Somewhere a distant church bell tolled midnight

The morning is divided in sections: the rising time for those who have to commute far away to get enough to make the journey from hand to mouth worth taking; and there is the rising time for the well-meaning and hardworking women who have to keep their homes in order and still make it to work in order to bring their quota to the home; and there is the rising time for those who don't fall in any of the categories above: they are those who may sleep in because they have nothing doing, or because what they have doing is not worth truncating sleep over.

Kaaley woke up with the second group identified. She had to keep her humble abode in order and prepare her baby to take him along with her to work. Work was at the salon near the Asafoatsɛ's palace, close to the London market. Her chores were not so much because Nii was at sea, literally, for the past six weeks. He was a fisherman.

Her baby was lying sleeping so peacefully that she felt guilty having to fuss over him so early. Getting him ready was the last thing she did. But he would get to sleep again, she thought.

The first things she did when she woke up was to heat water for his bath. She carried him gently to the bath she had set up, under the shed Nii built: the white enamel basin (the one which has been conventionally tagged as the basin for washing babies), a plastic bucket she used only for the baby, a kitchen stool and a bag she made herself containing his bath things which were given to her as a gift from her English teacher, one of the few people who did not stigmatize and condemn her when the mistake happened. God bless her kind soul.

As she undressed him, he opened his eyes to peep at her. He pouted, she had woken him up again! She was trying to be very gentle with him. He was a good baby; he didn't cry when he had to be bathed at dawn. There were sounds of a few people sweeping their yards but it was still quite quiet outside. As she rubbed his soft skin with the soapy face towel, he gave her a toothless grin. She smiled back and he gurgled in delight to see his mother smile too. As she poured the lukewarm water on him, he wriggled and laughed when he saw his mother getting wet. They both laughed. Bathing him was one of the many things she loved to do for him. He had Nii's dreamy eyes and curly hair.

She quickly wiped him dry and wrapped him to keep him warm, hurrying inside to dress him up. The soothing fragrance of baby powder filled the simple chamber-and-hall. He liked to be rubbed on his belly. He fidgeted with his fingers in his mouth while he was getting dressed. She wore him a jumpsuit and carried him at her back as she cleared up his bath and packed the bag for the day.

Adjɔkɔ was already at the salon when she got there. She had opened the salon and had begun preparing the hair extensions for a customer who had booked yesterday. They exchanged pleasantries and she helped prepare the hair. Soon after, the woman came in. She wanted simple cornrows with the Amina Outre Colour 2 hair. Adjɔkɔ and Kaaley worked silently, each engrossed in her own thoughts. The customer busied herself with her phone. Cornrow wasn't difficult to do, and her hair was very obedient. They were done in no time.

"Aunty, you're looking sweet," Adjɔkɔ remarked, subtly admiring the work of her own hands. The customer smiled and handed to her the sum she agreed on with the madam of the saloon.

Aba was the next to report. Technically, you are late when Madam Ivy comes before you. So, Aba wasn't. Aba was the bubbly kind. She always turned up the spirit in the salon. She wouldn't let Adjɔkɔ and Kaaley rest. She had a tale for them. She always did; if it was not about her boyfriend who can be sweet one day and terribly obstinate the next day, it was about her sanctimonious and annoyingly perfect older sister who doesn't seem to want to get married as she still had no boyfriend yet. Aba tickled the soles of Kaaley's baby and he cooed in delight in his sleep.

"Don't wake him up oh," Adjɔkɔ cautioned. She was the level-headed one, balancing two jobs so she could save up for her tertiary education. She needed to work about a year more, and she was good to go. Kaaley had shut that bit of her life after the mistake happened with Nii.

Grace arrived, her shabby-looking baby whimpering. She hurriedly undid him from her back, sat down and began to breastfeed. Her baby, about four months older than Kaaley's, grabbed his mother's breast and began to suck it like an orange. He pressed and squeezed and smacked his lips intermittently.

"The way this boy sucks, he will be a very baaaaad boy," Aba commented and the girls, knowing what she was referring to giggled. Grace's palm landed on Joe's thigh, a little harder than a cautioning spank.

