THE REPERCUSSIONS OF SUBTERFUGE Chapter 2 THE REPERCUSSIONS OF SUBTERFUGE(DECEPTION)

CHAPTER 1

The headmaster bumped into the Chemistry class with a girl trailing behind him. He reciprocated greetings with the class and introduced the girl to the Chemistry pedagogue and the tutees as Enyonam Gavi, a newly admitted science tutee of form 2.

"Please, find her a seat", the headmaster urged the pedagogue as he turned back towards the door through which he had entered.

The pedagogue gesticulated with a diminutive finger to an unoccupied seat and a davenport in the far corner of the classroom. The girl followed the gesticulation and perceived that the unoccupied chair was adjacent the davenport/desk of a stunning and sightly lad.

Enyonam noticed the lad readily because his sharp looks made him very eminent in that science class of the Sogakope Senior High School.

At that time, Enyonam did not know anything about the lad close to whom she was to sit.

The lad, Worlasi Edem, as he was known, had established an infamy for being overly fond of female students. Especially the prepossessing type.

It was because of Worlasi's reputation that the colleen/girl who formerly inhabited that seat had hastily vacated it for somewhere else. The penurious colleen had reckoned accurately that, she had not been sent to the phrontistery/school for amorous business. If she continued sitting beside Worlasi, her aim of achieving academic excellence might never be perceived. She had expeditiously vacated that seat as a result and it had been unoccupied since.

When this more ravishing new colleen was as such directed by the unsuspecting Chemistry pedagogue to the seat near the lad, the entire class raised a perceptible suspire of horror.

The pedagogue looked around sharply and the noise died down.

The new girl went and took her seat.

She had hardly settled down in her seat, when Enyonam began noticing the quick secret glances the lad sitting contiguous to her was giving her.

Worlasi, of course, was hardly paying heed to the Chemistry lessons as he critically studied the newbie.

He spent some time acknowledging the articulate glassy eyes that fitted into that fine female body which sat near him. Such assessment caused some uneasiness to his total nervous system.

This colleen was something! Worlasi told himself.

As he continued scrutinizing her, he secretly swore that he would never have forgiven the Chemistry pedagogue if he had asked her to sit somewhere else.

The new girl herself however was more academic minded then, unlike Worlasi. As the pedagogue lectured, Worlasi could see her paying rapt attention.

It was when the pedagogue started writing some notes on the board that she turned to him: "Can you please give me a sheet of paper?"

"Sure, why not?" Worlasi extended an entire notebook to her when she had merely requested for a sheet to jot down the few essential points.

Mayhaps to persuade her of his liberality, he gave her his spare pen too. This notwithstanding the fact that the colleen had not asked for a pen because she had one herself. She however took both book and pen with grace and thanked him quietly for them.

"Worlasi, are you with us!?" The Chemistry pedagogue roared as he noticed some earnest consultations going on between Worlasi and the new tutee.

"Yes si-sir", stammered Worlasi and added in defence. "I was only trying to expound a few points to her."

"Since when were you appointed a pedagogue in this school?" The man asked to Worlasi's embarrassment.

The class who knew Worlasi more than the pedagogue did, exploded in mirth. Their cachinnation was however quickly cut off by a stern look from the man. The Chemistry pedagogue was reputed to be a strict/stringent disciplinarian.

Worlasi switched his attention back to the business of the class, but his thoughts were never far away from this delectable new girl who had a most special name -Enyonam!

The residuum of the Chemistry class passed off without incident. The remaining periods passed on too slowly for Worlasi. At long last the bell for break sounded.

Worlasi had anticipated the girl to stand up and go out, or mayhaps attempt to make new friends of the other girls. But she sat stiffly in her seat when others started trooping out.

Worlasi, still watching her, pretended to be searching for something in his desk. He did this just so he could delay going out till he had the privacy to talk to her.

When he thought his chance had come, he looked in her direction. "Hi!"

"Hello." Enyonam responded without noticeable interest.

Worlasi extended his hand for a handshake.

The girl appeared to debate the propriety of such a move for about ten seconds. Finally, she extended her own hand to meet his.

"I am Worlasi Edem."

"Enyonam Gavi."

He was going to say something more when a girl dashed into the classroom to take something out of her bag.

Seeing Worlasi and the new girl in an apparently friendly handshake, she halted and looked pointedly at the new girl. In that look was a lot of warning for Enyonam to beware of the tiger called Worlasi who was worming his way into her life.

Enyonam saw the look from the girl and so did Worlasi. Before she quickly withdrew her hand from his however, Worlasi deliberately scratched her palm with his index finger.

That scratch was a common male secret message which could mean anything, depending on who was doing the scratching, and the circumstances under which it was being done.

Worlasi was hoping the girl would be smart and worldly-wise enough, to read some ulterior meaning in that gesture.

If Enyonam read any meaning in that scratching however, she did nothing to show it.

The next few days however would be significant in the lives of these two students who sat close to each other in class.

CHAPTER 2

It was a few days more before Worlasi could get Enyonam sufficiently interested in him to want to take a walk with him.

School had closed and the day students of which Worlasi was one, were on their way home. He walked towards the western gate with Enyonam. They were discussing affairs common to academic existence.

Worlasi had accurately calculated that, if he was to get this new girl exactly where he wanted her, he would have to be tactful. A bulldozing strategy wasn't likely to work with somebody like this Enyonam.

Prior to this day, Worlasi had been making some innocent overtures to her so that they could get better acquainted along platonic lines. The girl seemed to appreciate the friendship being offered her by this boy.

She noticed that it was even easier being a friend to Worlasi, because for a strange reason, the girls in her new class weren't being very forthcoming with offers of friendship.

This made Enyonam initially wonder why.

She did not know why then. It was one reason that was difficult to believe, but very true.

The girls in her class were being consumed by unreasonable jealousy!

She later found out that the girls were shunning her company not because she was new, but because she was the best looking girl-not only in their class-but apparently the whole school.

The way the boys fussed over her and were ready to oblige her simplest requests, annoyed the other girls beyond reason.

Their only way to show their displeasure was to avoid her company.

If the girls had hoped to make Enyonam sorry for something that was not hers to control, then they were badly mistaken.

The attention and friendship offered by the boys more than made up for the vacuum created by the girls around her.

In fact, the new girl did not seem to be affected by the animosity from the girls, or the overprotection from the boys.

It was as if she had experienced some such drama before. Enyonam simply took everything in her stride.

Before long, a few of the girls who saw that their strategy of isolation was not working on the new girl, gingerly began to court her friendship. Enyonam gallantly offered hers in return without wanting to know why they had suddenly become friendly of late.

Such attitude as she had, greatly endeared her to all those who called themselves her friend.

When Worlasi therefore offered to walk her to the western gate of the school where students normally congregated in the idle hours to talk, she had not seen the invitation as anything extraordinary. She was after all on friendly terms with all the boys in her class, although she had reason to believe that this Worlasi wanted something more than ordinary friendship.

School had closed and Worlasi was going home. As he and Enyonam walked towards the western gate, Worlasi took the tip of her fingers in his hand. She did not take her hands away neither did she hold his in return.

They found a lonely spot far to the left of the gate and sat on two mammoth stones which served more than seats. As they talked, they could see other students, in duads, or more, holding their own discussions too. Nobody appeared to take any interest in them and that suited Worlasi's purposes.

As they talked at length and got better acquainted, Enyonam was encouraged by the exuberant Worlasi to throw herself wholly into the interlocution too.

She talked freely from her heart.

They spoke like old friends, and the more they got talking, the more they got to know of each other. The more also, Worlasi took a stab at building her interest in a romantic relationship.

From encouraging her to talk about herself and her background, Worlasi got to know that Enyonam, that fountain of beauty who sat beside him, had a poor financial background.

Her father had passed away some five years before when she just entered secondary school. She had fought boundless impediments to find herself in secondary school.

Her mother on whom she solely relied for her maintenance, sold onions at the Agbozume market at the Accra-Aflao road.

Worlasi was never one to stint on personal information that would impress his audience. He got Enyonam to know that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His family, was fabulously rich. Both of his parents dwelt in Italy, and they always remitted him.

Very much moved by Enyonam's difficult situation in life, and partly to serve his own future interest in this girl, Worlasi promised to channel a fraction of his financial fortunes to Enyonam. He wondered why such a beauty should be faced with such financial uncertainties.

Worlasi was cosy enough not to know that penury was part of humanity as much as the air we breathe.

After this difficult disclosure about herself, Worlasi felt it was time to study her critically. True, the girl was pulchritudinous. Pulchritudinous and nothing more as far as material means were concerned.

Her hair, unlike that of most of the girls, was silky, soft and curly like that of white folk. The hair was shiny black.

Enyonam in all her admitted penury, was blessed with a skin that would be the envy of many women who through the ages have sought lovely skins with the aid of cosmetics.

Her skin was a flawless fair complexion, and the face that topped the body, was the joy of all the male students in the school.

As Worlasi ravenously fed his eyes on all these inventions of natural perfection, he felt groggy with pleasure. There and then, he, who had always enjoyed the favours of females for ephemerals, swore that this colleen was going to be the one with whom he would forever live and love.

