The big man pumped one big fist into the
other. He stared hard at the ten best doctors in the country sitting before
him. He knew very well they would all be burning to know why they had had
emergency telegrams from the Presidential Commission telling them to attend
this meeting. The big man knew it but he wanted his audience to be tense and
curious. That was why he has been chosen for the job; he knows how to make men
small and do the work he wanted. He leaned back on the large wall map of Ghana
behind him and surveyed the thick walls of the room from one corner of it to
the other. The room was sound-proof. Nothing that was going to be said could be
heard from anywhere outside – not even through the keyhole. The big man sat up
erect. Then his big mouth opened. The man from the Special Branch began to
speak:
“Gentlemen,
I am sure you are all aware that you have been summoned for a very important
reason. I am sure you are also aware that you have to deal with a problem of a
very unusual nature!” The big S.B. man swung his X-ray eyes round the small
ten. Then his heavy trap slit open again.
“Let
us try not to dwell too much on trifles like introductions. You will come to
know each other better.” His left hand stretched to the corner of his desk and
pressed a button. “All the same, let us try to relax a bit. I am going to call
in a lady. She’s called Susanna Hawa. Please try to have a close look at her.”
A rather attractive middle-aged woman emerged from a door behind him carrying a
tray of coffee and some packets of cigarettes. While she served his guests, the
big man lit a King-size Tusker Filter.
He
began to inhale deeply and regularly, his eyes scanning the list of names of
the doctors on the top of his large mahogany desk. He waited until the woman
had retired. He blew a ring of smoke and he waited a little more, then gave
three swift jabs to the button. A few seconds later, a bell under his desk
sounded four times. Now he was sure the woman was out of hearing and at the
place she ought to be. He glanced through his list.
“Doctor
Mensah-Sarbah,” he said. “Please could you tell us how old you think the lady
is?”
A rather severe looking man with a bald
head looked up. He seemed to have Doctor Stamped
all over him. Doctor over his brown,
horn-rimmed spectacles.
“That lady’s age,” he said, “is a bit
difficult to tell. Her appearance suggests a lot of years but her face looks a
little like that of a child. By that I don’t mean she does not look
intelligent. What I mean is that she does not have that look about her that
goes with age. That’s what makes it difficult to judge her age. But… I should
think she is forty give or take a year.”
The
other doctors nodded their agreement. “Thank you, Doctor Mensah-Sarbah,” said
the cool Special Branch man. “I am glad that at first sight you have been able
to deduce so much. But as I told you before, you are dealing with a very
unusual case.” He was playing tricks again. He knew he had not told them what
the case was. He said: “That lady is only fifteen years old!”
Ten
pairs of eyes bobbed wide with bewilderment, then a film of annoyance passed
over them. The doctors did not think it funny to be dragged to a place that
looked like a prison just for the sake of cracking unpleasant jokes at them.
They were just too important for that – they had just too many lives hanging on
them to be amused by that show.
“Gentlemen!”
continued the S.B man, “I am not pulling your legs. What I say is true. Miss
Susanna Hawa is fifteen years old. She is not the only one who is so unusual.
There are many others. It’s like a story from fiction, like the Food of the
Gods! That is why the Commission needs your help!”
Suddenly,
the tension began to break away from the audience. The knowledge that the
government needed them for a very important reason seemed to relieve them a
bit. One by one, they began to discard their fears and to replace them with a
curious scientific interest.
“Now,”
said the big man. “That is about half the problem. Before I go on to tell you
the second part of the problem, I would like us to discuss something which I am
sure most of you know more about than I do.”
CLICK HERE TO READ EPISODE 2
No comments:
Post a Comment