"Kpa!" she reprimanded.

He had bitten her nipple. The mischievous baby smirked and kept on pulling at her breast harder. She yanked her breast out of his mouth and put it back where it belonged. Apparently, Joe thought otherwise. Her breast belonged in his mouth. He himself took back the breast and continued sucking away hungrily.

"Leave him," Kaaley counselled. They had been watching curiously. Kaaley would never touch her baby with a view to inflicting pain. The other time her baby spilled the shampoo when she left him to attend to a customer, she hurriedly scooped him up and checked for traces of shampoo in his mouth. If she hadn't hurried, Grace would have succeeded in spanking him. That day, the look she inadvertently gave Grace could have killed her if looks could do that. She lulled him to sleep at her back soon after.

It was eight a.m. when Madam Ivy came in. For a madam, she was impressively punctual and zealously committed to her salon, her inheritance from her mother which she had kept alive with her sweat and blood. Madam Ivy was deeply concerned about her employees. She always had specific questions for each: "Adjɔkɔ, how are the savings coming?"; "Kaaley, has Nii returned from sea?"; "Aba, has your sister found a boyfriend yet?"; and, "Grace, has Joe's family miraculously finally decided to accept him?" Each one answered accordingly: "Madam, please I have to save for about a year more or even less if I increase the money I take for lending out my sewing machine." Adjɔkɔ would say. "Not yet oh, Madam. It's been six weeks since he left for sea," replies Kaaley. "Who? Araba?" Aba snorts. "That girl wants to become a Roman Sister! But over my mother's dead body! She goes around thinking she is Virgin Mary. What she doesn't know is that she is expiring. It's not like the men don't come oh. She is the problem! She turns them all away." Then Aba launches into the story of how Araba turned away the 'mechanic' - not just a wayside 'fitter' - whose father also owned the garage. And "Hmmmmm," Grace will sigh as usual. "That family is as good for nothing as that bastard who left me with this mischievous baby I found no name for but Joe! No oh. They haven't accepted him. And for that idiot! God Himself will deal with him." She would lament.

The customers began to trickle in. Every day was a busy day at Ivy's Beauty Salon. One lady stopped by to style braids she had gotten last week. Another wanted to get her nails done. Yet another had to be convinced by Madam Ivy that her weave was still looking very presentable. Madam Ivy was not just interested in making money; what she did was her passion. Sadly, none of her three daughters, each with a different father, was interested in her vocation. Anna was in catering school. Becky was an apprentice at the seamstress' across the street. And Comfort, the brightest of the three was on a scholarship at Accra Girls' Senior high school far away in Kau-Kudi.

Julie, from two stalls away, came around soon after she was able to disentangle herself from her mother who sold kenkey. She wasn't interested in her mother's trade. She always hanged around the salon, going on errands and, once in a while, helping out with the braiding of rasta and twists. She went to buy porridge for the babies and kenkey for the adults, at a discount. It was an informal unwritten payment agreement between Madam Ivy and Julie's mother.

A most impressive customer walked in. She was outfitted like those women in the Nigerian movies who liked to dress up like they were attending parties when all that they did was to stay at home and do nothing. She said her friend Mrs Crentsil recommended the place. She came with her own hair products. Madam Ivy wouldn't let any of her apprentices touch her hair. She washed the woman's impressively long and bouncy retouched hair and styled it to look like the styles on the front page of hairstyle magazines. It was during this time that Kaaley's baby crawled to her feet. Even though he had already made himself not so presentable, she picked him up and rubbed his belly. He gurgled in delight.

"What's his name?" she inquired.

"Nene," his mother responded. "Short form of 'Nicholas'." The woman let out a gentle laughter. "How can 'Nene' be the short form of 'Nicholas'?"

"See oh, that's what I've been trying to tell her!" This was Aba. "It could be 'Nick', like the Americans will say it, or plain old 'Nicko'. But 'Nene' deɛ. Ah well..."