Mayhaps not too much for the monetary attractions, Enyonam also felt attracted to Worlasi. By all interpretations of manly elegance, Worlasi qualified for the mark.

Worlasi was tall, slim but had developed his muscles by lifting weights at Sokpoe. He had a smooth fresh face, naturally brought about by long years of living well and not having any financial difficulties.

He had a smooth hairy skin, and from his many romantic adventures/escapades, had developed the ability to talk smoothly and persuasively to any girl of his choice. Before long he had won Enyonam over.

Enyonam, who thought she had so much self-confidence that could withstand the presence of any male, found herself wilting under Worlasi's gaze. She simply couldn't have eye contact with him.

Most of the time, she gazed aimlessly on the ground, or drew meaningless things on the ground with a piece of stick while she listened to him.

Mayhaps if Worlasi had approached her in his usual brazen style, Enyonam would not have had any veneration and affection for him. His approach, soft and caring as it had been, had greatly won him points with her.

Before long the inevitable words came: " I love you Enyonam", he registered his feelings for her. She lifted her eyes and stared sheepishly at him without saying a word.

"Will you return my love?" Worlasi further inquired when she said nothing.

That was when she did the bizarrest thing Worlasi had ever known a girl to do. First, she nodded in agreement, and almost immediately shook her head in objection.

For a selcouth/bizarre reason, Worlasi knew that this girl Enyonam was within his grasp. Only that he had to be meticulous how he handled her from here. As far as accepting his love was concerned, he guessed that Enyonam needed no further prodding.

When she spoke ultimately, it was for a very bizarre request. "I will like you to go to your domicile now Worlasi."

Anonymous to him, the tension of the split second was too much for her to bear.

"All right", he said. "But make sure you tell me something propitious tomorrow", he added as they parted at the gate.

As he made his way through the gate to go home, she stood still, looking at him for a coon's age till he was lost to her. She then turned back and headed again for school.

Though school was over, it was not time for her to go home yet. All the female protegees were to meet with the Assistant Principal who was a woman. That was why she had urged Worlasi to take the lead.

If things clicked, maybe both of them will be going home together from this time on, she thought.

CHAPTER 3

Within weeks, it was known to the entire student body that Worlasi, had succeeded in winning the heart of the most coveted beauty in the school-Enyonam Gavi.

Many of the students who had taken to the new colleen because of her simplicity and strength of mind, felt sorry for Enyonam that she, like others before her, had fallen into the devouring hands of Worlasi Edem.

If only they knew better, they would have been surprised to know that this was the one girl who was going to keep the campus Casanova in line, and ensure that he never again look at another colleen!

But of course they didn't know just how Worlasi felt about this new girl.

The weeks after their love pledges were exchanged was to the love birds the sweetest. They were always seen together and did everything together on campus.

It came to a time that they looked more like husband and wife than merely school lovers. The fact that Worlasi wanted the whole world to know of this relationship with Enyonam, carried some surprise element with it. Worlasi usually never operated that way.

He normally preferred to carry on his affairs in secret so that with his one stone, he could kill as many birds as possible without any of his victims being cognizant of his multiple game.

This open door love policy should have inveigled/cajoled Worlasi's detractors that he had indeed changed into a better person. Few however appreciated his sincerity to Enyonam Gavi. Many of them believed this was another jugglery in Worlasi's bag of subterfuges to get the new colleen to look like an imbecile before long.

But Worlasi had other ideals.

He took care of all the needs of Enyonam as he had halsened he would do. Because of the normally huge amounts of money at his disposal from his loving parents in Italy, Worlasi fed and clothed his lover as much as he could. He paid her fees- which were modest anyway as a day student, and as somebody who was naturally not extravagant. He took care of the petty dues that all students had to pay, the non-payment of which led to immense mortification.

He did so much for the girl that Enyonam always felt indebted to him. In those early days, the pair enjoyed a love relationship that would always remain fresh in their minds.

Things got so serious by the time both of them were in Form Three(3) that the other proteges and protegees began to believe in a born again Worlasi. They wondered just what love potion Enyonam had given to him to drink to make him concentrate all his favours on her to the exclusion of all other girls.

Towards the end of their final year, they both agreed that they would get married as soon as they consummate their varsity education.

As an unfortunate twist to their plans however, Worlasi's parents invited him to join them in Italy after his final year. They believed a varsity education in the White Man's Country would be more beneficial/advantageous to their son than anywhere else.

Much as this invitation threw their plans haywire, Enyonam and Worlasi were not overly deterred. They vowed to wait for each other however long it would take and however difficult it would be.

Enyonam naturally was the most worried about this new arrangement. She had heard of instances where men who go abroad are wooed off their childhood sweethearts by a more sophisticated and worldly woman. She reiteratedly got Worlasi to halsen her that he would not jilt her.

Events and time moved too quickly for the love birds. Before long, they had completed their final exams for secondary phrontistery and were to go to varsity.

Two hebdomads after the writing of the final exams, Worlasi was girding his loins to leave Ghana for Italy.

On the night Worlasi was to leave, Enyonam went to the Kotoka International Airport to see him off. They both felt extremely sad about the separation that they were about to suffer.Enyonam shed copious tears and

was unsuccessfully comforted by Worlasi. She was truly going to miss her comrade.

At the airdrome/aerodrome, they exchanged rings and resolved to umbethink each other with those tokens.

A sharp pain surged through Enyonam's heart when it was promulgated/publicized/annunciated that Worlasi's flight was ready.

Hurriedly, he planted a noisy kiss on her lips that attracted the attention of those standing by.

"For the road", a gentleman said teasingly amid cachinnation from some prospective passengers and those who had come to see them off.

The love-struck young people paid no attention to them but embraced tightly and exchanged love expressions undertone. Worlasi eventually broke free from Enyonam and after bidding farewell to each other, he left for the departure hall.

She remained on the balcony till he ascended the gangway and entered the huge belly of the Ghana Airways Flight scheduled for Italy that evening.

A few seconds later, its lights came on and the huge machine began taxiing on the runway. The ground vibrated violently as the plane shifted into high gear.

A moment later, it had lifted itself into the night sky amid the tremendous roars of its big engines.

Worlasi was gone.

And gone with him were the dreams of two young people.

Whether Worlasi would keep faith with her and come back to marry her was something that Enyonam was not sure of. She prayed however that Worlasi would not forget all that they had shared and would, as he had promised, come back to her intact.

She would be the proudest and happiest woman if her lover kept his word.

CHAPTER 4

Enyonam left the aerodrome grief - stricken and shattered. She got to her domicile around 1:30 a.m. in the morning and threw herself onto her bed and sobbed earnestly. Thoughts about Worlasi raced through her mind like a vision. His handsome face, his smooth deep voice, his caring habits, his liberality, the way he cuddled her in his arms when she was upset, the way...She couldn't bear those thoughts.

She just could not have enough of that vision. She even pictured herself in his strong arms during sensual moments.

Just a week after his departure from Ghana, Worlasi penned a long winding letter to Enyonam in which he assured her of his undying love and support.

What is more, what comforted her most was the halsen he gave that he was going to arrange for her to visit his menage when he got established.

Worlasi's letter was a real help to Enyonam.

It made her understand that she still occupied a prominent place in his mind. The love and affection they had for one another thus moved from strength to strength in spite of the long distance between them.

The distance between them seemed a stone-throw away as they frequently communicated by letter or on phone.

Enyonam's mood was slightly lightened when she gained admission to the Legon University the

next academic year following Worlasi's departure for Italy.

She was fortuitous to be offered admission to study science.

The very first day she stepped on campus was like a replay of her first day in Form 2 in Worlasi's school after she left her alma mater.

She instantly became the cynosure of all eyes. Especially those of the male students.

The male students started rallying round her from the very first day she set foot on campus. It was as if she was the only female on campus.

She managed to deflect all those advances though it frankly wasn't easy for her to do so sometimes.

Not only was she chased after on campus, but she suffered the same profuse male attention whenever she visited town during weekends for shopping.

Indeed it was at Legon that her beauty peaked. It was then too that she realised that instead of her beauty giving her the joy and peace to celebrate her femininity, she was rather being hounded mercilessly because of it.

Granted Enyonam was protected by the ring Worlasi had put on her finger, yet the male harassment was just too much.

She fought through all these earnestly intentioned men to remain true to Worlasi and wait for him as they had promised each other.

Her pledge to remain faithful to him was made all the more easy by the fact that Enyonam was never far away in Worlasi's mind.

As he had done in secondary phrontistery, he continued to support her financially from Italy.

Through the Zenith Bank Ho Western Money Transfer facility, Enyonam received large amounts of money from Worlasi in Italy which greatly supported her education.

She even managed to send some of the money to her mother to help her boost her small business of selling at Agbozume market.

Worlasi could send her huge sums of money because instead of furthering his education in Italy, he had chosen to work in the company his father had set up in Italy.

In fact, the main justification behind Mr and Mrs Edem asking their son to join them in Italy was for Worlasi to understudy his father and take over the business from his ageing old man.

