Chapter 27: Chapter 27
Greg is seated alone in a car parked in front of a semi-detached swish wooden house at a middle-classed Accra suburban of Oyarifa. He relaxed his left hand on the steering wheel. The other hand picked his mobile phone. “Yes, Killer, I am on the line.” The other end of the call, replied. “You missed me earlier and I am returning your call, bossu.” “That is right. I am leaving home now and hope to make a fifteen minutes stopover at the Shell fuel station ‘Starbite’ along the way. I will give you a shout from my phone at 8:00 PM on the dot. I expect you to be on site by then.” “Okay bossu that gives us an hour’s respite.” “Right, see you then.” Greg dropped the handset. He switched on the ignition key, put the car on the lowest gear and on and on drove off along Oyarifa-Dodowa road.
The twilight advanced into the night and the short-er day-longer night time zone was prevalent. The cold air grew easily colder, but the sky above gave out cloudless hue. On the ground Greg pulled a stop at a front gate. The gate was closed. Persistent wind and rain had thrashed a coating of obstinate dust against the iron metal. This has caused deep cracks at where the gate opens. In response to Greg’s knock, the gate slowly opened and beautiful Koryo stepped out to meet him. The house was small and square, standing on a tiny gar-den at the outskirts of the famous Dodowa forest.
“Hi, my little Angel, good evening.” Greg said with a smile. Koryo was astounded with the visit and stood awe struck. Greg then repeated. “I am greeting you, beauty?” “Yes, good evening, sir. What did I owe to this surprise visit?” “Greg replied. “Nothing! I happened to be in the vicinity and thought it best to say hello to you. Perhaps, it will give us the opportunity to a stroll around your neighbourhood.” He giggled. “But Mr. Donkor, you didn’t tell me earlier of your intentions. I have not had my bath. Besides, I was about to have my dinner. It is not possible today; perhaps another time.” Koryo insisted. Greg held her hand and tried to pull her. “Koryo let us go for a walk. I have to make things clearer to you. Remember, the last time you came to my office, we made a deal.” “But, Mr. Greg, nothing has been consummated. I am not sure whether you have succeeded in separating your daughter from Jobson.” Greg continued to hold Koryo’s right hand. “Never mind, Koryo. Jobson’s mother is pushing for a DNA test to establish that I am the biological father of her son.” Koryo was startled and wanted to hear more. “Huh, what did you say, Mr. Greg. This news is too good to be true. What is going on here? Tell me more, please.” Greg left his car in front of Koryo’s house. Hand-in-hand, he walked her through the streets of Dodowa, with little resistance. Koryo followed Greg like a sheep being led to the slaughter.
Dodowa contained large streets and many small streets, inhabited by people of all ages. It was a town of brick red houses with unnatural red and black colours, like the face of the Malagasy largest carnivorous mammal called Fossa. Tall chimneys, out of which endless serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and never, got wound.
“..Like I was saying earlier, Rita was insisting that I am Jobson’s father. But I doubted her.” “Have you had any encounter with her prior to her arrival in Ghana?” Koryo asked. “Well, my angel that is what she is saying.” “This sounds like a cock and bull story. Isn’t it, Mr. Greg?” “Well…say it and say again, dear.” Greg held Koryo by the waste and tried to placate her. “Sweetie, let us forget about these things and concentrate on ourselves. I am now single. My former wife has packed bag and baggage and left the house. I thought, you could be a perfect re-placement to warm my bed.” Koryo listened to Greg without uttering a word. She measured her steps with calculable pace. All of a sudden she busted into an un-controllable laughter. When all died down, she chipped in for clarifications. “How will people say, especially, your daughter, who happens to be my friend as well?” Greg answered apologetically, “Please, Koryo! Understand me. Just leave everything for me to handle. I will care for you well. Trust me!” “Mr. Greg, what if I tell you that I have no feeling for men but women. What will be your reaction?” These words hit Greg hard on the face. “What..? What do you mean?”
They reached the fringes of the forest. A sleeked-paved path, scarcely as wide as rake’s head, wound arduously round beds of messy masses of wild flowers. They fol-lowed the path silently as Greg used his phone to flash Killer.
Killer dressed in Police uniform, wore gloves and covered his face with black mask just to conceal his identity or scare the victims appeared behind Koryo. Greg, upon seeing Killer left unceremoniously. With a single thrust of force equivalent to the impact of a head-on collision of two 40 tons articulated trucks, he twisted her head once; forty-five degrees anti-clockwise. Without saying a word, Koryo fell down.
We came to this world with great hope and talents: expecting greatness from life, but the journey through life comes with great challenges. Along the way different shades of destiny are clouded to derail our quest for excellence leading to unhealthy life scenarios: the turbidity of life.