Dial episode 9

DIAL
.
Sequence 9
.
I was scared, for the very first time in my life.
I first made an inspection of all the locks, and found that they were locked from the inside, securely, and there wasn’t any forced entry.
So, first fear factor: Nana Bosomba had not broken into the room to have a devilish dinner with me.
I remembered the strange white door that had appeared behind his chair and he had disappeared through.
Second fear factor: the white pots were still in the room, with the remains of the food and the napkin, right down to my oil-smeared fingers; so the experience had been real.
I fought down the panic, and tried to see everything objectively.
Akos had told me what a powerful fetish priest her father was, and now I was seeing it for real. What she had said had been an understatement, of course, because what I was witnessing was more than powerful.
The man was terrible.
Thus, I looked at it objectively; yes, I had a problem, a really big scary problem.
There was a sure solution available: go to Wowo, marry a corpse, spend one night with the corpse in a room, and that would be that. And I had just one week to do it.
Question was, could I do it?
Answer was: no.
I just couldn’t do a thing like that.
So what next?
I had never been a religious person. I never bothered my head with Christian stuff, and frankly religion didn’t matter to me. But I had seen some of these things in local movies, which I watched occasionally, and I knew that ultimately, the only way to combat such evil effectively was to have God’s help.
I didn’t know God, but there were powerful men of God around. I was a millionaire, and money wasn’t a problem. So it was a simple analysis in the end. I would find a powerful man of God, give him some money, let him deal with this spiritual stuff, and then I would be free.
With the decision made I felt a little better.
I bunched up the stained bedsheets and took them to the living-room. I took the strange white pots, the napkin and the white envelope containing the necklace and ring, and dumped all of them on the bedsheets.
Next I tied all of them up in a bunch and carried it out of the room to the garage and dumped it there.
I then went back to the bedroom where Vida was just stirring.
I got clean sheets from her wardrobe and carefully made the bed again, and then I lifted her and put her on the bed. She stirred restlessly, her face furrowed with fear, and I held her for a while until she stopped fretting.
I went to the bathroom and took a cold shower without soap and sponge. I just stood under the spray and let it hose me down for a long time, and then I dried myself and returned to the bedroom.
Vida was awake, and her eyes were fixed on me with great panic in them.
“What is going on, Yao?” she asked, and the terror was cloaking her like a second skin. “I don’t understand! What’s this? At first I thought that maybe my husband had invoked some terrible spiritual curse on me, but then I saw that strange food on your fingers and on your lips! It has to do with you! That was why you were screaming in your sleep. What’s going on, Yao?”
“It’s my fault, Vida,” I said slowly.
Somehow, her terror was affecting me and driving my fear up to uncomfortable levels, and so I told her a loosely factual story about a disgruntled business partner who had threatened me with spiritual attacks.
She looked at me silently, and I knew that she had accepted my story, and somehow it had restored a bit of her sanity, and it was something she could live with.
“These things are real, Yao Biko,” she said tremulously. “You just don’t know how evil some people can be. You have to take it seriously and get help otherwise it will get worse.”
“Yeah, love, I’m beginning to see just how deadly it all is,” I said miserably.
“I know a very powerful man of God,” she said at length. “Apostle Jacob Williams, founder of the Pawa Yesu Fire Ministries. I can give you his card. He’s powerful, filled with the power of God. He can deliver you.”
“I’ll appreciate that very much, Vida,” I said with some relief.
She came close to me, and I held her tightly.
It was dawn now, and we had both been exposed to something really scary, and so we clung to each other for comfort. Eventually, her lips found mine, and we started kissing.
And then, soon enough, the passion reared again between us, and she turned me on my back gently and mounted me.
She didn’t say those silly words again to me, and we made slow passionate love that dawn.
She slept, but I didn’t.
I was scared to the very roots of my life.
