Dial - Season 1 - Episode 59

4 years ago

Dial - Season 1 - Episode 59

She sat down gingerly in the chair, her knees pressed together, and for a moment she reminded me so strongly of Akos again…Akos, so prim and proper.

I sat down opposite her and absent-mindedly removed my shades and my cap. She looked startled as she saw my white hair and eyebrows.

I smiled humourlessly at her.
“Your brother’s handiworks,” I said bitterly.

“I’m sorry for you, Mr. Biko, but in a way you do deserve it!” she said. “You treated Akos badly.”

“Yes, I did, Miss Nortey, yes I did,” I said painfully. “But since then, your brother has more than exacted his pound of flesh, I must say. It might have been better if he had simply killed me.”
She put her head to one side and regarded me.

“That is silly talk, Mr. Biko,” she said softly. “Life, in any form, is preferable to death. This is because once we live, we hope.”

We looked at each other for while.
“Why are you here exactly, Miss Nortey?” I asked after a while.

“Call me Dede, please,” she said with a gentle smile. “I am not married, yes, but ‘Miss’ isn’t a title I fancy very much.”

“So, Akos also sent you a letter,” I said quietly.
“Yes, she was pregnant, and absolutely depressed because you used and cut her off. She was scared to go to her father. You see, my brother had warned her – like he used to do to me – that she would die a most painful death if she ever tried to abort any baby. I was out of the country, and she couldn’t reach me. In the end, she took her own life.”

The tears stung my eyes again as I looked at her miserably.

“You don’t know just how sorry I am about that, Dede,” I said as the tears trickled slowly down my cheeks. “I’ve regretted bitterly.”

“I believe you have, Mr. Biko,” she stated.
“Yao, please,” I replied.
“Yes, Yao,” she said with a faint smile. “Akos forgave you totally. She really fell in love with you, and she begged me to speak to her father because she was sure he would attack you over her death. I wanted to see you and ascertain if indeed he had come to warn you before confronting him.”
I chuckled bitterly.

“He told me I would grow old with more experience yesterday,” I said sadly. “Since then I have begun to grow grey hair.”

She looked at me for a long time, her expression sad, and then she sighed.

“Let’s hope it is only grey hair, Yao, let’s hope so,” she said after a while.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” I asked sharply.

“I won’t lie to you, Yao,” she said in a serious voice. “My brother is well-versed in the dark arts. I think you’re not only growing grey hair. I believe you’re aging, Yao, and if something is not done about this curse he had placed on you, you’ll die of old age very soon.”

And I stared at her with my mouth slack as it hit me then!

“He could do that?” I whispered with so much forlorn despair that she stood up and walked over, then sat beside me and took my hand, her face concerned.

“He can, Yao,” she said in a worried voice. “I’ve not spoken to him in three years. You see, a young man wanted to marry me, and my brother said no. We went against his wishes anyway, and on our wedding day, when it was my fiance’s turn to say the Vows, he just fell down dead.”

“Goodness me!” I whispered, now petrified. “He killed your man?”

“He’s always denied it, Yao, but I left Wowo the next day and never went there. For Akos’ sake, I’ll go and see him and beg him to remove this curse from you.”

I clasped her hand desperately.