This short story was published about three months ago but I decided to republish it with litle edit for my new readers.
"You are such a useless child. Will you ever amount to anything in life?" questioned Mr John rhetorically while he moved towards his car. "She may end up like her mother. Not far from it." he muttered to himself while nudging the wife Edna to enter the car. Jane kept weeping while shivering under the cold. It was early morning in winter. Winter in Ghana, a West African country, is marked by extreme cold in the morning with a very dusty atmosphere.
Jane was raised by Sister Rachael after the imprisonment of her mother. Jane's mother, Ria who was John's first wife, was a very pretty woman. Her life was destroyed by a combination of poor parental upbringing with a terrible addiction to alcohol and heroin. Ria took to drinking and doing drugs at the age of fifteen far before she met John whom she fell in love with.
John worked in a new generation bank In Accra Ghana. When the pressure from his parents got too much on him over Ria, he decided to elope with Ria to Takoradi; a Ghanian suburb where there were a lot of addicts like Ria.Things moved on well initially until John got broke. It was at this time that John found out that he could not cope with Ria's addiction. It dawned on him that he had married her mostly because of her beauty.
Ria lost every decency she had as a married woman. She got overwhelmed by her addiction to heroin and alcohol. On several occasion she would go out and drink so much that she would not know how to get home. Sometimes good Samaritans would bring her home. On few occasions, she never got home for a night.
The worst happened when she got pregnant for Jane. She went to a bar about 30 kilometers away from their home. John Looked everywhere for her all to no avail. She slept in the bar and was taken home by a fellow addict. She stayed with her new lover addict for three days before John could find out.
This nearly gave John high blood pressure because he had no one to run to. Ria's parents had given up on her long time ago even before John married her. Eventually, Ria gave birth to Jane, abandoned her at the age of two and ran away with her new lover addict. John took Jane to his sister Rachael who lived in Accra with the husband. It was Rachael that raised up Jane till high school when she entered into the boarding school.
Ria's life took a different turn when she was arrested alongside her new lover Jerry in connection to a robbery incident. They were prosecuted and sent to twenty-five years imprisonment. The news came as a shock to John who by this time had started dating Edna. He went just once to Takoradi prison to see his ex wife. He regretted giving up early on Ria who was all tears as he visited. She still looked elegant even in prison uniform with her unkempt hair.
Edna paused for a while after he heard John shout on his daughter Jane. The school principal had called John to tell him that Jane was not doing well in class because she was following bad gang. It was like a deja vu for John who thought that Jane was taking the foot step of her mother. "Honey that was harsh" Edna counseled. She moved closer to Jane and gave her a hug. Immediately, Jane broke down in tears. "He never loved me," she whispered. "No dearie, your father and I do love you very much," replied Edna. "He does not visit me in school and he hardly calls me," continued Jane. "Dearie, your father and I promise to visit you every Saturday starting from this week," Edna whispered.
To be continued.....
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