Sixty-Three

Effe is ushered into the dim interior of the cold room.

The room is divided into five booths. There are high-backed chairs in front of each booth, and on the little metallic protrusion in front of the booth is a telephone receiver. The kind-faced policeman who is with Effe walks forward and pulls one of the chairs back, and motions to Effe to sit down.

"Please have a seat, madam," the cop says kindly.

Trembling with the depths of her acute distress, Effe sits down. A glass partition allows her to see into the other room. A door at the far end of the room beyond the partition opens, and Chris comes in.

His hands are handcuffed behind him.

Following him are three huge policemen.

His handsome face is still a little bit swollen from the deep scratches Barbara has inflicted on him. Effe sees that his scars are indeed very deep. He walks forward slowly and sits down. One of the policemen steps forward and puts a key into a hole in the handcuffs, and unlocks it.

The other two cops are a little bit behind, and their guns are drawn.

Effe and Chris stare at each other. Effe is in a pain that is as terrible as it is physical, threatening to tear her heart apart. In his eyes is a look of resignation, a look of defeat, a look of hopelessness.

She fights back her tears, but still she feels a trail of tears sizzling down her cheeks, hot and filled with the acid pain from her soul.

She picks up the receiver.

He looks at her for a moment, and then he also picks up the receiver at his end.

"Did you make love to Barbara?" she asks, and there is great pain in her heart now.

Chris sees how hurt she is, and for a moment he can barely look at her, but he speaks softly.

"Yes, Effe, I did," he says softly.

Her mouth falls open, and she is instantly consumed with a shattering pain that she cannot control. When she speaks it is with the voice of a woman hurt beyond the realms of the mind.

"I loved you, Chris Bawa. Five years ago, I saw you making love to my friend, my bridesmaid. I had every reason to find myself a man and live my life. For five years I waited, without giving my body to any man. Even when you signed the divorce papers, I still waited, because deep down I knew there was only one man for me, and you were that man," Effe says, shattered. "And after five years, you go ahead and make love to Barbara! I was ready to forgive everything, to love you, to stay with you, to go through hell for you. I sacrificed everything to love you, to respect you, to walk hand in hand with you. And what do you do? You did what you do best! You went right ahead and made love to a woman who accused you of rape! I'm hurt! I am jealous! I am in the deepest pain of my life. You had it all! Our life was complete! Junior fought for you, lived for you, and now you're going to simply hurt that little boy again, like you've hurt me again. Mr. Chris Bawa, oh, Chris! You should just have kicked Barbara out! Now look, you are back again in the arms of trouble! Why, Chris? In the name of our dear Lord, why, Chris, why?"

Chris looks at her. He feels her pain, because he is in even more pain.

He has hurt her, yes, but God knows he is hurt more.

He wants to ask her, to scream at her, to know if Junior is indeed the product of some test tube, a son created from reproduction substances from Ira and that damn Steve! But he is afraid. He cannot ask. He does not want to know.

He is in trouble, yes, but he wants peace. He will not speak.

No one wants him now. Prison will be great. He will have his peace to fight again. He will live again, but right now he doesn't want to know, because knowing will stop his breath, and knowing will break his heart so that he cannot breathe again.

"The Public Prosecutor asked me to represent the State in the case, Chris. The Judge, the Jury, the damn country are all against you. You will get a maximum sentence, at least not less than twenty-five years, Chris. But give me something to hold on to. I questioned Barbara with a lie detector equipment, and everything she said came out as the truth. But I'm asking you now, Chris, give me something to hold on to. Tell me you didn't rape Barbara, tell me you didn't use cocaine, tell me she is a liar, and I swear I will drop the case and represent you, because I want you back. Tell me that, Chris. Tell me now! Otherwise if I go out of here I'm going to prosecute you, because I can't have Junior near a father who is a rapist, and who uses cocaine. When I leave here, and you're prosecuted, I'm going to take Steve and marry him. I don't love him. I'll never love him, but he loves me, and maybe that is enough. I'm going to do my best to forget you, Chris. But don't do this to me! Please, for the love of God, Chris, tell me you're innocent. Tell me you didn't do it! Tell me Barbara framed you, and I'll stay with you. Tell me that, Chris! Please, please pleeeeeaaase tell me that! Give me something, anything, Chris-Love!!! Tell me you're innocent!"

