It happened when I was twenty-one. Young and in love with a girl who lived not too far from my house, Benewaa. We didn’t own a room or own anything of worth apart from our youthful exuberance. I would meet her in a dark corner of the village, profess love and try to do things that were beyond our age.

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Our first kiss happened in a classroom at night. It was the same place where our first sex happened. Benewaa would enter the classroom first and I would stay back and watch around to see if we had company. Once it was certified that no one was looking at us, I would enter and we would do it as quickly as we could.

As I said, we were young and listening to the urgings of our youth. I thought I was on top of the world because I had someone I could kiss in the dark. She was proud of me. She spoke highly of me to her friends.

And then we grew up. The wind of life blew us apart. We lost touch even before phones could become popular. I went to the university. She went to a school whose name I’d forgotten. Years later, I learned she traveled to Nigeria with her aunt. All that was left were the memories of the things we did in the dark. I never for once thought one of those things would grow wings and fly with me into the future.

I was still in school and had returned to the village when a woman stopped me along the way and said, “Krakye, a dark spirit is fighting your light. Seek the spirit and make peace else, something very important to you in life would go missing.”

The mistake I made was attacking the messenger instead of dealing with the message. I looked at the woman and called her mad in my head. She looked shabby, she walked around talking to herself like a newly mad woman.

In 2013, I met Linda and we got married a year later. We moved in together and started making moves to become parents. Two years later, there was nothing to show for our efforts. We sought medical care but we were assured nothing was wrong with us so we should exercise patience and eat a well-balanced diet.

We had been married for four years and still didn’t have any fruit to show for our labor. My wife was the most worried. She would pray at dawn and fast during the day. We went herbal, trying all concoctions to be fertile. Medically we were passed sound but we couldn’t produce what sound couples could produce.

My wife’s pastor’s wife, who was a prophetess, called us for a meeting and the first question she asked me was, “Did you ever enter into a covenant with any gods of your village?” I laughed. “Me, gods? For what? Naaa, even the village I grew up in didn’t have gods.”

Another time she told me, “You need to think far back to when you were young. Did you follow your mother or father to meet any fetish somewhere?” I responded, “My parents were staunch Methodists. They couldn’t have taken me anywhere.”

She made me call my parents and she had a conversation with them. She asked the names of the gods in our village. My parents couldn’t even mention two. They were so Christian they didn’t bother about the gods of their hometown.

I had a dream one night. I was with Benewaa. We were standing under a huge tree in a forest when all of a sudden a heavy wind started blowing, throwing dust all over. We started running home but we heard heavy footsteps pursuing us. We would turn back and still see nothing. We were screaming while running and then I woke up from the dream.

The next time we met my wife’s pastor’s wife, I narrated the dream to her. She asked me, “Do you know anything about that tree you were standing under?” I nodded. “It’s a tree in our village. It’s along the path we passed to the farm.” She asked, “Did you ever cut a branch from that big tree?” I said no. “Did you ever urinate under it?” I said no.

This is what I couldn’t tell her…

One night, I ran with Benewaa to that place late in the evening and had intimacy under the tree. It rained that day, I remember. The school we used to do our things was being used by a church for a crusade and I needed a place so bad to do the do.

I walked the path until we got to the tree. It was a little bit dark and I knew at that time very few people would use the path so I told her, “We can do it quickly here.” She protested. She held my hand and tried to pull me away. I pulled her back and started lifting her dress. She was a girl with fears. I had fears too but the fear wasn’t stronger than my desire to get intimate.

We did it while her two hands were holding the tree. I don’t think we lasted more than a minute because she pulled away quickly and unexpectedly. I had to spill on the floor. I was fine. She took the lead and I followed. Little did I know that event would follow me to my future.

I called the prophetess and narrated everything to her. I was so ashamed I didn’t want my wife to hear about it. The prophetess screamed, “That tree is what is pursuing you. The gods had taken shelter in the tree the night you did that. We need to pray harder but we also have to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.”

A week later, she gave me instructions to follow to break the yoke with the gods. I traveled to the village to meet one of the fetish priests. I narrated everything to him and told him what the prophetess asked me to do. He shook his head and said, “You were unlucky. Our gods are not that harmful but I will help you.”

Hmmm, it was tough. I won’t go into details but I had to go under that tree at midnight alone to perform a rite. The priest walked with me to a point and stopped. He said, “I’m here for you. Don’t be scared. Go and come.”

Right after I finished doing what I was supposed to do, I saw a figure of a woman approaching very quickly. I started shaking. Once she passed me by, she started walking slowly and then she looked back and walked slowly until she disappeared. I took to my heels until I got to where the priest was waiting for me. He said, “Shhhhh, don’t talk.”

I left town the next day but before I left, I went to see him and asked what next to do. He answered, “Nothing. You met the god but she didn’t harm you. Your apology is accepted. Go and come home as often as you can. Don’t abandon us.”

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I told the prophetess everything that happened. She told me, “Now let’s leave the rest in God’s hands.”

We had our first child in 2021, a boy, and the second in 2023, a girl. We are done. When my kids grow up one day, I will tell them, “Be careful what you do today. Every action has consequences. You might not reap the consequences today but it doesn’t mean you won’t reap it.”

—Edward

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