Within a few hebdomads of his coming to Italy therefore, Worlasi was in control of considerable amounts of money, a little of which he always sent to his sweetheart. Since a few euros changed for so much cedis, Enyonam became cosy and hardly cried for cash.

In fact, she became cosier than when Worlasi had been in Ghana.

It didn't take long for Mr and Mrs Edem to get wind of that stunning young varsity undergraduate

back home, who was never far away from their senior son's thoughts.

They questioned Worlasi about Enyonam and when he opened up freely on her suitability, his parents took to liking her too. Especially as they saw the smashing photographs of her on the varsity campus that she had sent him.

Mr and Mrs Edem had seen the pictures of the colleen. What remained was to see her personally and assess her character if it would be fitting for a man who was poised to be the top shot in a family company.

Worlasi spoke so much about Enyonam that his parents began to understand that this was no phrontistery boy infatuation but the real thing. Worlasi, their son, was love struck. Being liberal minded parents, they were going to allow him to marry her. They would however want to make their own assessment of her.

From the day Worlasi's parents yearned to see their future daughter in law, arrangements were put into gear to get Enyonam to visit them in Italy during the long vacation holidays.

When Enyonam first got wind of the plans to get her to visit Italy, she went into rapture. She indeed became convinced that she had made the accurate decision by giving her love to Worlasi Edem at secondary phrontistery.

That Chemistry pedagogue who had directed her to the seat adjacent Worlasi's, remained in her memory as her saviour. Not to say that Worlasi wouldn't have pursued her wherever she had sat in class. Sitting near him however, made things easier.

Enyonam actually stole the hearts of Worlasi's parents when she eventually visited them in Italy.

She was pulchritudinous as Worlasi had always described her. On top of that beauty, she had a head full of brains.

She was respectful and self-effacing and easily worked her way into the hearts of Worlasi's parents with her polished sense of humour.

So much did she impress the Edems that before leaving for phrontistery back in Ghana, they decided to fund her university education and send her back to Italy to get her properly married to their son after her university education. They could both work in his father's company if she wished.

Enyonam couldn't believe her luck, and her mother was even more skeptical of the good fortune that had befallen their small struggling family. That family that had been struggling to keep its head above water since the death of Enyonam's father.

She had immensely enjoyed her two months stay in Italy and had returned to Ghana with lots of money and presents for her family. She had also brought along to show to her mother pictures of Worlasi's parents and their domicile in Italy.

And to think Worlasi had been the very boy whom her mother had tried to advise her against when she first met him. According to her mother then, the boy had looked too slick in secondary phrontistery. Now, her mother could not praise him enough. This funny world, thought Enyonam.

Mr and Mrs Edem had halsened Enyonam a fixed monthly remittance. In addition to what Worlasi periodically gave her, Enyonam came to lack nothing on campus at Legon.

Before long, it had become run-of-the-mill knowledge that she was the fiancee of one big shot in Italy who bought her ticket to visit every long vacation.

Distorted though many of the stories that flew around her were, Enyonam did nothing to rectify them.

If truth be told, she liked the rounds the stories were making, because it kept the male predators away from her.

Her path to a fulfilled married life seemed beautifully carved for her.

She was not to know of the lurking peril which could throw a spanner in her romantic works!

CHAPTER 5

The amount of space between Enyonam's hall at the university where she stayed campus and the Science Department was far-flung. And therefore, nine times out of ten, she took cabs when going for lectures.

On this ante meridiem however, Enyonam felt like walking to exercise her muscles.

It was the wont of the proteges to hoot at those protegees who were too impecunious to take cabs to the science lecture department. If she had been any other colleen, she would have been risking being teased by the proteges. But not Enyonam; they never tease her.

They knew her worth in cedis and dollars. If she decided to walk to the science department therefore, then it was out of contingency and not out of need. They would therefore never poke fun at her.

As she walked towards the Science Department, she met a number of students going in the same direction or coming opposite her. She exchanged small talk with those she knew.

A few metres to the Science Department, she saw a handsome white man coming from the opposite direction.

The man carried an ostentatiously magnificent/plush briefcase and seemed to be looking for someone or somewhere. This outcomeling looked like somebody who had left his car

parked somewhere on the campus and was walking, the better to locate where he wanted to go.

As Enyonam walked towards him, he halted under some lofty shady trees and studied the expensive gold watch that adorned his wrist.

The man then shook his head and stamped a restless and intolerant of delay foot. He appeared to be waiting for someone exigently.

Enyonam knew that the man was in his early thirties, and was not a student. But what had brought him to the campus early that ante meridiem was what she did not know. She however had her suspicions about the man's mission on the campus.

The fact was that, Enyonam knew and heard a lot about Jake Arthur, that affluent white British businessman at Legon.

Not many of the students on the campus, especially the female students, did not know Jake Arthur.

In fact, Enyonam had once had the misfortune- as she liked to describe it- to encounter Jake Arthur at close quarters. That was a few hebdomads after she had first come to Legon University. And she had never liked that encounter.

As she drew nearer the white man who, she was sure, had deliberately halted under the trees to wait for her, Enyonam's heart throbbed wildly. Her steps

became distorted and she got apoplectic/incandescent with herself for allowing this man to unsettle her.

Enyonam decided against an earlier thought to turn back in order to avoid him. She walked on, but kept looking out for someone she knew, someone she could walk along with, on the pretext that she needed company. That way, it would be difficult for Jake Arthur to talk to her.

Nobody came in sight.

As she went pointedly past the white man who was reputed to have seduced many of the female students with his cash and influence, she heard him hiss at her to halt.

Her steps faltered, and she halted and turned round slowly.

The sight of Jake Arthur walking towards her with that cocky gait took Enyonam's mind back to the first time she had met the man.

An unpleasant convocation it had turned out to be.

Not yet two hebdomads after she had first come to Legon, she went to the Night market to get some foodstuffs. She wanted to enjoy some domicile cooked meals and not the rough and ready stuff served at the cafeteria.

She did not know it then, but that brobdingnagian store she passed in front of, belonged to Jake Arthur. Of course at time she did not know his name or his infamy.

He had courteously called her in to examine critically or meticulously some of the things in his shop.

She had obliged. Once aside, he began asking her some searching questions. When Arthur got to know that she was a fresh student at the University, the man all but alluded/insinuated to her that she sleeps with him for any fee she might care to mention.

Enyonam had felt grossly insulted and had given the stupid white man a piece of her mind. She had vowed that any day she met him she would give him a repeat dose of the insults she dished out to him that day.

It was when she got to the campus and told her anecdote of the encounter with the impudent white man to some of the older female students that, she got to know who Jake Arthur really was.

Enyonam had vowed there and then that if the cocky imbecile thought he could have any student of his choice with his money, then it was not going to be her, Enyonam. She had a better man in the person of Worlasi Edem.

Anonymous to Enyonam, Jake Arthur had not forgotten her since that day.

Arthur loved challenges. Especially when it had to do with difficult women. He had vowed that he would get the back of that sharp tongued girl Enyonam on his bed.

From his paid spies on the campus, Arthur got to know all he needed to know about Enyonam and waylaid her often times. Today however, was when he appeared to have got her in a most agreeable place.

As Enyonam stood there watching the man strut towards her, she wondered what had become of her vow to tell this man off whenever they met.

Instead of having a revolting feeling for him, a bizarre chemistry seemed to attract her to him.

When he got to her, she said what she had been rehearsing all the time it took for him to get to her.

"Please, you can see I am in a hurry. I must be in the lecture hall by now."

Arthur smiled a knowing smile. "I know that lady. But just sell me half a minute of your precious time", he begged. "I want to make it up to you for being so invidious the last time we met in my shop."

Having got her to hearken ultimately, Arthur turned on all the charm for which he was known. He talked on and on and by the time he was done, Enyonam could see him in a different light other than that egotistical lecher he had first appeared to be.

He ultimately, in his most persuasive manner, got her to concur to a date with him that weekend. An innocuous date he called it.

All the way to the Science Department, Enyonam wondered what Jake Arthur had hit her with, to make her concur to go out with him.

CHAPTER 6

Although Enyonam had agreed to rendezvous with Jake Arthur on his so called innocuous date, a lot of questions raced through her mind.

What am I Enyonam Gavi up to? Could it be that he is interested in me and I in him? Why does he want to see me if he is not? In case he is interested in me, what am I to do?

"Of course I will have to tell him point blank that I am engaged!" She admonished herself in anger.

The next moment however, she was having traitorous thoughts. But that Jake Arthur is so handsome, and so rich, and unlike my earlier opinion of him, so interesting to be with.

"Could a girl not have a few harmless flings without committing herself?" She again asked herself.

She thought about the nice time she could have with this white man, the envious looks she would have from the other female students, the wads of money which this man could dish out.

At that time, Worlasi and his promises seemed very distant in her mind.

Then once again, Worlasi re-entered her thoughts. It would be so unfair to him, she knew , since Worlasi it is who had made her what she is today. Worlasi had been so supportive all these years. And what was more, he hadn't offended her in any way since they got to know each other.

She could see the irony in the whole scenario. When Worlasi was about to leave for Italy, she had been most afraid that Worlasi would jilt her in favour of another woman in far away Italy.

