Seventy-Six

Effe comes out of Junior's bedroom.

Her face is heavy with the emotional pain she is going through. Her parents are in the living-room with Ira and Rupert. She turns to go to her bedroom, and that is when she sees Ira coming up the stairs.

Effe stares at her sister for a long time.

There is an unpleasant tension between them now, and although she has tried to break the ice, Ira just wouldn't let her near, and it is killing Effe.

"Dad wants you," Ira says curtly.

"Will be with him in a moment. I thought you left," Effe replies sadly.

Ira looks at her sister, and her eyes are not very friendly.

"I'm not going back home, Ef. I'm going to the hospital to check on Chris...and Junior."

A look of sheer pain crosses Effe's face as she leans against the balustrade and regards her sister.

"Rammy, please don't let us go down this road, I beg of you. Not at a time like this, please," Effe says in a small, miserable, lost voice.

Ira stops two steps below Effe, and she shakes her head sadly.

"You should watch Elaine's show," she says softly.

Effe shakes her head.

"No, she sickens me. I had an argument with her earlier today. I didn't want her to show anything that would make people hate Chris again," Effe says painfully.

"Well, you made her your sister. She was even closer to you than me, your twin sister. But guess what, it was just shown on the show that Chris wasn't driving the car that hit Sylvie Palmer. Jonathan Afful was in fact driving, and he was drunk," Elaine says.

Effe's face collapses further with shock. She is shattered, and she shakes her head dazedly.

"What?" Effe asks, stunned.

Ira turns away from her and begins to descend the stairs.

"It's still on TV, Ef, if you care to watch."

Trembling, gasping, dizzy, Effe rushes past her sister and goes to the living room where her parents and Rupert are staring at the television with absolute shock.

***

The Reverend Brand Bawa is leaning forward in his seat as he stares at the television.

His daughter, Diana, who is staying over with her husband and son, is also almost lost in the chair as she stares at the screen with her eyes almost popping out of her face. Her husband is on his feet, staring angrily at the television.

"Now this is some deep shit... oops, sorry, pastor! Can you believe this? Chris wasn't driving the car? Jesus!" Kwaku Dossah says with shock.

"Oh, dear sweet Jesus!" Diana whispers, shattered to her very core.

The reverend cannot speak.

He is just trembling with emotions so strong that he is immobilized.

"You should go and wake your Mom up, Di. I think she needs to see this," Kwaku Dossah says.

Still horrified, Diana gets up to go and call her mother.

***

There is a knock on the bedroom door.

Stan and Esther, who have just finished making love, and are huddled on the bed naked, quickly pull a huge cloth across their bodies. They giggle as the cloth slips off Stan, revealing his buttocks, and he quickly pulls it to cover himself.

"This daughter of yours, eh? Doesn't she ever sleep?" Stan asks with a giggle.

"How can the poor girl sleep when you're moaning and groaning all over the place?" Esther asks with a giggle.

Stan playfully pinches the insides of her thighs. Esther giggles and slaps his hand away.

"Is that you, Maame?" Stan shouts.

"Yes, Dad. Can I come in?" Maame Serwaa asks.

"Come in, sweetie."

The door opens, and Maame sticks her head in.

"They're showing some videos on GIRL VIBZ. The one we just watched shows that Uncle Chris was not the one driving the car that hit Sylvie Palmer and cut off her leg," she says excitedly.

Stan almost jumps up, but Esther quickly holds him down, and Stan realizes suddenly that he is naked.

"What are you talking about, my dearest pumpkin?" he asks with confusion.

"Watch the show. Uncle Chris was not the one driving," the girl cries excitedly.

She goes out and closes the door gently.

"Where's the remote?" Esther asks suddenly.

Stan picks it up from the floor and puts on the television in the bedroom.

***

Sergeant McBaiden looks at the stunned faces of the police officers on night duty watching the program. He forces a laugh and stands up with the pretext of going to the GENTS, and then slinks out the main door and rushes to his car. He is trembling badly, and sweat is pouring all over his body. He takes out his phone, but he is so jittery that it clatters to the ground.

He bends, picks it, opens the car door and gets in.

He dials, and the phone rings and rings.

"Pick it up, damn you! Fuck, fuck, fuck... pick up the damn thing! Pick it up, fuck damn oh fuck fuck!" he says desperately.

Finally, the phone is picked.

"What the fuck, Ato! What do you want at this time of day?" Curtis demands angrily.

"Where the hell are you, Curtis?" McBaiden asks, the panic thick in his voice. "Where the fuck are you?"

"I'm screwing my girlfriend, you bastard," Curtis responds coldly. "What the fuck is the matter with you anyway?"

"Are you watching the program?"

"Told you I'm screwing some pussy, motherfucker!" Curtis says angrily. "What's eating you up anyway?"

"Stop fucking around and watch the fucking TV! Heartbeat Television!" McBaiden screams hysterically. "That GIRL VIBZ bitch brought some bastard bird-watcher to her programme. The guy had cameras all over the stretch of road where we arrested Bawa. And guess what? Bawa wasn't driving the damn car!"

