When Richard reluctantly sat down in the living room, he did not anticipate what he was about to hear, that his entire world was about to shift. When his auntie began the true story of what happened between his mother and father, his world took the fastest spin ever. His mother lied to him? After all the horrible treatment that he had faced, which he narrated before his auntie started, he was now discovering that the woman was a liar and she cheated him out of having a father. He was trying as much as possible to control how he was feeling at that moment. There was too much going on in his mind and knowing himself, the least trigger could result in something he would regret. He cast his gaze across the room. On his left was his auntie, Kate. They were seated on the same couch. Across them were the men – Kojo, Jonathan and Jeremiah. After seeing the arrangement in the room, his head was bowed again.
‘So how are you going to retrieve the car?’ Kojo asked, with the intention of calming the tension and deathly silence that had built in in the room after Kate’s narration.
‘I don’t really know…’ Richard said. His voice sounded like he was being choked.
Instantly, Kojo knew that Richard’s emotions had peaked. He looked very sober but a closer look could tell you that the revelation of the truth about his mother’s infidelity and deliberate obstruction of a relationship between him and his father had truly affected him. Anything could happen at this point in time and it made Kojo very worried. He looked around the room, just like Richard had. Everyone’s emotions were indeed on their sleeves. Nobody, including he Kojo, appeared to suck it in for the same of why they were there. Kojo wondered what the outcome could be. It was not easy convening such a gathering, a truth telling gathering.
Kate’s eyes were literally swollen with tears. She had cried in the moment of telling Richard what had truly happened. She did not miss any detail, from Jeremiah’s tolerance of Nancy’s indolence, to Nancy lying that Richard was not really Jeremiah’s child, to blocking any attempts of a DNA test and eventually barring Jeremiah from reaching her and Richard. It was a very difficult story to tell the young man who had believed otherwise all his life. Richard sat steady and listened to his auntie. Kojo wondered what was running through the young man’s mind. Such truths would have made anyone break down but he was very steady and that surprised Kojo. Kojo looked over to Jeremiah too at certain points.
Jeremiah was as tensed than ever, especially during Kate’s narration. His tension was built up from the steady nature of his son. He wanted to know what his boy was thinking. Kate had to reference him in the story, especially on how someone who knew the couple in the States called to tell Jeremiah in Ghana that his wife had a son that was a spitting image of him. It was that someone who managed to get Jeremiah in touch with Nancy, who finally admitted then that Richard was Jeremiah’s son yet did not want her near the boy. Jeremiah just sat there starring at the ceiling at some points. It was a relieving moment for him but it was not over yet. Kojo wondered if he was also sceptical about the outcome of the gathering.
As for Jonathan, he looked so immersed in himself yet attentive. He always gave this imaginative face, as if he was thinking deeply about something – clearly about his family. After all he had been through, he surely did not have any reason to look anything close to excited that afternoon. Kojo bowed and sighed. This was not a very good setting for a conversation of this nature because everyone had not really prepared for the psychological barrage it came with. But the conversation had to be had.
‘But there should be a way, or?’ Kate asked, looking from his nephew to the men seated across the table from them. ‘That car is too expensive to be taken away like that. Kojo?’
Although Kate was expecting her husband to answer, Jonathan’s reaction caught her eye. ‘I think I would have to ask a few friends to follow up on it. What is the license plate number?’ Jonathan interjected and took the number from Richard. He stepped out of the living room to follow up on the matter. He further mentioned that they could easily track the car if they had the number and in no time, they would have it in custody. That also meant that they would have Eze in custody.
Richard was still looking down, this time at the shoes he had on. The silence was growing in the room and nobody knew who to talk. It was starting to look as though they had convinced Richard to come in to join a pity party of silence.
‘But I hope that they will not end up arresting Eze for car theft or something. There is enough trouble for him already,’ Richard sympathized with his friend. He had been told that it was Jonathan who made the call to get him out as so, he was thinking that the same people he was calling were national security and they would now arrest Eze and have more count of crimes to tag him with. ‘He is already in trouble with his…’ Richard hesitated. ‘He is in trouble with his father so there is no need to compound it.’
‘Well, it depends on how they talk their differences through. It will be better if they sat down and spoke about what Eze has been up to, what Eze really wants, and his father would have to calm down enough and not end up treating his son like a petty criminal in the end. That last bit, if realised, would be too extreme,’ Kate said.
‘But that is where it is headed, Kate. The young man is alleged to have stolen money from his father besides the father abhorring his desire for same sex relations,’ Kojo said, and a startled Jeremiah sat upright to pay keen attention. Kojo was glad that Richard missed his father’s reaction by a millisecond. ‘I think it could really be that allegation because same sex relations should not warrant such a stringent measure or such exaggerated strictness.’
Jeremiah cleared his throat. ‘Kojo, you are saying that if your daughter should report that they have sexual interest in women only, you would not cringe? You would not react and overreact? You will not even do a quarter of what Eze’s father is doing?’
Kojo could not help but notice again how Richard too had sat up to pay more critical attention to what was being discussed. He did not express that he was happy that the young man was now attentive but he was. ‘Jeremiah, I am not saying I will not react. I shall scream my lungs out in anger or disappointment that my child went that route, contrary to what I had taught. I will feel sick about it. But the issue has to do with the outward expression of these feelings or reactions in front of the child. You are a counsellor and you will surely agree with me that our children are very affected by our response to them whether it is in love or not.’
