Ipods in Accra Read online

  ‘Hey, no need to get snappy,’ Afua said. ‘I —’

  ‘Hey, sorry we’re late,’ Nick interrupted.

  ‘It was my fault – I couldn’t decide what to wear,’ Sanari added, smiling beside him.

  I couldn’t help but stare at her immaculate face and clothing. Her hijab was a pale pink that complemented her skin tone and made the pink polka dots in her beige-coloured dress stand out. The dress looked familiar. I suddenly remembered Tanisha emailing a picture of it to me last month. It was designer!

  ‘Yeah, that’s OK,’ I said, faking a smile. It wasn’t. Why on earth had Nick brought Ms Gorgeous? Was I wrong? Was Sanari his new girlfriend?

  Within minutes, Afua had taken Sanari to her table, whilst Nick and I settled into our quiz mode. The people who had entered the quiz were sitting on the ten tables closest to the stage. The questions came thick and fast with Faith and Eddie cracking loads of jokes in between. I’d been so relieved when they’d agreed to be quizmasters instead of Mum and Dad, which would have been too embarrassing.

  It soon came to a dead heat, with Nick and I competing against Jordan and his cousin, and two other guests. Our next challenge was to write a list of the Akan names next to the correct days of the week. According to Akan custom, everyone is given a name depending on the day they are born. Mine is Amma because I was born on a Saturday, but I never use that name.

  ‘Makeeda, how well do you know this?’ Nick whispered.

  ‘Are you kidding? All I can think of is my name and Delphy’s.’

  ‘I only know Kofi, because that’s mine and I was born on a Friday,’ said Nick, flushing with embarrassment. ‘I know it looks bad but I spent more time with my Polish gran than Nana-Betty, so I don’t really know this stuff.’

  ‘Oh well, we’ll just have to work out the rest.’ I shrugged.

  I’d never really considered what it would be like having to learn two languages on top of English. I only had Twi to learn yet mine was awful.

  We sat there, writing and rewriting all the other names until we were happy.

  Eventually we handed our paper in.

  After a tense few minutes of Aunt Grace, Faith and Eddie checking the results, it was announced that Nick and I were in the final with the other guests after the interval. Jordan looked gutted, but still wished us luck and used the interval to introduce himself to Faith. By this time everyone was eating, drinking, and chatting to each other. There was a crowd of people around Eddie wanting to take photographs with him, and Faith was chatting to some of the girls. We watched as Jordan skilfully managed to divert Faith away from the crowd, into having a one-on-one conversation with him.

  ‘Is he doing what I think he is?’ Nick asked.

  ‘Yep, he wanted me to hook him up with her.’

  ‘He’s a bit of a fantasist, isn’t he?’

  ‘Yep!’ I said, laughing. ‘I mean, there is no way Faith would dump that Hollywood actor for a kid from Harrow.’

  ‘No, but you’ve got to respect a guy who tries.’

  ‘Seriously? He is flirting with a woman twelve years his senior.’

  ‘Makeeda, it’s called taking a risk. People do it all the time when they want someone badly enough.’ Nick smiled.

  The DJ stopped the music and Aunt Grace asked everyone to find a seat for the remaining part of the competition.

  Faith had to be rescued by Eddie, who physically steered Jordan away from her so that the quiz could resume.

  ‘In which year did Queen Yaa-Asantewaa fight the British?’ Eddie asked. ‘Is it A: 1912, B: 1900, or C: 1800?

  That was easy. 1900. Unfortunately, the other team knew the answer too.

  ‘OK, what was the name of the Ghana’s first president?’ asked Faith.

  Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Nick wrote down.

  Both teams got that right too.

  ‘You are killing me! How bright are you guys?’ Faith said.

  ‘Ohmigod, who are they?’ I whispered, staring at our competitors.

  ‘Makeeda, we’re up against a guy who goes to Harrow Boys School and is in their top five per cent and a girl who did her GCSEs a year early.’

  ‘No way!’

  ‘Yep, makes your essay and my smoothie business seem like pretty small achievements.’

