CHORALE SANDERS

EPILOGUE IV: KAY'S POV

A week to his and Kayla's birthdays, Caleb came down for another assignment. They met up and he told him that he had made up his mind to propose marriage to Chorale now. How happy Caleb was for him! He was due to go back in a month but he said he would even ask for extension if the need be 'because it's not always that you get to help the Kay Sanders plan his wedding'. Kay slapped the back of his head.

The first thing he had to do was go and see her parents, obviously. So he waited, a while after the birthday party, then he went to see them in their house. Chorale had moved them to her house in Salt-pond for the meantime, because she and Valerie were making plans to renovate their old house for them.

When he got to the house, he pressed the bell and Agnes who was in the kitchen at the time, came out to welcome him. She was so happy to see him, she gave him a hug. She called Dwayne to come inside. He had also been working in the garden and was looking dirty so he excused himself, went to freshen up before joining them back downstairs.

Kay said his greetings and they responded. It was the Ghanaian way of doing things. He brought greetings from everybody to them, and then he went on to announce the reason for his visit.

"I'm here today because I've come to ask for Chorale's hand in marriage, sir."

A glint of happiness lit Dwayne's gaze, soon followed by glassy eyes. He extended his hand to Kay for a handshake. Kay took it and smiled at the older man who had become a father figure to him. Agnes had been quiet all along, a bit of confusion evident on her face. Kay was scared for a moment.

"Aggie, Is everything okay?" Dwayne asked her
She hesitated a while before speaking up, "I...I'm fine. It's just that I remember I had a conversation with Chorale about marriage and she told me point blank that she never wanted to marry." Kay's heart skipped a beat. Agnes continued, "I remember literally begging her to reconsider but she still stood her grounds and said she would never get married."

Dwayne was shocked. Kay just sat in the sofa, speechless. After a while, he found his voice and spoke up, "How long ago did you have this conversation, mum?"

"If my memory serves me right, that was the year her father retired from the service. So that's seven years ago."

Kay blinked. He did the calculation in his head and realized that, seven years ago was when he told her he didn't want to get married. He connected the dots and realized that she had only told her mother that so that when the time came and she was looking for someone to blame for her daughter's prolonged spinsterhood, she'd attack her and not him. He blinked again and this time, a tear drop followed it. He should've married this woman a long time ago.

He gathered the courage and told her parents that it was he who had not wanted to get married and that Chorale had said that to only get them off his back, unto hers. He went on to tell them the reason why he didn't want to get married at that time and how that had driven their daughter out of the country. He was truly sorry and said so.

Agnes processed the whole story and exclaimed, "Ah! I birthed an angel." She was wiping her face with her apron as she said, "Take care of her for us, Kay" her voice was low and cracking. Kay stood up from his seat and went to hug her tight. Chorale had gotten her 'smallness' from her. "I will, mummy."

Agnes served them lunch and they ate, amidst a lot of talking, about random issues, from economics to climate to football (Both Kay and Dwayne were Liverpool fanatics).

After they were done, Dwayne decided that he wanted to pull the young man's legs a little. Chorale had told them how protective of Kayla he was and he decided to pick on it.

"Kay," he called.

"Yes, dad,"

"You know in some years to come, it's going to be you sitting in my position while some young man comes to ask for Kayla's hand in marriage, right?" Dwayne teased.

Kay frowned. He hadn't thought of that. A boy was going date his daughter, probably stress her and then may even be having sex with his baby girl? No, no. He couldn't imagine that. He shut his eyes to let the memory go away. Dwayne and Agnes laughed hard at him till they couldn't laugh anymore. The topic was dropped and they went on to talk about other things, especially the wedding.

After about two hours, he said his goodbyes to them and started for Accra. On his way back, he kept thinking about what they said. He thought hard and an idea came to mind. Growing up, his sister was the only lady among the boys and because of that, boys hardly came around her till she was ready to marry. Maybe if Kayla had brothers too, he wouldn't have to be thinking so much about boys coming close to her. He knew what to do.


The next day, he called his mom and told her the good news. She was so excited she said she'd sponsor the reception. Then he met with Caleb and they planned how the proposal should go. At first, Caleb suggested that he proposed to her in Paris, but Kay thought about it and said no. His woman was a very simple girl. All he needed was to get the people that mattered to her to be present and then even if you took her to a small garden, she'd be more than pleased. So after thinking for hours, Kay came up with the idea of pretending to be sick, to get to her. Caleb also agreed to the foolish idea. (He called it foolish because when he heard her crying over his 'death' he felt his heart tear to pieces.)

He dedicated that whole week to sending invites and plane tickets to all her loved ones who lived abroad and making calls to those here in Ghana. He called his own friends and other relatives too to inform them. The night before the D-day, he called all the invitees on Zoom to demonstrate how things would go. He lied to Chorale that he had some office work to do. They were all supposed to arrive in the morning under the guise of being his friends coming to watch a football match. That was the only way he could keep her out of the forecourt of the house. She never came out when he had a match to watch with the boys. During the proposal, there'd be screens placed in various points behind the main hall for them to see what was going on and after everything, he'd call for them to come out. That was the plan

The day of the proposal

Everything was set and ready for the big day. He had come back from the office around 7 a.m. and was very tired but he could not afford to sleep. Kayla also had to be fed by him, if not she wouldn't eat. He had to do all that and make all the calls he had to, all the while, maintaining his composure.

He hadn't wanted her to cook. It would stress her out, but she always did that on every match day. Asking her to not cook would just raise her suspicions and he didn't want to risk it so he just let her.

After everyone had arrived and he wanted to put his plan into action, that was when she came downstairs and said she had to leave for an emergency. He was feeling nervous and anxious already and the more time wasted meant more anxiety but he had to let her go. Luckily, all the people understood and agreed to wait.

On her way back, she texted him that she was coming, it was something she always did. It was at that very instance that Caleb decided to change the plot and let him 'die' instead. He said something about seeing it somewhere and how nice and touching it had been. He too just accepted it because he was feeling under pressure.

Everybody could see and hear all the conversations that ensued between her and Caleb and the ones where she was talking to herself in the room. They all, including Kay, had tears in their eyes. Now he was regretting ever listening to his best friend.

Everything was going smoothly. Everyone was enjoying themselves and most importantly, Chorale was happy. After he got upstairs and put Kayla to sleep, he caught her eavesdropping on his conversation with Kayla and it amused him. Just then, the 'plan' he had, came to mind.

" I think Kayla may be feeling lonely." He said and she frowned, "I don't understand"

In one breath, he said, "Let's have another baby." To be honest, he was expecting the reaction he got from her. He laughed too, just to play along.

"Come on, Mr. Sanders, we have visitors waiting downstairs." She laughed and led the way to the dressing room to change into fresh clothes for the party that had just started.

He followed her and whispered to himself, "Tonight, we'll definitely make another baby."

THE END.