Joel Adams- Please Don't Go.
In loving memory of my grandma Elizabeth and Dad Jonathan.🥺😊💕💕
Please don't go, Faye prayed in her dream that night as her mother stood at arm's reach from her on their patio smiling. Yet in that dream, she couldn't reach out to hold her, it was like she was out of reach. She woke up in tears that morning.
The funeral started at 8am Saturday morning at the Quansah's residence in the barracks. The military procession made the occasion even more sentimental with their amazing songs by the army trumpeters, those on ,. Zc,the trambone and those on the drums.
They were all garbed in their official regalia consisting of their red and white ...with their various swords strapped to their sides as they all lined up on either side of the coffin raising their swords above the body till each person on the opposite had his sword touching that of the other on the opposite side.
Her mother looked like an ethereal creature with her paled skin and shrunken body. She looked even smaller than she did when Faye had last seen her. The view shook her to the core and she exited the living room where everyone had gathered.
Mr Quansah was a wreck. He couldn't even look at her without breaking down in tears. Ladi held on to Julie who was weeping. It felt like de ja vu at that moment, it brought back memories of his mother's funeral. He had been so young, he cried so much that day that his head hurt for three nights.
Kweiba stood on the patio and watched Faye cry. There wasn't much she could do but at least being there meant something. Veronica hadn't lost a loved one before so seeing so many people mourning brought so much empathy into her eyes, she couldn't help but cry though she had never met Mrs Quansah. Ashanti couldn't hold back her tears, four months ago, she had been standing at her own father's funeral and it had been a tragic day, one she would never forget as a great and loving man was lowered down below the earth. That was the moment she had fully lost faith in God. If he really existed, why would he allow such a good person to die, yet again another good person was going to be lowered down today, why?
As if that wasn't enough, three of Faye's admirers were present after hearing about the news, Kwamena, Kevin from her class and Owen from her Junior high boarding school were all present. It was obvious so many people cared about Faye not only because they had history with her, but because she seemed to grow on people and it seemed she didn't really know that. She touched each of their hearts in varied ways and was one girl they could all reckon with, but they were all there for one reason- They couldn't watch Faye experience this alone, they had to be there for her.
Mr Quansah didn't want the children to go to the cemetery but they insisted they wanted to be there so he had one of their uncle's drive them towards the military cemetery since Mrs Quansah had been a veteran herself. Ladi drove the Manhattan girls.
" I feel so bad for Faye." Veronica wipes a stray tear, " I mean what will I do without my mother... what will life be like without my mother?"
" You guys should appreciate you have one to go home to, because trust me, no matter how annoying and sometimes weird they are, they still love you in a way no one on the earth can." Kweiba pats Veronica on the back and says, " I wish I had lived with my mom long enough before she passed away."
" She's right you know." Ladi agrees taking a turn unto the cemetery road.
It was a very sad depressing day, Faye refused to eat anything and just locked herself up in her room afterwards. Ladi told the girls to let her be, she needed some time to fully grasp what had just happened. Somewhere through five nightmares during the night, Faye got up and after tripping over at least four items, found her way into the guest room where her father was spending the night.
" You're awake?" He asked the moment the door creaked open.
Turns out Julie beat her to it, she was already in his bed, " Julie couldn't sleep either."
Julie was sound asleep in his arms, " Come here Kukua." He pats the open side of the bed to her and she climbed up embracing him.
" You're seeing her in your dreams aren't you?" He asked, " I know it's scary, even for me. But with both of you here, I think I'm going to be just fine. She left me with two beautiful daughters."
" And a great Dad." Faye grinned.
" Right, let's get some sleep." He sighs.
Faye didn't let go of him through out the night for fear he might also be a nightmare that would disappear when she awoke.
The next morning was hopeful since her father's youngest sister stayed behind to help with the girls. She made them breakfast, gave Julie a shower, something nobody but her father had ever done for her since she could remember. She got some activities for them to do and ask them to call their friends over the next day.