  Nick was a bit like Delphy – an entrepeneur – and a few years ago he developed a smoothie business, delivering drinks to the local cafés and corner shops in Edgware and Harrow. Eventually he sold the entire thing to a posh chain of sandwich shops in London, making enough money to put him and his brother through university.

  ‘Ahh … man, and I thought you were the only brainbox I knew,’ I said.

  ‘Shut up, I still am!’ Nick said, tickling me.

  ‘Not any more!’ I giggled.

  Aunt Grace coughed to get our attention and I noticed that we suddenly had an audience of my parents, Afua, Jordan, Sanari and Delphina. Delphina was glaring at me. I guess her crush on Nick was still going strong. I could also see our competitors staring at us.

  ‘You don’t think they heard us?’ I asked Nick.

  ‘Nah. That’s just a competitive stare. They’re trying to psyche us out,’ he replied.

  Anxiously, we waited for the next question.

  ‘Wow, we have some real intelligent Ghanaians here today, so we need another question,’ Eddie said with a grin. ‘Name the man who wanted to sit on The Golden Stool …’

  I immediately grabbed the pen from Nick’s hand and wrote Governor Hodgson, remembering the detail from my essay last year.

  ‘Hopefully this will be the final check!’ Eddie said as Faith quickly checked our answers.

  ‘And the winners, by one point, are Makeeda and Nick!’ Eddie and Faith announced.

  A huge cheer erupted in the hall. Nick hugged me tightly.

  When we pulled away something weird happened. It was like our faces were drawn to each other and we nearly kissed.

  It was so quick, so fleeting, that I almost didn’t believe it had actually happened. Immediately, I gasped and we pulled apart really quickly. By this time everyone else had focussed on Faith and Eddie’s hunt for our prize, so no one was looking our way. This didn’t make any sense: why would Nick and I want to kiss each other? Me and Nick? This was totally illogical!

  Chapter 6

  About Doing the

  Right Thing …

  I had spent the days following Aunt Grace’s party in a state of shock. I kept thinking about Nick and how we had nearly kissed. At first, I couldn’t concentrate enough to get any revision done, but then the exams began and I went into hyper revision mode, where I ate, slept, and breathed my GCSEs. It was weird being at school and not feeling confident enough about how that day’s exam had gone to hang out with everyone and discuss it afterwards. Even Bharti seemed to be in an exam haze – we barely spoke to each other. She was always in a rush to be somewhere else.

  It was only when there were just five days to go until my final exam that I felt I could relax slightly and think about Nick again. Since Aunt Grace’s party I’d only seen him once and that was to go over any last-minute maths problems I had before my exam. He seemed happy to see me, but it was like nothing had happened. He seemed to only want to talk about maths. So I tried to forget about it, but I couldn’t.

  Did Nick fancy me? The question of whether I fancied him was now redundant. I knew my feelings for him had altered. Before he came round for the maths lesson, I changed outfits six times. Delphina thought I must have been meeting Nelson, so she was stunned to see Nick walk through our front door.

  People didn’t accidentally almost kiss. I also knew that I wasn’t one of those girls who could claim to fancy two guys at the same time, because I definitely hadn’t fancied Nelson in ages and now couldn’t stop thinking about Nick.

  That’s when I began to feel terrible about Nelson. What was I doing? He had sent sweet texts wishing me luck in my exams, but all I could feel was guilt. I had a secret. I knew something he didn’t and I knew I cou
ldn’t keep it from him much longer. I hadn’t wanted to split up with Nelson before or during our exams, that would be too mean and besides, I didn’t want to be known as the girl who messed up Nelson’s GCSEs.

  It would have helped if I’d had someone to talk to, but Bharti barely responded to my request for a chat, saying she was busy that afternoon, and that left Tanisha.

  I really didn’t want to chat to Tanisha, but Mum had been bugging me to call her, as she’d left loads of messages. I knew it would mean listening to her go on and on about the puberty ceremony. I wasn’t wrong. It was even worse using Skype. At least, if I was on the phone, I could cut the call short by telling her that I needed to do something that required both hands, but with Skype it was like having a hands-free phone. I was just grateful our webcam was broken.

