BE BRAVE SWEET SISTER Ep2: COMING HOME

Hi there!... How have you been?... I've missed you basaa!! 😍...Here's a sequel to the Be Brave Sweet Sister ... Just like I promised. Although to be frank I felt a bit anxious writing the sequel... they can be a hard thing 😢...either way, I have laboured and have conjured this, Okomfo-Anokye style! 😁...I pray you enjoy it. I'd like to dedicate this piece to my very own executive assistant for life... the Donna to my Harvey Specter,  Ama Boahemaa!🙌...You kept me on my toes to write this piece and I heart you ♥😆!

                        A while back.... 

Afua arrived in Ghana on a night when the moon was not shining liberally the light it had borrowed from the sun. It had been 6 months after she had been honourably discharged from the Army and she hadn't been in the country for a really long time. 

"A change of scenery might be good for managing the PTSD," a doctor at the Veterans'office had prescribed.

Afua hadn't seen her family in a long time and felt it was time to come back home to her mother and father and sister... especially her sister. 

Afua and Owusuaa were the closest as two sisters could be. It didn't matter ,their five years gap . They wore the same outfits to school and church although they weren't twins. They slept in the same room and once when Afua had been whipped by a teacher in primary school, Owusuaa screamed in pain in her class.

 Now whether if that was rehearsed or true, no one could fully explain. 

But it wasn't like they were abnormal though, they had their fights yet they were fights you'd have with any life-long partner. All their childhood memories are filled with the faces of each other.

 Afua's brown eyes, Owusuaa's black curly hair; their giggles as they played ampe in their parents' backyard : all memories that danced in Afua's mind and filled her with that nostalgia for her home. 

Her father and mother were the only ones to meet her at the airport after she had gone through the usual disembarkation procedures.

 There was delight of course but the fact that Owusuaa wasn't in attendance did not escape her. 

" Owusuaa is not here? " she asked  after they had hug _first while looking at her father and second while she looked at her mother. 

"She called and said she couldn't make it..."

"Said she had an exam tomorrow, " her dad added to her mom's explanation. 

"Ahaaa... right... I understand ," Afua nodded in agreement. 

"Anyway, shall we? "Paapa asked as she took one of her luggage and pointed to the way out of the building. 

"Of course Pa!" Afua replied while giggling.  It felt good to be back home. 

"Home sweet home "..."Home is where the heart is" ...some placards that had been placed in their living room read. Efua was sure her mother had done that. 

She liked cheesy one liners like that...her mother.  Afua knew it was a subtle protest on her part to get her to stay in the country and settle down. 

She remembered all the various occasions her mom had called her to inform her about a Mr and Mrs' son who was well groomed and would definitely make a sensational match. She also remembers her telling her "now isn't the right time " or something of the sort and her mom pointing it out her that she wasn't getting any younger and her eggs won't be there for eternity in that passive-aggressive mother-style tone. 

Afua loved her mother and would obey her all her life but  her constant calls for her to marry some middle-class bloke and have some babies was not part of her plans. She wanted to become a prosecutor one day in the Army Tribunal first and then settle down.... but then the ambush had happened and here she was... stuck with PTSD. 

The rest of the evening passed like a breeze for her. Jet lagged, she had to call it a night early. Her mother whispered something about a welcome party tomorrow as she climbed the stairs to her old room.  She took a shower and laid herself down to sleep....and dream. 

In the dream, she is her now old self but her sister is a child again. They are right back in their parents' backyard again. Owusuaa begins to climb a really tall tree that had sprung out of nowhere and beckons Afua to follow. But Afua doesn't follow... She is uneasy about the whole thing...a little effervescent fear tugs at her.

"Get down! " she yells to Owusuaa but her sister doesn't budge. 

She just keeps on climbing and climbing and climbing until... snap! a branch breaks and throws her heavily to the ground and oooo the blood... there's so much blood! 

Afua feels like yelling but her voice seems to have escaped her body and then swoosh! Her eyes opens up to find her mother holding her. 

"Afua... are you alright? " he mother inquires with worry in her eyes. "you were yelling 'blood' in your sleep ," she whimpered.

"I'm okay Ma, " Afua replied with a sweat-drenched face. "just a bad dream, that's all"

"Are you sure? "

"Affirmative Ma, " Afua reassured and her mother left her room with a promise of taking her to see a doctor if it should happen again. 

It didn't happen again... the dream and Afua slept somehow. When her eyes fluttered open in the morning, her sister Owusuaa was asleep by her. 

She closed her eyes and reopened them to ensure she wasn't hallucinating but alas she wasn't!

Owusuaa had opened her eyes by then and smiled as she greeted, "hey"

"Hey, " Afua responded with a grin playing at the corners of her mouth.

"I thought you had an exam later today? "

"I did... but something apparently came up and it has been postponed to next week...i couldn't wait till morning to come see you so I jumped on the next bus here," Owusuaa explained.

"... I'm exhausted as hell from mining * ," she yawned and closed her eyes to sleep again....

                         The present. 

The emotional visit to Owusuaa is over and they are back, cooped up in Paapa's car. Nobody says a word.

 Her mother still crying silently. The silence has become a perpetual intruder in their home these days. Owusuaa has taken all the laughter away. She remembers at the prison when the visiting time was over and the four burly guards had come to take her sister away. 

It was just like in the dream; she called out to her sister but she just kept on going... moving deeper into the prison till she had disappeared from her sight. 

"The dream... why hadn't it been the first thing she told her when she found her sleeping by her that morning? " she chastised herself. 

"Perhaps Senyo wouldn't have died and her sister wouldn't be in jail ," she lamented....

(To be continued) 

PS: what do you think about the story so far?  And how do you hope it should end?... Let's hear your thoughts in the comments section😉..You never know, you may give me an idea as to what the next episode will be about 😎

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