Seventy-Three

Stunned, Chris takes a shuddering breath and looks at Effe with passionate adoration. Effe smiles at him as silent tears of relief fall down her face.

Junior looks at the judge with sudden expectation.

"Is my Daddy going to be freed?" Junior asks excitedly. "He's no longer going to prison, right?"

A very shaken-up judge looks at the boy dazedly.

"We've indeed committed a great crime against your father, little man!" Judge Ossom says, still sounding horrified and remorseful. "On behalf of this country, and on my own behalf, accept my apologies, Mr. Chris Bawa. You're a free man."

Curtis's face looks like death as he steps forward.

Effe is looking as if carved from stone. She cannot move, and she is trembling so fiercely. Her soul itself seems to be torn from her chest as she looks at Chris with eyes filled with pain and love. She takes a faltering step towards him, and her face is a complete picture of a shattered soul, of relief, of indescribable love, of life.

"Chris-Love…"

Up in the stands, a stunned Afful looks at a totally shattered Steve.

"You just lost her, bro," Afful says dazedly.

Chris is looking down at Junior with a face filled with love.

"Inspector, arrest Miss Barbara Brooks," the judge orders with disgust. "Tomorrow we'll let expert doctors do an evaluation on her."

Curtis moves forward, trying to get to Barbara.

Effe touches Chris' chest.

And that is when Barbara goes completely berserk! She screams and rushes forward, shoving Effe back so violently that Effe falls heavily.

"Keep away from him! Keep away from Chris, you slut!" Barbara screams shrilly. "He is mine! He is all mine! Keep your dirty hands from him!"

Curtis grabs Barbara's hand, trying to handcuff her.

Barbara hits Curtis in the jaw so hard that the policeman begins to fall, and that is when Barbara reaches out and draws out Curtis's police pistol.

Everything is happening so fast!

Effe is up on her feet, angrily turning towards Barbara. Barbara draws back the hammer of the gun and swings it towards Effe.

Suddenly, Effe finds herself staring at the hole in the barrel of the gun.

Chris screams and moves forward, hitting Barbara with his shoulder so that her gun hand jerks sideways as she fires, and the bullet strikes a cast iron leg of the judge's bench, ricochets off and passes cleanly through Junior's chest!

Barbara is like a lioness. She regains her footing and aims the gun at Effe again.

There are screams everywhere!

People are beginning to stampede towards the door.

Ira is screaming, Judge Ossom is screaming!

And Junior slowly sinks to the floor as blood courses down his body. Effe is frozen, knowing that death is just a second away. She hasn't noticed that Junior has been hit. Chris has not noticed either that the first bullet has hit Junior.

Chris sees that his momentum has carried him towards Effe, and that he is too far away from Barbara to disarm her, and he cannot even get enough leverage to twist for a turning kick. Without thinking, without hesitating, Chris flings himself at Effe as Barbara fires again.

The bullet meant for Effe smashes through Chris' back, just below his left shoulder blade, and then passes through the left side of his skull. He smashes into Effe, sending both of them down. He rolls off Effe painfully, and falls flat on his back, and remains still as blood pours out of his wounds.

Barbara drops the gun, her face filled with horror and fear.

She drops to her knees; her face crumbling as great tears fall down her face.

"Oh, Chris! Oh, my love! What have I done? I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Barbara whimpers.

"JUNIOR!" Ira screams.

Effe has cradled Chris in her laps, and her hot tears fall on his still face as his blood pumps all over her, and her heart tears apart, and she is in an anguish she has never ever felt before.

Ira's scream makes her look up, and she sees Junior inert on the floor… and Effe screams and screams and screams.

"Oh, no! Chris, my love! Oh, no!" Barbara weeps pathetically.

Buabasah is looking on, aghast, ashamed and absolutely shattered.

"Jeeeeesus, this girl is a damn witch!" Buabasah says with horror.

He steps forward and delivers such a terrible left hook to Barbara's jaw that Barbara drops to the floor like a sack, losing consciousness immediately. Effe still screams and screams!

