Free Changes by Ama Ata Aidoo Page B

smart in these things.’
    â€˜Esi, I know nothing. In fact, I’m beginning to think I don’t know anything about you.’
    â€˜Oh, don’t say that. Besides, the situation is quite complicated.’
    â€˜How? … There is a wife?’
    â€˜Opoku …’
    â€˜Ah, but you. Did you really think you were lonely? My sister, you don’t know. What I was going to say though is that, if you really were lonely, and you wanted to do something about it badly
    Esi sighed rather audibly, ‘There is.’
    Opokuya heard the sigh, and became immediately concerned, ‘You like him, heh?’
    â€˜Very very much.’
    â€˜I don’t blame you. He looks good enough to eat.’
    Opokuya suggested it really was time they went home. Esi agreed. Just as she had expected, Opokuya was feeling a little drowsy after the alcohol, and more than a little uneasy about her husband and the fact that she’d been away from her home for so long, and unexpectedly. Besides, both she and Esi were tired from the intensity of the discussion. They beckoned the waiter who had been serving them throughout the evening, and when he came, they asked for their bill. After they had settled that, they picked up their handbags, went out of the hotel lobby and into Esi’s car.
    In the end, they never managed to leave the hotel together. Opokuya saw Kubi long before he saw her. She followed their vehicle with her eyes, as he pulled in looking for parking space. When she asked Esi to stop, Esi wouldn’t switch off the engine.
    â€˜Why are you in such a hurry? Stay and say hello to Kubi.’
    â€˜No,’ said Esi, almost in a panic.
    â€˜You think he’ll quiz you about Oko?’ She had read Esi’s mind.
    â€˜Yes,’ it was another confession. ‘And I couldn’t go through with it, not now.’
    Opokuya thought they should both meet Kubi so that Esi could say a quick hello. It would make it easier for her to explain how she had managed to spend an entire evening at the hotel, although the fact that she had had to was not even her fault. Almost immediately, they saw him driving towards them. Opokuya moved quickly and went to stand in the vehicle’s path. Kubi screeched to a stop.
    â€˜Opokuya, you scared me!’ Kubi protested to a laughing Opokuya.
    â€˜You must stop playing dangerous and childish games.’
    â€˜Hello Kubi,’ said Esi to a very surprised Kubi. He returned the greeting. But before he knew what was happening, Esi had said something like, ‘See you, Opokuya,’ and just gone off.
    Kubi remembered that there were other cars behind him, so hemoved the car forward.
    â€˜I’m very sorry,’ Kubi offered in response to a question Opokuya had not asked aloud. ‘And in any case, I had told you this morning that we were going to have a meeting. These days, you should know how these budgetary meetings are.’
    â€˜A reference to my new position at the hospital, no doubt?’ ‘Well, why not?’
    Opokuya decided that getting angry wouldn’t do any good. But she still could not help asking whether his budgetary meeting had really gone on until nearly nine o’clock in the evening.
    â€˜No, not really. But it was still quite late when we finally finished — maybe around seven — and I had thought by then you would have found your way home …’ There was no doubt that now his voice was asking a question.
    â€˜Actually, Esi and I bumped into one another, so we sat and had a chat. I kept hoping that sooner or later, you would come
    Kubi thought he had better not say what he was going to say. That surely Esi too had a husband and a child, and shouldn’t she have tried to go home earlier to take care of her household? They were both silent all the way home; which was extremely frustrating for both of them. Kubi had been looking forward all evening to asking Opokuya about her time with his sister