The woman's chauffeur came to pick her up when she was done. She commented that she wasn't disappointed at all, and that the customer service was superb. She kept on complimenting Madam Ivy for a job well done. She paid ridiculously too much for her simple hair style. And then she tipped both employees and employer generously. Even Nene waved her goodbye when she was leaving.

Like any normal day, today went away. The word uneventful cannot be used because there was always a new topic for discussion, kind courtesy the informative customers. One woman recounted how she worked hard to help her husband travel to Germany. He left and for about five years, she never heard from him. He came down once and she didn't even know about it. He came to cheat on her, as if he wasn't already doing that abroad, and left. She cursed him and all his offspring, but she was quick to exempt the two sons he left her with. It left the salon in an uproar of laughter. She couldn't help but laugh at herself.

Another customer came to generously let them in on the news that the new headmaster at the Palladium L/A school was being transferred because he was satisfying his carnal appetite with students and teachers alike. She wondered how strong he was with that potbelly of his.

And a little baby-squabble ensued between Nene and Joe over bofloat. It was Joe's. He offered Nene some. The latter misinterpreted and took everything. Joe's first response was to hit Nene. Had it not been for Julie's eagle-eyes and timely intervention, the two babies of the salon would have been screaming in tears, disturbing their occupied mothers.

It was dusk already when Valerie, a young cheerful woman, walked in. She couldn't keep mum. Her fiancé was taking her out. She was surprised they hadn't realised it was Valentine's Day.

"But how could even I forget?" Aba kept repeating to herself. She had wanted it to be a special day for her boyfriend and her. It was six o'clock now, too late to do anything romantic. She sulked. For people like the employer and employees at Ivy's Beauty Salon, as well as majority of their customers, days like Valentine's Day could be forgotten as easily as the Epiphany of Christ. It was definitely no big deal.

While they were still working on Valerie, someone had a special visitor. Aba had gone into the inner storeroom to fetch the last supply of the Olive Oil Organic Root Stimulator Sheen Spray. Julie would have gone to fetch it, but she had already left to help her mother pack for home.

"Good evening, Madam," he greeted. The girls giggled when they saw him. Valerie was trying to wrap her mind about it. Aba looked dejected after her almost futile search. She was sweaty, and her hair looked unkempt.

"George!" She shrieked in utter surprise. "What are you doing here?"'

"I came to take you home." He paused for effect, "In my, no, our car," the taxi outside was gleaming in the moonlight.

"You finally bought it!" Aba was evidently overjoyed. "But we haven't closed yet. I can't just leave. . ."

"Nonsense!" Madam Ivy laughed, interrupting Aba. "Hurry and leave. We can finish up without you."

If children of the sun could blush, that was exactly what Aba would have done. After thanking her, George took her away. He opened the front door for her.

Kaaley smiled sadly. "Nii," she muttered and sighed.

They finished with Valerie, showering her with compliments as to how lucky her man was, to have such a beautiful woman. She was really beautiful, and it wasn't just conventional flattery. Her newly styled hair was like the icing on the cake. Madam Ivy gave her complementary make-up.

Adjɔkɔ and Kaaley were the last to leave. They walked together in comforting silence till they had to part. Kaaley walked on. Nene had woken up. He was making baby noises and Kaaley was entertaining him. It looked like they were engaged in a serious conversation. Throwing in laughs here and there. In a few months, she would actually be able to hold conversations with him.

Nene was busily recounting something to his mother in unintelligible baby language, hand gestures and all! Safely cocooned behind his mother, he felt safe. Kaaley was exhausted, her feet were killing her. One part of her journey back home was reflection of her life and the imagination of how different her life would have been if the mistake, no, Nene hadn't happened.

*

She would have completed high school and gone on to teacher training college. Her English teacher always told her how excellent a teacher she would be. She inspired her.

Next came the part of her life where Nii fit in. Nii was her world, with Nene in it of course. He had taken responsibility when it happened. Even though everyone, including her family condemned her, she felt no remorse. She knew her life could have been better, but she was fine with it now.

She was about three months pregnant when she wrote the WASSCE. Her results were not bad at all, but she knew her door of academic pursuit was closed, even if it was just for the meantime.

