How girls think!

Those in the medical field won’t hesitate to say that headache is the common symptom of most of the diseases sick persons report daily. A patient could be suffering from stress but the leading symptom would be a headache.

Though the Ministry of Health and other healthcare agencies have been preaching against purchasing drugs over the counter, citizens are still engaging in it, regardless of the dangers it poses to one’s health, to buy drugs without following a doctor’s prescription.

Perhaps, pharmacists make more money from unscrupulous persons who don’t want to be accorded as mothers or fathers, thus their apathy in fighting the bad practice of buying drugs over the counter. Once a person can pay, they’ll provide some pills to get the two or so weeks of a blood clot to flush down with immediate effect.

So the above paragraphs are the reasons Akoto is sheepishly following the order of the day — self-medication. A university graduate, shouldn’t he have known better? Rather, he had obtained a few paracetamols from a nearby pharmacy and he’s treating himself of headache, even though he needs some proper diagnosis and counseling. That said, he feels he will be better off anytime soon, and so there’s no need for him to visit the hospital or whatsoever.

Now it’s the last day of the week but still, the headache persists, making him more infirm. The paracetamol is rather compounding the pains. Everyone would have relaxed comfortably if it had been malaria because malaria is a disease he wrestles with from childhood and even today. Nothing has really changed significantly. Therefore his mother had advised that he goes to the hospital and seek proper medical care.

And his type of work, however, is not that which would allow him to take a hiatus while work is ongoing and quickly go to the hospital and return to work on time. Even when he does, could he go through the long queue at the hospital with ease? An affirmative answer for this means we are talking about a private hospital. And could Akoto — a disappointed graduate — now a roadside laborer, pay for such an expensive service delivery?

Besides, he doesn’t want to take a day off and visit the hospital. If he dares, he will lose his daily fifty cedi remuneration. Perchance he might try the hospital this coming Sunday — an off day for him — supposing the headache doesn’t vanish this week.

The new week has begun. No matter the glaring pains, Akoto has been punctual at work. He was at work on Thursday and had even exercised his duty as the known hardworking guy. He even sang melodies while mixing a heap of sand and cement during working hours. But when they were done for the day, around 5pm, he fell down before he could lift a peel of water and put it on himself, to freshen up and leave to home. Their foreman, Mr. Mensah, hastily arranged for him to be taken to the general hospital.

It was after his resuscitation then he began to open up. But he did this when everyone was away, leaving Oteng, his closest friend. The two of them are like identical twins. They are both graduates struggling for succession. And are earnestly looking forward to hearing from the Ministry of Education to open the application portal for teachers to get themselves posted, but the incumbent government is ‘politicking’ the whole issue.

Even two years have passed after graduation and still they are yet to hear from them. So, the better they focus on their hustle, the better it’s for their survival. They have home to feed, but not home feeding them.

Akoto has properly nursed his thoughts and so ready to unveil what’s troubling him all this while, which had even led to his admission at the hospital today. His disclosure ensued. “So Oteng, you would recall I mentioned that the lady you saw in my room some time ago was not just a neighbor but there’s ‘something’ between us?”

“Leave there. . .leave there again! You didn’t mention that she’s your third and fourth leg.” “Oh! My bad! We’ve been going out since last year. “I see! Korkor is beautiful. Your eyes correct. You’re worshiping in a good temple. Hey! But what’s new?”

A nurse intervened their convo, as she opened the partition, which separates Akoto from the other patients in that particular ward. After she was done administering the injection, their chat ensued again. “Do you know that I’ve been given this girl 20 cedi out of the 50 cedi I get daily? Meanwhile I give only 10 cedi to my mother. This had been going on ever since we started working. Irrespective of this strenuous nature our work, I’ve not defaulted in paying my dues to her. I know she’s not doing any work after completing senior high school so I’ve taken it upon myself to support her.

Last two months I gave my entire saving of 400 cedi to her, when she came with a business idea of going into the sale of road side frying of eggs and bread, with some soft drinks in addition. The boys-boys and girls-girls in the new area are much into it. This is their dinner they hardly miss. So I believe that she could make something better for herself. I didn’t say anything but I gave the money to her.”

Oteng is now dumbfounded. “Hey, bro! Has love turned you into a Father Christmas?” “Shun that! It’s a mockery. Love hasn’t caught you before. I’m in love and I seriously can’t afford to see Korkor going empty pocket.” “Akoto, this is what my late grandfather said and still my father is renting. I know my level so I won’t venture into this fanfare of yours.

