Bounced By My Brother - S01 E31

3 years ago

Bounced By My Brother - S01 E31

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 31

The Search

{Sarah’s Narration}

One week later, I went to Marvin’s new house. It was around 10.00 a.m. He welcomed me warmly and ushered me into the main hall. His Plama TV hanged on the wall, the drapes and the carpet matched the rest of the air- conditioned room. The floor was shining as if it had been licked clean and his Deluxe Hoover did a perfect job on the carpeted area. I was wondering why a “borga” will prefer to come to stay in Africa instead of a place like New York city. His cute features captured my attention.

Marvin was a cute lad. He had fine masculine features from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet. His eyes are charmy and his sing song voice was very appealing to the ear. He had a mark of innocence on his handsome face. He was tall and well-built with rich black curly hair which swam in waves.

I asked him,”So what do you intend to do after finding your parents.”

“I’m thinking of establishing a film school in Ghana to produce movies that reflect the African cultural heritage and values. I looked at him with admiration. He was a passion driven, and highly enthusiastic person. Then he put the icing on the cake by saying he wanted to establish a foundation to assist the poor but highly intelligent children.

“Ops,When are WE going to start the search for your parents ,” I asked him.

“By 8.00 a.m ,we will set off.”

“Ok. I will come earlier so that we go in time, ” I assured him

“Tomorrow, we will go to the Commonwealth Aid International Hospital and ask of nurse Dora.We may get lucky” He said.

****

I woke up early the next morning. I left the house and went to Marvin’s. He was already waiting for me. I quickly entered his car and we moved towards the Commonwealth Aid International Hospital. We arrived at the Hospital and ask to see the Hospital’s Administrator. We were told to wait for a while before we were finally ushered into his big office. He had a desktop computer in front of him and a mountain of files neatly parked on a shelve. The room was spacious and airy with plenty of chairs. The administrator was a short stout man with a receding hairline. His face was round and the protuberant part was his bulgy eyes. His lips were squicky. He was cold and straight with us when he said, “You are welcome to Commonwealth Aid International Hospital. My name is Agyei Cyril and I’m the chief Administrator of the Hospital. How can I help you?”

Marvin said, “ I have being stolen from this Hospital 27 years ago by a certain nurse called Dora and sold to a certain woman called Mavis Mr.Agyeman. I’m here today to find out if the nurse is still working here so that she can help me locate my real parents.

Mr.Agyei was dumbfounded when Marvin recount the whole story to him in such an easy going voice. “It sounded like a fairly tale,” he said at last. If you have been stolen when still young , how do you know then?” He asked.

Marvin responded, ” my parents confessed it to me.”

Mr. Agyei Cyril gazed at Marvin and said, so you are a stolen baby, eèeeii,” he laughed, “hahahaha” and suddenly became sober again. He said , “this is a crime .You need to report your parents to the police.”

I agree, Marvin said, ” including the nurse who sold me like Judas Iscariot betraying Jesus with just 30 pieces of silver, but I see pressing charges against them to be pointless. The crime had happened 27 years ago. Why wake the sleeping dog up?”

Cyril said, “ reporting it may also tarnish the image of the Hospital. We will be labelled us ” baby thief Hospital ” by the people and the media.

He hesitated for a while and said, “I’m afraid I cannot cross profile the background of past and current workers of this Hospital just to search for a certain nurse called Dora who had no surname but take the liberty in commercializing people’s babies. Thank you for coming. See you.!!”

Marvin and I were so shocked with the administrator’s inconsideration that for five minutes we thought we had not heard him well. When the reality set in , we stood up with so much difficulty and left in discomfiture. On the second day we tried again but he was adamant to our request. We tried all we could do to convince some of the older nurses in the Hospital to tell us if they knew a nurse called Dora. Only two said they knew some nurses who bore that name. Their description of the nurses they claimed they knew by the name “Dora” didn’t match my mother’s description. Nevertheless, we made some follow up activities and traced them but they said they didn’t remember any of such incidence or were involved in it. Their body language suggested they were being frank with us. We went to the health directorate to seek assistance but the director kept tossing us.

After much efforts realization dawned on us that the man was looking for bribe before assisting us.I smiled and told him, ”Marvin , you See, this is not USA where people in public offices play strictly by the book. In this part of the world, when you want to play by the book , you will always reach a stone end. Poverty had dulled the conscience of this public office holders to the extent that the only language they understand is Money. Get a brown envelope ready loaded with Dollars and I can assure you, we will get the information we seek for in a twinkle of an eye. Passing through the backdoor works magic in Ghana.

“But that’s bribery and corruption,” Marvin protested.

Look here Martin, this is Africa. If you want to get that list, you have to kowtow to the system. It’s that simple. If you want to be a saint, you can’t stay here. Here systems don’t work, money works.

After much talk, he agreed to bribe the intransigent administrator. The next day he put $ 1000 into a brown envelope. We went to the administrator again. He was cold towards us as usual. We didn’t argue with him. We remained equipoised until he calmed down. Then we gave him the $ 1000 and thank him for his cooperation.

We left the office and entered the car. Upon turning on the ignition, we saw Mr. Agyei Cyril signalling us to stop the car. He walked briskly towards us.

Please come tomorrow at 8.00 a.m. I will give you the list of all the nurses who worked 27 years ago in this facility.”

We thank him heartily for his cooperation and left. On the way Marvin was amazed and asked , “So is that the way things work in this place?”

I succinctly answered, ” YES. This is Africa.”

***

The next day, we went to Mr. Agyei Cyril’s office. As soon as he saw us, he hugged us as if we just arrived from Heaven. He even offered us a bottle of beer. After that he gave us a long list of nurses who worked in the Hospital 27 years ago. We thanked him for his cooperation and left. Upon reaching Home, we decided to look through the list. We were amazed at the number of “Doras” we saw on the list. Over 1550. The question is , which of the Doras’ stole Marvin from his unknown mother ?

We decided that searching for 1550 Doras in Ghana looked quite preposterous so we aborted that plan in the interim. Only time will tell. It was getting late. Time to go home. I promised to return the next day to find a way around all the nurses bearing the name Dora. With that I left for home.

****

What happened next? Watch out for EPISODE 32