It was she rather, who was now on the point of betraying him.

Her presence in the Science Department could as well have been spent sleeping. Nothing that was lectured went into her ears. It was thoughts of Jake Arthur and Worlasi Edem all along. But more of Arthur.

She looked pensive after the lectures, and her friend Mabel who had noticed, approached her after classes. " Why don't you look cheerful at all this ante meridiem?" her friend enquired with concern.

"Nothing." Enyonam vaguely replied.

"Tell me then. Why did you rest your head on the desk all the time the lecture was going on?" Mabel pressed. " When you left the hall too, you were looking like the word melancholy/lachrymose itself."

This last observation surprised Enyonam. She had not realised that the thoughts that were boiling in her brain were externally visible. It was useless to conceal things from Mabel anymore. She decided to divulge every bit of that Arthur bug to her highly observant friend.

"If you will just give me a little time to put my thoughts together, I will tell you everything when we get back to the hall. It's a long story." Enyonam assured Mabel that she would tell her everything when they get back.

After watching the evening news on television in the reception room of the women's hall, Mabel went to Enyonam's room at about seven thirty. She met her friend and her room mate Aisha.

While Aisha's head was buried in a voluminous science textbook, Enyonam lay prostrate on her bed. Her mind was still on the events of that ante meridiem/morning.

She quickly shot out of bed at Mabel's voice.

Mabel looked at her critically. "Just what is wrong with you Enyonam? Are you not feeling well?"

Mabel's question made Aisha also look up at her room mate with interest.

Enyonam told them: "This morning on my way to the lecture hall, I met this white man Jake Arthur."

" Oh Jake Arthur!" The two colleens said together.

Apparently they both knew him very well.

Enyonam continued. "He talked to me and from all indications, I can see he is interested in me. He made me promise to go out with him on Saturday. I don't know what to do as he appears to have taken over all my mind."

" Poor you", Aisha said. "If you feel attracted to that rogue, then you must be very stupid Enyonam, which I don't reckon you are."

"Unless you are going to consider yourself very fortunate to be spending some of the British pounds I hear

the man lavishes on his girlfriends". That was Mabel.

"Enyonam, if you ask me, I will say you are very fortunate. This is a chance you must not let go."

"What do you mean?" Aisha asked furiously.

"Where is the serendipity in befriending Jake Arthur the people's husband? Don't you see how he has already began wearing Enyonam out even though they haven't started an affair? Serendipity my foot! Instead of you telling her something comforting and sensible Mabel, you....you....!" Aisha was so furious, she could not finish what she wanted to say.

Mabel was not moved. "You Aisha", she addressed her directly. "Won't you deem it great serendipity if you happen to find yourself in the company of a white man? Just think of the respect and cash. Such a relationship could even end you outside this country."

Aisha laughed sarcastically. " I didn't know you are so childish Mabel. Are you here to chase after white men or to study and achieve something at the end of your four year stay on this campus?"

"I reckon you are rather being naive Aisha", Mabel shot back at her. "You are dying reading that huge book because of money is that not it? If I am fortunate to find several gold bars on my way to a mine, must I foolishly reason that it is my aim to dig for them?"

Enyonam nodded silently in approval at Mabel's worldly logic.

Aisha would however not be shaken. "I did not know you have also fallen for the quick money syndrome. You talk as if Enyonam is not engaged to be married to another man. Just what do you suggest Enyonam do with her man in Italy now that you are persuading her to befriend another man?"

Mabel apparently had everything well laid out.

"That will not be a problem", she said. "She can easily service both men in her life without the other knowing. Haven't you seen how a competent telephonist impeccably/pluperfectly handles three telephone receivers simultaneously? Similarly, our good acquaintance here can service both men at different ends of the relationship and get as much as she can from both of them."

"Mabel, you can't be earnest. You are a good for nothing friend. This is a wicked trap you want to push Enyonam into. Look! I am no part of this mischievous scheme of yours." Aisha rushed out of the room in anger.

" Damn stupid colleen!" Mabel said after Aisha had gone out. "She can go and burn the sea if she doesn't concur with me." She laughed and added, "look, Enyonam, that Aisha is envious of your good fortune. These things should have been discussed in her absence. Never mind, we are going to grab that white man and milk him dry!"

At around eleven p.m. Mabel ultimately left Enyonam after teaching her all the tricks in the book of two-timing.

While going up the stairs to her own room, she met Aisha who was coming down.

Aisha looked down her nose at her and walked past without saying a word to her. Mabel did not take kindly to the insult. Fuming, she glared at Aisha's back till she got out of her sight.

"I will teach her a bitter lesson if she reiterates this foolishness next time."

Mabel swore and walked quietly into her bedroom.

CHAPTER 7

On the Saturday Jake Arthur was to pick Enyonam to the town, Mabel was in her friend's room a full thirty minutes before the H-hour.

Enyonam was superbly dressed and appeared really good in that evening dress Worlasi had bought for her from Italy.

While she stood in front of the mirror still touching up her hair, Mabel suggested she would go to wait in the reception hall where Arthur would be coming to ask for Enyonam. She would then run up quickly to call her as soon as the Britisher arrived.

At the reception, Mabel flung herself into one of the stuffy chairs and waited. A few minutes later, a flashy white Camry car came to halt in front of the reception. A white man stepped out of it and Mabel had no doubt that this was the famous Jake Arthur.

"He really looks affluent", Mabel told herself as he watched him come to make his enquiries at the reception.

Coincidentally, it was Mabel, among all the students assembled watching the television, that the receptionist employed to call Enyonam. She run upstairs quickly and excitedly got her friend informed.

"He is here, Enyonam baby, and can you believe it, the man is dressed like a thousand pounds!"

Enyonam began some excited low comments among the students as she and Mabel walked through

the reception to the car in which Jake Arthur had driven to the campus.

When Arthur saw Enyonam, his heart flipped. Out of his mouth came his usual profuse words of adoration for the female of his choice. "Millions of congratulations to the belly that carried this product of nature for nine months."

He opened the car door for her and asked her to join her in the front seat. She sat down and greeted him in a soft romantic voice. After she had arranged herself in the seat, he asked if they could go.

"Of course we can", Enyonam answered.

"Where do you want us to go to?"

"Anywhere you choose."

When they were about to go, Enyonam waved to Mabel who was still standing by the car. Arthur noticed her.

"Is that your friend?"

"Yes, a very good one."

"Then why not let her join us?" Arthur suggested.

Mabel needed no further invitation. She jumped into the back of the car.

As they drove away, Enyonam came to revel in the impressive compliments Arthur showered on her. One thing that worried her though was how she could expertly handle these two men in her life without hurting one another.

They finally pulled up in front of a two storey building at Kirk Square , and Arthur excused himself and entered the house. He reappeared a minute later and with a friend.

The four of them then drove to a classy restaurant in the town.

Arthur's friend Blake, unlike he, was elderly, in his mid forties. Not only did he have a wrinkled face, but he looked emaciated due to heavy drinking and smoking which had discoloured his teeth. Mabel, to whom Arthur had brought Blake, was however not deterred by the repulsive conduct and features of Blake.

She was rather bent on squeezing out of him as much money as she could.

They had a nice time that Saturday night. They ate sumptuous meals and quaffed the choicest drinks and danced out their hearts. At around midnight, the two men drove the girls back to campus after lavishing a lot of money on them.

They halsened the two girls several other things including mobile phones which they knew could aid them in communicating with the two girls.

While Mabel enjoyed herself, Enyonam was excessively obsessed with desperation over the adventurous life she had begun.

Not once did her eyes blink that night. She lay awake brooding about Worlasi, her real sweetheart. She felt ashamed for not

remaining true to him. She was sure Worlasi was being faithful to her even in Italy.

That night, her guilt-ridden conscience lashed at her seriously.

The emotional torment did not however halt her from going out again and again with Arthur. She combated her conscience, and hardened her heart in the process. Deeper and deeper, she and Arthur got sunk in love. No weekend rolled by without the two of them having some sort of spree either in Legon or outside town.

With time, Enyonam's feelings for Worlasi reduced and she took long periods to communicate with him. Arthur had taken absolute control of her mind and heart.

Incognizant of the perverse habits of his sweetheart back at home, Worlasi continued to misspend his money and attention on Enyonam whom he still deemed to be an angel. He constantly dreamed about her and could just not get her out of his head.

Unable to stay away from her any longer, Worlasi wrote a letter to her that he will be coming to Ghana when he had his annual vacation that year, so that they could marry at home even before she finished her education.

That letter put Enyonam in a fix. Of course it was a crucial decision Worlasi had taken and she should have been happy for it, but she found out that she was not.

How would Arthur who did not know of the existence of Worlasi, take this news?

She definitely needed advice on what to do, so to her trusted 'consultant' Mabel, she went.

Mabel was of course ready with solutions. "You don't have a problem as far as this issue is concerned."

"How can you say that?" Enyonam screamed.

"It's all simple really. Just be honest with Arthur about Worlasi and his intention to come down to Ghana."

"You mean I should tell Arthur everything!?" Enyonam was shocked.

