Thank you’. Esaaba’s reply was also short, but polite. Thanks for your note, Stanley. I agree that my parents were wrong to have bullied you into making the proposal. I am very sorry for the inconvenience. I will return the ring to your parents’s home this evening. Thank you’.

Soon after she sent the message to Stanley, Beesiwa called. Esaaba answered, ready to exchange verbal blows with her sister. But to her surprise, her tone was much different.’  ‘Big sis, I want to apologise for what happened yesterday. Mom and Dad should never have done what they did, and I should not have supported them. Please forgive me. I am truly sorry. I called them a couple of minutes ago, and they are truly sorry. They are really afraid that you will carry out your threat to leave the house, and I want to plead with you, don’t leave. They have promised never to interfere in your relationship issues again. Please.

‘Don’t worry Beesiwa. I’ve put it all behind me. I’ve forgotten it all. No hard feelings. I’ve turned the page’.                                                                                                                                  

‘Really? What happened? What has changed so suddenly?’                                                                

‘I will tell you everything later, but I have a visitor now. Let’s talk later. Esaaba looked up and said hello to David.                                                                                                                          

‘Good to see you, David. I wasn’t expecting to see you’.                                                                

‘Well, after what we discussed last night, I thought I should come and see you, and if possible, take the discussion a little further’.                                                                                                   

‘Thanks, David. If you will give me a few minutes, I will make a few arrangements, then I can go out for an hour’.                                                                                                                                

‘No, I will go to the Department and wait till lunch time, then I will come and pick you for lunch. If it’s okay with you’.                                                                                                                                    

‘Yes, certainly. I will be waiting’.

David and Esaaba were inseparable from then, and after some months courtship, he proposed. Esaaba gladly accepted. ‘You came at just the right time, David. I had just had a bad quarrel with my parents and my sister, and was about to leave home’.                                                                

‘You were saved by the bell’, David said. But perhaps it was just the right time for us to meet’.

End.

Starting next week: Watch out for another intriguing series by Ekow De-Heer