‘That is true. But you cannot also control reactions as much because in the heat of finding out, your outburst may not be clawed as much as you would want it to. It isn’t as easy as it sounds. The child you have raised for years decides that their body is their choice and they are choosing to be gay? That is some brain-busting reality to accept, especially if you are not a parent who is not swamped in this internet progressiveness that is etching wokeness and self-truth all in our cultures. But I partly agree with you. Eze’s father is surely thinking he is right by now. But sitting here to analyse, we discover that he is doing a lot wrong because of his reaction or response to this whole thing.’ Jeremiah said in a very placid tone.
Jonathan was eavesdropping while he was walking in. He announced his presence with information on Richard’s car. ‘The car has been spotted a few times in town according to the cameras on some of the principal streets. So, they will be looking forward to seeing it again and tracing it.’
‘Thank you so much, Jonathan,’ Jeremiah said quickly. His gaze met Richard’s and he could swear he saw Richard soften up. However, he did not see that as a win for himself. He did not see any point in winning anymore. He just wanted his son back anyhow. He just did not know how.
‘You are welcome. But hey, from my experience, I don’t think any parent should be reacting in some loud and harsh manner anymore if they find out about their children,’ Jonathan’s thought quieted the room even more. His experience is one that had weighed down on all of them. ‘What if I had less ‘Africanised’ ways and approaches to Risa? We were close but I realised in her death we really never were that close because surely, she would fear mentioning some stuff and starting some conversations with me. I don’t know really about Richard’s friend but his father needs to take his time with him. It is not really about winning or getting your standpoint solidified as a parent. It is about guiding, guarding, raising and raising children to be better people… But I would scream anyway.’
‘But that is the child’s choice. Is there anything to be done about it?’ Richard asked.
‘Young man, there is everything to be done about it. Imagine you believe in some specific things and ways of life and your child suddenly departs from it after years of living. Would you just say that okay, it is your choice so keep it up?’ Kate asked.
‘Well, there is nothing I can do about it. I just have to support you…’
‘Support them? Then you will allow your child to become just anything. Then you would have failed as a parent,’ Jeremiah said, barely realising that he was now in the conversation with his son. ‘You cannot have your child turning out to be just anything because you think it is their choice. Put religion, Christianity, aside. Even in the naturally secular sense of parenting, you have a certain vision for your child. So, their choices do matter but they need to be guided. You are my son. I cannot let you be just anything out there.’
Richard could not deny a reaction when he herd ‘you’re my son’. Kate saw it and smiled. ‘Okay, so that is why you were countering how I looked and how I behaved when I first came?’ Richard asked.
‘Exactly. Eze’s father is probably drawing a longbow in this issue but his response should not be invalidated. He has every right to respond to what his son is doing because it is not what he taught him to be. These are not the choices he wished for his flesh and blood. When you first arrived, I wondered and wondered. This is not what I would rather you be or looked. No. But you already look like this. Overreacting will not change anything. It will not turn time back so I get that opportunity to correct anything. What I need to do –‘
‘Kindly excuse me everyone. I have to take this,’ Jonathan said, walking out to the kitchen briskly. They all wondered what was so urgent.
‘What I need to do is to ceaselessly love you but not agree with you. Eze’s choices will not be something his father will ever accept. However, if after talking to Eze, Eze decided to still stick to it, there is no forceful action that will make him correct that. I cannot force you, Richard, to take those earrings off or to clean your tattoos at this very point. No. You have chosen to do it. I do not like it and I have to state that I do not. It does not mean I should stop loving you. It does not mean I should react in a way that makes you feel inferior. It does not mean I should make you think you do not belong. No matter what Eze’s father does, Eze is his son. He cannot change that either. So would he rather make him a petty criminal out of him so he changes? No…’ Jeremiah said.
‘That is the point. The show of love. I think that is why we are too unsettled in ourselves and we have so much doubt within us. We spread it to our children too. Because we are not clear on loving people around us. Our communities do not truly have love and that breeds the problem of our inability to have control over a lot of issues. I would want my daughter to change if she is gay. But she cannot change if I witch-hunt her. She cannot change if I scream at her and shout why thirty one times. She cannot. She will even feel worse and cower eventually. I should be able to sit down and have a conversation with her in love, to show her that lady, you are loved regardless. Why, God loved the perfect? I don’t think he did. And I also believe that He does allow everyone on a journey while guiding them gradually to the light. Even in guiding them to the light, man still has that liberty so people should have the liberty but also be guided with love and in love.’
Before anyone could talk, they heard Jonathan’s loud cry in the kitchen. They rushed there to see him on the ground wailing and crying like a baby. Jeremiah stepped over him and picked the phone. The last call was to Comfort. Kojo and Jeremiah helped him up. Jeremiah hugged him as he broke down. He later escorted him to the living room. Everyone gathered around him and wondered what really happened. He was not talking. Richard was first to excuse them. He walked to the kitchen. Kate, seeing an opportunity, walked to Jeremiah.
‘Jerry, go talk to your son. It’s about time.’
Jeremiah was not sure but he followed to the kitchen. Richard was drinking a glass of water.
‘Richard, I hope you are okay,’ Jeremiah said, not knowing what to actually say to the young man.
‘Yes, dad. I am fine. And I am sorry about everything,’ Richard replied.
Jeremiah felt the warmth of that sound of ‘dad’ in his heart.
Follow the link for the chit-chat on the story: https://youtu.be/ER3SBgYPN3c
Selorm Dogbey 
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