Dial - Season 2 - Episode 15

4 years ago

Dial - Season 2 - Episode 15

I screamed as the pain seared through my back! It was as if an invisible hand had taken that cane and smashed it through me! The excruciating pain passed through my whole body!

I had never felt such physical pain!
The snakes stayed still, but they did not put their heads down, and I knew that another slackening from Adobea would make them strike me!

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Adobea screamed, lowering the cane.
“Don’t drop your hand!” Maame Ntiriwaa screamed.

I pushed my head into the pole, knowing I could not scream again. If I screamed a second time Abena Adobea might not hit me again, and the snakes would kill me. She whipped my back with abandon, and I gritted my teeth and pushed my face into the pole as pain after pain seared through me.

The tears fell down my face like a river. I opened my mouth wide and felt the saliva and phlegm of pain tearing me apart as the cane crashed again and again. It was excruciating, and it was unbearable…and I wept bitterly!
I felt my back cracking, and the warm blood sliding down my back. Maame Ntiriwaa was weeping bitterly, and Abena Adobea was wailing as the cane dropped on my back again and again.

And all the while the Elders sat there, and the King was smiling and nodding with pleasure, and Okomfo Basabasa was almost snarling with joy…and at that moment I told myself that if I lived through this hell, all of them would know the real meaning of pay-back!
Kpraaash!

Kpraaash!

Gbraaash!

The cane fell again and again, and the snakes remained reared-up in front of my legs, and my back flayed to the skin.

And, in that horrible moment, it suddenly struck me that somehow it was fitting! I had played with girls, unmindful of their feelings, the ultimate just to possess their bodies and put their details on my list!

Some had died, some had lost their wombs, and many had been emotionally-destroyed forever! Yes, in a macabre sort of way, being whipped by a virgin in a remote village standing in a pool of sheep blood seemed like a good atonement, and a purging of a soul made black by sexual decadence!

Finally, the snakes put their heads down, and slithered away from me, and I knew the twenty lashes were over. It felt as if I had been pushed into raw flames of fire! My whole body burned!

Abena Adobea dropped the cane, and then she dropped slowly to her knees, her arms hugging herself as she wept from the very core of her soul!

And then, she held out her left hand, and took off the huge golden ring from her finger!
“Abena, no, no, no, no!!” the king screamed and rushed into the pool of blood, his face savage, tortured and horrified.
Abena Adobea threw the ring away from her with disgust!

“Abena!” the king screamed, reaching out for her, but she got to her feet and pushed him back with a fierce look of hatred on her face.

“Do not touch me!” she screamed into his frenzied face. “I hate you! I hate you! And I won’t spend a second longer in your presence!”

“Then you will be banished from here forever!” Okomfo Basabasa shouted with venom.

“I’ll rather sleep in a bed of mud than spend another second in this vile village!” she shouted right back.

“Oh, no, Abena, oh, no, no, please, no!” the old king said, reaching for her, but she slapped his hands away, and then she fled from the courtyard.

The sleazy king screamed and raced after her.
The ground shook suddenly, fiercely, like an earth tremor, and the cords binding me fell off my body, and so did the cords binding Maame Ntiriwaa. She got to her feet, whimpering, and uncaring about her nakedness. She came to me, and held me as I almost collapsed.

“Yao, let’s get out of here,” she whispered.

I was shivering, my body burning up, the pain in my ravaged back a fiery, savage conundrum of pain that simply threatened to shut my brain down.

And then an amazing thing happened…
Two huge guards came toward me, and I saw on their faces looks of utter shock and consternation, and one had tears in his eyes.
“Please, sir, let us help you!” one of them said.

“Leave him be!” Okomfo Basabasa screamed. “Touch him and be banished!”
The guards didn’t mind him. One took my legs, and the other took my hands, and then lifted me to the veranda where there was a wooden bench. They put me on the bench, face downward, and then they lifted the bench like a stretcher.

It was the most painful journey I had ever taken!

I m0aned and wept with each little jar, each little shudder! Tears streamed down my face, and I cried like a baby! My mind was bursting open with raw pain, and I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut.

Eventually we came to the river.
The early dawn light was streaming across the sky.

There was a man standing at the edge of the river, and as they put the bench down the man turned slowly and came toward me. He was holding a gourd-like object in his hand, and I raised my head painfully to look at him.
It was Nana b0s0mba.

He stood by the side of the bench without speaking, and then he upturned the gourd, and I felt a cool liquid splashing across my back, and slowly the incredible agony subsided.

He kept pouring until the gourd was empty, and then he lowered his hand. Suddenly, he snapped his free hand and pulled out a huge, white cloth from the air, and then he threw it at Maame Ntiriwaa.

“Cover yourself, woman!” he said, and I was shocked to hear the deep pain in his voice, and for once Nana b0s0mba’s voice was not steady. It shook with pain.

Maame Ntiriwaa drabbed herself with the white cloth and tucked the edge in, and then Nana b0s0mba handed her the gourd.
“Take this, woman,” he said softly. “Use it to treat his back. Nothing else. Pour it on his back every morning and evening.”
“But it is empty!” Maame Ntiriwaa said as she sniffed. “You used it all!”
“Take it, woman!” Nana b0s0mba shouted, and sudden flames came out of his mouth, and Maame Ntiriwaa took a step back with fear. She took the gourd fearfully, and when she shook it, it was filled with the liquid the man had poured on my back.
Nana b0s0mba waited until I was lifted off the bend and placed into Maame Ntiriwaa’s canoe, and then he turned away and began to walk down the riverside. Suddenly a heavy flame of fire appeared from all around him.
The two guards screamed and took to their heels, running away furiously.

I would have laughed if I could, but I couldn’t.