Comfort Opokua was the liveliest girl in school; a natural choice for the class captain and twice voted the most popular girl of her year. Perhaps not the most beautiful, it was certainly the most vivacious. Like most boys, Kwame was captivated, but felt that he had little chance of winning Comfort’s friendship. Thinking of her kept other thoughts at bay and calmed his mind to study, but her casual greeting as he passed down the street could make his heart pound for an hour.
After leaving school, Kwame looked for a job at Suame Magazine, the huge informal industrial area of Kumasi. He established a market car dealership business that prospered for a few years but declined in the mid-1970s. Sitting under a neem tree behind his neat row of elegantly painted carts, reading a newspaper, Kwame’s mind he stood firm when he heard a familiar female voice say, “Hey, Kwame, what are you doing here?” Looking up, he was amazed to see the vision he had enchanted in his schoolboy dreams: Comfort Opokua.
In February 1980, Comfort gave birth to their daughter, Akosua, and a month later she married Kwame through a traditional ceremony in her hometown of Konongo. Kwame earned an engineering degree in June and worked at Kumasi University while looking for a way to continue his education. Upon entering the University of Warwick in England in 1985, he earned a little extra money as a translator for UK authorities investigating a Kumasi-based drug cartel. Although he began to build a house in Kumasi, Comfort became impatient for faster material progress and did not like Kwame helping the foreigners against his own people. Look at yourself, Kwame Mainu! You are 31 years old and you still don’t have a home or a job. You have no ambitions for your family. You can never make a decision about anything. I’m tired of making excuses for you. I was talking to your mother and she says that you are like your father. She was forced to give up such a worthless person and I must do the same. ”
After leaving Kwame with Akosua, Comfort went into his shoe trading business and managed to acquire an impressive residence in the posh Nhyiasu suburb of Garden City. It was there that Kwame met her again eight years later and began to dream of a reconciliation. One day, arriving early and waiting for Comfort to come home, Kwame started reading a shoe catalog. ‘What pair are you planning to buy me?’ Comfort must have crept in silently, and was leaning over his shoulder, enveloping him in her perfumed aura. He leaned further forward to point to his favorite shoe and Kwame felt electrified as her hair brushed his cheek and his soft chest pressed against the back of his neck. “I like that style,” he said.
And no man could deny you! He whispered in her ear.
Easy, Kwame Mainu, or you will ask me to come back.
“I never wanted you to leave.”
“It was a big mistake and I’m sorry.”