Chapter 12

The days following her encounter with Nana Ama, the Minister of Health's daughter, were very difficult ones for Emily. Stephen appeared to have vanished from the house and there was palpable tension in the Adams household, although the usual flurry of activities and the continuous stream of callers did not cease.

On several occasions, Emily saw the domestic workers whispering in a conspiratorial manner whenever she passed by to the main house. She suspected she might be the subject of their hushed chatter but she maintained a facade of indifference which belied the turmoil going on inside her. She wasn't trained to confront people who spoke ill of her. She remembered how her Aunt used to beat her for getting angry. Over the years, she had learned to smile through the pain. Therefore it was difficult to tell whenever she was going through any challenge.

During those days, which Emily felt were most trying for her because she had no one to confide in or even talk to, she resorted to praying for very long hours each night, asking for strength from God to go through the following day. "Lord, you know it all and you see it all. You said in your word that all who are heavy laden should come to You and You would give them rest. Dear Lord, I stand on this word and I pray; Father please grant me rest from all my burdens," she would usually pray.

For the first time in her life, the young lady did not feel like going to Auntie Okaibea with her problems. The older woman might not understand and, besides, she did not know how to convince anyone that she was not in love with Stephen. She had been surprised at her reaction when she realized that Stephen was still dating Nana Ama. Why had she wept at the discovery? she asked herself. Of course, he had lied to her and that had hurt her; she argued with that disturbing inner voice which wouid not leave her alone.

She had switched off her phone and kept to herself, spending most of her leisure time trying to read novels, the Bible and magazines in order to keep her mind fully occupied. She played gospel music when she grew tired of reading and listened to preaching by her favorite preachers on compact disc. She listened to preachers like Apostle Paul Ansah, Bishop Joe Ntim, Rev. Opoku Antwi, Rev. Felix Goodman. She particularly enjoyed listening to messages preached by Rev. Felix Goodman because his preachings usually encouraged her to press on and never give up on herself.

She was very familiar with misery and knew how to counter hurt feelings. She had been hurt for so many years by those she expected to love and shield her as she grew up in Auntie Ama's home. But the feelings she was encountering now were deeper than anything she had ever experienced before. It was betrayal and it tore her heart apart. She had sought solace in her God, as usual. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” she quoted scripture several times to console herself. She remembered that Auntie Okaibea usually quoted this scripture to encourage her when she was living with her Aunt Ama. There were times when Auntie Ama would beat and scold Emily, and Auntie Okaibea would encourage her to take her problems to God in prayers. God had always come through for her when she needed Him, and she had learned with time to put her trust in Him.

Her heart warmed up as she reflected on the faithfulness of God and slowly she began to recall the numerous times that God had intervened in her affairs to carry her safely through storms which threatened to drown her. If he has done it for me in the past, then He will surely do it for me again, she thought to herself. The more she thought about her life, the more gratified she became at the realization that God knew what she was going through and cared very much about her. Emily was determined to take each day at a time and she saw very little of her employer who also appeared to be consciously staying away from her.

Mrs Adams did not send for Emily nor call her via internal communication, which was very unusual of her. On the rare occasions that she espied her from the distance, Mrs Adams, contrary to her usual haughty demeanor, looked very subdued. She barely talked with any of the workers. She would quickly walk past them from her car into the mansion. Once, she almost fell due to the fact that she was walking so fast as though someone was chasing after her.

Emily knew that all was not well in the Adams household and there were many questions she needed answers to but she said very little to anybody and did her best to keep away from all those waiting for the answers which she knew would come at the right time.

She had once been confronted with a question by Angelina, one of the female cooks. "Hello Madam Emily, are you and Madam Gloria okay? The two of you seem to be at loggerheads with each other. I mean, I don't see you both working together like you usually do. Did you upset Madam Gloria,or is it the other way around? Errm I don't mean to intrude in your private affairs oo, I'm just being concerned. I only want peace to reign and I don't like tension at all", Angelina had said. "Well, don't worry about anything Angelina. Everything is alright with me and Madam. So you can get back to work," Emily had replied, trying to dismiss Angelina in the process. Not convinced by Emily's answer, Angelina just turned her back towards Emily and slowly made her way to the kitchen.

Emily didn't trust anyone in the Adams household, especially when she had seen the workers talk in a hushed tone whenever she was passing by. She suspected Angelina needed more information to fuel the workers' gossip and make it more interesting. Perhaps they were tired of gossiping using the information they already had. Perhaps they wanted something new.

During the day, she spent a greater proportion of her time at the public library reading and returned home late in the evening when she knew the workers would have retired to their quarters.

Once when she was going to the library, she met Afia, one of the clients she used to provide home services for when she used to work at Premier Beauty Salon and the young lady literally dragged Emily to her house.

“Hey!” Afia exclaimed with sheer joy when she saw Emily. ‘I don't care what you are doing, where you are going or whatever errand you are running right now. One thing I know for sure is that God who is always faithful has finally answered my prayers and today I have seen you. Baby girl, you are coming home with me!” The look on Afia's face precluded any argument so Emily joined Afia in her car and was driven by the young lady to her home where Emily was made to give the young lady a simple and beautiful haircut.

“Now, Emily baby, you are not going to disappear again. Give me your telephone number,” Afia demanded when she looked at her reflection in the mirror, delighted at the transformation the haircut had brought to her looks. “For several months I've searched everywhere for you but no one could help me. I was at Lovelace's place to try to get some information about you but she would not give me your telephone number or even mention your name!’ “I've switched off my phone,” Emily explained. “Some silly guys are pestering you, I guess. Okay, let's do this. We are going to town to buy a new phone which can take two SIM cards. You can switch off the old number which the guy or others you are avoiding know and then you will use your new number through which I can easily reach you.”