"Exactly. You don't know men. Arthur won't leave you as you fear. Tell him that even though you are married, you will still find time to be with him since after all Worlasi will return to Italy, and you will remain here to complete your studies."

Enyonam seemed to see the logic in what her experienced friend was saying and took her advice.

The ruthless machinations of Mabel was successfully implemented. Arthur agreed to the wicked suggestions of the girls. He was not peeved that Enyonam was going to get married. After all, he entered into that relationship void of earnest intentions. So if the tables had now been turned on him, he simply had to accept the arrangement.

The day Worlasi and his parents came down the plane and he run happily into Enyonam's arms at the airport, little did he know what his supposed sweetheart had been doing behind him.

Enyonam hoped and prayed her soon-to-be-husband would never hear of her deeds in his absence.

She was afraid of what Worlasi would do if he got wind of her carrying on with Arthur.

That hope however was to be hopelessly shattered!

CHAPTER 8

When Enyonam halsened to love Worlasi Edem till death do them part, she never gave thought to the fact that someone like Jake Arthur, would come crashing into her life with such fury so as to make her reduce her love for the man she was engaged to marry.

She had gone through the science course at S.H.S. with him in an almost impeccable love situation. Worlasi had assisted her financially in all ways he could conveniently assist her. He had shed all the other girls in favour of her, he had in fact restructured his life to accommodate her in future even as he had to join his parents in Italy after secondary school.

He had done all these for her. Yet, she found herself now forgetting all the favours, without which life would have been unbearable for her in those early days.

When Worlasi left for Italy to take over the administration of his father's company, Enyonam had on her part got admission to the Legon University to do science. The ardent pledges both she and Worlasi had made to each other before the latter flew to Italy, still guided her, in her life.

She led a respectable life, always reminding herself and other males who wanted to have an affair with her that, she was engaged to be married. Her faithfulness was made easier by the fact that Worlasi and his parents remitted her constantly.

That way, the kind of grinding poverty that got otherwise decent girls to indulge in loose morals, became unnecessary for her.

Worlasi, even from far away Italy, ensured that he was never far away from the mind of his fiancee in Ghana. Aside of exchanging pictures almost on a monthly basis, Worlasi was instrumental in getting his parents to fund her first visit outside Ghana.

During the long vacation holidays, she had had that golden privilege to travel to Italy to join her fiance and his family. It had been a memorable visit.

She had returned, happier and persuaded that unlike many male Ghanaians who travel abroad and forget their domicile sweethearts, Worlasi was determined to fulfil his halsen of making her his wife in future.

She had pursued her university education, confident in the knowledge that her marital future was secure. Things were like this till she met that white British man Jake Arthur on campus that fateful ante meridiem she decided to walk to the Science Department, instead of taking a taxi.

That day was indeed the second meeting between Arthur and Enyonam. On their first meeting, Enyonam had felt very insulted because Arthur had bluntly suggested that she goes to bed with him in exchange for money. Enyonam had dressed him down sufficiently to discourage him ever wanting to see her again.

More so talk to her.

But Jake Arthur, the white businessman at Legon, was no ordinary or mediocre human being. He loved challenges. Especially from females who proved difficult to succumbing to his lusty moves. From the first day they met, he had become more determined to sleep with this girl in order to prove to her that Jake Arthur always got what he wanted.

He had got his paid spies on campus to monitor her movements, and had cornered her that ante meridiem before she could walk her way to the Science Department.

Enyonam could not tell what magic the white man had worked on her. But he had proved to be a different man from the one who had practically insulted her when they first met.

With encouragement from her course mate and good friend Mabel, Enyonam was made to believe that she could have both Jake Arthur and her own fiance Worlasi Edem in Italy, without either of the men in her life knowing what was going on.

She had risked that arrangement and actually started enjoying it. Mabel, who proved to be more money conscious, had imbued some of that quality in Enyonam. The two girlfriends got to befriend the two white male friends Arthur and Blake, more for their money than for love. At least for Mabel, it was the money that counted because Blake, her man, was old, wrinkled and smelled badly. Very much unlike the young and handsome Jake Arthur whom Enyonam befriended.

With time, mayhaps in the absence of her fiance Worlasi Edem, Enyonam came to find herself falling in love with Jake Arthur. She spent so much time with her new white boyfriend that even her studies began to suffer. With the mischievous encouragement from the money conscious Mabel, Enyonam pursued a relationship that had all the trappings of fun, but carried a high element of risk with it.

No weekend passed without the two love birds finding themselves in one fun spot or the other in or out of town.

The sad thing was that, the unsuspecting Worlasi Edem kept playing his part with periodic monetary remittances and love letters to remind Enyonam of their arrangement. In fact Jake Arthur dominated Enyonam's life so much so in Legon that, her regular communications with Worlasi in Italy fell behind.

Still Worlasi suspected nothing, putting Enyonam's lack of constant communications with him down to academic workload.

So much filled with love for his fiancee and unable to stay away any longer from Enyonam, Worlasi decided to come to Ghana. He came down with his family during his annual vacation, to perform the marriage rites on Enyonam.

That put Enyonam in an unpleasant dilemma. Neither of the men in her life knew of the existence of the other. It was easy to keep both of them in the dark this way because one of them was there with her in Ghana, while the other, the more significant one, was far away in Italy.

And now here was Enyonam coming down to finalise their marriage plans. How was Arthur , who had spent so much on her, and come to regard her as his own, going to take such a development? And what embarrassment would she suffer if Worlasi, her Worlasi from secondary school to this time, found out that she Enyonam, had been two-timing on him?

The ubiquitous and mischievous Mabel was there as usual to supply the kind of advice that would sink Enyonam further into moral looseness.

Mabel told Enyonam to tell Arthur the truth of the matter that she was engaged to marry Worlasi. But if he would bear with her for this lapse in not informing him earlier, she would be prepared to carry on the way

things were, after Worlasi had left for Italy on completing the marriage ceremony.

Arthur, who had never meant to go anywhere with Enyonam, gladly accepted this arrangement manufactured by Mabel and delivered by Enyonam.

What was his problem if he could have a woman without committing himself in any binding way?

So to Ghana, Worlasi and his family came to do what their son wanted to do. That is to ultimately marry his school sweetheart Enyonam Gavi.

Enyonam, with thoughts of Jake Arthur still in her head, had gone to the airport to meet her soon-to-be husband.

CHAPTER 9

Enyonam went to the airport to meet Worlasi and his parents. The encounter was of course emotional with Enyonam shedding the normal female tears of joy, and Worlasi unable to have enough of touching her.

It was not difficult at all to see that Worlasi actually loved Enyonam. For the show Enyonam herself put on too, if one did not know the full circumstances between her and Jake Arthur, no one would believe that she was playing a double game with the man who loved her so much.

The wedding of the couple which took place two weeks after Worlasi and his family members had come to Ghana, was no small thing. It drew no small crowd either.

There was plenty exhibition of love from the two actors. Only people like Mabel, Arthur and Blake, who had inside knowledge , knew that Enyonam's show was less than sincere.

Arthur himself and Blake were at the wedding ceremony, and that gave Enyonam's boyfriend the opportunity to see his rival for the first time. Worlasi looked such a nice and loving guy to be treated the way Enyonam was treating him; Arthur thought. But of course it not his duty to advise Enyonam to halt two-timing with her new husband. Not when he himself was benefiting from that two-timing.

CHAPTER 10

What was more, he had not suggested that they continue that relationship even after Enyonam had married. Enyonam had suggested that herself. With prompting from Mabel, Arthur suspected.

In fact, Arthur had never quite understood the friendship between Enyonam and Mabel. The former was so naive in worldly affairs, while the latter was so sage. If any calamity were to befall Enyonam, it would surely have the hand of that opportunist Mabel under it.

Of course unless Enyonam herself became sage enough to toss Mabel overboard as a friend.

The wedding was a classic one. Food and drinks were in abundance at the reception that was later held at an exclusive restaurant in East Legon.

Business demands and a prearranged plan dictated that Worlasi's family return to Italy not more than a month after coming to Ghana. Worlasi however had plans to go back for a dream honeymoon with his new wife.

Since they had planned for the wedding to be held when the university was on recess, and Worlasi himself was on vacation, it was easy for Enyonam to fly back to Italy with her husband for a planned honeymoon.

They travelled to many Italian cities and had unforgettable time. There in Italy, thoughts of Arthur, Mabel and Blake were naturally

CHAPTER 11

relegated to the background. On very rare occasions however, the smashing times she had enjoyed with the English man at Legon came to her.

She would be pushed into deep joy for some time at the recollection. A few minutes after however, she would be hit with a wave of guilt at having to have unfaithful thoughts when she was on her honeymoon. Just like sleeping with your boyfriend on your marital bed just a few days after your wedding.

That passion she had enjoyed with Arthur would however not leave her in a hurry. She secretly phoned Arthur four times from Rome when Worlasi left their hotel to attend to business convocations. She always phoned her mother thereafter too, so that she could expound to her husband why she had to make those long distance calls.

It looked like even far away there in Italy, Mabel's influence had not waned on Enyonam. It was whenever Mabel rang her from Ghana, that Enyonam had the urge to speak to Arthur. Mabel of course, jealous over her friend's good fortune with a loving husband, appeared to be doing all she could to lose everything for Enyonam. If there was anyway Worlasi would tell Enyonam to go to hell, Mabel was sure to want to speed that process up.