I know how to cook. I know how to wash. I have video game which keeps me company at home. How then would I need a girl to do these for me, and be paying her half of my hard earned daily wage?” Akoto was awestruck, he thought Oteng would empathize with him, but rather he was saying something else.

The best cardiologist, Doctor Elikem Aglendor, entered the ward. He is in charge, so he has come to do a check up on the patients. After examining Akoto, in particular, he concluded that he can be discharged now. Smiles and a sigh of relief creased their faces.

He however passed him this advice, “desist from over stressing your brain. You’re a young man of 27, your blood pressure can’t be going high like that.” Akoto nodded the head and promised himself to keep this holy.

But when the doctor asked the reason why he’s been overthinking, to perhaps counsel him comely, his excuse was fixated on unemployment. This even shocked Oteng; he knows that there’s something Akoto is not saying. Because they’re all suffering from unemployment.

And it’s come to their notice that some of their friends who’ve gotten government work are taken only one thousand cedi a month. Whereas they’re taking one thousand and five hundred and sixty (i.e., should they be disciplined with saving). Thus the pains of unemployment can’t be the cause of overthinking!

While on their way home his message tone started hiccuping like a toddler. Akoto’s forehead knitted with disappointment. He began talking without any question being put to him. “This girl will kill me. I’ll die, if she so wants me dead!” “But why are you shouting?” Oteng jokingly poked again. “She’s calling me a ‘half man’”. “Oh! Poor you.”

“She claims that ever since she started going out with me, any amount of money she asked I only gave half of it. And that I’m always blabbing with university, not that I can even take good care of her. Because of this she’s breaking up with me sine dine. After all this investment? Oteng, my heart is boiling?”

At least she should have even asked about Akoto’s welfare since the message of his collapse at work had reached them at home. Rather, she came exacerbating his woes. With this, Oteng encouraged his friend not to give audience to Korkor. “Boy, relax. Listen to what the doctor said.

Don’t stress yourself. What is meant to be will definitely be.” Oteng discharged Akoto at home for his family to assume responsibility. He was sent into his room. He took his dinner and had a long rest amid the heartbroken scene. But one thing he somehow did maturely — was not replying the bombshell Korkor had dropped — the annihilation of their relationship.

In the following morning Akoto was feeling as though nothing had happened. He has fully recovered. Wow! That’s a good omen. But he couldn’t have gone to work. He’s on a one week working leave and had been assured of getting paid half of his daily wage. So at night hour he muttered courage and strolled to where Korkor sells. Well, not that he’s a man enough; he lurked somewhere and was observing from afar.

Everyone who buys, goes away, except this young man who was having such an enterprising conversation with Korkor. They seemed happy too. This compounded Akoto’s pain. He started having some few throbs again. But he decided not to allow the pains to topple him, so he left the scene and came back home around 10PM.

He struggled sleeping that night. Akoto turned himself severally on his bed; and he even asked God for sleep but it didn’t come. At 12AM he finally woke up from bed so prepared to face his fears. He honed his adjectives and selected some few proverbs to sweet-talk Korkor. For it’s said that ‘he who sips tea with the devil must have a long spoon.’

From his place to Korkor’s is just a stone thrown distance. And so he tiptoed and meandered his way throughout the contoured layouts and finally made it there. Remember, nobody had sent him. And oh, Akoto chanced upon Korkor and Kweku Frimpong, the man he had seen awhile ago at where she sells.

In this regard he tried leaving the issue to Karma because it’s all lost. But for a second thought he changed his mind because he hadn’t seen Karma anywhere before. Karma hasn’t given him any assurance. This is a fight he can win. Or at least, he’d get closer to them so that Korkor would see that he now knows the reason she had filled for a breakup. Thus accosting them harmlessly.

But to his surprise, Korkor began hooting at him as if he’s a thief. Can you imagine! At that wee hour? She reiterated everything she had texted him and carefully accentuated Akoto’s new nomenclature. “Half man, half man, half man, woo ho, woo ho, we’re two fully grown individuals here, yours isn’t here!”

The mercilessly heartbroken Akoto had to retreat and surrender: he can’t engage in a verbal brawl with a girl so below his academic excellence. Have you seen a university graduate fighting an Shs leaver for love — that why has she given him a broken heart? It’s a low, so low and such an abnormal love fever for him to catch.

He’d rather protect the little dignity left for him than to open his mouth for Kweku Frimpong to perhaps start teasing him. He therefore found his way home humbly, though he was feeling betrayed.

