The little boy slowly got off his grandfather’s laps and came slowly toward me, looking intently at me, his gentle eyes missing nothing. And then he sat down beside me slowly and smiled in a beautiful way that transformed his face into a bashful explosion of handsomeness.
“She has the inner glow, Grandpa,” he said with a giggle. “She’s good. But she was behaving madly when I saw her this morning. Mad indeed!”
The old man smiled, an exact replica of her grandson.
“Ah, even Jesus got angry at a certain stage, Nana Kojo,” he said gently. “So she must have had a reason. Is she listening?”
I nodded, and I was so touched to find people who could hear me, who could react to me, that I felt so much like bursting into tears.
“Well, I am Pastor Nana Kofi,” the old man said gently. “Retired now. My son, Nana Kwame, was also a pastor, but he died with his wife in a motor accident five years ago. His son, Nana Kojo, has lived with me ever since. He’s a very wonderful young man who’s going to be a great man of God someday.”
The little boy smiled at that, obviously pleased, and I smiled too.
“Pleased to meet both of you,” I whispered unsteadily.
“She’s pleased to meet us, Grandpa,” Nana Kojo said. “Are you really Abram’s mother? He’s my friend. I’ve been feeling really sad for him.”
“Yes, yes, I am, dear,” I said in a rush. “My name is Afia Ansah.”
“She’s the mother of one of my friends, Grandpa,” the boy said. “She’s called Afia Ansah.”
“Ah, pleased to meet you, Afia,” the retired pastor said as he leaned back. “My dear wife was also called Afia. Passed away just last year peacefully in her sleep.”
“Oh, I’m sorry about that,” I said.
The young boy was using his hands in the sign language as I spoke, and the old man was looking at him intently. It dawned on me then that this was not the first time these two had been involved in something like this. To save him the problem of always repeating my words, he was interpreting in the sign language to his grandfather.
They were a wonderful duo, and if I could I would have given them very warm hugs.
“Oh, it is fine, it is fine,” the old man said. “She passed on to a better place to wait for me. I’ve asked the good Lord to extent my days for a while and keep me strong so that I can be with this wonderful boy for a while. He has only me now, you know. And the Lord saw it fit to give him this marvellous gift of seeing Hovering Souls. I assume you’re a Hoverer, right?”
“Yes!” I almost shouted, glad that they understood so much about my situation and seemed so very comfortable with it. “I was given five hovering days by the angel. This is the third day.”
“Aha,” the pastor said. “Well, as you may be aware, there are gentle souls, like you, and there are really wicked souls too. Those wicked ones sometimes try to use my grandson to hurt people once they realize he had the gift to see them. Some too just become violent that they could be seen, and try to hurt him badly. The Lord protects him, always, but he’s still a little boy, a little soldier on the battlefield of the Lord, and sometimes he gets really scared, you know.”
“I can imagine,” I whispered and lifted a hand, touching the young man’s cheek fondly, and he smiled at me with those gentle eyes on his face.
“That was why he was obviously scared today,” the pastor continued.
“I was desperate!” I cried. “I’m so sorry, Nana Kojo. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“That’s okay, ma’am,” he said softly. “I try to be brave sometimes, but it is not easy with you spirits doing those crazy mad things.”
And I burst into laughter then, and he joined me, and at that moment my hurt, bitterness and loneliness evaporated in a puff, and I felt so at peace and so restful.
“I take it you need some things done, Afia, before you pass along on your journey?” Pastor Kofi asked gently.
“I do,” I said hoarsely. “Oh, yes, I do!”
And so, I spoke, and the little boy’s dexterous hands interpreted my words, my tale, my pain, to the old pastor.
I did not see any doubt on his face, or fear, or even reluctance. Instead, surprisingly, I saw his fury rising, but not against me; he was mad at the snakes.
The pastor stood up when my tale was done and walked to the window with his back to me. He stood there for a full ten minutes, and then he turned and faced me.
“We’re going to help you,” he said softly. “I believe your ex-husband will try and see your son tomorrow, maybe early in the morning before he goes to school. Tonight, let’s pay this Lawyer Samson Asante a visit, and then in the morning, we will visit your parents, and hopefully meet your Korku. But first, I need to pray, and NK needs to eat. So, if you don’t mind, wait for us for a bit, Afia.”
If I could, I would have wept bitterly!
Oh, the Lord was so wonderful!
Oh, dearest me, finally, there was going to be a way out of this quagmire of horror I found myself in.
Visit www.pobsonline.com for more amazing stories
***
I left the old man to go and pray, but I stayed with the young Nana Kojo as he went to the kitchen to fetch some food. He took off the lid of a pan on the oven, and it contained rice. The smaller pan contained leftover soup, and he scowled suddenly.
