‘That’s exactly what happened Mama’. We had been chatting regularly. He had been telling me about his work in Germany, the two brothers he was working with, and how he was hoping to get them interested in working with him in Ghana. He was looking forward to resuming work here in a big way. He counted himself lucky to have a girl like me as his support. On my part I assured him that he had done well to have started the service centre. With his knowledge of the market, he only needed good preparation to come and excel. Everything was going well as far as our conversations are concerned. When he stopped communicating I kept sending him messages and calling. He never replied any of them’.                                                                                                  

‘Listen, Esaaba’, Dada said. ‘We are your parents, so tell us exactly what has happened. Are you sure you haven’t had arguments with him which have caused him to back off? You know you are a very confident person. Sometimes you need to humble yourself a little, especially when it comes to men and relationships. Tell us, what exactly happened?’                                            

‘Dada, are you telling me that I am telling lies? Well, fortunately, my phone records all conversations, so I can play all of them for you now. I can show you the WhatsApp messages we have exchanged. Let me get them all for you now’.                                              

‘You don’t need to get angry’, Mama said. ‘We only want the best for you. That’s why …..’          

‘You want the best for me, so you must tell me that I am lying? I don’t know what is happening with Stanley in Hamburg. Perhaps he is facing challenges with the job, perhaps he has found new partners, perhaps he is moving to a new house and needs to raise money. It could be anything. Why should you assume that I’m lying? And Dada, I don’t think it is fair that you should imply that I have said something to offend Stanley because I am a confident person. Stanley is an individual with the right to make his own choices. I don’t control him. I think I have said enough’.    

   ‘Then we will call him ourselves and find out what is happening’, he said as I walked away.            

‘Here is his number’, Esaaba said as she took a pen tore a sheet from her note pad. ‘Call him’.

The following evening, as Esaaba walked home from the taxi rank, she saw a note from Stanley, stopped to read it and, shaking her head, walked home very angry.                                           

She entered the hall and found Beesiwa chatting with their parents. ‘Good evening’, she greeted, trying to sound warm. ‘How is it, Beesiwa?’ ‘All is well. I hear things are now going well with you and Stanley. Anything the matter?’ I don’t know on what basis you concluded that things are not going well. I haven’t heard from him in a couple of months. I don’t know what challenges he’s facing’. ‘But if he hasn’t called in two months then something is surely wrong. I’m sure there’s something you are not telling us’.                                                                                                        

‘Why don’t you go to hell, Beesiwa? If you won’t mind your own business, then go to hell’. 

  ‘Your sister is asking such a harmless question, and you ask her to go to hell, Esaaba?’                   

‘Listen, Dada, I think I need to go somewhere quickly and sort myself out before things go badly wrong. I have just received this note from Stanley. Let me read it to you: “Esaaba, your father called me last night to ask about my plans and the arrangements for our marriage. I think I need to tell you that your parents are interfering in my personal life, and I don’t like it. I must tell you that the reason I bought you the ring and made that unusual proposal is that they called me and virtually told me to come and marry you. Kindly tell them to get off my back. Regards”. So Mama and Dada, you think you want the best for me? Thank you for what you’ve done. And Beesiwa, go to hell. I will be moving out of this house, very soon’. Then she walked away.

To be continued

By Ekow DeHeer, the author