ACCRA – 18th December, 2013: It so happens that fortune does not smile at all on some people. It also happens that disasters do happen for a reason. This disaster was terrible, it was painful, it left a question in our heart and mouth, and it made us wonder whether God existed at all
This was the very question, Mr. Afriyie, asked himself over and over again. He stood in front of four coffins and each coffin laid his own loins. He kept on asking himself how he could survive but life has this funny way of letting people who want to die live and let those who want to live die. Four of his five children died in a terrible action over the weekend and by a general consensus, his family wanted the children buried quickly because the more they protracted it, the bitter it was going to be for Mr. Afriyie. Five days after the incident, the children; three boys and a girl were laid to rest at his wife’s hometown as customs demanded.
Before, he had vowed heaven and Earth to kill his wife because according to him, she was the cause of their misfortune. Her offence? She had called her children who were having fun at a friend’s party to come home for dinner. But as childish as people saw it, they couldn’t complain. Indeed, Mrs. Afriyie popularly called Madam Jane had no spirit of clairvoyance to predict the future. On that faithful 13th, which will forever be a holiday in the lives of these couples, the couples had fought over how liberal Madam Jane was with their children.
According to Francis Afriyie, Jane was always busy with work and had no time for her children. Life to her was all about work and work and even wondered how many times she had spent with her children. But her last child, John came to the defense to his mother and told his father to also stay home and look after them and stop chasing girls. This obviously did not go down well with Francis, who found this outpour as extremely offensive and derogating. It took the intervention of their rich next door neighbor, Mr. Sey, to quench the flame.
It was with this heated argument that the four children; Kwabena, Richard, Abigail and Clement, who met their untimely death took their mother’s car and went straight to a friend’s party because they didn’t want to witness the countless debate and quarrel between their parents.
Madam Jane was only pleased that they did because she herself was tired of this unnecessary diatribe from her husband. She always found in appalling, he disliked one talking about his family, he was always annoyed, pyrophobic and irrational at times. At times, she wonders why she married him at all.
“John, come to me and let me ask you a question”
John walked briskly to her mother who was half smiling, half crying.
“Mother! You are not crying over what daddy said, are you?
“No”
“Now, you are lying to me” he frowned
“Have I ever been a bad mother?”
“Not the least” he drew closer to her “you know it’s always daddy! Every problem we face in this house is always him. At times, I feel so ashamed to call him my daddy – “
“But he is, you have no option than to love him”
“It’s the most painful aspect of it all. I have no option. If I did, I wouldn’t think for a second on it but you do and I’m wondering why you haven’t”
“It’s not as easy as you think bec – “
“Mummy, it’s so easy, file for a divorce. I am eighteen and I have seen the abuse he has subjected you to. What more reason do you need again? I have known daddy for 18 years. I have seen enough of his disrespect to spare. And to your earlier question, you are not a bad mother, I don’t know how and why you sound be counted as one”
“Hmmmmm”
“Mummy what? You are not a bad mother. Just ignore the idiosyncrasies of daddy!”
“I will talk to him whatever way I want, he treats you badly enough to merit mercy from me!” John roared and entered his room.
She began to pace the room like she was waiting for a familiar stranger to come and console her but it began to hit her. It was not a stranger she was expecting but a feeling she had no explanation her. She began to shake all over, well she muttered to herself “Probably some malaria”
“John, a minute”
John walked over to her room wearing only his boxers.
“Sweet Jesus! Haven’t I told you not to expose yourself like this in the house?”
“Was naked, would you have been okay with I had come out like that?”
“I feel hot, I equally feel warm, are you feeling same”
John looked at his mother weirdly and asked “Are you pregnant?”
Madam Jane fidgeting with her phone replied “If I was, I would have known”
“Mother, then you are ill”
“I presume so but I can’t tell but I have this funny feeling that something is just not okay”
“Of course you are not okay”
Just then, he heard the horns of Mr. Afriyie blaring out loudly in front of the gate.
“Good Lord, your father is here early, can you go and open the gates? I don’t feel so alright”
“In these boxers?”
“Please do, I don’t want your father getting angry.
As John left the room, Madam Jane’s phone rang. He looked at a screen and saw an unknown number calling. She felt reluctant in picking it but she picked up. “Is this Mrs. Afriyie?”
“Sorry but your four children just had an accident and died!”
She couldn’t believe it, she thought it was those random numbers who were calling to make fun of her poor heart, she was about to ask for more information when she saw her husband push his son to the floor and advancing towards her. It then dawned on her that despite the caller not following the right protocol in telling her about the death of her children, the news was true after all.
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