Dial - Season 1 - Episode 130

4 years ago

Dial - Season 1 - Episode 130

I looked at him for the very first time. He was short and stout, muscular in a stocky kind of way. His head was bald, but his face had a full growth of grey beard. His face looked anguished indeed, and I scowled slightly at him.

The old Yao Biko wouldn’t have minded him. I would’ve dropped the folded money in the canoe and walked away. But not now, not today. I had almost been whipped by that crazy whip, and my back would’ve been a mess of flesh if that detestable Nana b0s0mba hadn’t helped me.

I was old at twenty-six years, and I needed help that my wealth couldn’t buy. Suddenly, I was seeing another side of the world, a side where I knew a kind gesture went a whole way in alleviating deep-rooted pains.

“What is bothering you?” I asked quietly.
“Please, I was not at the palace, and I wasn’t part of the mob that came for you,” he said in an unstable voice. “I was at the Health Post. My daughter, my only child…she is just ten years old. She is sick, needs to be taken to the big hospital. They say he needs blood, and I have to pay. But I don’t have the money. Please, I heard of what you did today. I’m begging of you. Please, help me save my daughter’s life.”

I was used to dealing with a lot of people, and I knew just how much people might lie to get money, and so I scowled at him.
“Where is your daughter now?” I asked coldly.

“At the Health Post,” he said as a tear trickled down his cheek. “She’s Aba. My name is Tawiah.”

“My money is almost all used up,” I said quietly. “Can she wait till tomorrow morning?”

He nodded, almost violently.
“Yes, but she grows weak by the day,” he said.

“Tomorrow morning, meet me here,” I said slowly. “We’ll go and take a look at Aba.”

“Oh, thank you, sir, thank you so much!” he said, bowing low to me.

I nodded and turned away from him.
I went up the incline hurriedly, suddenly in a hurry to see that witch again. She had been really agitated when I was taken away, and yet she had not been able to follow because she was not allowed in the village.

She might be really agitated by now. And then I hit the cocoa trees, and as I moved along through the trees the image of Nana b0s0mba came flooding my mind, and I surveyed my surroundings with a touch of curiosity, and I was convinced that yes, this was where that man had been standing.

So I stopped and turned round slowly, peering through the trees.

“Are you here?” I asked the emptiness. “You’re here, aren’t you? I know you’re here! Why don’t you come out?”

I was turning round as I spoke, and when I had gone round a full circle, I found a door standing there between two trees.
It wasn’t a building, not even a hut. It was just a door. Not a fancy door, but a simple brown door with a door-frame around it. It was not supported, and it was just standing there like that!

So I stopped and stared at the door, fighting the sudden fear that was threatening to engulf me. I could hear a great noise behind that door, as if something awful was approaching from the other side. It was indeed a very scary sound, and my lips went dry. For one wild moment I almost turned round and fled down the incline back to the river, but I steeled myself.