The twin cities, Sekondi and Takoradi arrived early the next morning, so did Ciarra who hadn't been able to make it since the beginning, Veronica, Ashanti, and Heather came too as well as Ladi Nylander and Lejandro.
The kids were fascinated by the white boy, Lejandro. Every one of them wanted to touch his hair and Sekondi kept staring at him until Lejandro asked, " What's up?"
" What's in your eyes?" She asked referring to his hazel eyes.
" Ashanti please answer this question for me." He pleads.
" He was born that way." Ashanti smiled at them.
" Really...why don't we have some?" Takoradi also asked.
" Ok, ok, enough with the questions." Truth, Faye's best friend who's school went on break the previous day sighs. She hadn't been able to attend the funeral since she was in school and she felt so bad for Faye and so sad about Mrs Quansah's demise. She tried very hard not to cry because she knew if she did, Faye will automatically follow.
" How are the two of you best friends again?" Kweiba asked them, there was a striking difference in character traits.
The two glanced at each other and turned to Kweiba.
Faye's Aunt, Emefa walked out of the house and watched them all.
" Stop standing around like that, it's very discouraging. Why don't you get something doing, don't any of you have any games in mind?" She called out to them, " Go on, start something!"
She went back inside where a few family relatives had gathered for a meeting. She didn't want Faye or Julie coming back inside. More of their friends were around, Heather came and so did Healenore.
" Okay, we need an outdoor game everyone can participate in, you guys are still kids, any ideas?" Lejandro asked Julie's friends.
" Soccer?" Takoradi hints.
" Not all of us know how to play soccer." Ashanti reminds them.
" Ampe." Kweiba suggests and Julie groans.
" Sek wins everytime because I suck at it." Julie whines and Sekondi laughed with pride.
" Okay, how about a game most of you haven't played before. Looks like the newest generation of kids lack the outdoor game spirit. I vote Heather gives us a new game and teaches us how to play." Healenore suggests.
Heather grinned, " Pilololoo." Only three of them knew that game, Ladi, Kweiba and Heather.
" Okay so this is how it goes, I get a thin stick or broom stick and break it into pieces according to our number, excluding one stick for whoever is going to be the master of the game." Heather beams, " I pick Ladi as Master. We'll all go into hiding at a particular place , no peeking. Then he'll hide all the sticks at one particular place and call out Pilololoo! Then everyone has to respond in Ga language' Yaafo Be mli.' Everytime he calls out Pilololoo, we all have to give that response while searching for the sticks. If you find it, you stealthily pick one so no one else sees where they are gathered then you give it to the game master. He will keep calling till everyone finds it. The last person to find the last stick becomes the game master again and has to hide it. Ready?"
The kids were so interested and nodded. True got the broom sticks and gave them to Ladi and all of them run to hide at the backyard while he remained outside in the driveway.
" Isn't this better than playing games on your iPad as a kid?" Healenore teased Ashanti while they were in hiding.
" Who said I ever had a gadget as a child?" Ashanti wondered.
" FYI most well to do parents don't introduce their children to devices, even if they manufactured it for sale, they do not test it out on their children." Heather whispered.
Within thirty seconds they heard the call and they all responded whiles Heather had a good laugh at their Ga accents. Everyone rushed out looking around for the sigh of the gathered sticks. They went around the driveway and around Mr Quansah's car.
Veronica was the first to spot the sticks in the rim of Mr Quansah's car tyres. She picked one stealthily and gave it to Ladi. They all noticed and became even more eager to find it. Ladi called out again and they all responded.
" What's Yaafo Be mli?" Julie asked Heather.
" It means no tears are involved. So if you lose or can't find it, you have no right to cry." Heather tells her.
Heather found it next and Julie was right next to her so she saw it. Soon everyone but Lejandro found it and he was just about throwing a tantrum like the baby he was.
