Jason fiddled in this pocket as his cell phone rang. He checked the caller I.D and it said it was an unknown number so he knew it had to be Araba.
“Hello?” he shouted down the line.
There was silence. This was definitely a call from Ghana.
“Hello, Hello?”
“Yes, hello Jay-son,” shouted Araba
“How are you my boo?” laughed Jason. He’d been gone now into its second week.
“I’m fine thank you. How is your brother?”
“Can you believe it – when I arrived, he was doing poorly. I actually thought he might die before my eyes but this week, he’s not only opened his eyes, he’s chatting with us all. I tell you, it’s a miracle!”
He could hear Araba clapping.
“I am so happy to hear that Jay-son. It is sad when you lose a loved one so I pray that your brother will continue to get better and stay with us longer.”
“Thank you Araba.”
There was a slight silence.
“Araba? Do you miss me?”
“What kind of question is that Jay-son? Of course I miss you. Every part of me misses you but don’t rush back. There are times like this when you need to be around family. Listen, I have decided to go back to school…to get my secondary school certificate.”
“Excellent! Wow – I’m so proud of you – I’ll pay for it!”
“No no no…you don’t have to. Remember I work? Please let me do this for myself okay?”
“Understood. Since Philip is doing so well, I will be back home this weekend so can you make me some banku and okra stew?”
Araba laughed.
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight, For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.”
Jason continued:
“I love thee to the level of everyday's, Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.”
They both laughed. He was smitten and he knew it and the sooner he got back, the better. They bid each other farewell and he hung up the call. Staring out of the living room window, he smelled the scent that had assaulted him the first night of his drunkenness, when a vision in white had overpowered him. He was still clueless as to what had happened and chalked it up to a very oversensitive imagination. As a child, his mother had always said he was a liar!
Swinging around all of a sudden, he found Sarah standing in the hallway watching him.
“Oh hi Sarah.”
“Hi Jay – is everything okay?”
“Yes, that was my girlfriend…Araba.”
“Girlfriend? You have a girlfriend?”
“Well yah, I guess I’m keeping it in the family. She’s Ghanaian and a really nice girl and I think if my luck holds, I will probably ask her to marry me…officially.”
Sarah looked like she was about to choke on words that she couldn’t get out. Luckily for her, Margaret swept into the room and held Sarah to stop her from keeling over.
“How wonderful Jay-son. You must introduce her to me when I get back to Ghana,” Margaret added with clenched teeth.
“Hey bro!!!” Jason shouted as he saw Philip make his way gently down the stairs. He had put on a few pounds, enough to give him the energy to move by himself. All three stared at him and Jason began to clap. The two ladies clapped along and hugged Philip while Jason got the comfy armchair ready for him.
“I cannot believe you are up and about bruv!”
“Neither can I Jay, neither can I.” He reached over to Sarah and held her close, smelling her trademark Anais Anais. He was beginning to feel alive again. Must be Margaret’s prayers. Or her soup. Or her bible reading. Something had changed when Margaret came to their home and he was ready to give her a lot of credit for his energized self.
“I feel so much better now – what did you do to me Margaret?”
Margaret laughed. Sarah looked from her husband to her mother, trying not to believe that the herb they’d mixed in Philip’s food these past two weeks had had anything to do with his apparent recovery. Onyame ashera so? Not possible. That was the concoction every priest on a Ghanaian bus tried to sell to his unsuspecting victims, assuring them by its very name that God had blessed it. Could it possibly have worked?
The room was filled with bittersweet warmth as Philip basked in the glow of his family. His brother had managed to turn a one week visit into a three week vacation, his wife was glowing with joy at his unexplained recovery and his ‘I-can-fix-all-things” mother-in-law seemed to have fixed him. All was clearly all right with the world.
“Jay, I heard something about an Araba…you got a girl already? Hope she’s not pregnant…hahahahah”
Sarah almost choked on her smile. Margaret held her back to stop her from keeling over as the two women smiled at Philip’s apparently innocent question. As Margaret shuffled Sarah towards the kitchen, Sarah asked:
“Mother – does that thing really work?”
Margaret cleared her throat guiltily.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s…what do you call it again…placebo?”
“Mother!”
Sarah playfully shoved Margaret aside, smiling but feeling like Margaret was pulling her leg.
“Seriously mother – what do you know?”
“Surprisingly nothing Sarah. For the first time, Margaret Ankrah has no clue what she is doing.”