JUST ANOTHER WHORE (CONCLUDED)

When Ms. Nancy started working at my home she behaved like a four-year-old in a toy shop. She wanted sheets like mine, blankets like mine, and a stove like mine. None of this kind of behavior seemed out of the ordinary to me because she came from an impoverished home and was filled with wide-eyed excitement at everything she saw. One afternoon she came to me lamenting about 200.00 GHS that she had borrowed from an acquaintance. She didn’t have the money to repay him nor did she like how he behaved toward her. She requested a loan to settle her indebtedness to him and I acquiesced to her plea. However, I warned her to make sure that she didn’t fall into this kind of trap again. She faithfully promised that she wouldn’t. The following month she advised me that she had to make a trip to Accra with her sister and needed some money to take care of her expenses. One week later she called to say that they were delayed and that she needed an additional 100.00 GHS., to tide her over until her return. At that time I decided to leave home at 5:00 A.M. for an early morning walk.

While ascending the very steep hill that leads into the Village of Kato I had a vision. I saw a black female dog and her back was turned toward me. Visions of this nature are always a foreboding of danger. This one meant that “I would be visited by a female thief, therefore I should beware of treacherous friends.” I was extremely uncomfortable after this premonition and naturally, I started to think about Nancy. All kinds of thoughts galloped through my mind, and the most prominent one was, “Is this girl just deceiving me?” I decided to find out. After returning home I showered, shaved, and made a trip to the relocated beauty salon beside the church that Nancy regularly attended. I entered, greeted everyone, and there was Nancy in flesh and blood, and in live technicolor. Inside the beauty salon and not in Accra, where she had claimed to be. Our eyes met and I left immediately afterward. Later that day she called me and I wouldn’t answer because I recognized her number. I was extremely disappointed in her. Not only because she seemed to be trying to rob me but also because it was obvious she was lying to me.

The stand-off lasted for about three days. She called me repeatedly claiming to be hungry and I finally relented and promised to send her 40.00 GHS, and I did. In the course of time, I discovered that although Nancy was very good at requesting money. She was practically incapable of giving a rational explanation pertaining to her conduct. What a contrast to myself? Where she was concerned I had to learn to read between the lines. Eventually, I finally figured out that since her Madam was a tyrannical supervisor. She absolutely refused to permit Nancy to take any time off from her schedule at the beauty salon, to go anywhere else. Accordingly, coming to my house to do any work was a big problem. My anger and disappointment with her therefore gradually evaporated. The more insight I gained into the situation the less frustrated I was about her lies. Her ambivalent predicament was as plain as day. She didn’t want to lose her apprenticeship and she didn’t want to do anything to upset me. I proposed a compromise. “You can make your own schedule to come to my house to work Ms. Nancy. The important thing is that you come.” She agreed.

After that crisis abated, Nancy started to complain that she was sleeping on the floor with four other people in the room where she spent her nocturnal hours. She wondered if I would help her to rent a room. While walking one bright sunny afternoon, in The Nyame Nae area, I passed a property on Hexagon Avenue, where a room was being advertised for rent. I went inside and after speaking with the landlord I took Nancy there to review the premises. The proprietor contended that he would only rent the room for a minimum of two years, amounting to a downpayment of 2000.00 GHS. I promised to return the following day with the amount he requested. That night the Spirit spoke to me and warned me not to rent any room on Nancy’s behalf because said He, “You don’t know who she is.” This occurrence might seem to some to be an inexplicable phenomenon. However, it is the result of one of the promises of Christ. “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:15-18 (NKJV). I have learned in the past to pay careful attention and faithfully adhere to The Spirit’s counsel. Because failure to do so would lead to catastrophe.

I told my female friend that I didn’t have the money at that time but at some time in the near future when circumstances permitted I would try to assist her in that regard. The following month Nancy requested money not only for a church project but also to travel to Tarkwa to pick up her Senior High School diploma. I finally gave her the money she requested. She told me that she would be leaving to go on her journey on Friday morning. I took an Okada to her beauty salon, just to verify her tale, and there she was as I had suspected. Obviously, she had lied to me again; and I determined that this act of deception would be her last. One outstanding characteristic of Nancy was the fact that her lies were unsophisticated. Her deceptive maneuvers were simplistic and it was easy to see through them. The following month she approached me with a brand-new story. She was experiencing great discomfort and pain as a result of having to sleep on the floor and she desperately needed a bed. The cost of which would be 800.00 GHS. My response had been carefully contemplated and I was well prepared for her new antic. I replied, “Nancy, I’m afraid I can’t help you. I just don’t have the money,” I asserted. However, she persisted. Whenever she saw me she would resurrect her story. Nevertheless, I was resolute. This girl was like a bottomless pit. Her greed was insatiable. The more I gave her the more she demanded. Unfortunately, her luck had run out, and even though she started crying and begging me to give her the money she craved. I remained as immovable as the Rock of Gibraltar.

The following week she didn’t come to work. After two weeks of absence, she called to say that she was sick and had been hospitalized. She wanted to know if I would send her some money? I asked her if she had come to work and she replied in the negative. I told her that I wouldn’t be sending her any money. Since I had no intention of paying her for doing nothing. “Mr. James, why do you have to be so hard?” She complained. My reply was, “I’m not trying to be hard on you Nancy, I’m merely trying to protect myself.” Since she had frequently exploited my sympathy and routinely abused my magnanimity in the past, I no longer trusted her. Two weeks later she contacted me again to inform me that although she was no longer in the hospital, she was pregnant. My response was, “Since you were most likely impregnated by your lover you must both be very happy?” “He is not my lover, Mr. James. I don’t even know him. We met, went out together, and he insisted on having sex. Now I’m pregnant. It was a mistake!” My response was, “He didn’t rape you. Moreover, if what you are saying is true Nancy, then you are just another whore.” She confessed that when she was asking me for the 800.00 GHS she was already pregnant. I surmised that she probably wanted that money to obtain an abortion. But her little scheme just didn’t work out.

Most of the girls in Berekum between the ages of 16-23 are carrying infants on their backs. They were impregnated because of whoredom. Employment opportunities are extremely limited and they resort to selling sex in order to survive. My efforts on Nancy’s behalf were designed to save her from such a fate. However, she had possibly been practicing that lifestyle for many years and was also a sex addict. Now she had become ensnared and chained by a vice she had cherished. Victimized by her own lifestyle. Conversely, all of us become beneficiaries of the virtues we pursue. As we read in scripture, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” Galatians 6:7-8 (NKJV). Ms. Nancy begged me to permit her to return to work for me again. My response was, “You never did a good job while you were here before. Furthermore, I think you’ve punished me enough for my kindness.”