" Remember..." Julie teases him, " Yaafo Be mli." Everyone burst out in laughter at him until he found it and had to lead the next game. He vowed to hide it at a very inconspicuous place so they'd all have a hard time finding it just like he did. They still found it anyway.
Emefa smiled from the kitchen doors as she watched the children play and laugh. At least today they had smiles on their faces.
" Next game." Ashanti calls out, " This time let the kids choose."
" Yaaay, let's play My Mother Bought Me Ice cream." Sekondi suggests ecstatically.
" Deal, what is it about, I hope it's not about searching for sticks." Lejandro rolls his eyes.
" No. It's like this." Julie spread out her right hand.
" Only five people can play this game. You'll each hold on to one of her fingers. Then she'll say,' My mother bought me Ice cream,' Then we'll all say ' And so what we have some.' She'll mention so many things her mother bought her until she says she bought me a box. Then you'll ask what was in the box. Only when she says it's a Tiger then you run. When she calls out for everyone to freeze, you have to freeze wherever you've reached. Then she has to ask you how many steps you want her to take next to capture anyone close to her. Then the game starts again with whoever was caught"
" I better sit out of this one." Heather reasons since she was still recovering.
It was a great day and Faye's Aunt agreed finally seeing her nieces happy. But evening soon came and everyone had to leave.
Ladi stayed behind with Faye as they played their first Fifa match together on Faye's playstation. Soon Julie wanted to join so they had to switch to Need for Speed where all three of them had to race alongside other cars to win. Julie and Faye had a trick they run on everyone who joined them for that game. They would disconnect the third person's controller halfway through the game without the person's notice then suddenly the person realises he's losing sorely. By the time he figures it out, they would have already won the game.
Ladi fell for it too and exclaimed after realizing he had been duped. Mr Quansah appeared in Faye's doorway and chuckled.
" She did it to you too?"
" My car couldn't move." Ladi complained.
" Why do you think I stopped playing with those two. They hate losing so they make sure to make you lose instead." Mr Quansah tells him.
" I'm going to get an evening snack, any of you want some?"
" Meeee!" Julie beams jumping to grab hold of her father's leg.
" Alright JulieMalone." Mr Quansah grins picking her up as they walked away.
" I call for a rematch." Ladi turned to Faye.
" Too late. I'm tired." She dumped the gamepad taking his hand in hers.
" That's not fair." Ladi complained as she dragged him towards her bed.
" Thanks for being here." Faye told him and he smiled for a few seconds
" I wanted the same thing when I lost my mom, the only person who really cared was Moro. Even my Dad was too busy to realize everything going on with me."
Faye grins cuddling into him. Something just popped up in her head but she was too petrified to say it, judging by the fact that she knew she wasn't going to see him in the next couple of years.
" Ladi?" She called.
" Hm?"
" When will you be leaving?"
" On Tuesday, why do you ask?" He wondered.
" Nothing." She mumbled.
By August, she might not even see him anymore since he'll be off to college. What was the next two years of highschool going to look like without Ladi by her side. Ever since she met him, so much had changed about her, mostly for the better. She begun to wonder what the future would look like for her without her mother.
Ashanti woke up the next morning to something feeling extra warm next to her. She opened her eyes and saw Bruno, her son. He was heating up. It was only 5am and Mrs McAdams was on her break. Ashanti had no idea what to do when a baby has a fever so quickly she dialled her doctors number.
Dr Ortega picked up on the third ring and asked her to come along with the boy to the hospital. She picked up his car seat, buckled him up in the backseat and hopped into her Santa Fe, driving out of the house and up the high street. She rushed into the children's block right next to the maternity ward and asked for Dr Ortega. He came out of a ward and walked over to her.
" Let's see." He murmurs as he walked towards a sideward laying him in a crib.
" What did he eat last night?"
" Baby food. The one you recommended."
" Has he been crying a lot?" Dr Ortega asked putting a wooden spatula in Bruno's mouth and he just started to cry.
