ON OUR WAY TO THE BIG CITY

It is ten in the morning and the bus which is suppose to leave at nine is still around with every passenger on board but the driver of the Tata bus. The passengers have lost patient and start to complain about the poor service the STC provides of late. At half past ten the bald headed driver with his protruding stomach finally comes. Fifteen minutes after the furious passengers poured their anger on him we are onthe Agate-Accra Highway.

I can’t wait to reach the big city since this will be my first time there, at the age of twelve. The excitement darts through my body like a locust jumping from one grass blade to another grass blade. I keep standing to catch a glimpse of the speeding cocoa trees we recently read about in school and sitting down heavily unto my mother’s lap as if am falling into a sofa. But Elorm, why don’t you settle down?! You will even make me worn out. Now see…’’ She points at the sea blue sash of her kente. Its tassel is dangling on the floor soaked with the water which I dropped on the floor. You see how you have dirtied my slit? You know kente is hard to clean. I looked at her attire covered in bright sea blue, green and violet. Dzangu bought it for her last kente festival. It is the finest among her attires that is why she chose to wear it for the journey to the big city. Sorry Mama! I sit cautiously as if a butterfly perching on a flower.

The bus stops at Adomi and a stream of women carrying baskets of agadza race towards the bus and covering the windows. My mother bought ten fingers for ten thousand cedis. They are crusted brown in some places but yellow and soft. As my mother hands me one, the aroma fills my nostrils. I open my mouth to sink my teeth through it but the agadza disappears, I turn to ask my mother about it but I stop because she is not there anymore. Yet, I am on the bus.
I look at my feet and they have grown so long, and my trousers is longer. I touch my chin and it is rough with beard.

Ellie! Ellie! … its Nusinyo’s sweet voice, but she sounds far off… I let her voice get carried away by the swish of the speeding wind. I still have to find my mother… I follow her through the narrow corridor of the bus and yell out to her but she will not stop. I continue to follow her until all the faces on the bus alloy into smooth shadiness. But her bright kente creates shining path to keep me going till I reach her and pull at it. When she turns, she is as still as a rock and I heard the village moaners wail, ‘’ Woowe, Woowe’’. I know there’s not one breath left in her.
‘’Maama Maama’’

‘’Ellie Ellie! Wake up! its just a nightmare. I open my eyes and Nusinyo is gazing at me. You are dreaming, she says. She tickles my ears and says Good morning, love! She heard me whimpering like a puppy in agony. I turn I away from her because I don’t want her to see the fear in my eyes. But she snuggles close to me so I have no choice than to kiss her.