She could tell he had been fast asleep. She smiled and apologized for waking him up. Lt. Clottey, seeing that it was the Vice-President, snapped to attention.
“Mind if I come in?” she asked.
“Of course not”, he said, stepping aside to allow the Vice-President in. Gertrude Mensah entered the soldier’s room. He closed the door and turned to face her.
“Victor, I am afraid. I cannot sleep alone. The thunder and lightning are frightening. Do you mind me sleeping in your room?” she asked.
“No madam. It’s okay. I understand. Let me re-do the bed for you” he said, as he went for a fresh bedsheet to make the bed anew for her. But she said it was not necessary. With that, she went to the bed and lied down. Lt. Clottey picked one pillow and the second bedsheet from the bed and then going to the three-in-one sofa, spread the bedsheet on it. Just as he was done, he felt a hand touch him. He straightened up to find her standing behind him. She took his hand.
“Lieutenant, come sleep by me. I would feel safer with you by my side” she said as she led him back to bed. Then she lied down once again.
“Can you first switch off the light? I cannot sleep with the light on”, she said. He complied with her directive and then came to the bed. He was confused about sleeping by the Vice-President. She was not only the Vice-President of the country but also the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. He felt it was not respectful for him to sleep on the bed she was sleeping on.
“Madam, I would be comfortable on the sofa” he said, in the darkness. She repeated she was afraid and needed him to sleep by her side. Reluctantly, he lowered himself onto the bed by her and lay still. There was silence in the room. The only sound one could hear was that of the rain as it continued intensely.
Gertrude Mensah was happy she had gathered the courage to come to the soldier’s room using an old excuse in the book; that she was afraid to sleep alone in her room so wanted to sleep in his room and by him.“If the mountain will not come to Muhammed, then Muhammed must go to the mountain”, she told herself in the darkness. She had not come for any ulterior motive. She had come to start to seduce him; she had come to start what she prayed would be a permanent relationship.
In falling in love with the Lieutenant, she had also taken into consideration her son. She was confident Lt. Clottey would not only be a good father for Nick based on what she had seen of him so far but also a good role model. “A woman must marry a man who would be a good role model to the children, particularly his son(s)”, was one of her principles. And she was not about to depart from it in practice.
……………………………………
While the Vice-President and the two soldiers were fast asleep in the comfort of the President’s home, the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Kwesi Adu-Tutu was squeezed in-between two homeless people under the eaves of the roof of a shop at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle. He had never envisaged a day like this when he would find himself among the homeless and in such murderous weather. Just a few hours ago, he had a whole residence to himself…but here he was, more or less a homeless person, a wanted man with a price on his head.
He looked around; if any of the persons who were also taking refuge under roofs knew who he was, that he was wanted and that he or she would earn a whopping GH¢500,000 by causing his arrest, he would have been in the grips of the authorities long ago. But luckily for him, they were not people who were politically inclined to the extent they would recognize him.
He was now feeling cold. He felt the weather was being most unkind to him. His joints had stiffened. He craved a glass of brandy. His thoughts went to all the assorted drinks he had at home; they were now beyond his reach.
His phone rang again. This was the tenth time it rang. He had decided not to answer any call but finally, curiosity got the better part of him. He slipped his hand into his pocket and brought out his phone. The name Derek Gavivi stared at him. Immediately, he remembered the caller.