Mabel would always ring with nostalgic tales of how they all missed her and how Arthur especially, was having sleepless nights because of her absence.

Flattered beyond reason, Enyonam would phone her lover at the slightest opportunity she got.

Conversations with Arthur over the phone did not however sound like he was exactly dying because of her absence.

On more than one occasion while she was in Italy, she wondered whether someone had rapidly taken over her place in Arthur's life.

Knowing Arthur's reputation with women, especially the undergraduates, she suspected that, she had not left the shores of Ghana when her replacement was arranged for in Arthur's life.

Naively, and with the constant prompting from Mabel, she would however continue to convince herself that Arthur was being faithful.

If Enyonam had not been unreasonably occupied with Arthur's insincere charms, she would have had the time and wisdom to further appreciate that gem called Worlasi. Worlasi who had fought through countless battles of female temptation to remain faithful to her.

The bizarre idea that she could eat her cake and still have it, showed her immaturity in love affairs. Enyonam could never read beneath Mabel's motives in wanting her hitched to Arthur.

The alarm bells should have started to ring for Enyonam when she saw that Worlasi was beginning to dominate her life more than her husband. That was when she should have redefined her relationship with the white man and called it quits forever.

CHAPTER 12

So eager was she to come to Ghana to enjoy the unhealthy lifestyles of Arthur and company that, when the time was approaching for the university to resume the new semester, all she was reckoning of was coming back.

The grief Worlasi had already started expressing over her approaching departure for the domicile country, did not touch her at all.

On the surface however, she said all the right things to Worlasi, reiterating without meaning them, how she would miss him and how she felt awful going back to Ghana without him.

When Worlasi out of genuine concern, asked if she would like him to accompany her to Ghana for a few days, she promptly told him that, that would not be a good idea. After all in their life together as man and wife, they would have to be apart some of the time.

Worlasi came to see the logic in what she said, and on the last night prior to her departure to Ghana, they made passionate love. Passionate for Worlasi at least. Enyonam had to keep reckoning of Arthur and the good times she was anticipating to have with him at Legon, before she could achieve some degree of enjoyment in the love making.

The day she had fervently been waiting for when she would ultimately have to enplane for Ghana came at last. At the airport in Italy where Worlasi's entire family had come to see her off, Enyonam shed

tears that hardly touched her heart and promised her husband and in-laws that as soon as she was on holidays, she would come to Italy to see them.

She said this with a greater part of her mind on Arthur and that savage gang of Mabel and Blake. As soon as she reached Volta, she would ring them that she was at last on the shores of her unfaithful playing ground. And would they come down and drive her in style to Legon?

CHAPTER 13

It was Arthur who came to pick her at Volta in his white Camry Spider car. He was so astonished how good looking Enyonam had become in those fews hebdomads she had spent in Italy. She in turn told him that he didn't look bad himself.

Enyonam asked of Mabel and Blake, and Arthur naughtily told her that the last time he saw the two of them, which was the day before, they were making love. They might still be at it considering the incredible energy and passion the two of them possessed.

Enyonam laughed her head off at those dirty jokes said in that sophisticated manner, which made the ladies swoon over Jake Arthur.

On the Volta road to Legon, Arthur pulled in at a classy motel. He had earlier on, on his way to Volta, booked a room there. He would have a taste of the just come from Italy Enyonam even before they reached Legon.

When Enyonam saw his intention and protested playfully that he should have waited for them to get to his residence at Legon, he replied that if she wanted him to keep his mind on the driving, then he had to have a taste of the apple first before that long hunger drove him mad. And possibly drove his car mad as well. It was in their mutual interest therefore

for her to concur to his lecherous plan before they continued their journey.

With all those perverse antics that Jake Arthur employed when making love, Enyonam found that dirty pleasure which stood this white man out from Worlasi. Whenever Worlasi slept with her, he gave her too much veneration. Treated her too tenderly, as if she was his queen and he, his slave. It was evident that Worlasi was too much in love with her not to want to hurt her in any way.

With Arthur it was different. He took her as if he wanted to brutalise her, as if he was having her with the knowledge that she would never belong to him, so he had to take as much of her as he could when she was available. And this depraved treatment, was what brought that wicked pleasure to Enyonam when she was with Arthur.

That pleasure she could never have with Worlasi unless she thought of Jake Arthur.

The reunion with Mabel and Blake later at Legon called for a savage party at the motel where Blake smoked and drank into stupor. Mabel liked her manfriend when he was in this state. It made it easy for her to dip her hands into his pockets and confiscate anything valuable she found there.

After the savage bash, they got rooms there and enjoyed themselves the only way they knew how.

The savage relationship between Enyonam who used to be so respected on campus, and the town's famous playboy, soon became mediocre knowledge on campus and even in town.

There came to exist a strong possibility that someone would become so disgusted with her betrayal of Worlasi, so as to write to inform her husband in Italy about her misbehaviour.

Bizzarely, for a long time, nothing of the sort happened. All Worlasi's letters did not give any hint of him having heard anything bad about her. His only complaints was that these days, it took his wife too long to communicate.

Enyonam of course lied to him that the pressure of academic work was making her leisure periods more tight. She promised to ring more often anyway. This made her husband, Worlasi, very happy.

If only Worlasi had known that Arthur was lying in bed with his wife when the two of them were talking, heaven alone knows what he would do there in Italy.

With time, her academic performance which had been the envy of many students, began to be affected. It was only natural. Not much time was spent on her studies with Arthur in town. It was only a matter of course that her grades should fall.

Her lecturers, who had heard of her adventures with the white man, warned her of the perilous path

she was treading but all to no avail. It was as if just before she assumed the most germane pedestal in her life, Enyonam had suddenly gone mad, and was determined to destroy all the well planned life she had gradually built with Worlasi from secondary school.

Somehow, her naughty activities at Legon got to the ears of her mother at Volta who travelled all the way to Legon to ascertain things for herself.

Enyonam vehemently denied all that her mother had heard. She told her mother she was not doing anything she should not be doing.

When her mother left for Volta after earnestly warning her daughter to beware of the new life she was leading, Enyonam turned on her room mate Aisha, and had a bitter quarrel with her. She accused Aisha of having somehow conveyed the information about her and Arthur to her mother.

Aisha, who had protested at the plan to befriend Arthur, when Mabel and Enyonam first discussed it, said some nasty things to her room mate in return. In fact, had it not been for other students who heard of the noisy exchanges and came to separate them, it would have eventually resulted in a fight.

Without any shame, as soon as the quarrel was over, Enyonam rang Arthur who came to the campus and drove her away. It was as if she was now plainly

daring any person who was not in support of her liaison with Arthur, to do his worst.

Somehow, she just managed to scrape through the ultimate exams and got a less honourable third class degree. she didn't care. After all she had a job waiting for her in her husband's company in the United States.

What bothered her was the fact that it was getting to time when she would have to leave the interesting Arthur behind in Ghana, only to go and hitch herself perpetually with that dull Worlasi in Italy.

She and Arthur planned a thousand and one ways whereby they could manage to see each other even with that staggering distance between them, were she to leave ultimately for Italy.

If only she had studied Arthur well when they were making these plans, she would have noticed that the white man was not keen on extending the relationship beyond Enyonam's university tenure.

The reasons were twofold. First, Enyonam's passion and reliance on him was becoming something Arthur could not control. Arthur had never wanted a perpetual relationship with this colleen. It was obvious the silly colleen had her head in the clouds and was savagely infatuated with him.

Instead of showing seriousness with the good and loving husband she had in Italy, here she was fooling around with him Arthur, who would not take her anywhere.

That Enyonam was meshuga about him, Arthur had no qualm.Now that the colleen was done with her university education, he was praying that she would have the sense to go and join her husband in Italy and forget about him.

Arthur had a plan for another romantic fling in the new university academic year that did not include Enyonam. So if she suggested any savage scheme of not going to Italy to marry Worlasi, it could complicate matters.

Arthur simply wanted to wash her hands off her. The second reason why Arthur wanted to get rid of Enyonam was that, whatever his unscrupulous ways, he was after all a man, who would not want another woman treating him the way Enyonam was treating Worlasi.

If Worlasi had been a useless man, Arthur would not have minded the way Enyonam treated her husband. But obviously this Worlasi was a decent character. Arthur was not going to be a party any further in cheating on this nice guy.

It would be best, if as planned between husband and wife, Enyonam left Ghana to join Worlasi in Italy. That way a clean cut would be made to a sordid game that had gone on for far too long.

Arthur had even planned how to hasten the death of the relationship between him and Enyonam if she left to join her husband abroad. He would wait for her

to ring him from there, and then he would brutally tell her that everything was over between them.

Of course she would grieve and go mad over it. But with time she would come to thank him for helping to save her marriage.

Yes, that was it! Arthur resolved. Everything would end as soon as Enyonam left to join Worlasi in Italy.

It would be best for all concerned!

CHAPTER 14

Man, it is said, will always propose. God on the other hand would have excellent reasons for disposing.

