AGAINST THE SKY II
So a while back I published the first part of this story here and the response was remarkable! Awurabena said she'd like to feature for the sequel and so after a while of cooking it, it is finally here.....Happy Reading and please don't forget to leave a comment! 😉
*A month ago*
Ebo Essandoh’s decision to commit suicide had everything to do with Esi Akorful. It was no news. At least, to those who knew him well, of which his mum, the attorney general, and his three closest pals Nii, Jonas and Paa were inclusive.
Esi Akorful. Only God knows what power she possessed to cause such transformation in Ebo since they met. That is what we’d call it. A drastic transformation.
Ebo Essandoh entered the university with excellent grades. The guy was exceptionally brilliant and his transcript was proof enough.
It was almost like he was the Einstein of his time. Well technically he was. Contrary to what you may be thinking Ebo wasn’t a notorious person. Well to the outside world, that is, he was far from that. He was actually the perfect son; very respectful, brilliant, didn’t womanize, got excellent grades; in fact name any good thing and you’d find Ebo’s name attached. So why a transformation at the inception of his relationship with Esi?
What the world didn’t know was that Ebo had the manic depressive illness which is a mental disorder termed the bipolar disorder. His type was the bipolar I disorder which could cause manic episodes that could last for at least 7 days or manic symptoms that are so severe that the person needs immediate hospital care.
The person experiences periods of elevated moods as well as periods of depression of which the manic episodes lasts longer.
Ebo’s dad had when he at a tender age and as such had been brought up by his mum single handedly. Auntie Efe as she was affectionately called was unsure as to how Ebo had suddenly developed the bipolar disorder as he had been perfectly okay until some years after his dad’s death.
She had just assumed he had found it hard coping with the loss and had let it go at that.
Being a career woman and having risen in her profession to become the nation’s Attorney General, she vowed that nothing was going to mar that and her son’s condition was no exception. She knew how politics could be and knowing very well she had some skeletons in her closet, which were centuries old, she was in no way going to let anyone or anything ruin her.
As such she kept a close circle of friends, made sure her son had few friends as well, that is Nii, Paa and Jonas and basically kept her work and private life separate.
Over the years Ebo’s condition had been managed with mood stabilizers and antipsychotics.
Anytime his manic episodes got extreme he was immediately quarantined in a private institution until he got better and then the cycle continued. Ebo however wanted more than his shielded life. He wanted to experience all what life had to offer but his condition and his mum, most especially, wouldn’t allow that.
Ebo had silently endured all this isolation and had never once complained. After all who would believe him? Everyone thought he had the perfect life which was far from the truth. The last time he had mentioned it to his mum, he had ended up in the hospital with multiple bruises and a few broken bones.
Yes, his mum had ordered her bodyguard to beat some sense into him. After that incident he had always acted the perfect son.
That was until he got into the tertiary institution. He was his usual prim and proper son of the attorney general and went about living his quiet life. His friends were there to keep him in check but well they could not be with him 24 hours each day.
And so it happened that on one fateful night in a depressed mood, he decided to take a stroll and met Esi also out on a stroll. Apparently, it was something she did often and that was her route. Seeing him that night uttering incomprehensible words as they walked past each other peaked her curiosity so much so that she had decided to approach him.
At first he was startled but as the conversation drew on, he found himself enjoying her company and vice versa. He opened up to her like he had never done before with anyone else and before long he was giggling like a child.
He had never felt this happy since that night….that night…and then suddenly everything went blank…his manic mood was manifesting…he became too violent and held Esi by her hair.
Esi was initially surprised but she being a medical student realised quickly that this was some psychotic disorder and quickly started speaking gently to Ebo. As she spoke soothingly to him, for the first time in forever, he calmed down and started sobbing.
‘Ebo, what is really the matter?’ Esi asked feeling all ‘doctorish’ at that moment and wanting to try out her history taking skills.
At that moment Ebo decided to finally tell someone about the burden he had been carrying all these years. And that was how he told Esi about how he had witnessed the murder of his dad in their home when he was just six.
