“Doris!” Matthew, my co-worker called. I almost fell off my chair. “Yes, yes what is it?” I asked offended. “Chale they don’t pay you to day dream over here oh?” He said annoyingly. I looked at him and rolled my eyes. “How may I help you?” I responded. Before he could utter a word my phone rang. I saw that it was Pierre and smiled. Matthew dropped some files on desk and walked off fuming. Me: Hello, I thought you couldn’t make calls at work.
Pierre: Congratulations, you made me break the rules. How’s your day going?
Me: It’s fine. I just pissed my co-worker off though. Hey I really can’t stop thinking about the other day.
Pierre: Same here. You know what; we should meet up tomorrow night. I would like to…ermm I have to run love, will call you later.
He had said enough. My mind was made up! Team Pierre for the Doris!!! Let’s face it; Pierre was older so we were more likely to get married sooner than Sedem. Sedem wasn’t too romantic either. I mean his idea of fun was watching movies and eating. Not forgetting the kiss test, Pierre won hands down. Now the problem was how to tell Sedem.
After work I decided to go shopping. There was this really nice shop around my place. I knew the attendant there so I was assured of a good discount. Pierre was a fancy guy so I had to maintain my fancy look to compliment his. When I got there, my options were over whelming and so were the prices! How did people send so much on a dress made from ONE YARD of fabric?!! After trying out clothes for almost an hour, I settled on a really stylish black dress. It had a very sly way of making my belly look really flat. I bargained with all my strength and might. “Don’t worry I’ll give it to you for that amount. Do you know why? Because you look really fly these days.” Ebo, the shop attendant said with a giggle. “You see ooh.” I agreed. He put the dress in a bag for me. “How’s your friend doing? The one you came to buy the suit with? Is he better now?” He asked. “Oh Nana, he’s fine.” I replied giving him the money. Then I paused. “What do you mean by is he better?” I inquired. Ebo looked at me funny. “As in, has he recovered from his accident?” He explained.
I got to the hospital in less than 30 minutes. I met Nana’s mother and asked her what happened. Her eyes were red. She looked like she hadn’t slept in a year. “Doris, he was drunk driving and run into another car…” She said, almost in tears. Just then, she was called by a nurse. I sat down and tried to absorb all the stories. I couldn’t believe it. Nana never did that. He was careful when it came to driving. Why would he do that? It seemed so unreal to me. His mum came back. “The doctors said he’s showing good signs of waking up.” She explained. “Waking up?” I asked. She turned to look at me like I was Nemo. “Nana has been in a coma for over a week now.” She finally said. My heart missed a beat. This was simply too much for me to handle.
I blamed myself for not checking on Nana. Maybe if I did I could have prevented this. I rescheduled my date with Pierre the next day and went to visit Nana. His mum allowed me to see him. His leg was in a cast and he had cuts on his chin. He was asleep peacefully. I couldn’t stop my tears from falling. I sat down next to him. Just then he moved one finger. “Mrs. Obeng-Yeboah did you see that? His finger moved!” I exclaimed. She just shook her head. “The doctors say that’s normal. He does that quiet often.” She said, trying to conjure a smile. I realized how much she was hurting. Him being her only child and she being a single mum and all wasn’t easy at all. She held my hand and I just then I knew we both loved him very much.
I needed someone to talk to. Nicky had gone on a work trip to Tamale and so I decided to go to Sedem’s place. I knew I couldn’t talk to him about Nana but at least he could help me get the hospital images out of my head. Sedem had a way of making you forget your problems. I stopped a taxi from the hospital and took it straight to his house. I spotted two people outside his house when we were getting closer. If he had company I would just have gone straight home but something made me stop. It was a girl and she was laughing like she owned the whole neighbourhood. Sedem didn’t see me at all. There was barely an inch of gap between them. I walked to them slowly.
“Hi!” I announced. Sedem turned around and saw me. THEN, he moved a bit away from the girl. “Doris, what’s up?...this is my friend Alima.” he said. She smiled but I wasn’t even paying attention to her. This was my chance and I wasn’t going to let it pass me by. I knew it wasn’t the best of ways to shake him off but who knows. I put my hands on my hips and thundered, “So this is how you treat me after all you said? I should have known.” Sedem’s face turned into a complete question mark. Alima turned to look at him. Apparently none of us saw this coming “What is that supposed to mean?” He asked. “Alima is my course mate from Uni.” He shot back. Eish this could be very embarrassing but I wasn’t going to give up so easily. “That’s the new lie now eh? Sedem you know what? Let’s just be friends because obviously you can’t even be honest with me.” I said and turned around to leave. He run after me and grabbed my hand. “Doris I’m not lying. She’s my friend. You can ask…” he went on but I pulled my hand back and said, “You know what, I don’t care. Go on with your flirty Uni chat.” I increased my pace. “Isn’t this what you like? After all you were a door mat to Nana while he changed girls!” He shouted out of anger. I stopped and turned around. “I’m glad I didn’t say yes to you.” I said and this time I wasn’t acting.
To be continued…
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