ADOLEY

The call

Fiifi had a cell phone.

The bucket ran off the little steep.

"Kwame?" Adoley asked and watched a few other girls stare at her with eyes of jealousy.

She took the phone.

"Hey Bambi..." it was his voice.
"Hello?"
"My Bambi" he had to call again.

"I'm pregnant" Adoley announced tearfully.

"I know, I know" Kwame's voice was so calm.

"You know?" Adoley whispered and stood shocked.

"Listen to me I'll come to the village by Saturday. My mother does not have to know. I'm coming for you"
Kwame assured her on the other end of the phone.

What did he mean by he was coming?
Adoley sat by her bed in the hut and for a moment in all this while; smiled at Kwame's words and touched her tummy. She had always wanted to be a dancer.
She knew this would delay her dream. Why did Kwame's good news had to delay all this while. She was so full of contentment.

She missed him.
"I want to kiss your necklines" kwame held her by the waist.
She ducked, as though she didn't want him to.
"Bad boy" she placed her hands on his lips.
She swam in her pool of sexual imaginations.

It felt so great to have heard from him.

"Adoley!"

All her fantasies came to a stop!

It was always her name, under the roof of this old woman's house.

"How many Adoley's are in this house? That I have to keep calling and calling!"

"Sisi, I heard it once!"
"I have no time to argue. You have visitors" Sisi offered a chair to her amongst four men. One smiling broadly.

"Adoley, is here my elder" Sisi smiled back to an old man amongst them.

"Oh look at such beauty!" One of them, young,in black suit praised her.

Adoley frowned. She didn't know any of them.

"I told you I'm the best to find you a beautiful village wife" another in a blue blouse added.

Adoley was so bewildered. What was all that supposed to mean.
Adoley pinched her grandmother to know why she had to be there.
Sisi shoved off her hand.
"I'll prepare her in time for this beautiful ceremony" Sisi laughed with them, "greet my in-laws. Go, go! greet him" she pushed Adoley towards the one in suits.
He looked like he came from the sky. His skin was very fresh and fair not like the ones that strive from dawn to dusk in the Ghanaian burning sun.

"Our UK burger, such a handsome one. Oh what a match you both make!" One old man laughed

"I agree" another old man laughed.

It seemed like a joke.
She watched Sisi accept some drinks in her name and a big envelope supposedly containing money.

"I am a pregnant girl!" Adoley thought she screamed, "I'm pregnant! You don't know" she was bewildered.

"Love does not matter about these things my dear, love does not" the man who stood up giggled foolishly and tried to pat her.

Adoley darted. She watched Sisi accompany them to their car that was parked in the compound.

"Sisi! Sisi!" Adoley ran after her grandmother when she came back into the compound.
"Sisi what is the meaning of all this ah" she cried, "I'm not marrying anyone oo"

"Help me pack all these things and stop shouting" the old woman bent down to collect all the gifts and groceries that had been brought to them.

"Sisi, I know you're tired of me!" She cried, "take me to my mother!"

Sisi stopped. She dropped the sack of sultana rice. Her face with anger and fear and disgust at a time.
Adoley knew why.

"Yes! My bad mother! I'd prefer her than to get me married off!" Adoley sobbed.

"You break me! Aahh" Sisi say on the ground and began to wail, "this so many years and you're still so ungrateful!"

"Sisi take me to my mother!" Adoley sniffed.

"Such nonsense! My death will be on your head! Adoley! I will die and you will be the cause of it!" Sisi shouted with anger.

Adoley stepped back. She knew the words that were coming.  People were walking into the house for gossip.

"She asks me to take her to her dead mother! Her ghost of a mother! After she left me for you to care in this world! I do my best for you and you ask of her! Adoley I am not dead yet. Go and raise her from the grave!!" Sisi continued cursing her.

"Oh Sisi"
"No Sisi"
Onlookers begged her to rise from dirtying herself.

Adoley took to her heels in tears. What a life!