  ‘Makeeda, I don’t get it. Why?’ Tanisha said in her American/British accent.

  No one quite knew or understood how Tanisha had managed to maintain parts of her British accent, despite living in the States since she was twelve. Her dad moved out there after her mum, Auntie Jennifer, had died. Auntie Jennifer was Mum’s sister.

  ‘It doesn’t matter, because I haven’t made up my mind yet, anyway,’ I responded.

  ‘Yeah, but why exactly would you even consider doing this ceremony?’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘It’s archaic, Makeeda. It’s got nothing to do with your life.’

  It was strange – even though I had walked blindly into this situation, part of me was warming to the idea. I mean, it was part of a tradition that all my female ancestors had undergone, so what was so wrong with me doing a version of it now?

  ‘I just haven’t made up my mind yet, Tanisha.’

  ‘OOOOOH you’re so stubborn! Just admit it. You have no idea what it means and you’re freaking out inside!’ Tanisha screamed.

  ‘I think you may have broken the speakers on my PC, so thanks,’ I said, making a mental note to always adjust the speaker volume if Tanisha and I were going to have a Skype chat. She was right: I had no idea what was involved in a puberty ceremony. I mean, I had tried to find out but it seemed to be shrouded in mystery. Mum said it was a celebration recognising the transition from being a girl to becoming a woman, and that I’d be doing activities that reflected this transition. Then we got interrupted so I never got a chance to discuss it with her again. I had even tried to Google it, but then I couldn’t find much except boring academic essays that I had no time to read because of my RG.

  ‘You’re being dumb, Makeeda.’

  ‘Whatever.’

  After a minute’s silence, that felt more like ten, Tanisha spoke.

  ‘So how’s Nick?’

  ‘Umm, OK …’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  I told Tanisha everything that had happened.

  ‘Well, I hope you’re not going to lie to yourself about this, too.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘It’s obvious you fancy Nick, so you’d better split up with Nelson.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Come on, Makeeda! You can’t seriously tell me that all those times you got excited about Nick showing up at your place or when he gave you private tuition for free, there was no chemistry!’

  ‘Well …’

  ‘Oh, don’t pretend!’

  ‘OK fine, but what about Sanari?’

  ‘Listen, you free yourself up first and the rest will fall into place.’

  ‘Seriously?’

  ‘Yeah. Look, Makeeda, I’m guessing that you’d already thought about splitting up with Nelson, before the almost-kiss with Nick.’

  ‘Wow!’ I said, shocked. It was like Tanisha had been in my head.

  ‘Yes, I know. I’m real good at this stuff.’

  ‘At least you’re not smug with it, eh?’ I replied.

  ‘Shut up and listen for a change!’ Tanisha said. ‘All I wanted to say was, don’t let this put you off your revision. No guy is worth sabotaging your future over.’

  ‘Oh, I know that.’

  ‘Makeeda, I’m being serious. None of this stuff is as important as you passing your GCSEs.’

  ‘You sound like Mum and Dad.’

  ‘I know, but put it this way: you know how smart Nick is, do you think he’d wanna be dating a klutz and …

  ‘I’m not a klutz! I didn’t mean to drop that bottle of perfume in the shop.’

  Last summer I was in a department store when I picked up a tester and dropped it as I handed it back to the sales assistant. I was on the phone to Tanisha at the time and she’d been calling me a klutz since.

  ‘Sorry, I meant a thicko with no GCSEs,’ Tanisha said, laughing.

  ‘OK, you have a point.’

  ‘I know I do,’ Tanisha said, and I could hear the smile in her voice. ‘So good luck, and get back to that revision!’

  I wasn’t sure what was worse: having a smug know-it-all cousin, or knowing that in a short time I’d have to split up with Nelson. I decided to do it immediately. I knew that he had already finished his exams. I had one left, but that didn’t matter – I just needed to get this sorted out.

  Nelson was walking towards me in a T-shirt and shorts. I was dressed in a denim skirt and a T-shirt. I had changed three times, because I didn’t want to appear really awful or too good. What should you wear when you’re about to split up with your boyfriend? There was nothing helpful online, and none of my friends who would know were available, so it just left me, my wardrobe and a mirror, and that day I wasn’t sure of anything.

