Grace of fear 2

 The bikers rode around yelling at each other for about 10 minutes and left. When all was clear Baaba looked for her keys and made a run for it. Luckily for her they didn't return. She breathed a sigh of relief when she entered her Auntie's house. Her hands were still trembling with fear when she laid down to sleep. After another 30 minutes she managed to fall asleep.

 Baaba went about her morning chores very quickly the next day. It was Saturday and she wanted to tell Ralph the good news. As she did her usual trip to the market for her auntie, she was so tempted to buy herself a thing or two with the money. She knew her Auntie would suspect her if she did so she left praying that where she hid the money was still safe. She called Ralph and asked him to meet her at the market. When she saw him she smiled and told him to guess the good news she had for him. He didn't seem amused at all. In fact he was quiet unhappy. This was strange.

   Ralph liked meeting up with her and was usually happy when she initiated it. "Ah, what's wrong? Did Bra Yaw ask you to pay for something again?" Baaba asked concerned. Ralph shook his head and shrugged. Bra Yaw owned the fitting shop where Ralph worked. He was very stern and would make his workers pay for every tiny mistake they made. Bra Yaw was another reason why Ralph wanted to leave for Kumasi. "What is the surprise? I have a lot of work to do." Ralph snapped. Baaba felt offended. Why was he taking all her fun away? Just then, Ralph's phone rang. He signaled at Baaba and walked away to answer the call. He was speaking very low so she wouldn't hear what he was saying. When he walked further away and turned his back to her she left. "I'll keep everything to myself then." she muttered as she walked away, a little heart-broken. B

 Baaba took the long route on her way home. She wanted to think. It was hard to think with her auntie yelling and screaming in the house over trivial things. As she walked home she couldn't help thinking about Ralph. He was the first friend she made when she moved to her auntie's house. She enjoyed his company because he was always full of smiles. He would always listen to her complain about her auntie and reassured her. Baaba didn't understand why he was acting strange. Maybe there was another girl. One who entertained his leaving town plan more than she did.

As she walked, she saw a large number of people in front of a house. She recognized one of the people, Agnes. Agnes used to work at the bar with her. Baaba walked to her and asked what was going on. "Some people robbed the man who lived here yesterday oh. They said the robbers used a special key to open all the doors. We are not safe anymore oh. The man and his daughter were asleep kwraa. They stole some plenty money the man had and shot him too." Agnes narrated. Baaba listened. "Ei, is he dead?" Baaba asked. "No he's been sent to the hospital. I feel sad for Nasara, his daughter. Her mother left the father last year. They said she preferred the father. Now she'll be forced to live with the mother. That woman is terror." Agnes continued. Baaba's heart sunk. She knew what living with a terror woman felt like. She noticed the time and rushed home.

 When she got home she was scolded for leaving a single plate unwashed. Baaba could not take it anymore. She was leaving, with or without Ralph. She went to her room after cooking the evening meal. She noticed Ralph had called her a number of times. She rolled her eyes and put the phone aside. She took out a pen and paper to write a list of what she needed to run away with. Then she locked her door and took out the money. She hadn't even counted it. The piece of paper around the money had something written on it. Baaba noticed it was a list. It read, "tomatoes, fresh fish, cabbage, light bulb, story books for Nasara..." Baaba froze.


 To be continued ...

Eli's Wife 13

Eli, his mother and his sister sat by their father in the hospital. He had been rushed there because of a heart attack. Luckily the president was stable. They watched as he lay there sleeping. Doctor Richard said he would be fine in no time and it was probably caused by stress. Eli left his father's side and saw Sena pacing in front of the hospital's canteen. "Trouble deciding whether to eat or not?" Eli teased. She smiled and hugged him.

 He looked at her and asked her what she said to his father. Sena shrugged and tried to change the subject. Eli kept asking. His voice even went up. He was getting angry. "Sena, you were the only one with my father when he had an attack. What the hell did you tell him?!" Eli asked furiously. Sena fumbled but after she noticed Eli wouldn't budge she looked around and signaled for them to sit down in an empty corner. Before she could say anything, Afi rushed to them. "Dad wants to talk to you." She said grabbing Eli's hand. "I'll be right back." he said to Sena and left with his sister.