Without the knowledge of Enyonam, Arthur had laid out his plans to end his unwholesome affair with her as soon as she left for Italy.

That however was not to be!

Anonymous to Enyonam, Worlasi had other plans to make life easy and more independent for his new wife and himself.

Assuming, probably accurately, that he would feel imposed upon while working in his father's company, Worlasi had put aside some money to come and sow the seeds of his own business in Ghana.

Besides, he felt there were better opportunities for growth in his own homeland than he could ever hope for in Italy where the business competition was fiercer.

Worlasi's next letter to Enyonam was to report that, with the little money he had put aside, he was coming to Ghana to commence a car importing business.

Enyonam whooped in joy and went and showed the letter to Arthur, anticipating the white man to share her elation at the opportunity Worlasi had provided them to continue with their illegal relationship. Arthur however was less than pleased, a development Enyonam could not perceive.

Of course she did not know that Arthur had planned to end his relationship with her. Things had become complicated for the calculating Arthur with Worlasi's new plan. But for the scatterbrain Enyonam, the surprise was why the white man was not happy.

True to his word, Worlasi came down to Ghana with a substantial amount of money and a bought a house at the Paradise Estates at Legon. There, he resided with his lovely but unfaithful wife, Enyonam.

Enyonam herself got a job as a laboratory technician in a private health centre.

The maiden few hebdomads of Worlasi's coming to Ghana were so busy for the young couple that Enyonam did not have time to reckon of Arthur at all.

This made the white man happy. He thought and hoped that everything would now be over between the savagely perfervid/dithyrambic Enyonam and himself, so that she could concentrate on her marriage, and he, his life.

He, Jake Arthur, might even consider getting married himself. It was getting late for him.

With the married couple at East Legon and he at North Legon, it made things easy. At least it would not be easy for him and Enyonam to see each other frequently.

Arthur however was not to contemplate the twist in the couple's life at East Legon that would again ignite the fiery love affair between him and Enyonam.

As a car importer who had the bulk of his imports from Germany, Belgium and other European countries, it was necessary for him to make periodic trips out of the country to conduct business.

At first, Enyonam had tried to bear the loneliness of having to stay in that brobdingnagian domicile all alone when Worlasi was out of the country. But with time, the travels became frequent and more demanding.

It looked like having now come close to her, Worlasi was now not so much obsessed with Enyonam's charms, and could afford to be away from her for long periods of time.

One Saturday, Arthur was in his domicile with his new catch-a new undergraduate from the university-when Enyonam burst in all the way from East Legon. She walked straight into her Arthur's bedroom and lay on the bed with the new colleen.

The colleen took one look at the expensively dressed Enyonam, and the more expensive Mercedes she had come from East Legon in, and fled Arthur's domicile. If Enyonam had been a mediocre colleen, she could have contested her for Arthur's love. But not this very expensive 'heavy Mama', whom Arthur obviously knew very well.

Even though Arthur hardly wanted it, Enyonam crashing in like that, was to restart that hot love. That love affair that had begun that ante meridiem on the campus

of the University three years ago, when she decided to walk to the Science Department.

Worlasi's travels abroad brought lots of financial benefits to the couple, but hardly did it ginger up their love life. Worlasi's working sojourn in Italy had made him so business minded to the exclusion of many other significant things in life.

To raise the curtains, making love with Worlasi had never produced sparks before. With the bulk of his mind now on business and more business, his love life further dwindled.

If Enyonam herself had wanted, she could have spoken about this significant issue so that both of them could see how they could resolve it. But knowing that she had an alternative in Arthur, Enyonam simply shut her mind to her husband's sexual inadequacies, and enjoyed his money at East Legon, and Arthur's love at North Legon.

When Worlasi was in Ghana though, he tried to make up for his absence by planning recreations which to Enyonam were simply childish.

Scheduling weekends at beaches and film shows was not what Enyonam had been weaned on when he was in Italy. All she understood in the language of entertainment was drinking and topping such savage revelry with a good bout of love. That was entertainment the Arthur way.

The kind of entertainment her husband Worlasi would never know.

Visiting the Aburi Gardens and enjoying the wonders of nature and having opportunities to meditate, might mean a lot to Worlasi, but to her Enyonam, it was just a waste of time.

Despite this obvious incompatibility in their love lives, Worlasi and Enyonam enjoyed a good measure of serenity, and apart from those little misunderstandings, they never had such explosive quarrels that other couples with similitude problems experienced.

Between them, things were relatively phlegmatic and smooth like surface of a lake without breeze.

There was however this 'sharp edged rock' that hid just below the surface of the 'lake'. The odious relationship between Enyonam and Arthur anytime Worlasi travelled abroad, could not forever go on without something explosive happening. It was okay when Worlasi was perpetually stationed in Italy. Now that he was home with his wife now, even though not all the time, it made Enyonam's double game especially appalling. And perilous!

The absence of Worlasi in town turned out to be fun time for the love thieves. As soon as Worlasi was seen off at the airport, Enyonam would promptly ring Arthur and plan for a reunion. Either she would speed to North Legon after work if it was a work day, or Arthur would come down to Accra, since he had his own job and never particularly kept any working hours.

Arthur had by this time also failed in his resolve to end the unhealthy relationship between him and Enyonam. Not while Enyonam threw herself at him this way,he could not do it.

The illicit act lasted for a full year before their 'cup' became full.

CHAPTER 15

The cup emptied in disgrace when Worlasi planned one weekend to travel to France. When the Saturday he was to travel came however, he was down with an earnest bout of malaria. There was no way he could make the journey then, so it had to be rescheduled.

Because she cherished Jake Arthur's company much more than she did her husband's, as soon as Worlasi announced his intention to go to France, Enyonam telephoned her lover at North Legon and gave him the good news. Arthur halsened to race to East Legon on the Saturday Worlasi would be leaving. He also said she should ring to give him the ultimate all clear green light before he took off from

North Legon on Saturday.

On that Saturday, the abruptness and severity of Worlasi's sickness unsettled everything in the domicile so much so that it totally escaped Enyonam to make the call to Arthur. Things were made even more difficult as the couple's domicile maid usually took the day off every Saturday. Which meant that Enyonam had to take care of her ailing husband.

Around nine in the ante meridiem, when she had ensured that Worlasi had his bath, his meal, and medicines, she left him to go to the market to buy things to come and make some light soup for him.

She left her husband sleeping on the rug in the parlour.

Meanwhile at Legon, an expectant Arthur was impatiently pacing the parlour of his own domicile. Why hadn't Enyonam rung to give him the signal that it was okay for him to proceed to East Legon to meet her? He would wait for a few minutes and if the expected call did not come through, he would call the domicile himself.

Around ten, Worlasi, still lying on the rug in his parlour, was swinging between light sleep and heavy ones. A little to his right, on the centre table, was the telephone.

At exactly ten fifteen, the telephone rang noisily. The sound cut through Worlasi's fevered brain like a sharp cutlass through a sheaf of grass. He cursed and ignored the phone. He was hoping that whoever it was ringing would perceive that there was nobody at home and halt ringing.

Worlasi was not afraid that it would be any significant caller. Any significant caller for himself or Enyonam, would not use the general phone number, but would use their individual mobile phone numbers.

Whoever the caller was, would however not let up. The telephone kept jarring mercilessly on his nerves that Worlasi had no choice but to pick it up and attempt to utter a feeble 'hello' into it.

Even before he could inquire who the caller was, an excited foreign voice blurted out a bizarre message: "Hello Sweetheart, this is the real owner of your body asking if the coast is distinct for me to come over. Has that non-performer of a husband left for France as he said he would?"

If there had not been that mention of 'France', Worlasi would not have been sure that the call was for Enyonam, and that it was he the caller was talking about in that derogatory manner.

It only meant one thing. Enyonam had all the time been cheating on him whenever he left the country, and she even had the lack of decency to discuss her husband with her lover in very demeaning language. Women!

So flabbergasted and uncertain did he become that Worlasi just dropped the phone on the cradle and cut off the caller. As soon as he had done that however, he reckoned that it was the right thing to do.

If he spoke, the caller might know at once that it was not Enyonam who was receiving the call, and would promptly shut up. Since it sounded as if the caller was very intimate with his own wife Enyonam, it was very likely that he would recognize any imitation of Enyonam's voice.

Worlasi felt cutting him off would make the caller think that the phone had accidentally cut off. He was going to wait for Enyonam to come. If she had any call

again, he would secretly listen in from the bedroom telephone and hear what they say to each other.

Meanwhile he would lift off the receiver so that the caller would not be able to get through to him again till Enyonam returned from the emporium.

Worlasi was a patient man who always preferred to conclude all necessary investigations before he came to a conclusion on any subject.

With his aching body, he stood back and looked intently at the telephone which a short while ago had brought him that damaging message. Enyonam! Who would have thought her capable of such treachery after all he had done for her? Just goes to show the truth in the saying that the insect that bites you resides in your clothing.

Meanwhile he would give his wife the benefit of the doubt and bide his time, till he had got all the sordid facts in his hands. He would then confront her with the evidence.