On the night it happened, it didn't feel like a mistake. Lying at nearby Jamestown beach in Nii's arms, her whole world felt at peace. Home was with Nii, and not that turbulent structure where her father, for the pleasure of it, got wasted and came home to turn his wife and daughters into punching bags. She was more than glad to leave that house when the ceremony was performed hastily for her to get married to Nii. She could see in her sisters' eyes that they wished they were her. Nii was a decent young man.

That day when she told him, she cried not because he would be scared or apprehensive or he would wish to deny or refuse responsibility; she cried because he had accepted wholeheartedly and drawn her in for a long passionate kiss. He even began teasing.

"It definitely is a boy!" Nii said, caressing Kaaley's bun which had begun growing. "My family is famous for having males as firstborns!"

They spent the rest of the time that evening in a playful banter as to which of them the baby would call first. Funny enough, the first word that rolled out of his lips was 'Nene'! Probably, that was an attempt at his name. But of the two, he said 'Mama' first.

Nii had taken a gap year to work in order to go to the university, but when this happened, he decided to use part of the money to marry Kaaley, refurbish his inheritance, which was now their matrimonial home and get himself started as a fisherman at Jamestown port. They had plans of furthering their education as soon as Nene was old enough to be enrolled in a school and there was enough to get in school. Student Loan would take care of the rest after they got in.

Kaaley wasn't just lucky; she was blessed to have Nii. Girls like Grace had bastard children. After the brief moment of ecstasy, the men neglected the aftermath and dumped the repercussions on the girls. Some, like Afi, whose mother's tomato stall was next to Kaaley's mother's contracted HIV/AIDS. Others went ahead to abort and either lost their lives or their wombs. Thoughts of abortion never crossed their mind; her mother would have killed her! Getting a grandchild out of wedlock was one thing, but killing that child was just unpardonable. After all, Nii had done the proper thing by marrying her. His sole motive was out of love anyway. He had always wanted to marry her. Why not sooner? Since his father had passed on, he got a few of his uncles to assist him to observe the required customs before her family.

On the wedding night, she was too pregnant for anything romantic to happen. A month later, Nicholas Armah, son of Benjamin Nii Kwei Armah and Gladys Kaaley Armah, nee Baah, was born.

*

She had reached home. Nene was surprisingly excited. He was trying to break free from the bondage of cloth his mother had subjected him to. Pats and mutterings from Kaaley to keep silent only excited him the more. She was too exhausted, and Nene was making it worse. She turned the door handle, a usual check of certainty as to whether or not she had locked the door before she left, and it gave way: it opened. Strange, she thought. Too exhausted to even subject her mind to interrogations, she eased herself inside. Nene became more excited.

And there he stood...Kaaley broke into a soft sob when she saw him. All her exhaustion seemed to evaporate into thin air when he scooped her into a hug. Nene wouldn't allow himself to be left out. His frantic gestures to draw attention sent his young parents laughing. Kaaley finally let him loose from the bondage of cloths she had kept him in. Nii took him and lifted him up, giving him a good fuss. The mother looked on lovingly, but with fear he may drop him.

"Relax, relax." Nii's laughter sounded like music to her ears. They both sat on the couch. Nii rocked Nene gently in his arms as their baby gradually retired to sleep. She made an attempt to relieve Nii of the baby, but he had already stood up to put Nene to bed. He changed their baby's diaper and tucked him in the cot he had made.

He came to join her in the couch. She automatically fell in his arms. They sat wordlessly. He was stroking her forehead. She was no longer exhausted. She sat up gradually and unbuttoned her blouse. Nii drew her in, caressing her neck with his lips. His hands found their way to her back and undid her bra.

Somewhere, a distant church bell tolled midnight. February 14 had come to a successful end. If you stood outside, you would have noticed the moon smiling warmly and the stars blinking in glee.

The author AKORFA KUUKUA DAWSON is a law student at the University of Ghana. She began writing in primary school. With a few friends, she runs Ink Up, a community of aspiring writers at theinkup.wordpress.com. To Akorfa, writing is a way of telling untold tales.

Contact Akorfa K. Dawson at Facebook