The two young women laughed and Afia later drove Emily to town and bought her a new phone which she insisted she would pay for.

"Hey hey hey baby girl, I was the one who suggested to buy you a new phone so I will pay for it. I would like to maintain very regular contact with you from now on,” Afia announced to Emily. “Besides being the best hairdresser I've ever met in my entire life, you are a lady I want to have around me. You appear to have such a calming effect on me and it's amazing how I feel! With you around, I mostly feel at peace, I feel I can confide in you, I feel you are very genuine and, what can I say? I just like you, Emily!”

“Thank you,” Emily said with a smile.

‘Call on me as often as you like,” Afia offered. “I work from Monday through Saturday but I lie in bed on Sundays after church service to allow my body its much-needed Sabbath rest. I do get lonely sometimes so if you have the time please come by on Sundays after church service just for a chat. I love your calm effect on me, and I'd love to always have you around. As you're here right now, I just feel like all my problems are not so much of a big deal.”

"I will try and call,” Emily promised her.

“I'll hold you to your word,” Afia warned.

“I'll keep my word,” Emily assured her with a smile.

When Emily finally left the young lady about three hours later for the library, she was very light-hearted. She had told herself several times that she needed to make friends and had resorted to praying about it, especially when Mrs Gloria Adams had made it impossible for anyone, not even her mates at the university, to wait on the young lady.

Emily, therefore, saw the chance encounter with Afia as an answer to her prayers. She had acutely felt her isolation from others when her friendship with Stephen annoyed her employer and things got to a head during the late night visit by Nana Ama.

As she later set off for the Adams' house at the end of the day, she was cheerful and offered a silent prayer of thanksgiving to God for bringing Afia along when she desperately needed someone to talk to. Stephen used to provide her company virtually every evening and the two had become close friends. She did not realize how much she had been drawn to the young man until he unceremoniously disappeared from the house. Warrior would usually be heard barking loudly,as though requesting to see Stephen. The workers provided the dog with its food as they usually did, therefore Warrior's barking wouldn't be because it was hungry. It would definitely be because it had missed its owner. Poor Warrior, Emily thought to herself one evening when she heard the dog barking very loudly with all its might.

During the three hours that they had been together, Afia had told Emily virtually everything about herself and in the process let out that she was available for dating. “If you know a guy who wants a wife, my dear feel free to connect me to him,” Afia had earlier joked. “You see, being a branch manager of my bank scares away many of the bachelors who are potential husbands. Also, many may think that I am older than I really am because of my position. They may think I'm fabulously rich, a snob and highly opinionated, hence very unapproachable and so on. But nothing could be farther from the truth!”

Emily had laughed and on the spur of the moment she had offered her help. “I know a certain guy who is single and I'm sure you'll know him. He is called Kojo Ganyo, but we call him Bobby,” Emily began.

“Is he not the famous journalist?” Afia cut in.

“Yes, that's the guy I'm talking about,” Emily replied. “He's also looking for a wife and he asked me the other day when we were chatting to find him one, since he's unable to look for genuine ‘marriage material’, as he had earlier put it.”

“Wow!” Afia squealed with delight. “I knew when I saw you this morning that something special was coming my way. I just knew it and, baby girl if you had resisted me, I would definitely have carried you on my head to this house. So, when are you doing the job at hand? When am I seeing him? Or maybe I should rather put it this way; when are you introducing us to each other?” Afia asked, very excited.

Emily laughed again. “Well, he's one of the reasons my phone is off,” Emily explained and, later, compelled by Afia, she told Afia about Stephen and Nana Ama, and all that went on that night when Nana Ama visited the Adams household.

“Look,” Afia began, “there is a missing link in your story; something doesn't sound right to me. I suspect that your Gloria Adams is on a sinister mission and I think I must find Stephen wherever he is and get all the facts. You are not going to stop me, girl,” she added when Emily began to object. “I'm going to find Stephen and get to the bottom of this matter, whether you like it or not.”

Afia looked very determined and Emily decided to let her go ahead with her plan if that would make the beautiful, young bank manager happy and also keep her somewhat busy.

“Don't forget to tell Bobby you have found the lady he's been looking for all this while,” Afia reminded Emily and they had both laughed when she drove the young girl back to the library later in the day. It had been a long time since Emily laughed so heartily and she felt cheered up.

Afia was very beautiful, well educated and affable. Those were some of the qualities Bobby had mentioned he was looking for in his Miss Right and Afia answered to all those qualities and even more than he asked for; she took her Christian faith very seriously.

“'I've never ceased to pray about marriage,” Afia had confided. “If I were merely looking for some fun, I would have had men by the dozen, but I don't want to mess around. God expects chastity from all His followers so I have been waiting on Him for so many years to send the right guy my way °

Later, when Emily got back to her room, she called Afia to thank her for her time.

"Baby girl, I should be the one thanking you!” Afia quickly objected. “Have you called Bobby yet?”

“No, I've not, and, to be honest with you, it will be very difficult for me to call him because it may open up a whole can of worms and I don’t feel up to it right now. However, for your sake, I think I'll try and do it,” Emily replied, pursing her lips with finality as she finished speaking.

“I understand what you mean very well and I appreciate the great sacrifice you are making on my behalf, darling. I would not forget it," Afia said.

Reluctantly, Emily dialed Bobby's number and hoped the line would be either busy or switched off. Unfortunately for her, it went through at the first attempt and the young man picked it up immediately.

“Emily, I need to meet with you. We seriously have to talk and it's very urgent! Why did you switch off your phone?”

Those were Bobby's first words when he recognized Emily's voice.

"Hmmm," Emily sighed deeply. That was exactly what she had been dreading all along.