That night he had been asleep when he heard sounds downstairs. He had quietly found his way to the hall where all the noise was coming from and where the action was going down.
Hiding behind the couch, he had overhead one of the gangsters say to an effect that his mum had ordered the murder because his dad had cheated on her. So in attempt to repay him, she staged an armed robbery whilst away on a trip so that his death would look like an accident.
Her instructions were that her son was not to be harmed. Unfortunately, he had overhead all that was said to his dad before he was shot twice in his chest and then the house was ransacked to make the robbery look real enough.
He had remained silent throughout the whole operation. Of course he had been young then and didn’t really grasp the magnitude of the situation but as the years wore on, he had fully comprehended what had happened and an intense hate for his mum had festered.
He had conjured scenarios in his mind where he made his mum pay for all she had done by doing terrible things to her and causing her unimaginable pain. All in all he had finally developed the bipolar disorder. So unknown to his mum that was the genesis of his ailment.
Having told Esi all this he felt intense relief. Esi decided that no one had to go through stuff like that alone and took it upon herself to be his guardian angel.
And so that night sparked the beginning of a beautiful friendship. The transformation begun and it was so obvious.
Ebo become more lively, much more of an extrovert and generally begun to enjoy life. And his attacks even became less and less.
Esi however had made the worst decision of her life the moment she decided to be friends with Ebo.
Madam Efe wasn’t allowing Esi to get too close. She still feared someone finding out about her husband’s death and though she wasn’t too sure, she had a gut feeling her son was aware of her role in his dad’s death as the doctor had diagnosed sometime back that his condition could be as a result of a serious trauma.
Esi was very weary of Ebo’s mum and that alone was fishy in madam Efe’s eyes. She therefore invited all of Ebo’s friends for dinner one night and Ebo immediately smelt trouble. However she threw them all of guard by being extremely nice and being the perfect hostess as well.
What they didn’t know was at the end of the dinner that night she had found out all she needed to know and had made up her mind. Esi had to be eliminated. She was too much of a threat to her career.
That fateful day, Ebo hadn’t heard from Esi the whole day but he assumed t was the busy life of a medical student so he decided to just wait till she got back to him. She always did.
When news of her death therefore hit campus it was more than a shock to him and everyone who knew her. She had died in a car accident on the highway. Ebo knew immediately that his mum had a hand in this too but this time he wasn’t going to let her get away with it.
The one person who meant so much to him had been taken away and there was nothing else to live for. It was then that he staged his elaborate suicide plan which was to take place on the night of the party where he knew a lot of people would be present. He was going down, literally, and he was taking his mum with him.
*Present day*
Nii shook his head and produced the suicide note Ebo had left behind. He had chanced upon it early enough and had read it before the attorney general arrived.
All those present were amazed. That was even an understatement. For a mother to cause such pain to her own son was unbelievable.
Nii quickly did the only reasonable thing he could think off and sent the letter over to the head of police who was present.
After quickly scanning through the letter, the officer quickly ordered his men to get up the balcony and get Ebo down but it was too late. The moment he saw the letter being handed over to Sergeant Okai, Ebo smiled, mouthed a silent thank you to Nii and jumped.
There was a sudden hush over the whole crowd as no one actually believed he was going to jump.
Sergeant Okai took purposeful strides towards the Attorney general after composing himself.
‘I’m sorry Madam but you will have to come with me to the station,’ he begun. Aunt Efe was about to protest when he continued.
‘…for questioning on the death of your husband.’
The shock that clouded her face and the fact that she suddenly became tongue tied was all the reason the Sergeant needed. With that she was escorted to the police van.
Nii walked to the lifeless body of his friend and could not hold back his tears. He was sprawled on the floor at a funny angle with a smile on his face.
The paramedics gently pulled him aside as they took care of the body and carried it into the ambulance.
At that moment, all Nii could think was, ‘At least he died with a smile on his lips.’
With that he walked silently away to any destination his feet would carry him...
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