" Yeah, a lot but I was assuming he had briefly forgotten me since I left for school." Ashanti explained.
" Ah! I see the problem here." Dr Ortega smiled, " He's teething."
" Really? I must be so dumb."
" Don't eat yourself up, a lot of the mother's here also don't know and they actually had the baby themselves." Dr Ortega informs her,
" Nurse Ama, please bring her a prescription for teething syrup."
He called to the nurse outside. She walked in as Ashanti picked Bruno up to try to stop his wailing.
" Here's the book, also you need to go check on Rebecca Asante, she's still not awake." The nurse tells him as he scribbled something on a sheet and tore it for her.
Ashanti knew that name...oh yeah from her class.
" Dr Ortega did you just say Rebecca Asante?" Ashanti asked then she realized how common that name sounded, it could be anyone.
" Do you know her? "
" Is she an older person- A teenager." Dr Ortega responded as Ashanti asked a question.
" Can I see her?"
" You know Rebecca Asante?"
" Yeah, we are in the same class at Nelson's. I forgot to tell you my grandma enrolled me in a public school."
" Follow me." Dr Ortega states animatedly. Finally he had found someone other than Louisa to help draw Rebecca out of a possible coma.
Ashanti left Bruno with the nurse and followed Dr Ortega.
He walked her to a ward on the maternity block and opened the door.
Ashanti wondered why they were in a maternity ward to see Rebecca.
" What happened to her?" Ashanti asked as she walked over to the seemingly lifeless body of the very energetic girl she knew. Her dark hair was sprawled all over the pillow and there was a dripping sound from the IV tubes.
" She had a baby, bled a bit and fell unconscious. I believe it is temporary so with the help of a few familiar voices, she'll snap out of it." Dr Ortega enunciates.
" Wait what? Rebecca has a baby?" Ashanti asked in sheer surprise.
Dr Ortega nodded.
" No way." Ashanti gasped suddenly beyond scared of the girl infront of her. She had literally spoken to Rebecca right before leaving school and she looked completely fine to her. She wasn't pregnant, but how is that possible?, " No way."
" I get why you'll be surprised, she's the most cunning and mischievous patient I've ever had. She carried a baby for five months before her aunt found out and she managed to fool your entire school too for the next couple of months."
Ashanti facepalmed. " Wow. I'm not going to believe this until I see the baby myself."
" She's in the nursery." He states as Ashanti walked out. He led her to the glass frames of the nursery where he pointed out a baby sleeping peacefully with a purple tag on her wrist that read 3am.
She was a spitting image of her mother, with a good head of dark curly baby hair just like Rebecca's. Ashanti was so surprised.
" Wow." Ashanti bemused, " Wow, I don't know what to say. "
She thought about how this was possible then she slowly connected the dots. Rebecca's sudden change of clothes from the school's uniform to her house dress, her constant mood swings, her dislike of some foods and perfumes. It all made sense, she was pregnant. Even her persistent snoozes while teaching was ongoing.
Come to think of it, Rebecca rarely moved around in class, she usually sat at one place throughout the day, sometimes she goes out for lunch with Zuriah, other days she'd stay back in the classroom.
That little baby was so cute and perfect in her white overalls and yellow blanket.
Did Zuriah know Rebecca had a baby? Ashanti wondered.
" I know a couple of people who will love to come around." Ashanti tells him and dialled Zuriah's line. It was now 6am in the morning.
She told Zuriah about the news and sent her the location of the hospital so she could come check up on her best friend. Ashanti had to get to the pharmacy for Bruno's syrup before heading back home for a shower.
" You shouldn't be driving, you know that right?" Dr Ortega asked her as she buckled Bruno into his seat.
" I do, but I can't help it. Also the number plate my Dad made for me doesn't allow the cops to stop me."
She was right, she had a Diplomat's number plate. That was the end to his questions.
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