THE SECOND
SIGHT
Chapter 18
A FATHER’S LOVE
Location: Various
Yaw Boat calls his father.
The way things are going, he had expected his phone to jam up. Maybe the wide-world phone reception would be messed up, not for everybody, no sir, but only for him, no calling for Mr. Yaw Boat.
But, surprisingly, the lines are not messed up.
The phone call goes throu-ghall the way to Ontario, Canada.
Boat has a lot of emergency numbers which his old man had given me. He can reach his father in almost any country. The numbers are mostly where his father lodged in any particular country.
The phone goes priinnnn-prinnn…priinnnn-prinnn in his ears.
Damn, the call is really going throu-gh!
Suddenly he hears a voice in his ears, one of those melodious female voices which makes you picture a face instantly, and makes you crave to meet its owner.
It rattles on in his ear, and Boat demands to speak to his father. The voice demands to know who is calling, please.
BOAT
Yaw Boat, his son.
There is a sudden intake of breath, a new note of humility, a hurried plea for him to hold on a second, please, and then a second later, his father’s rich baritone voice booms in his ear, full of concern … worried, loving, tender.
JOE BOAT
(tenderly)
Junior? How’re you, son? Been trying to reach you, my boy, but the network has been lousy!
He sounds so close and gentle, as if he is sitting right beside Boat with an arm dra-ped across his shoulder, one of his favourite postures when he is with his son.
Boat is so overcome by his strong love for his father and by how much he misses his old man that tears come to his eyes and almost ease into his face, and he has to swallow rather painfully and steel his nerves to prevent himself from bawling like a baby.
And then the floodgates open and he begins to blabber to his father.
The words rattle out of his mouth, and he keeps on rambling, telling him of all that has happened from the moment he met Pastor Paul Anderson, leaving nothing out.
Boat is amazed at how the words come pouring out of his soul. It is damn uncanny, the way he suddenly feels like a child, desperately nee-ding a shoulder to cry on, terribly nee-ding comfort and solace from his father.
It makes Boat remember Miss. Prim, a golden-feathered parrot one of his teachers used to own when he was in Secondary School.
Mr. Prempeh, the physics lecturer, often boasted about how smart his parrot was. He sometimes went too far, comparing the intellect of his students to that of Miss. Prim, telling them that if they had been half as smart as the parrot it wouldn’t have been necessary for him to spend hours lecturing.
The thing was, Miss. Prim could never stop yapping. She would pick up on any little phrase that caught her fancy and pour it out for hours in her cage.
One day Miss. Prim began chucking out a particular sentence that had turned Mr. Prempeh blue.
MISS PRIM
(stridently)
Oh, yes, Ebo, my love, don’t stop! ha-rder, Ebo, harrrrrrrder!!
Fact was, Ebo was Mrs. Prempeh’s supposed colleague at work, and a pal of Mr. Prempeh.
Mr. Ebo used to come on visits especially on weekends when Mr. Prempeh was lecturing.
After hearing Miss Prim’s pas-sionate new lines, Mr. Prempeh had not found it ha-rd putting two and two together.
It turned out he had been having his own little suspicions for a while, and smart Miss. Prim provided the smart summary.
He had been filled with incensed wrath, and had pummelled his wife until she gave the final admission that she had indeed been having an unholy affair with Mr. Ebo.
Mr. Prempeh had driven straight to Mr. Ebo’s house and almost killed him.
It had landed him afoul of the law, and the scandal had been long and smelly, and finally Mr. Prempeh had divorced his wife. He had seemed at peace outwardly, but something unpalatable was happening in his house.
It seemed that Miss. Prim was so taken by her latest phrase – probably buoyed up by the pas-sionate note it had been uttered in – that she just couldn’t stop screaming it out with amazing clarity and astonishing pas-sion time and over again.
Mr. Prempeh got up one evening when Miss. Prim roared out her cry. He got his gun and shot the poor bird clean in her cage.
nee-dless to say, he stopped comparing the intellect of that talkative bird with that of his students.
That evening, Yaw Boat feels like Miss Prim as he pours out his heart to his father. He feels like if he doesn’t drop dead, he could speak for ages.
