Dial - Season 1 - Episode 128

4 years ago

Dial - Season 1 - Episode 128

Twenty sheep at two hundred cedis added up to four thousand cedis! They were shocked because, to them, that was a fortune!
They thought I just possibly couldn’t afford four thousand cedis!
Me!

Yao Biko, the richest dude in Africa, and most parts of the world?

Me, the HNIC – Head Nig*er In Chief – who bought a pair of slippers for twenty thousand cedis just to wear from my bedroom to the bathroom and back?

Excuse me, please, people of Etwe-Pe whatever!

I looked at the satisfied face of the princess and the royals, to the stunned faces of the crowd around me.

Okomfo Basabasa approached me slowly, his wicked eyes gloating.
“Four thousand cedis, stranger!” he spat out spitefully. “Twenty sheep! You’re going to rot in the dungeons!”

Abena Adobea, panting with fury, took a step toward me.

“My offer stands, old man!” she said. “On your face and lick my foot, or to the dungeons!”

The foolishness of it all and the ironic implications hit me, and I couldn’t stop myself as the laughter bubbled inside me and spilled richly out of my throat.

And, still laughing, I reached into the pocket of my shorts and pulled out my wallet. I had stuffed it with about five thousand cedis.

My eyes met the eyes of Princess Abena Adobea as I walked toward her, snapped the cover flap of the wallet open, and then I dug out the money, and threw it at her feet!
There they were…fresh, crimpling, shiny and absolutely magnificent fifty-cedi bills, lying in a bunch at her feet!

A pin dropping at that moment would have sounded like a bomb!

There was stunned shock and absolute disbelief all around.

Abena Adobea looked at the money at her feet, and then her eyes moved slowly to meet mine.

For a moment her face was stripped of all that haughtiness, and she looked just like a young, innocent, beautiful girl.
“I added some few cedis, Abena,” I said with all the contempt I could muster. “Buy yourself some goats too!”

Her lips quivered, and I saw a s---t of pain and confusion mirrored on her face.

I looked at her disdainfully, and then I turned away from her.

They were standing like statues, gripped in moment of pathetic shock. To them, the sight of that money was like the skies had opened and they had seen the faces of angels up there.
The crowd parted for me with almost comical reverence, and I walked out of the palace of Etwe-Pe-Kote.