me in the eyes and tell me again that the boy who looks like me and has my hair and eyes is not my son.

Aku: You should leave.

Before I could feel my heart’s next beat, his lips were on mine. It’s been so long that I even forgot how to kiss. It felt good. Really good.

O! Abena’s still in there.