First Steps to Exile-Salome (3)
Joe quickly settled down to life at Kenyasi. Most mornings, he left at dawn with Wofa Somuah to the farm several miles out of town. His uncle had a huge cocoa farm, but that was operated by Musa, a Kusasi Moslem from somewhere in the northern parts of the country. Musa had a wife and several children. They maintained the cocoa farm. According to Wofa Somuah, he was paid once a year at every cocoa season with a fourth of the cocoa harvest. In exchange for that, Musa maintained the cocoa farm and took his staples from all the food that could be found in the farm. This was principally yams, a few plantains, a little cassava, mushrooms, and palm nut fruits.
What was occupying Wofa Somuah’s time these days was a new cocoa farm he was developing on the fringe of a large forest belonging to his family. Every year, Wofa Somuah extended the cocoa farm by several acres. First, he hired labourers to cut down part of the forest in the dry season. After several weeks, when the cut down forest was dry, he would hire another set of labourers to go there to ‘beat it down’, called ‘pam’ in the twi dialect, a process where they cut the vegetation down so that it would be closer to the ground and hence easier to burn. Then they would set fire to it on a given day. It was a day that Wofa Somuah was looking up to, because then he could start with the new farm, by planting cassava, cocoyam, yams and other short term crops, through which he would intersperse cocoa seedlings. The seedlings were already several weeks old and growing fast. In about six years, most of the crops would have died out and the cocoa would be coming into maturity. In the meantime, Maama Yaa would harvest the crops, and sell them to feed the family. Wofa’s own money would come at the time cocoa was harvested.
Wofa told Joe several days after he arrived that he would put him in trade as a tailor at the next harvest season, which was almost a year away. In the meantime, Joe had to assist him in the farm for a year.
Still fearing that Corporal Asamoah would somehow follow him to Kenyasi, Joe was only too glad to spend the days out of the town of Kenyasi and on the farm. Somehow, he felt safer in the evenings. On the farm, he worked hard, obeying all instructions from his uncle. Being the son of a farmer, Joe already knew how to handle a cutlass effectively, and he did not stint with his labours.
Most days, the rest of the family that is Maame Yaa, Wofa Somuah’s wife, and the children including Salome would follow up later with cooked food and fresh water. Kenyasi had just received its first hand pump, and the people were enjoying fresh water, instead of water sourced from streams.
Most of the time, Joe either concentrated on his assigned tasks, or talked to the children. With Salome, there was virtually no interaction. She kept away from him, for reasons unknown. Joe felt nervous about her. Often, whenever he thought that he could feel her casting secet glances at him, on the farm when they were eating, or at home when he was playing with his younger cousins.
She was very good-looking, Joe thought privately to himself. She was only a little over five-feet, but where she was deficient in height, God had compensated in other ways. She had a good dark-brown complexion, big eyes, thick lashes, luscious lips, a short pudgy nose that was almost a button, big breasts and even bigger buttocks. Deprived from the attentions of Ama, Joe was worried about certain sensations that often coursed through his body whenever she was around, but he told himself secretly that she was his cousin, and tradition barred them from entertaining romantic thoughts about each other. In any case, she was about to be married off, and he needed to get his life back on track.
Those were his thoughts on a Wednesday at dawn when suddenly Joe felt a deep pain in his stomach.