“Not to your taste?” I asked, feeling pity for him.
“Grandpa is a horrible cook,” he said with a giggle.
“You prefer something different?” I asked sympathetically.
“Oh, yeah!” he said, nodding his head. “Some jollof and chicken wouldn’t be bad!”
“Maybe I can guide you to prepare some if you’re not too hungry,” I offered.
“Oh, cool!” he exclaimed. “Radical! You’re one cool soul, ma’am! Let’s prepare it!”
And so, I had a lot of fun with that little gentleman as I guided him to prepare probably the most sumptuous jollof and chicken he had ever tasted. Eventually, after about an hour, the pastor came to the kitchen with his nose wriggling.
“Ah, something smells real sweet in here!” he said.
“I prepared it!” Nana Kojo exclaimed. “Boomlicious jollof!”
“Ghost jollof, more like!” the old man said, and we all burst into laughter.
It was a joy watching that boy enjoying his food, and he reminded me so much of Abram that I felt sad.
“Well, Afia, listen up,” Pastor Kofi said. “As you might have surmised, yours is not the first case we’ve handled.”
“I thought as much,” I replied.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Nana Kojo said as he raised his spoon. “Please, can you wait until I finish my food? Sign language whilst enjoying my food is really unfair, don’t you think?”
“You glutton!” his grandpa said as I laughed, but we allowed him to finish eating, and then we went to the living room again.
“As I said, the dear God brings hovering souls to us to help,” the pastor continued. “Ever since I discovered the gift in my grandson, we’ve been helping people for about four years now. I have managed to surround myself with Christian professionals who believe in what we do. For your case, I called Chief Inspector Gifty Quartey. She will accompany us to go and see Lawyer Samson Asante. I assume you would want to change your Will again?”
“Oh, yes, yes, yes!” I cried fiercely. “But alas, I cannot sign it!”
“Don’t worry, you will sign it alright,” Pastor Kofi said. “It will be backdated to a week before your death, witnessed by the Chief Inspector.”
“Can you really do that?” I asked, faint with hope and feeling like crying. “Please, don’t you give me a hope that will fail me, I beg of you.”
“Teach her, NK,” the pastor said to his grandson.
Nana Kojo looked at me, and then he looked at his grandfather with unease.
“Grandpa, you didn’t see her going at that woman in the store!” he said softly, his face serious. “If I teach her…she can really kill people!”
“Teach me what?” I asked softly, confused.
Pastor Kofi turned to me, and his face was grave.
“Listen, Afia, we’re in two dimensions here, okay?” he said, and I nodded. “Your dimension is a fast, spiritual dimension. We can teach you how to move physical objects, and how to touch people! But, because your dimension is fast and a spiritual one, your actions here can be very disastrous! If you hit someone with vengeance, for instance, it could kill that person instantly. That would be plain murder, and it would instantly revoke your passage to the Lord, and land you in a very bad place. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I do,” I whispered. “I don’t want to kill anyone. I just want to teach them a lesson or two, that’s all, please.”
“You promise?” he asked seriously.
“I promise, please,” I whispered.
The pastor turned to his grandson.
“You need to teach her because she has to sign that new Will,” he said. “But keep an eye on her, and make sure she controls her impulses!”
I could barely believe it when Nana Kojo took me to a large library off the hall, and there he gently told me how to move physical objects.
Since my spiritual realm was a fast one, he taught me how to move very, very slowly and focus hard with my mind.
At first, it was a little bit difficult, and my hand just went through objects, but he was very gentle and an incredibly good teacher, and within the hour I was able to push the swivel chair backwards!
From there, it was easy, and about an hour later, he put a black sheet of paper with dotted lines at the base on the desk, and slowly put a pen beside it.
“Kindly sign on the dotted lines, please,” he said.
And it was a marvellously thrilling moment when I slowly picked up the pen, hovered it over the lines, and signed my signature!
I screamed with sheer bliss and slammed into him to hug him, and my excited momentum knocked him clear off his feet and slammed him into the bookcase with sickening force, toppling him hard on the floor!
I screamed with fear and great trepidation as I rushed to his side.
“Oh, NK, are you okay, oh dear Lord! I’m sorry, oh, I’m so sorry, NK!’ I moaned as I gathered him in my arms and touched his cheeks gently.
He opened his eyes and looked at me.
“You’re dangerous, ma’am,” he said painfully.
I laughed with relief and gave him a great hug.
“It is enough, please,” he said and tried to move away.
“Why, you don’t want my hug?” I asked, sounding hurt.
“No,” he said. “It feels like being hugged by an iced block!”
I laughed and released him.
Yes, it was a happy moment…
Dem die finish!
To be continued
