Dial - Season 1 - Episode 113

4 years ago

Dial - Season 1 - Episode 113

When I woke up she was not by my side.

I stretched lazily on the hard bed, and wondered what she had in that mattress! However, surprisingly, it was the best sleep I had had since Nana b0s0mba hit me with his brand of horrifying vengeance.

I got out of bed and took out my toothbrush and paste from the duffel bag, and my shaving kit too. And then I brought out a small bottle of water and stepped out. I realised, in the light of day, that her house was nestled in thick bush. The yard itself, though weeded, was still not free of shrubbery. No wonder snakes were her bed-mates.

I brushed my teeth and using a small mirror propped up on her veranda, I shaved off my beard and moustache, and as the white hair cascaded down, I smiled dourly.

Yes, the curse was still in effect.

I changed into a pair of jeans, sneakers and a singlet. I picked up a piece of stick and walked around her yard, wondering where she was. Eventually I found myself at the entrance, and noticed that some way off were a group of trees with some strange yellowish appendages on them.

I walked warily toward them, stepping gingerly and beating the stick into the clump of bushes ahead of me to dispel snakes, just like I had seen her doing the previous night.

When I was close enough, I realized that the trees were indeed cocoa trees, and the yellow things I had seen were ripe cocoa pods. Wonderingly, I touched them with fascination. It was the first time I had seen cocoa in my life.

As I walked through the cocoa trees it didn’t occur to me that I was leaving the house behind, until suddenly I found myself on another path and took it. This was the very first time I had been so close to rural life, and the sheer wildness of my surroundings both mystified and amazed me.

From the myriad of bird species, to the giant anthills, from the soldier ants crossing the path to the huge alligator-like reptile I saw on a rock…the wild flowers, the huge trees…wow, this was a world I never knew existed!
Then, before I knew it, I was suddenly on the riverbank!

I was attracted by the gently-flowing river. I noticed that at the far end of the river, the side near the village, many people could be seen, but I did not know precisely what they were doing on the river.

And I could see canoes, though, at vintage points on the river, and further on my side of the bank I could see where Maame Ntiriwaa’s canoe was tied.

There were about four men on my side of the riverbank as I descended. They were fishermen, I saw, preparing their nets and fish traps whilst their canoes lapped gently on the huge river.

Way down to my left I could see that a bigger, classier canoe had rolled to the bank, and I saw some men jumping down and pulling it in. The men were in skirt-like clothing, their chests bare, and they appeared to be holding long clubs.
.

I watched, fascinated, as a cloth was spread from the canoe to the bank, and then a bevy of colourfully-clad women came out of the canoe.