When the time came for me to select places to do my national service, I selected the Northern Region. I don’t know what came over me. I hadn’t thought about it or even asked myself questions, but that day, I had the strongest desire I’d ever had to choose the north.

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Jennifer asked me, “Are you going crazy? Who do you know there? Do you know how difficult it would be to get accommodation there?” I smiled at her shock, but when I was alone, I thought about everything she said and told myself, “What kind of stupid decision is this?”

I was placed in Bawku in the Upper East Region. My mom said, “It’s like you don’t want to do your national service. Bawku? You’ll stay home.”

My dad was abroad then. My mom called him to tell him I’d chosen to go to war in Bawku for my national service. My dad asked, “Are you going to treat wounds of war victims? You’ll change it.”

The guy we found to help with the change of station took the money and ended up wasting our time. Every day, a new story. It was either his boss, who was supposed to do it, was out of the country, or the system had jammed. Service started, and I’d still not gotten the change that I was looking for. My parents and friends had succeeded in turning my heart against Bawku, but everything around me wasn’t working.

A month after service had started, I had no choice but to pack and leave for my station. Jennifer said I was going to travel for one week and walk for three days before getting to Bawku. That girl is such a tease. When I told her to come visit me, she said she had ordered a parachute, and when it arrived, she would come see me.

I got to Bawku in the evening and went to where it had been arranged for me to stay. The people smiled at me, knowing very well that a smile was the only language I could speak back to them. I called Jennifer and told her how beautiful the place was and how she would love to be with me. She said, “I won’t be surprised if you start dating the son of Bawku Naba. Be there talking nonsense.”

A week in the office, one morning a gentleman walked in and met me alone in the office. He asked for the rest, and I said they’d gone out. He asked my name and my position, and I told him. He kept quiet and looked at me for seconds while smiling. He asked, “You come from Accra, right?” I nodded my head. He gave me his number and asked me to call him after work.

I didn’t call until days later when he came around again. He took my phone, typed his number, and saved it as Doc. He called his number with my phone and saved my number too. That same evening, I called him. We discovered similarities in our stories and how we ended up there from Accra. His home in Accra was Achimota. My home was in Tantra.

After work, he would take me to places he said were safe to hang out, and the first Sunday of our friendship, he took me to church. I hadn’t even thought about church then, but with him, I started going to church and places I alone wouldn’t have thought of going. One day he proposed to me, and I asked him, “Do you want me to be your girlfriend because you’re lonely here, or do you want something serious?”

He answered, “I’m not even looking for a girlfriend. I’m looking for a wife. And who said I’m lonely? I have the hospital and the church to fill my day. I’m looking for what fits, and you fit perfectly.”

I said yes, and we started dating. I called Jennifer. I told her who I’d met and the fact that I’d started dating him. She screamed, “Shit! I’ve lost my friend. Are you sure you’re coming back to be with us again now that you’ve gotten Bawku Naba’s son?” I explained to her that he was also from Accra and he would leave the region very soon. She responded, “I’m coming up there. I should see him for myself and sign the deal before you go and fall for anything because of loneliness.”

She came. She met David and told him, “I came because of you. You’re lucky you’re a nice person. I would have carried my friend away. I heard you’re marrying her next month?”

I didn’t talk about marriage with Jennifer, but that girl and her big mouth brought it up, and David respectfully answered, “If only she’s ready.” She turned and looked at me. “Oh, he’s serious about you.”

After my service, when I was about to leave, it was hard for David. He said I was going to make him lonely. A night before I left, he said he had a confession to make. My heart skipped several beats. Is he going to confess about his wife and children? Or he’s getting married soon and he’s going to tell me about it?

I held my breath and said, “Go ahead and confess.” He said, “Last year, I sowed a seed in church and challenged God that if He truly meant well for me in this town, He should cause my soulmate to show up. When I saw you, it hit me that you could be the one. When we talked, I was so sure you were the one.”

I froze. I asked him, “So you’re telling me that I shouldn’t leave?” He responded, “I’m telling you so you know I’m the reason God brought you here. When you were fighting to change your station and it wasn’t working, it was God working in my favour.”

I laughed and called him silly, that he was using my own story I shared with him to blackmail me but when I was in the bus coming back to Accra, I sat quietly and thought through the whole thing carefully and said to myself, “David is right, because what would make me decide to come up north for my national service? The decision was so sudden and not well thought through.”

I smiled, looking at the moving trees while the bus moved. I thought of the beautiful times we’d had that I was leaving behind, and it made my heart sad. So I said a prayer, “If what he said was true, then make him come to Accra soon and marry me.”

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It took him two years to finally come back to Accra, but within those two years, I found a job and started a life of my own, so when he finally came to settle, he found me ready. We got married a few months after he’d come to settle in Accra. On our wedding day, he asked me, “Do you believe me now that I’m the reason you showed up in Bawku?” I only smiled, but I felt the truth in my heart. It was his prayers that transported me up north.

—Mildred

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