When he got home, he put himself on his bed and began to reflect. He leveled all the blames on the government for delaying their recruitment. Because, had he been employed, whenever Korkor needed money he would have always given the full measure, not the half he had always given.

It’s sad for Akoto. Anyway, he had to take some few pills when he noted that he was doing overthinking again before matters get worst. After that he closed his eyes in peace. This time round the sleep came in peace.

Oteng had shown himself at Akoto’s place the next day to check up on him before leaving to work. Akoto took the opportunity and made a frank disclosure, without mincing words, to him. Perchance, if he had erred anywhere so that Oteng would point it straight to his face.

After listening, Oteng commiserated with him for his lost. He added by saying, “You see, the guy, Kweku Frimpomg, you’ve mentioned that Korkor is going out with, he stays at Ahene’s area.” “You mean Ahene, our mate, in Arts 2 class, at senior high?” “Yes!” “Then you can get some few information about Kweku.” “Don’t worry I’ve been informed already, I didn’t want to open up to you then because nothing would have made sense to you had I disclosed things to you. You didn’t only go into love with your heart but your mind, eyes, and brain were all blind folded.

You look like the mad man who tested the depth of the lake with both legs and its mud swallowed him. So you saw but didn’t see. You heard but didn’t hear! Now that the love has flushed out of your brains, let me inform you that which you didn’t know.” “Oteng you are a bad friend!” “Save your rants now and listen!”

Oteng began to reveal what he has gathered about Kweku Frimpong. “That Frimpong guy was then a math teacher but has recently landed a job in one of the reputable banks in town. He’s the budget of all the ladies at Ahene’s place. Charley, he’s leaving big. Some months ago he rode bicycle to work, but today it’s a Toyota Camry. And you know his monthly take home alone can be our six months pay. So don’t fight him, okay. I’d blame Korkor, she’s being ungrateful, though I detest dating. She calls you a ‘half man’ without thinking about what comes to your hand in a day? You receive 50 cedi and shares half of it with her. That’s to say you wake up half of the month just to work for Korkor and she calls you a half man.”

“The other time she mentioned that this man, when she asked him 200 cedi, gave him 500 instead.” “Ah! But girls are really funny. You that you’ve been giving her your everything for six seven months now, someone giving her 500 cedi has changed her mind. She doesn’t even know that such an amount could be only 5% of Kweku’s gloss salary! Whereas you gave him half of yours.”

Akoto tartly said, “we need to get a good job, brother. I can now conclude that beautiful girls like Korkor are worth only five hundred cedi for three months.” “Please o, and please. . . If you don’t have money don’t use poverty to speak nonsense!” Akoto winked at him bitterly like an Eagle gazing at its prey from afar.

So following Oteng’s message of consolation, Akoto felt somehow exonerated, as though he has made it in life. But one thing was troubling him — the future of their affair. “Oteng, don’t you think that I’d need to inform Korkor that this man will only take her for a ride and won’t marry him, because she’s not his type?” “No, there’s no need! Leave her to crash and mangle for ‘crushing’ selfishly on a banker instead of you. The way this girl has shown you that love is bitter sweet, leave her to face the pungent smell of being used and dumped. . .what’s good for the goose, isn’t it good for the gander? You wanted the best for her but she was thinking cruelly of you.

You’ve seen why I always tell you that going out with an eighteen year’s girl isn’t the way? Seriously, You’ve to change your ways, too. You were giving her half of your daily wage but because someone has given her 5% of his salary, which is far fatter than yours, she now sees you as a moron.”

They nodded their heads in despair. “No wonder, this is exactly ‘how girls think’, just like you’ve putting it perfectly,” Akoto corroborating his friends initial stance about girls’ stance about love. “But Akoto, I’d say this, if you really want to be loved, true love lies in the bosom of women who’ve passed the teenage area and are nearing thirty.

I call them the responsible lovers. They aren’t ready for this silly sexual fanfares. They’ll love you. They’ll struggle together with you. And win together with you. Please think! And think well. Let this girl go. You have your sanity to protect. Let her bask in glory. I know it’ll not go beyond three months for them. We’ll be here to laugh hysterically, once Kweku Frimpong sucks all the fluids in her breasts and they start to fall off. We will laugh more than satan, that day.”

These two wise men thought that they’ve won by pegging Korkor to perdition. What even fooled them the more was when government finally opened the portals for application, in three months’ time. They applied and got themselves a befitting teaching job. Quitting the constructional works became a necessity. That was end of their hustle.