Finally, however, he dries out. There is silence on the other side for a long time. Boat can only hear the faint static in the background.
BOAT
(hoarsely)
Dad? Are you still on the line?
JOE BOAT
(awed)
Yes, son, I am! You have the gift of the Unblinds?
Boat is silent for a moment with total incomprehension. It seems to him that all his father heard was that part, and he seems totally unaffected by the ordeal Boat had been throu-ghand just enumerated to him.
Secondly, Boat has not used foul term in his narration: Unblind!
He speaks carefully.
BOAT
(softly)
Dad, you used Pastor Anderson’s term. The Unblinds. You know about that?
JOE BOAT
(exultantly)
Of course I do! I knew a man of God who had such a gift a long time ago, but of course I didn’t completely believe it then. I can’t believe this has happened to you, Junior. I can imagine the kind of hell you’re going throu-gh, of course, but I’m so happy. At least, you’re going to be a true believer and forsake your sinful ways!
BOAT
(forlornly)
I’m suffering, Dad! I’m absolutely terrified! I don’t know how long I can hold on before going stark raving mad!
When he replies, his father’s voice is gentle, full of love.
JOE BOAT
I can imagine, Junior. But you’re making it ha-rd for yourself, my son. All you have to do is accept your gift by accepting Christ as your Lord and personal saviour, then no evil will be able to harm you. Listen, I’m cutting this stay short. I’ll be down there in Ghana tomorrow. I can’t wait to see you and share this great miracle with your. I never imagined that your transition from sin to grace would be crowned with such an amazing gift.
BOAT
(softly)
I’m scared, Dad. I’m sorry, but I can’t live with this damn thing. I’ve been seeing things … very bad things! I can’t cope with it, Dad!
When his father speaks, his voice is now frosted over. It is a voice Boat has come to hear less frequently, because he uses it on those occasions when he is particularly irked and his son has tested his patience.
JOE BOAT
(tautly)
You’re speaking like a fool, Junior. What do you think is happening? You think what you’re going throu-ghis some kind of movie? Have you bothered to ask yourself the salient questions? If you’ll think de-eper and see what the future holds, you’ll realize what an amazing lifeline you’ve been given. The man told you there are only two choices for you … either you get God, or you get this demon that is planning to inhabit your body and use it for evil! Have you asked yourself why you’re still alive? Do you know why evil is protecting you so much?
BOAT
(humbled)
Protecting me, Dad?
JOE BOAT
(earnestly)
Think about Mr. Stebbins, my son! Think about Geoffrey Sam. If your accounts are accurate, and I do believe they are, have you wondered why Pastor Sam died? You wondered why he was a pastor, and yet didn’t have this protective field you described. But his wife had it! Stop deluding and feeling sorry for yourself, son. There are no neutral choices here. Whatever happens, your life will never be the same. You only have two choices, life and death. I love you more than anything in the world, my son, but my love can’t help you if you switch to the other side and allow a demon to possess you like Stebbins is possessed.
Boat is rendered speechless.
JOE BOAT
You now have a chance to become one of the Chosen Ones. You have been favoured and shown divine mercy. You’re a forefront soldier now, and although I don’t really know how all that will pan out in the end, or how you’re going to use your amazing gift, I’ll be there to give you all the support you’ll require every step of the way. Look, we’ll go to Anderson together, and you’ll have all my wealth at your disposal. No matter what happens, I’ll always be by your side, son.
BOAT
(plaintively)
Dad, I’m not a man of God. There are things you don’t know about me, things I’ve hidden from you all these years. I’m not one of you, Dad. I’ve pretended to be a Christian just to please you, but I’m not.
His father sighs, and Boat can imagine him nodding his head.
JOE BOAT
I know you’re into drugs, son. I know you use drugs, and sell drugs! I know you’ve been fornicating with any woman willing to open her thi-ghs for you. Your life has filled me with pain, wondering where I went wrong as a father. For many years I’ve been praying for you, hoping that a miracle will happen and God will touch you. Do you know why? It’s because one day when I meet your mother again I’ll want you to be by my side too. I promised your mother, son, before she died, that I’ll raise you well. That was her one wish!
