| Tempers Flare Up |
| By . | |
| Friday, 13 April 2007 | |
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Hardly had I taken Abena through the fake sickness course when the telephone buzzed again. I asked her to pick it. She was reluctant to do so but something moved her to agree to do so. "This is Abena, may I know who is calling?" I didn’t hear what the caller said but I didn’t need to worry myself to know who it was. "Why did you conspire with Baafuor to tutor me to lie?....Do I look like a liar? .... It is business and so what?.... Do you think sickness is a good thing to wish someone.... ?" I rushed to where she was and snatched the receiver from her. "You must be ashamed of yourself," I barked at her. "Madam, sorry, I don’t say you are a liar, neither do I wish officer to fall sick......but ...." "Don’t worry Mamoud." I cut him short before he could finish apologising to Abena. "O, Officer, Madam is annoyed with me." "Leave her alone. I can get anybody to pose as my secretary to speak to my distant client. So rest assured. The deal is sealed." I assured him. Turning to Abena, I charged " what nonsense is this? If you knew you wouldn’t do it, you could have told me so when I told you what my friends wanted you to do and the matter would have ended there. "Why did you pretend to have agreed to the suggestion when in your usual peacock and mercurial temperament, you were burning with indignation inside you." "I waited for him to ring here so that I could tell him my piece of mind. What does he take me for, a liar?" She defended herself or rather she said something which he thought was an apt defence. "Do tell me, Abena Kwabena, if you haven’t lied before," I challenged her. "I haven’t lied before." "You do lie more than ten times a day. Gossiping is your trademark and gossip is nothing but a pack of lies about people. You and your friends have crucified dozens of your fellow women, the lies that have come out of your lips have destroyed other people’s marriages and disorganised families." I added more fuel to the borne fire. "Hei, Baafuor, are you saying all this to me?" She repeated the question three times over, demanding an answer from me. "Sorry Abena. It was the devil." "Which of the devils let you accuse me with the crime that I haven’t committed? Tell me." "The red devil who descended upon you and induced you to talk harshly to someone who is helping to give me a case that will fetch me a comfortable fee, the same devil let me vent my spleen on you and tell you what I told you. I said it in passing, I didn’t mean it. So forget it." "I won’t take that for an apology. It was a premeditated accusation so you have to prove the truth or falsity of what you said." "I can’t prove anything. I said it in retaliation to your uncouth behaviour to the gentleman who introduced the would be client to me.... And you know it yourself," I said. "You are lucky that you didn’t mention the name or names of my friends with whom I’m alleged to have destroyed the marriages and homes of married couples. If you had mentioned names, I would rush to tell them and you would see what they would do to you. Why couldn’t you mention any names? Afraid man. Yes, you were afraid to mention names, else you would smell burning pepper." I realised that I was still holding the receiver which meant that Mamoud was anxiously waiting for me to speak to him. "Mamoud... Mamoud .....Mamoud. Are you there?" There was no response. "Do you see what you have done? He is annoyed and has rung off. It’s likely he......" Beep! Beep! Beep! I quickly picked up the receiver. "Officer, I’m sorry that Madam is vexed." "Let us talk business. That is more important." "Good, so you will be able to meet our brother-friend-today?...." he wanted to know. "Why not?" I said. "We are expecting you, officer." |
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