In the morning, she wanted me to stay, but I wanted to leave. For one, my libido was suddenly gone, and I didn’t want to be with her. My panic had soared during the time we finished making love to the time I got up and dressed.
She gave me the complimentary card of Apostle Williams, and then we went to the garage. She took the bundle of bedsheets and the pots I had put there in the boot of the car.
When she drove out she deposited it in the huge trash bin outside her house, and then she took me to the terminal where I retrieved my car.
She looked at me with huge wet eyes, and then she hugged me and smiled sadly.
“Take care of yourself, Yao,” she whispered. “Please, go and see the man of God.”
I nodded, feeling so claustrophobic in her presence.
We parted ways, and as I drove towards Accra I found the fear creeping up on me again, and that was when I began to get angry.
So I met a girl, lied to her, bedded her!
And now an unfortunate thing had happened. Fine. In a way I was indirectly responsible, but that was no reason why that old man should seek to show me dark powers like what he did in Vida’s room.
Two could really play that game.
I took out the small card Vida had given me, and then I called Apostle Jacob Williams.
“My friend, you’re under supreme spiritual attack from a very dangerous being!” the man said as soon as he picked my call, and tears almost came to my ears with the shocking relief I felt.
“You already know my problem?” I whispered with gratitude.
He laughed gently.
“No, Mr. Yao Biko!” he said in a warm voice. “Vida called and informed me.”“Oh,” I said and wiped my eyes quickly.
So that was how he knew.
“I sense disappointment in your voice, Mr. Biko!” the man of God said in his warm voice again. “Don’t worry, Mr. Biko. The Lord we serve reveals-ah to redeem-ah! I say to you, the Deeevil is a liiiiar! Hogboshokolibabaaa! We are goina to shooow-ah the devil-ah the red card-ah! Come see me tomorrow mooorning-ah, and we’ll bind-ah the devil-ah that-ah doesn’t want you-aah to have peace mind-ah!”
Once again, his positivity relaxed me, and I promised to see him the following day.
I was happy and relieved when we finally ended the conversation.
Naturally, with the doom lifted, I began to breathe easier, and I began to get hungry. I stopped over at a cafeteria, locked my car doors with the remote, and went in for some sweet breakfast.
I took my time over it and enjoyed it.
Almost one hour later, I came out of the cafeteria and went to the car park. I used the remote to unlock the doors, and then I reached out and opened the door.
I froze.
The fear slammed up from my toes and roughed up my thighs, body chest and then became lodged in the pit of my throat. For one brief moment I almost collapsed at what I saw on the seat of the car!
It was a white clay bowl.
There was no food in it, only a white envelope that contained the necklace and the ring, exactly like the one Nana Bosomba had left for me!
I slammed the door shut and looked around me with terror on my face!
What was happening?
What had happened?
Had I forgotten to lock the car door with the remote and someone had played such a sickening trick on me?
But no, it wasn’t a trick!
I remembered that whilst eating I had been pressing the lock key repeatedly and faintly hearing my car responding!
No, it had been locked…but someone had entered and played a most foul trick on me!
I was sweating and couldn’t breathe!
I took slow, lethargic steps from the car as my heart thudded with fear.
Forcing calm over my body, I took out my phone and called Apostle Williams again. In very scared tones I told him of the horror that had happened.
“Oh, I knew it-ha! Oh, the devil-ah is a liar-ah! Yees, the devil-ah is a liaaaaar-ah!” he said in a crooning voice. “Hogbetso Hogbetso shabalilaa tolakotas! Hobbbabaaabaa! I sawa it-ah! It-a was-a reveal-a to me! Do not worry-a! Mr. Biko, be brave-a, put it-a on-a the flooor-a, and send-a it-a to me-a tomorrow! I will-a use it-a to destroy-a the curs-a on you-a!”
He reassured me that everything would be fine, and I believed him.
Back in the car I used a duster to lift the pot and put it on the floor of the car, in the backseat, and then I got in the car and continued driving.