Chris looks at her, and slowly he drops his head, so that she does not see the tears in his eyes.

"What's the use, Effe, what's the use?" he says softly. "Maybe you and I are just not meant to be together."

He is trembling as he slowly puts the receiver down and stands up. He begins to walk away. Effe screams his name again and again, but he does not turn.

The policemen put the handcuffs on him again, and they march him out of the room. Effe, weeping uncontrollably, flees from the room.

Effe is a broken woman.

She hurls her handbag at her car as her tears throttle her.

One of the car's windows shatters. Effe knows she is losing her mind. The pain is too much, too acute, too murderous. She forces herself to breathe, to stop herself from going mad.

"It is over Chris. Finally. Forever. I'm going to move on from here. Goodbye, Chris. Goodbye, forever."

When Effe turns into the driveway to her father's East Legon house, she is not surprised to see the entrance to the house lined with so many reporters.

They have set up their equipment and vehicles and are loitering around with some making live transmissions.

She drives forward slowly, and suddenly they swarm around her car like ants drawn to sugar. She stops behind the huge silvery gates of her father's house, and instead of blowing her horn for the gate man to open the gates, she stops the car and gets out. Immediately camera flashes almost blind her, and microphones are thrust into her face by vociferous and hungry press people.

She looks at them passively, impassively, and ignores their questions.

She does not move, and she does not utter a word until it dawns on them that they cannot pressurize her into doing their bidding.

Slowly the noise dies down, and a few minutes later there is total silence.

"It is a bad period for my family, and the family of Mr. Chris Bawa. What he has done will be proven or otherwise in court. Yes, I've accepted the Public Prosecutor's offer to lead the prosecution against my ex-husband, and I'm going to do it to the best of my capabilities. The case goes to trial in a week, so if you will excuse me, I have a lot of work to do. Thank you," Effe says crisply.

They throw a barrage of questions at her, but she steps through the smaller gate, and it is shut behind her by the anxious gate man. Effe is dizzy. Her heart is pounding, and for a moment she feels the ground spinning, but she girds up her hatches and walks unsteadily towards the main entrance.

The door opens and Steve, dressed in jeans and a batakari, comes out to meet her.

Trembling, she falls into his arms, and he holds her close and murmurs into her ears.

"Sorry, my love. It's okay. Everything is going to be just fine," Steve says tenderly.

After a moment, she steps back from him and smiles bravely.

"Let's go inside, Steve. I have an announcement to make," Effe says unsteadily.

As they walk to the door Steve gives a secret smile. He has never been this happy. He knows that everything is just going to be alright. He has won. Chris Bawa is gone… forever.

Effe finds her parents and Ira and Junior in the living-room.

Junior races to her, and she can see from the look on his face that he has cried a lot, and that he is in great agony. She goes on her knees and hugs him tightly.

He breaks into tears immediately, and she forces herself to accept the pain of her son, and pray to God to give her the strength to go through the hard minutes she has to face right now.

"Mommyyyy! The police took Daddyyyy! I want Daddyyyy! I want to see Daddyyy! Please please please I really, really, really want to see Daddyyyyyy!" he cries, his young heart absolutely broken.

Effe puts him away gently from her and looks deep into his eyes, and she fights back her own tears as her heart beats with such pain for him.

"Listen, Junior, your Daddy did something really bad…" Effe begins.

"NO! DADDY WILL NOT GO TO PRISON! HE PROMISED ME! HE WILL NOT DO ANYTHING WRONG!" Junior screams shatteringly.

"Listen to me! He did something really bad! I'm very sorry, my son, for your pain," Effe says sharply. "I wish I can take it away, but I can't. I'm so sorry you have to go through this, but your Daddy is going back to jail, my son, and you have –"

"NO, NO, NO, NOOOOO!!! YOU'RE BEING REALLY, REALLY, REALLY MEAN TO DADDY! HE WON'T DO ANYTHING TO HURT ME!" Junior cuts in with a screaming voice.

"Goddamn it, Junior!" Effe shouts. "Shut up and listen –"

But Junior wrenches himself free from her and runs screaming into the rooms.