Dial - Season 1 - Episode 65

Episode 4 years ago

Dial - Season 1 - Episode 65

. I spent the next day at home.
I didn’t take a bath, no. It was just me and the kitchen and movies and sleep! I ate as I had never eaten before. I watched movies and laughed, all by my lonesome self…and of course I cried in-between.

It wasn’t easy for me as I tried to hide from myself, trying to prevent myself from seeing the way I was looking, the terrible person I was turning into…and yet there were so many reflective surfaces in my mansion that it was well-nigh impossible to hide. I caught a glimpse of myself every now and then, and every look made me jump a little with new shock.

But I had a very important meeting at the office, with some new importers from Saudi Arabia, a meeting I could not miss, scheduled for ten o’clock the following morning. So I went out briefly in the later afternoon and bought two electric hair clippers and some expensive hair dye.

I finally went to bed, very late, and slept like a baby, thankfully.

And so, the following morning, at half past eight, I went to the bathroom with my hair clippers and some hair-dye lubes. Standing in front of the mirror, I used the clipper to shave off all the hair on my head. I also shaved off my moustache and beard..

I used the hair-dye to colour my eyebrow and eyelashes. When I surveyed myself in the mirror I decided it didn’t look too bad; it was the bald head that made me look weird, because I had worn my hairstyle for a very long time.
But at least it was far better than the old man image I had been spotting. The meeting wouldn’t take more than three hours, and after that I could come home and see what would happen next.

Quite unfortunately, I hadn’t taken Dede Nortey’s number, and so I couldn’t call to find out how it had all panned out at her meeting with the world’s most wicked and disgusting man, Nana b0s0mba of Wowo.

I got dressed in one of my best suits to complement my new ‘sakora’ persona, and hit the town.

I arrived at the office and quickly checked myself in the mirrors in the washrooms of the lobby, and found to my satisfaction – and profound relief, of course – that my baldness was still intact, and that my dyed facial hair was holding up too.
Kwasi, my associate, had already informed me that the investors had arrived and were waiting for me in the conference room. I rode the elevator to the top floors where my executive offices were located.

I emerged from the elevator and walked the short stretch toward the conference room, and when I was near enough the glass doors slid open and my associate, Kwasi, came out looking resplendent in a coffee-coloured suit.

He had a telephone pressed to his ear, and he turned toward me and smiled as he made to walk past me.

Now that was not the usual way Kwasi behaved when he saw me.

He was one who always accorded me recognition and respect, in a genuine manner, and that was why I trusted him a little bit more than I did other humans.

He made as if to pass me, and then he came up short suddenly, and the phone simply dropped from his hand. The expression on his face was one of confounded horror.

I noticed that he was even trembling slightly as his eyes took in my appearance.

“Oh, why, Yao?” he murmured with absolute devastation. “Oh, why, oh, why? Oh, why, why Yao, oh why?”

He sounded like one of those old music players that my father used to own – a gramophone, yes – which was stuck on one patch on of the LP record.
I smiled at him sickly.

“The bald head?” I said, trying to be flippant. “I’m trying a new look, Kwasi.”
“Oh, why? Oh, why, Yao? An old man’s new look? Of all the looks? Oh, why, Yao? Oh, why? Yao, Yao, oh, why? Why, why, oh why?”
Well, when he mentioned ‘old man’ I just knew!

I knew that the Wowo man had done his wicked thing again.

I raised my hand and passed it on my head.
Well, there was no surprise there, really, when I realized that I was no longer bald, no. My hair was as bushy as Samson’s hair. I passed my hand over my cheeks, chin and lips.
Bushy…bushy…bushy!

I had entered the elevator a bald-headed young man. However, somehow within the three minutes I had ridden in the executive elevator to the executive floors, my head had sprouted enough hair that should have taken about four months to grow!

I turned away from Kwasi and walked past the conference room straight into my office, but I didn’t stop there, no. Into my washroom I entered, and looked into the mirror!
And now I understood why Kwasi had entered that ‘oh, why’ litany mode!

My hair had grown luxuriously and now fell on my shoulders! My moustache was so full that it had covered my lips, and my beard was long and almost touching the first button of my shirt!
So were my eyelashes and eyebrows overgrown!
And they all looked white…not grey, not silver…white like snow!

Trembling, almost fainting, I went back to the office where a horror-struck Kwasi was now waiting.

“Oh, why, Yao? Oh, why, why, oh why?” he began again.

“Cut that crap out!” I screamed shrilly, and he clamped his mouth shut fast, but that doomed look didn’t leave his face.

“I can’t chair the meeting, Kwasi,” I said in a very unsteady way. “You chair it, but I’ll speak to you on video. Now get me a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses.”

He went out without speaking, but his eyes never left my face.

And that was why I fled from my own office that morning, and came home fast!
Into my bedroom I went.
Onto my bed I flopped.

And the racking tears came freely.
Oh why, oh why, oh why, why, Nana Wowo, why?

***

It was later that day, in the late afternoon, and I was lying on the floor in the living-room, totally conked out with alcohol, when the buzzer sounded at the main gate.

I raised a head that was splitting from a horrible headache and looked at the portable monitor against the wall, and all other walls of my mansion, and I saw that Dede Nortey was at the gate.

Leaning forward, I activated the intercom and spoke to her.

“Please come in, Dede of Wowo, sister of the most wicked man on earth, Nana Conka Head b0s0mba of Wowo. I’m buzzing you in now.”
I buzzed her in, chuckling insanely as I unconsciously began to slide into hysterics.

The security gate slid open to let her pass through, and a moment later she entered my living-room.

She was not in a nurse’s outfit now.

Dressed in black jeans and a fetching pink shirt, she looked incredibly beautiful as she leaned against the door jamb and looked at me with eyes that were no longer friendly. She wrinkled her nose with distaste as she took in the messed-up state of the living-room and the strong scent of alcohol.

I got to my feet drunkenly and stood looking at her.

I realized in a quite absurd manner that I was still dressed up in the clothes I had gone to the office with, even down to my shoes.

Tottering on drunken legs, I looked at her with a somewhat silly grin.
“Well?” I asked drunkenly. “Dede of Wowo, did you see that wicked old man of Wowo whose daughter was Akos of Wowo, all from Wowo?”
That got her eyes blazing with fury.

With quick strides she covered the space between us, and then before I could react she delivered a hefty blow with her clenched fist to my jaw, and I felt lightning flashes in my heart.

The blow hurled me to the floor, and I was quite amazed by the strength she possessed. As I lay on the floor she delivered a solid kick to my g---n area, and this time I screamed as a severe s---t of pain blasted through me.

“You bastard, Yao!” Dede cried furiously, and I saw that tears were streaming down her face now. “A number on a d--n list? Was that all she was to you? Akos had her life ahead of her! A young, naïve, trusting little soul who fell madly in love with you! You b@nged her up and put her on a sick list, a list of girls you had fuc*ked? A girl who loved you with every single of blood in her body? And you treated her like a s--t, like your w---e? How could you, Yao Biko, you bastard? How could you be so d--n heartless?”
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