  When Eli got to his father the nurse was just leaving his room. His mother turned to look at him with a worried look on her face. "Afi, let's go and get daddy a cup of water." she said. Before Afi could point out to the bottle of water by President Tamakloe's table the first lady had dragged her away. Eli sat down next to his father.

   “Eli there’s something I need to tell you. I should have told you this a long time ago but I didn’t know how.” President Tamakloe started. “Many years ago, before I was President your mum had a complication with her pregnancy. The baby was stillborn and her womb got damaged as well. The doctors said chances of her having another child was very slim. That very day there was a woman who also having a baby. Her name was Deborah Quaye. She was a janitor at a school nearby. The doctor came to me and we thought about us having her baby and paying her. We knew it was wrong but for my political career to take off I needed a child.” He paused for a second and continued. “She agreed to take the money and we had you. You were a bundle of joy to us, a gift from God. We decided to make her a surogate for our next child but she said she lost the child. I believe this was a lie looking at the age of the journalist. Five years later miraculously your mother had Afi. We only tried again because you said you wanted someone to play with. You gave us hope. I know I should have told you all this but I just couldn’t. I hope you forgive me.” He said looking directly at Eli.

  Eli sat there quietly for a while. It was a lot to take in. “Where is Deborah, where is my real mother?” he asked looking down. President Tamakloe hesitated for a while “We flew her to Nigeria to start a new life there with her family. The last I heard was she got sick and passed away. Eli, Sena believes Charles is her son.” he answered. Eli’s heart missed a beat. Nothing could have prepared him for all the things he was hearing. He stood up. “Thank you for sharing this with me. The truth is very important.” He said and walked out. President Tamakloe called him back several times but he just kept walking.



 To be continued for the last time...

Eli's wife 10

Eli opened his eyes. When he turned around and saw Sena sleeping he knew it wasn't a dream. He stared at her for a while. Just then his phone rang he quickly muted it but it was too late. Sena's eyes opened slowly. She smiled when she saw him. "Good morning." Eli said, smiling back at her. They went downstairs and had breakfast together and left for work.

Eli walked into his father's office with Sena behind him. Sena looked around and saw her father passing with his hands folded at his back. She knew something was wrong. "Eli, I hope you are proud of yourself now." Her father said. Eli looked at his father-in-law and at Enyonam, Sena's sister, confused. She picked up a newspaper and gave it to him to read. "What is this? What's the matter?" He asked reading the article. Enyonam shook her head. "Since you haven't heard I'll tell you. He has been invited to be interviewed on Political Truths tomorrow night." She explained staring straight at Sena.

"You two caused this. Your fishing for the truth has created a perfect way to launch someone's career. People are interested in this guy and he says he has evidence." Enyonam shot at him. Sena took the paper and read it as well. Her sister was not overreacting as she thought. The person had information on Tina, Doctor Richard and was going on air to shed more light on the matter. This journalist shared her exact suspicions. Finally, she wasn't the only one who thought the President had something to do with Tina's death. Sena looked at her father, not sure of what to say. "How could he have found this information? Could the doctor who examined Tina be behind this?" She asked. "I was going to speak to the stupid journalist but Dad said no." Enyonam said. Sena explained to her father that it was best they spoke to the journalist. At least if they knew why he was doing this they could figure out a way to solve this. Her father told her he wanted to discuss the matter with President Tamakloe first but listening to Sena he finally agreed.

  Enyonam parked her car and looked around. Eli stepped out of the car first. "A parking lot? This is the most cliché meeting place I've ever heard of." Eli said. Enyonam was going to comment when Sena gave her the 'calm down he's not serious' look. They waited for a while and heard footsteps. Then Sena's heart missed a beat when she saw Charles walk to them.