  We met at the bus stop and walked into Stanmore Park. For a while we didn’t really say much; we just swung idly on the swings until a family approached and the kids asked if they could use them.

  As we walked down the hill, I plucked up what little courage I had. ‘Nelson, I need to say something important.’

  ‘OK, but can we just walk a bit more? There’s a café along here somewhere,’ he said.

  ‘Sure.’ I shrugged.

  Splitting up with Nelson took less time than I thought it would.

  ‘I just don’t feel the same way I did when we first met,’ I said, after we’d got some drinks and sat down.

  He didn’t act surprised or anything – he just questioned me.

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘It means I see you more as … family.’ As soon as I said it, I regretted it. Tanisha had once told me the friend/family thing was the worst thing anyone could ever tell you. It basically meant that you could never ever see that person as being anything else in your life, because there was a huge fault in the way they looked, spoke or behaved.

  ‘Oh great! You change your mind about how you feel about me and that’s it, we’re done?’

  I stared at him. I could see how angry he was becoming, but there was no way I could pretend to be happy with him when I had stronger feelings for Nick.

  ‘Are you telling me that you’re happy the way things are?’ I asked.

  ‘No, I just know that sometimes you have to work at things, Makeeda.’

  ‘I can’t do that.’

  ‘No, you won’t do it, because you don’t think we’re worth saving. There’s a difference.’

  He was right. But I also knew we were finished a long time ago.

  ‘Nelson, don’t put all of this on me. You haven’t exactly made a huge effort to make things work!’ I said, accusingly.

  ‘I’ve had exams.’

  ‘So have I! But not every day since January!’ I shot back at him.

  Oh no. I was awful at this. I really didn’t mean to say that. I watched as a cloud grew across his features. He sank back into his seat, with a mixture of shock and anger.

  ‘January?’ he whispered.

  For what felt like ten minutes, he barely looked at me and concentrated on fiddling with the straw in his empty milkshake glass. I just sat there, wishing I could learn to stop letting go of words that damaged their listeners. I longed to be one of the passers-by on the other side of the windo
w, instead of sitting opposite Nelson in silence.

  ‘That’s a long time to feel like that, Makeeda. I thought we were more honest with each other.’

  I wasn’t sure what to say. Should I confirm this and risk hurting him even more? Or just lie?

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I said instead.

  ‘No, you don’t get it. I felt like things went off between us in January, too.’ He wouldn’t meet my eyes.

  ‘What?’ This confirmed everything. It looked like I wasn’t the only one in denial.

  ‘Well, why didn’t you —?’ I spluttered.

  ‘I just hoped we’d work it out. You know, like we’ve done before?’ Nelson interrupted.

  ‘I don’t think that’s possible. I mean, it’s not like you love me or anything.’

  ‘I do,’ he whispered. ‘I really like you, Makeeda.’

  ‘Oh,’ I gasped. I didn’t want Nelson to tell me that. I wanted this to be over.

  ‘I love you, Makeeda. But you’re right – it’s more like a really special friend than a girlfriend. And that’s not really fair on either of us, is it?’

  ‘I guess not.’

  It was weird hearing my own words thrown back in my face. Nelson and I were breaking up. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him the whole truth, so I never told him about my feelings for Nick. We were finished long before the almost-kiss with Nick, so what would be the point of hurting him more? But it was odd, admitting that we had both known things hadn’t been right. And it hurt when we said goodbye that Nelson could wish me luck ‘with everything’, as it meant that he had already decided not to be part of my future.

  I really wanted to hug him tightly and tell him that he was a fantastic boyfriend, but it was too awkward. He kissed me, barely allowing any part of himself to touch me, other than the briefest brush of his lips against mine, but even then he acted like he’d been burned and stepped back. As he walked away, I saw him wiping his eyes quickly. He was hurt. I desperately wanted him to turn around, but he didn’t. If he had, he would have seen my tear-stained cheeks.

  No one had ever told me that doing the right thing would hurt that much. I wished they had. I wished I could’ve been more prepared for the sudden raw feeling of grief.