Yaw Boat’s body is je-rked forcibly back into his seat as if he has been shot.
His father’s words carve into him like hot knives throu-ghbu-tter.
BOAT
(heartbreakingly)
You knew? All along, Dad?
JOE BOAT
Yes, Junior. I’ve known about the seedy things you’ve been doing for a long time. There is nothing I don’t know about you, because you’re my son, and I love you. I’ve known you’re on the road to destruction, and it shattered me. I’ve been throu-ghpain because of how you’ve turned out, and it came to a point when I almost gave up, because I blamed God for letting my son go to such waster, but I never gave up on you. I still continued to pray and fast for you, and now it has all been made clear to me. Evil had terrible plans for you, and I thank God that He saw it fit to take you from the gutter and use you. That is how wonderful He can be sometimes. There are so many things you nee-d to learn. Wait for me, Junior. I’m coming home to help you.
BOAT
(in a small lost voice)
Yes, Dad.
It seems this is inevitable, and there is nothing he can do about it at the moment, and once again his father’s love – so sincere and true, so warm and hu-ge – shrouds Boat, and he feels tears swelling in his eyes again, and a painful lump in his throat.
Love does that sometimes.
Boat is relieved when they say their emotional goodbyes and he cuts the call.
He can wait.
His father is on his way back to help him.
It is a really a nice feeling compared to the very black abyss he had been sinking into before calling his father.
Yes, he will wait for his father.
But first, however, there are some things he has to do in town, much as I loathes the idea of going out, and setting eyes on those damn uglies again.
He is shocked and mollified by the fact that his old man knows about his seedy life of drugs and s-×.
He can just imagine his father’s horror, his pain, and his distaste. He shudders to think of what pain he might have caused his father.
It is a sobering thought that leaves a sour taste in his mouth. The can of worms is now open, and they are squirming out into the open now.
He isn’t really sure about what is going to happen, but having a clean slate with his old man is very refreshing, and he can only hope that the future will bring with it a better Yaw Boat.
He has never wanted to drag his old man into his sordid life, but it seems his father un-derstands, and knows that it had been out of Boat’s control.
The idea that he had not been in control of his actions, of his destiny, of his will, acutely disgusts him, and fills him with a raging fury.
It is like he had been stri-pped nak-ed in public and had been unaware of it. Humans are naturally full of pride, and they thrive on dignity and the fact that they are in control of their lives, from dawn till dusk, that they write the patterns of their life. Take that away, and the dignity of man is reduced to emptiness, to a lifeless void.
And that was exactly what has happened to him.
He has been manipulated and controlled, unknowingly, and it makes him seethe with rage.
But no more!
He cannot be what Anderson – and his Dad – want him to be. The thought of being an Unblind gives Boat the shudders, and repulses him beyond imagination.
However, he knows he has to clean up his act, especially now that he knows what a dreadful son he has been to his father.
Boat still has some coke money with him. He has sold Bob Sarpong’s cocaine to his special clients, and now he has to account for the money.
Money for Bob, less Boat’s commission.
The truth is that Boat doesn’t want the commission anymore.
He now wants nothing to do with drugs again, at least for the time being. What he has seen has blown him clear out of the water. It was time to give Bob Sarpong his money, and that will be Boat’s break from drugs.
So Boat hits the town once more.
He leaves his damaged Mercedes in the garage and takes one of his father’s cars, a Toyota Land Cruiser.
The weather is cool and fine.
It is a nice day for those who have normal eyes, of course.
But to Boat, it is a hell he has to endure as he sees the uglies swinging around town everywhere he turns.
They fill his sights with their lewd antics.
Once again it strikes Boat how terrible it all is, how futile life really is. So many people, and yet the number of people he sees who have that glorious for-ce-field can be counted on his fingers. Fury fills his heart when he sees what these uglies are doing to innocent unsuspecting people, but that wrathful emotion isn’t strong enough to send him on the road to hunt them down.
He just doesn’t want to see them; he wants to be blinded once more, and live his life in blinded peace.
With great difficulty and fear Boat drives to Bob’s apartment with his money.
Tbc…