"Hello, sorry I'm late. I just had to wear a bulletproof vest and let my work mates call the Police if I don't return in 5 minutes. Yes that's all you have got, 5 minutes." he said with a wide smile. Sena was frozen. Eli just stared at him. "We just have a few things to ask you." She said and turned to Sena. She didn't budge. She just stood there. Enyonam rolled her eyes but before she could ask anything Charles spoke again. "Sena, my baby are you alright?" He asked mockingly. Eli took a step forward and said, "What is wrong with you? Leave my wife out of this." Sena's head was down now. She could feel the tears forming. "Oh so your wife didn't tell you about... us? Such a shame." Charles said smiling. Enyonam looked at Sena and saw a tear drop. "Sena, what's he talking about?" Enyonam and Eli said at the same time. "All those nights she came home late, she was spending good quality time with me."  Charles said and walked away.


To be continued ...

Your arrow killed me

We were not afraid to fight the enemy

Even though they had a much bigger army

My heart was determined to fight for victory

But some way some how your arrow killed me

We were a few steps to making history

I guess the excitement blinded me

Coz you raised your bow in my direction, I didn't see

It went deep from my back until your arrow finally killed me

Angry words

I think Ghanaians talk too much and do too little. Don’t get me wrong I'm not talking about every single one but rather the majority. I used to think we didn’t have the technology or money or enabling environment to be more action-oriented but that doesn't seem to be the problem at all. I can't fully say I know what it is but I have a number of guesses; laziness, mediocrity, a simple 'I don’t care' attitude or even low self-worth. I am writing all this from a very sad and terrible incident that occurred today. A shopping centre collapsed killing a number of people and injuring many. I saw the pictures and felt sad. I had one of those moments. Those 'it could have been me' moments. All I can say to the people who lost anyone today is I am sorry for your loss and may their souls rest in peace. It's sad.  


I was on Facebook today and found myself reading random status updates about the incident. My odd way of gathering info...I can't say it’s amazing but hey...So majority of the updates were about how inefficient Ghanaians are in responding to an incident like this. There were references to the media, Police, Military, the President, engineers and a few more. Most of what they were saying was "why aren't they doing anything proper about it?” and they were annoyed at what was going on. It is quiet sad that things were how they were but my problem here is simple. Were they helping the problem, keeping it the same or worsening it? I would choose any of the last two. I am not saying they don't have a right to speak. Far from it. Their words convey their concerns which are veered in a good direction but should it end there? Maybe you are thinking "ahhba Julz! What do you expect me to do? Leave my job in the middle of the day and go and do someone else's job?" No, that isn't it. I'm just saying. Just as you were smart enough to notice this, you could come up with something to do that can help the situation.


 Let me give you an example. A number of people were not happy (many sounded pissed) with the fact that GTV who is a national TV station did not start airing the incident until pretty late. I'm just saying. Instead of 'going off' online about this, how about calling GTV to express your distaste. I don't know how things work at GTV but if I owned a TV station and I had numerous phone calls complaining about what I'm airing I would do something about it. You get what I mean? It really doesn’t matter much if you fail. What matters most is that you tried and you actually did something!   We need to learn to help ourselves and, well, look out for each other too. Teamwork! I'm sure people who play or watch team sports will relate to this one. When you are in a game and your teammate is not playing his part well you cover up and tell him to step up. You don't shine as the point guard and get mad when you lose when you could have helped to rebound. You play together.


I read on twitter one time that “it’s not bad people that would destroy the world it's those good people who know better and do nothing about it.” I know I said it wrong but bear with me, it's something like that. I'm not here to point fingers. This is just something I have noticed. Ghana is a country to be proud of and one with enough potential to go to amazing heights. Let's build her up together so when she is at the top we can tell our stories of what we did for our country. Think about it.

You didn't exist

Why did I let you in at all?

Why do you always make me fall?

I miss the days I lived without you

Those days were amazing and perfect too

You didn't exist

Sometimes it feels like you control me

I am not the strong person I used to be

I hate you, leave me alone!

Get out of my zone!

You didn't exist

Who am I kidding, you will be back

But this time I will fight to keep myself on track

It's amazing how you get bigger as I get older

I wish I could go back in time coz you, Fear, didn't exist when I was younger.