They were luckily not sent far away so they had a good time for their parents and took great care of other things. Akoto, for instance, rented an apartment in the neighborhood so that he could feel as a fully grown man now. He abandoned the family house.

Furthermore, their salary is now passing through the controller and thus they could go for a loan and either buy a car to frolic and flex Kweku and Korkor like they had made them looking inferior. They have their pension fund and tier two being taken care off. ‘Now they’ve also arrived’.

In that same vein, the relationship between Korkor and Kweku never shrunk as they had foretold. She did not, for once, even regretted to having dumped Akoto. Now she’s getting everything she wanted. Kweku is not only being dutiful to her but extends his benevolent gestures to her parents as well.

Whenever he steps foot at Korkor’s place he’s welcomed like a little king, because he’s like an angel the Lord has sent to win their wars for them. So while things were so swiftly for Akoto and he had thought that Korkor will call and beg for a reconciliation, that was rather Korkor’s back-case!

Some taunting rumors were later peddled against Korkor — that she’s pregnant and as a result of that she’s no where to be seen in the locality. It was true though; it has been a while since eyes were set on her so the towns-folks were thinking that she doesn’t want to be seen with a ballooned stomach, without having gotten married, at her age.

It’s like a taboo to get pregnant out of wedlock, but generally accepted to be ‘doing the do’ before marriage as a teen. Chunk of the town-folks didn’t know that she’s gotten admission in one of the universities and had left to school for almost four months. Her parents kept this news under the pillow. Nobody got to know about it.

And oh, Kweku was the engineer behind Korkor’s new educational ascension. It’s his volition that Korkor is reading Banking and Finance in school. Aside paying for the fees and everything, Kweku rented a nice hostel for her; this has taken her mind off the streets; and now very focus on nothing but academia and personal development.

The only time Akoto and Oteng got to know about what’s actually going on with Korkor was in two years’ time. What happened? Kweku Frimpong has proved himself to her family that he’s not an overhyped but a responsible man. He sent them a delegation, out of which his father and two uncles and aunties were part, to ask for the hand of Korkor in marriage. At a time Korkor was in level two hundred and, now twenty years of age.

The family Head, Ataa Abaidoo, stood tall in his traditional outfit and thanked them for this good news they’ve brought. He asked that they give him some few minutes to do consultation with other stakeholders. Everything was agreed.

The engagement list was given out. And so when everything has been prepared and it’s time for the traditional wedding, now did Akoto chance upon the invitation cards in circulation. He was unperturbed though; he was being a hard guy.

The marriage took place in a grand style, which perforced everyone to be talking. Korkor has brought blessing into the family. The marriage was successful. Kweku had then completed his flashy two bedrooms house so they moved out from the neighborhood.

Korkor started making babies in level three hundred: she gave birth to her second born at level four hundred. And on top of the challenges of raising kids, she completed varsity with a second class upper. Her National service was also successful without any glitch.

Unlike Akoto and Oteng who sat home for three years before getting a government work, Korkor secured a job in the Central Bank at a time that they were still residing in their rented apartment, and not even settled down with a woman. By the age of twenty five she is driving a Mercedes Benz. Her three children became very astute at school and in the environment.

She owns one of the best cooking and baking shops in the region and other retail shops in town. And currently doing her second degree in International Business. The first house she bought, her parents and other siblings were those housing it. A four bedroom house. And all the expenses were placed on her chest.

The two gentlemen finally realized that Korkor is indomitable after news of her success had reached them. They can’t hate but to agree that though Korkor was in her teens then she was being productive with her thoughts.

Now Akoto had to call Oteng and concede, “Charley, if all girls are thinking like Korkor then our varsity craze will be baseless. So the thing is all about ‘choice’. I don’t think Korkor dumped me. She chose someone who’ll anchor her vision and mission statement in life. Look at her, within six years she has achieved all that I’ve been praying for.

You and I are still not seeing our bearings. Indeed, this is how girls think! They’re strategists. Their thinking is rational. They always want to climb to the apex, to excel in education, to excel in business, to excel in personal development, to become dutiful in the environment and be able to put smiles on their parents’ faces.”

Oteng also admitted: “Kweku Frimpong didn’t forment trouble this time round. Indeed, this is how girls think. Akoto, if you can’t help in their success story, don’t use poverty to talk nonsense. “Brother, if I’ve not learnt anything at all, I’ve known that it’s not all girls who are dumb. And their thinking had always been aright.

The problem, sometimes is from us.” “Don’t say ‘us’, rather say that the problem is you — Akoto, the half man!”