But Enyonam! How ungrateful some people could be. Was it not this very Enyonam whom he had practically lifted from the pit of penury all the way from secondary school and made her a human person of significance? How could she stab him so painfully in the back in repayment? How long had she been playing this double game on him anyway?

With his mind muddled in confusion and pain, he walked slowly to the bedroom and lay on his bed to wait for Enyonam.

CHAPTER 16

Enyonam came back from the shopping around midday to meet her husband reposing in the sofa. She asked her how his body was, and he responded that it was getting better. He did not do or say anything that would draw his wife's suspicions as to what he had heard.

"I plan to prepare some light soup for you", she said,"it will help you to get better quicker."

"I pray so." Worlasi said hopefully. "It's been a long time since I got this really sick, and it has actually unsettled me."

"I tell you, you work too hard but you will never give yourself any meaningful rest", Enyonam reprimanded him. "Why won't you get sick?"

Worlasi attempted a feeble smile. "If I don't work hard where will we get money to feed?"

"Must you get that money at the expense of your life?" Enyonam asked as she began unpacking the basket she had taken to the emporium. "Anyway let me get to the kitchen and get the soup ready."

As she turned to go to the kitchen, Worlasi silently assaulted her back with a vicious look. Truly it is said that a human head is not like pawpaw that you can cut open and see what is inside. To think Enyonam, who professed so much love for him, would so sadly take another man behind his back.

The more he reflected on the issue, the more effete he felt. He rose up from the sofa and toddled over the bedroom and endeavoured to lull himself to sleep with some jazz music. His plan was that, he would be in the bedroom and pick the extension phone as soon as it rang and hope that Enyonam picks it at the same time in the parlour to speak too.

He would then listen and know who it was who called and what exactly he is to his wife, Enyonam.

Although he had stout suspicions about what that bizarre or selcouth caller was to his wife.

Enyonam was in the kitchenette chopping the carrots to the desired pieces when she remembered Arthur.

"Gracious me!" she mumbled to herself. "I must call Arthur and tell him the programme is off!"

As she hurried to the telephone in the parlour, she wondered what had made her forget to convey such an important reminder to her lover. She only hoped that Arthur had not taken off from North Legon to East Legon.

Arthur in the bedroom had anticipated to hear the telephone ring. He had not however anticipated the single 'ping' that the second phone would make, if someone picked up the one in the parlour to make a call from the domicile.

So when Enyonam picked up the phone in the parlour, Worlasi in the bedroom had not paid very much attention to the fact that the parlour telephone had

been activated. He as such missed the interlocution that went on between Enyonam and her lover.

In the parlour Enyonam made an imprecation to herself undertones.

As soon as Arthur came on the line, she cupped the mouthpiece with her hands and looked surreptitiously towards the bedroom door. "Arthur, is that you?" she mumbled.

"Who else?" the white man roared. "Why did you take such a long time to ring?"

"I am remorseful/conscious-stricken but it escaped me."

"Escaped you?" Arthur roared again. "How could it escape you? Anyway is he gone?"

"That's the problem." Enyonam spoke even more quietly. "He is green around the gills."

"My God!" Arthur cursed. "And I rang the domicile this ante meridiem. Was it you who picked it up?"

A cold shower fell on Enyonam. "Oh no, I was not in the domicile at that time." She added quickly. "Did you say anything incriminating?"

"Er no", Arthur lied. "The telephone cut off even before I could say anything. "I tried ringing back again, but anytime I rang, it was engaged."

"Thank God for that anyway." Enyonam breathed heavily in relief. "I can't say much now. He is in the domicile. I will call you later and say everything. I love you Arthur."

She hung up before he could say anything else.

"Who were you speaking to?"

Enyonam was lousily startled. She had not seen Worlasi silently come into the parlour. She like a scalded cat pulled herself together anyway.

"A colleague of mine at the sanatorium."

"What is so secretive that you had to speak to her as if you were planning to murder somebody? Why so quietly?"

Enyonam's heart bounced about uncontrollably. Did her husband know anything? Did he suspect her infidelity?

She laughed a laugh that did not touch her heart.

"Would you actually like to know what we women dicuss when we talk to each other?"

Worlasi laughed along with her. "If it is woman business then count me out. Is the soup ready?"

"Ebei Worlasi, do you reckon I am a machine, it would take a while to cook."

During the next few days Enyonam watched her husband very meticulously to see if he would do or say anything that would suggest that he knew something about her secret adventures. But her husband never gave her any cause to worry. And that made Enyonam reckon that Worlasi did not know anything about all what was going on.

By the second hebdomad, Worlasi was well enough to embark on the journey to France that he had had to postpone earlier.

Enyonam was to go to work that Friday, and Worlasi told her not to bother to see him off as one of his friends would drive him to the airport. They said their good byes with a lot of kisses and Enyonam left for the health centre where she worked.

From her workplace, she made a call to Arthur at North Legon that the coast was now clear, and that he could come the following day, Saturday, and they could have the whole day to themselves.

The next day, Saturday, Arthur was punctually at their famous point of rendezvous at a Legon guest domicile. He went in and booked their favourite room and waited for the white Mercedes which Enyonam always brought.

At the halsened time, Enyonam dressed casually, and endeavouring to look incognito, drove in. She parked the car in an obscure place and smiled to herself when she saw Arthur's BMW. She trotted excitedly up the steps and quietly slipped into the room where her lover Arthur was waiting impatiently for her.

Before long, they were locked in a passionate embrace.

Ten minutes after Enyonam joined Arthur in the room upstairs, a young man who was sitting in the reception with a bottle of beer in front of him, quietly brought out his mobile phone, dialled a number, and spoke only five words into it. "She is here with him."

CHAPTER 17

"Thank you Geoffery, I am on my way." Worlasi answered the caller from the Guest House at Legon. He had stationed the young man there to spy on the love birds.

A secret message had earlier come through his mobile phone that the double game between his wife and the white man, was usually consummated at the Guest Domicile at Legon. Worlasi had not known who the caller was. But it was a female voice and simply described herself as a friend.

When therefore Worlasi had told his wife Enyonam that he was now going on the trip to France, it had not been his intention to go at all. He had gone to sleep in a first class hotel, and engaged the domicile boy of a friend, to go to the guest domicile and see if his wife would come there.

The domicile boy who did not know Enyonam personally, had been shown her picture and been sufficiently described by Worlasi.

The first day Worlasi left the domicile, that was the Friday, the love birds had not come to the Guest Domicile. The domicile boy had gone back the following day to bribe the receptionist, and he had been allowed to keep watch.

This Saturday was a fortunate one. The boy, Geoffery, had been there when the white man with the BMW, as

the anonymous caller had described to Worlasi, came in.

A short time later, Enyonam's Mercedes came in too.

That was when the domicile boy called Worlasi in his hotel room.

Worlasi had planned his strategy to perfection. He told three mutual friends of his and Enyonam's, that he wanted them to accompany him to check on some business deal with a white man at the Legon Guest Domicile. He added that he wanted those friends, one man and two women, to be his witnesses in the business deal.

Worlasi never told them that he wanted them to be witnesses to the revelation that his beloved wife Enyonam, had been two timing on him for a long time with a white man.

As the four friends piled into a rented car with Worlasi at the wheel, all the other three knew was that, they were going to be witnesses at a business deal.

When they pulled up at the Guest Domicile, Worlasi went to book a room. While the receptionist was writing down the details of his booking, he saw the name of Jake Arthur in the space allotted to Room 20 in the register.

Worlasi smiled to himself.

As he took his key and climbed upstairs, he walked straight with his friends behind him and knocked on Room 20. At first there was no response. He knocked again.

"Who?" A male voice came from inside.

"Waiter." Worlasi imitated a bizarre voice to the astonishment of his friends.

The door cautioulsy opened, and Worlasi rapidly put a foot in and forced it wide open. He rushed inside and was followed by the two women and one man who all knew both Worlasi and Enyonam very well.

They were all to see both Enyonam and the white man in advanced states of undress, and in very compromising positions.

There was nothing more to say. Only shock and consternation from the onlookers, and shame and dismay from the two love birds. Enyonam was the most stricken.

having made his point, Worlasi led his bewildered friends out and quietly closed the door after them.

He had not said a word throughout the whole drama.

Enyonam herself consented to divorce even before Worlasi asked for it. She did not contest for any of his property since she did not want the whole sordid affair to be made public.

The shame and disgrace of going back to convene his family and friends with this story, made her so sick

that she developed heart attack and on more than two occasions, came very near to death.

As her health failed her, her ability to work also diminished. She became a very poor sad woman indeed. Arthur, too, lousily panic-stricken by the experience from Worlasi, refused to have anything to do with Enyonam again.

One thing Enyonam was never to know till her death day was that it was her friend Mabel who had rung Worlasi from her base in Nalerigu and told everything about Arthur and Enyonam, to Worlasi.

And since Worlasi himself never mentioned any anonymous caller, Enyonam felt it was a mistake on her path which had caused Worlasi to be suspicious. Things remained like that especially as Worlasi never heard from that anonymous caller again.

THE END!!

Chapter 2 - THE REPERCUSSIONS OF SUBTERFUGE(DECEPTION)

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