GHANA MAN BLUES 4

Esiaba and Fiifi rush off to Naa and Nii’s home, and Lanre is faced with the question of what to do with his assistant Kofi Wilson. Missed out on Episode 3? Here is a recap on ghblessed.blogspot.com/2016/09/ghana-man-blues.html?m=1
The Blues go on with Episode 4:

EPISODE 4
The hall phone had rung about four times already, and Naa Aku was reluctant to pick it up. She had tried to be strong since her miscarriage a few weeks ago, and even though she and Nii had tried to keep it under wraps, Esiaba and Fiifi had ended up finding out, and had left their home not too long ago. She wiped her hands dry and rushed to grab the phone before it stopped ringing.
“Naa, it’s me…is my son there?”
Naa breathed a silent prayer for patience before answering. It was her domineering mother-in-law again. Ever since she and Nii got married, Naa had seen a new side of her which reminded her of the movie ‘Monster-in-Law’. What irritated her most was this woman’s incessant questions about when she was going to give her son a child. 
“Hey Naa, are you not the one I’m talking to?” Mrs. Jones Snr. demanded. 
“Sorry Ma, please Nii is not around.”
“Ah but why didn’t you answer me the first time?”
“I’m sorry Ma”, Naa quickly apologized before the tension escalated any further.
“Hmm. Anyway, I want to come and see the two of you tomorrow.” Mrs. Jones Snr. continued.
“Oh I’m afraid that won’t be possible Ma. Nii and I have an engagement tomorrow God willing, that will keep us away the whole day.” Naa quickly lied.
“Nii and I will not be at home”, Mrs. Jones Snr. mimicked. “You are hardly at home. How do you expect to be a Proverbs 31 woman eh?”
Before Mrs. Jones Snr. could carry on with her tirade any further, the line disconnected. 
“Thank God for Ghanaian networks this time!” she sighed in relief, walking back to the kitchen. Just then, the phone rang again.
“Hel…”, Naa was interrupted before she could complete her greeting.
“Ei so you decided to end our conversation like that eh!...”

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Lanre had just asked Nana Yaa a big favor which she did not feel too comfortable with. She had decided to channel her hard-earned Law degree into defending those who had no one to speak for them. Even though that option did not pay much, she enjoyed it thoroughly and had added private investigation to her list of hobbies, so she could have more ground to defend her clients on. Her new task, thanks to Lanre, was to frequently visit his office in an attempt to find out just how true some developing allegations against his young employee, Kofi Wilson, were.
“I never really trusted that guy anyway”, she thought out loud, before realizing just how judgmental she sounded. She chided herself, picked up her bag and headed to the National Employment Allocation Scheme (N.E.A.S.) office.

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Esiaba peeked out her kitchen window, trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on next door. A loud commotion had been going on for the past fifteen minutes, and she could not hold her curiosity back any longer.
“Fiifi, come with me. Something is definitely wrong”, Esiaba said, obviously concerned.
“Ei Madam! Always ready for action!” Fiifi teased in response, as Esiaba pulled his arm and led him out of their home.
Just before they got to their neighbor’s gate and could knock, a tall, well-built man yanked the gate open, storming out of the house and narrowly missing Esiaba and Fiifi. They exchanged a look before Esiaba took a tentative step toward their neighbor, a young woman who was clutching a little girl protectively. They were both crying.
“Hello”, Esiaba said hesitantly. “We are the Danquahs”, she continued, glancing quickly at Fiifi who stood silently behind her.
“We couldn’t help but hear all the commotion going on, and just wanted to see if everything is alright. We live next door.”
“Thank you, but everything is fine”, the lady responded.
“I don’t believe you but well…just know we, or at least I, will be back again!” Esiaba said firmly, and left after Fiifi encouraged her to let it go……

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“This cannot be happening again”, Dede thought to herself as she carried her visibly shaken Safoa back into the hall.
 Her ex-husband had tried to reach her for several days, and to her surprise, had burst into her compound after failing to reach her.
“I want custody of Safoa”, he had said unceremoniously.
“You want what? Where were you after the divorce? You just left her with me and now..”, before Dede could finish, Kojo Afriyie, or Something Different (S.D.) as she secretly called him, had given her a heavy slap. Too shocked to react, she was about to get back up when her daughter ran out to ‘come to her rescue’. Her neighbors had appeared simultaneously, causing Kojo to leave to her relief.
“That coward…”, Dede sobbed after she had put Safoa to bed…..

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*Naa is having a tough time balancing her own grief with her domineering mother-in-law. What are some of the situations, and people that have tried our patience, and how have we dealt with them?
*Esiaba and Fiifi, though seeming a bit nosy, showed genuine concern for their neighbor Dede. Is that element of neighborliness still present in our society today? When was the last time we just ‘checked on’ someone?
*Are there any effective systems in place to deal with abusers like Dede’s ex-husband? If yes, have you had any experience of how effective these systems were?

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