"What the fuck are you blabbering about, you idiot?" Curtis asks, puzzled.

"WATCH THE DAMN TV! WE'RE IN TROUBLE, CURTIS! WATCH THE TV AND CALL ME!" McBaiden screams.

"Okay, okay, okay! Hold on to your feathers! Lemme check it out!" Curtis says, a note of concern finally creeping into his voice.

The line goes dead. McBaiden drives out of the police station still trembling with fear.

***

All eyes are on Afful and Steve.

Elaine is gazing furtively at Wachipa Sey and then at Afful. She realizes what a fool she had been in falling into Wachipa's trap. She now realizes that he had been playing her all along! This was the reason why he had edited the ending out of the same video she had watched!

And of course, the moment she had recognized Chris' car in the footage and saw it hitting Sylvie, she had been too excited and booked Wachipa for the show immediately!

How foolish she had been.

How absolutely stupid she had been! She now knows that Wachipa Sey only wanted the chance to disgrace her and her husband. Her lip curls inward distastefully as she looks across at Jonathan with furious and bitter eyes. Her heart is beating with fear, and she feels the bitter heat of shame climbing up her neck and face. She knows that she cannot stop the show because it will portray her as biased and undependable.

Much as it hurts her, she knows Wachipa Sey has her in a corner.

Even if she sacks him, he will take his material to another station because it is incredibly the best news item in the country right then. Wachipa Sey pauses the video, and turns to Elaine with a wacky grin on his face.

"Are you paying attention?" Wachipa asks with a huge grin. "I want you guys to watch something very closely, and store this little bit of information."

He reverses the video, pauses it, and plays forward again to where Afful is holding a cylindrical package in his hand, and then tosses it into the back seat of the car.

"There! Right there! Did you see that? Mr. Afful tosses a packet of cocaine into Mr. Bawa's back seat!" Wachipa shouts excitedly, the huge smile never leaving his face. "Now keep that in mind, and also remember that Mr. Bawa was charged with three major crimes, apart from drinking and driving. One, he was imprisoned for hitting Sylvie with his car whilst evidently drunk, and for possessing cocaine, and finally for beating up his Uncle almost to the point of death. Now, let's continue watching. I'll play Video Two now."

Elaine cannot move.

She watches in a horrified daze as the screen goes blank, and then Wachipa selects another video from the folder and begins playing.

The stunned studio audience watches as Chris dashes into the bushes, and a moment later he emerges, carrying the inert form of Sylvie Palmer. He puts her down gently.

He runs to where Steve and a dazed Afful are standing. Without warning Chris slaps Afful hard, followed by a backhand that drops Afful on his back. In the video, Afful begins to cry, and Steve is trying to hold Chris back as he struggles to hit Afful again. Chris is screaming, and his voice can be heard now.

"You bastard! Didn't I tell you not to drive whilst you're stoned and drunk? Why did you lie to me that you were damn sober? Now you hurt that little girl, you stupid bastard!" Chris barks angrily.

He hits Afful again, opening up a cut on his cheek.

Steve is pulling Chris back, away from the whimpering Afful.

"Stop it, Chris, goddamn it! You're gonna kill him!" Steve says plaintively.

"Get him off my face before I kill him!" Chris says angrily as he gives Afful a final push.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Is she dead?" Afful weeps bitterly.

Chris is breathing hard.

"She's hurt. She's hurt really bad," Chris says. "There's a man with her, and he's coming back. Steve, get him out of here. If the cops find him so plastered and filled with that stupid coke he's been sniffing all night he'll go to jail for using drugs. I'll take this rap. I'm not drunk. I'll tell them I lost control of the car."

People are now staring at Afful and Steve.

With a little curse Afful gets to his feet, keeping his head down, and begins to walk away. Steve stands up and follows him. Elaine watches as they leave, and then she gets to her feet.

She faces the camera bravely and smiles without conviction.

"So, you see, GIRL VIBZ will always give you the truth, no matter who is at the center of the controversy. We'll take some messages from our sponsors, and when we come back we'll continue showing you the incredible never-seen before videos of that most fateful night in the life of Mr. Chris Bawa, a man we have grown to hate, a man we know as The Beast... but, could we all have been mistaken?"

As the cameras cut her off, and the commercials begin to roll on the screen, Elaine quickly heads towards the private entrance, and then she runs to the washroom. She locks the door behind her, and then she sinks slowly to the floor and begins to weep bitterly.

She is in so much pain. The humiliation and the bitterness is tearing her heart apart. Oh, how she wishes she had listened to Effe! Oh, dear Lord! How she wishes that the ground will open up and swallow her up.

Television watchers country-wide wait with bated breaths and impatient hearts as the annoying adverts continue to play on the television.

Finally, Elaine's face appears again behind the camera. Although her face is freshly-made up, there is no hiding the fact that her eyes look just a little bit too red, and that her eyelids look a little puffy too. But she is a brave girl, and she is taking the harsh rebuttal quite nicely. She smiles, but most people can discern that it is indeed a false smile.