An hour later I was in Accra.
I was relieved and a little happy.
Apostle Williams sounded so positive that he seemed to pass on some of the positivity to me, and I began to relax.
I stopped at an intersection, and the traffic light was showing red.
I was leaning over to change the song playing when I felt a tap on the window of the car, and I sat up slowly.
A little boy was standing there.
He wasn’t a Ghanaian. He was of the North African ascent, and he was holding his hand to his mouth, obviously begging for money.
I would have moved on like I normally did when beggars approached me, but suddenly it dawned on me that everyone needed a break at one point in time. We were all beggars in a way, anyway. Here I was, floundering in things way above my head and begging an Apostle to take care of my problems for me.
I reached into my back pocket and took out my wallet.
Feeling extremely generous, I extracted a fifty-cedis note from my wallet, wound down my window and then proffered the money to him with a smile on my face.
He made no attempt to take the money, and instead his eyes looked at me sadly.
“I don’t want your money,” he said softly.
I scowled darkly, my temper rushing to the fore.
“Then what do you want, idiot?” I said savagely. “Get the hell out of my sight! Why did you rattle me window anyway?”
“He can’t help you,” he said calmly.
I was in the process of pushing the knob that would wind up the power-window again, but I stopped and turned round to glare at the boy with sudden trepidation.
“What?” I asked numbly.
“He can’t help you,” he said, and his voice was dropping from the high-pitch tone of a little boy to the higher bass of an adult.
“Who can’t help me?” I asked hoarsely.
“The preacher man, Mr. Biko!” he said slowly, his voice seeming to echo all around me, making my headache soar. “He can’t help you in anyway. One week to marry Akos, Mr. Biko, one week. Don’t you misuse your time.”
And by the time he stopped speaking his voice had suddenly become that of Nana Bosomba!
I screeched loudly as he turned away suddenly and began to move away!
The traffic light changed to green, and cars began blowing their horns angrily behind me.
“Hey, come back here!” I cried in anguish.
The little boy stopped and looked at me over his shoulder.
And then I saw that his face, for a very brief moment, wasn’t the face of a little boy again.
It was the face of Nana Bosomba!
Same bushy hair, beard and moustache, same handsome lined face…same gentle smile!
And then it slowly changed back to the boy’s face!
The car behind me honked angrily, evidently frustrated that I was creeping along when the light was green and I needed to speed up.
I turned to face the road again, and I was trembling very violently, so badly that I indicated a right turn when I noticed a bus stop.
And when I glanced into my driving-mirror again I saw Akos of Wowo sitting in the back of my car, wearing a lovely red brassiere and sticking out her tongue at me.
“Oh, Yao,” she whispered lustfully. “Come and eat it, Baba!”
I screamed then.
Yes, I did.
I screamed.
Well, I almost smashed into the pedestrian stand at the bus stop, and I didn’t really know how I was able to stop the car and got out suddenly.
I rushed away from the car, and stood far away staring at it with my eyes popping out of my head.
The few people at the bus stop were staring at me with various looks of anxiety, confusion, fear and amusement.
A young man pushing a bicycle and eating a huge piece of bread pointed at my fly.
“Massa, ebe like your p***s dey leak!” he said and chuckled.
And when I looked down I saw that yes, I had leaked a bit of urine into my trousers.
Some of the people were laughing softly now.
“Ei, these sakawa boys eh!” a man leaning against the pedestrian stand said.
I locked the car with the remote, and then I began walking away.
A taxi was approaching, and I flagged it down and sat in.
As it moved away I turned and looked back…
Akos was now standing in the street watching me go.
She was now wearing a form of white beaded chain around her head. She was in a black brassiere now with blue, white, green and red beaded kind of design around her neck and falling down her breasts and belly, and she was looking after me sadly.
I wasn’t afraid, no.
I was terrified s**tless!
Tears slowly came into my eyes…yes, I was that horrified!
=====
To be continued