Ira and Rupert are on their knees. Ira pushes Effe aside and attends to Chris whilst Rupert attends to Junior. The members of the jury are all standing, looking on with abject misery.

Perhaps, the worst affected is Judge Annor Ossom. He stands silently, shuddering under the crushing weight of his guilt.

Indeed, it is a most horrible turn of events!

***

The news is all over, and people tune in to television stations to get updates.

The late afternoon edition of the news on national television draws a lot of audience.

"The Chris Bawa rape trial came to a dramatic conclusion this morning at the Accra High Court. It has left many wondering about our justice system and questioning whether sometimes the wrong people end up in jail. Our Legal Reporter, Ledi Pedi, reports," the newscaster says solemnly.

The picture changes to the chaotic scenes at the High Court as an ambulance is seen speeding off with a great crowd staring after it.

The face of Mr. Ledi Pedi appears on the screen.

"That is the ambulance rushing Mr. Chris Bawa and his heroic eight-year-old son, Chris Bawa Junior, to the hospital, ending a case that has left a sour taste in the mouth of many a Ghanaian. It would be recalled that Mr. Chris Bawa, owner of the latest restaurant, JUNIOR'S, and current Grandmaster Champion of GojuFist, was accused of brutally raping Miss Barbara Brooks, a prisons officer. Mr. Bawa, who also served a prison term for various crimes but was released on a Presidential Pardon after serving half of his ten-year term, could not get any lawyer to represent him because all the lawyers he approached refused to take the case. In the end, Mr. Ben Buabasah, a new lawyer at the Attorney-General's office, was appointed to defend him. The prosecution was led by Mr. Jeff Atakora after Lead Counsel, Miss Effe Kedem, the ex-wife of Mr. Bawa and whose appointment gave rise to many heated arguments over the ethical aspect of her representation, pulled out at the last minute. Mr. Bawa was found guilty and sentenced to the full twenty-five years stipulated under the Criminal Offences Act on rape, just as many Ghanaians were expecting. But, in a dramatic turn of events, young Chris Junior showed up with his mother and proved that, much to the horror of everybody, Miss Barbara Brooks suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder, D.I.D, previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder, MPD, and that this condition made her lie about the whole incident and that the horrendous wounds on her body attributed to Mr. Bawa were in fact, inflicted by herself. She ended up taking a police officer's gun and fatally wounding Mr. Bawa and his son in a shocking attack inside the courthouse. With me is Doctor Joe Dawson to give more insight on this dreadful condition," reports.

The camera angle pans to show a tall, beefy man in spectacles. He has a round beard and sharp bright eyes.

"Welcome to GTV NEWS, Doctor Dawson. We all witnessed the dramatic turn of events today. Can you please shed a little light on this D.I.D condition Miss Brooks is purportedly suffering from?" Ledi asks.

"Well, Dissociative Identity Disorder is a mental condition characterized by at least two distinct dissociated personalities in a person that alternatively show in a person's behavior," Doctor Dawson replies. "So, the person can portray two or more different persons. Today he might behave as this person, and then tomorrow he can behave like another person."

"Interesting, and at the same time baffling. So, does such a person know that he or she portrays different entities?"

"In most cases, no. You heard that the prosecuting lawyer said Miss Brooks was interviewed using a lie detector test, and she passed it. That is because whatever the dominant personality is, at any particular time, she is wholly convinced of whatever she is saying, even if it is a blatant lie. Now, from what happened in court today, I can only make an educated guess which can be confirmed or otherwise by a thorough psychological test on Miss Brooks. Apparently, in her case, there are two personalities living inside her. One is Barbara, and the other is Babs. I'm convinced Miss Brooks was sexually abused by her father when she was a child. To protect herself from this traumatic experience, her mind warped and created Barbara and Babs. Barbara sees herself as pure, unblemished, but Babs was the one who was raped and traumatized, and so she switches between these two personalities…."