CHORALE SANDERS

CHAPTER 20: MAMA

It had been two whole months and Kay had still not heard from Chorale. Every passing day, his heart broke and he was slowly losing hope that he’d ever find her. He had spoken to Caleb a week ago. He knew his best friend was still very occupied with the case involving the family in Kumasi and so he did not want to bother him with his own issues but last week, he couldn’t contain it anymore. He had to call Caleb to see if he had found out anything. After he left Ghana, he had been handling the case from the States.

Last week when they spoke, Caleb mentioned that he was making headway in the case. He said that he had got some information from a source that the guy, Mr. Wallace, was now hiding somewhere in North America but they still did not know the exact country. He also said they had found out that, he was using his real name now but he had done it smartly. There were no traces that he was ever in Ghana. And he had no records of ever being in any of the countries he had ran to, before going to North America.

That was not Kay’s concern now. All he wanted was to find his woman, and his baby.

Yes, his baby.

Chorale wouldn’t cheat on him so he had no cause to doubt that he was the father of her baby besides, he knew condoms could fail.

Every night, he dreamt of her. He blamed himself for everything. Now she was gone and he didn’t have any clue of where she could be.

Last month, he had visited his mother at her house in Accra, New Town. He and his siblings, having seen how much their mother had toiled to make them who they were presently, had never let her lack anything. One of Kay’s companies dealt in real estates and they had bought lands all over Accra. He moved her from their smaller house outside Accra and brought her to live in one of the estate houses. She had everything to make life very comfortable for her. She lived like the queen that she was.

Kirsten was an average heighted woman in her early sixties. It took Kay two hours to get to her house. He came because he had missed her and also because he knew that she was the only one who could help him deal with the insecurities he had allowed to mess up his relationship with Chorale.

She was in the kitchen, baking when he got there. He smiled to himself. She was just like Chorale, always wanting to do things for themselves. All the help she had at her disposal and still she did most of the work in the house by herself.

He cleared his throat and she turned to look in his direction. She opened her mouth in surprise, for she was not expecting him and run to hug him, he was much taller than her.

“My boy, I miss you so much”

“I miss you too, mom,” he said, hugging her back
She pulled out a seat for him to sit down and gave him some water to drink. Then, like he was expecting, she started scolding him. He knew all her lines by heart because any time he came around, she’d say the exact same things. He even recited them in his head while she spoke.

“Kay. Your hair, why is it so bushy? Are you so busy, you can’t even spare yourself thirty minutes to look presentable? And see, your eyes, see how tired they look! You’ve been overworking yourself, haven’t you....”

She paused but Kay didn’t notice. He had his eyes closed. He didn’t even realize he had started talking out loud, “….you’re not taking care of yourself, Kay. Every adult person must have at least eight hours of sleep. Did you not learn all that in school...”

He paused and covered his moth with his hand. Had he just said that aloud? He opened his eyes and turned his head slowly in his mother’s direction. “Wrong move, boy,” she removed her baking gloves and threw them at his head before he could even duck under the table.