A FATHER’S PAIN
WRITTEN BY MICHAEL DOKOSI
EPISODE 15
We all rose to our feet, sitting down only after the judge had taken his seat.seat. All the lawyers in the room bowed lightly to the judge before taking their seats once more.
I sat down calmly in-between my lawyer and his p@rtner, K.A. Ofori . None of my relatives or friends were in court with me to give me moral support because only my house-help, Efe, and my driver, knew about the case. I had kept everyb©dy in the dark. My colleague doctors also knew about the case but did not know we were in court litigating over my fatherhood of my children.
Two cases were called and dealt with. The first case was a theft case involving an old man who was arrested for stealing food someb©dy had bought. He pleaded guilty to the charge of stealing. The judge, one could see, felt sorry for the old man. He warned him not to steal again even if he was hungry. Then he discharged him, warning him that the next time he is brou-ght before him, he would deal drastically with him.
The second case was an armed robbery case. Three armed robbers, with their police esc-rts were taken to the dock and then the handcuffs re-moved from their hands. They had alre-ady pleaded guilty to various charges and had been brou-ght to receive their s£ntences. The judge describe-d them as the scu-m of life and then jailed each of them 25 years in ha-rd labour. Then my case was called.My estranged wife and I got up. The registrar got up to tell the judge that the DNA test had been conducted.
“The envelope I have in my hand contains the result. The envelope was sealed in the pres£nce of the two people here, I mean Dr. OforiMensah and Mrs. Nora Ofori- Mensah Both of them signed on the seal. Their respective lawyers signed as their witnesses. Now, I will give each of them the envelope to check if the seal had been broken or not” the Registrar said.
He gave me the envelope. I checked the seal. Everything showed the seal had not been opened. Nora, my lawyer and then Nora’s lawyer all took turns to check the seal. With all of us satisfied, the judge ordered the envelope to be opened and the contents re-ad to the hearing of everyb©dy.
The Registrar complied. He began to open the seal. I was calm, confident that I was going to be vindicated. I looked over at Nora. She too looked calm, and in fact confident.
The Registrar finished opening the envelope and pu-ll-ed out a piece of paper in it. The judge asked him to re-ad the content.
The court room was dead quiet. The Registrar began to re-ad. The sum totality of what he re-ad simply meant that the DNA test had proven that I was not the biological father of my children. Or, perhaps, I did not hear the Registrar well.
I looked over at where my estranged wife sat; beaming with a smile, she was hvgging my son. She looked victorious and this meant I had heard the Registrar well. She turned to hvg her brother who was sitting behind her.
“What did the DNA result say?” I asked my lawyer, who putting a hand on my shoulder said all was well so I should take it like a man.
“Take what like a man? You mean the result showed that Peter and Pamela are not my children?” I asked, the tone of my voice rising.
“plea-se calm down and lower your voice or the judge will be angry with you. The judge is about to speak. Let us listen to him first” my lawyer pleaded with me.
I could hear the sound of my heart as it beat violently in its place of abode in my che-st. I could see my wife jubilating. The judge began to speak.
“…the result is conclusive that Dr. Ofori-Mensah is not the biological father of Peter and Pamela. The wish of Madam Nora that Dr. Ofori-Mensah should not come anywhere near the two children must therefore be respected” he said in p@rt.
A FATHER’S PAIN
WRITTEN BY MICHAEL DOKOSI
EPISODE 16
At this juncture, I felt like getting up and screaming out to the judge that not even he can take my children away from me. But somehow, I managed to restrain myself.
The judge then went on to direct that I should stay away from my children forever for my own good until they are of age and can decide things for themselves. Then he proceeded to advise me to move on with my life saying such misfortunes happen but those who retreat quic-kly and find new directions in life become successful.
“plea-se take heart. Truth is often painful but it is always good to know the truth. I see you struggling with your emotions and I can un-derstand what you are going throu-gh…”
Suddenly, something in me snapped. I threw caution to the wind and took on the judge. As I spoke, he stared at me in surprise.
“No! You don’t know how I feel! You have just given away my children and you say you un-derstand how I feel! How can you?” I began. My lawyer, shocked at my outbur-st was pu-lling at my shi-t very ha-rd , signaling me to st©p but I continued.
“You are sitting there telling me to accept that my children, who have my blood flowing in them are not my children and you say you un-derstand how I feel!”
At this juncture, my lawyer, realizing that he could not st©p me got up and began to plead with the judge not to hold my outbur-st against me. His attempt at st©pping me from talking began to annoy me. I shifted from addressing the judge to addressing him.
“Why are you trying to st©p me from talking? In fact, I don’t nee-d your services again as my lawyer. You are fired!” I screamed at him.
He tried to make light work of my as-sertion that I have fired him. Obviously scared that the judge may cite me for contempt, he tried to pu-ll me out of the court room.
“Counsel, let him be. I un-derstand his outbur-st. You let him be,” the judge said. As a result of his directive, my lawyer let off me and sat down.
“You think you un-derstand me, huh? You think that I am an unfortunate man who nee-ds the help of a psychiatrist, huh? Well, you are wrong. For your information, I am going to have my children back. Nothing will st©p me from having them.”
The judge could no longer take my outbur-st. He ordered the policemen on duty to come take me away from the court room.
Three policemen immediately began to encircle me. I ignored them and continued to verbally lash out at the judge. They gr@bb£d me and led me out of the court room.
I soon found myself in the car parking lot of the court. The policemen who brou-ght me out tried to calm me down. The magnitude of what my estranged wife had done, and which was not p@rt of the issue before the court was known to some of the officials of the court and this made some of them sympathize with me.
“Sir, hmmmmm. Just take heart. This is very painful. Women!!! Women!!! Hmmmm! Trust a woman and you are s£ntencing yourself to death,” one of the men said in solidarity with me.
Pres£ntly, I saw my lawyer come out of the court room with his p@rtner. Few seconds later, my wife and then my children also filed out of the court room. My wife, for obvious reasons, looked triumphant. I began to scream at her.
“Nora! You can smile now but I bet you, you will soon cry,” I shouted.
Tbc