Chapter Sixty-Three – A Summon from Satan

Mara had come to share her grief with us. I sympathized but I didn’t have any money to spare so I couldn’t offer her any. Lara was in no position to either so all we did was comfort her and say obscene things about her roommates. Most of them were lies but it made Mara feel better. Lara called them bush and crass girls. That much was true.

“We should have known they would do something like this when they were always stealing your water during water crisis season” Lara quipped. The way she spoke so furiously, you’d have thought it was her money they had stolen. Perhaps because of the sex for grades scandal, Lara had unknowingly assumed some sort of motherly instinct over Mara. First, helping her navigate that situation and then opening her eyes to how she might have been hypersexualizing herself. The latter is a story for another day. Seriously, we will get back to that juicy plot point but for now, we are focused on Mara the Business Mogul.

“I think you should still go ahead with the business. Buy the things you can with the six hundred. I can talk to Carl for you so he gives you a bit more time to pay him back. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. Don’t give up” I said. That was the first constructive statement since Mara had delivered the news almost forty minutes ago.

The two girls agreed with my suggestion. Mara handed the six hundred over to Lara to keep for her. Tomorrow, when she was feeling better, she’d come for the money to go to the market as planned.

“You’ll talk to Carl? I didn’t know you had such influence over him” Lara only half-joked.

I was glad my back was turned towards her. “Yeah, but don’t we all? He’s our friend. Plus, we grew closer over the long vacation because we were both nursing a broken heart.”

Lara shrugged her shoulders. It was true that any one of us could have that conversation with Carl. It was just the way I had said it that made it seem as though I was some kind of overlord he couldn’t say no to and she’d been curious about that. My answer was satisfactory enough for her to leave the matter alone.

Carl didn’t have a problem with waiting to be paid back and Mara, being inspired by his kindness, ventured into the wild of Madina market and returned with her merchandise.

We were all thrilled and excited when the goods arrived and as a faithful friend, I bought a pink hairbrush. I helped design fliers on Canva while Lara helped to take pictures for the Instagram account we had just created.

“What will you call the business?” Lara asked. She was finding all this exciting and seriously considering investing. Her sister’s pockets weren’t nearly as deep as her parents and so she could use the extra money. Ever since the earlier scare, she’d learned the habit of saving and so she had some money to spare.

“I don’t know yet so for now let’s just make the Instagram ‘hair essentials’ then when we get a name, we add it.”

The pain of the stolen money was now forgotten and we were as happy as ever.

After a week of marinating on the idea, Lara decided that investing would be a good idea but therein lies the problem.

Let me tell you something. Never mix relationships. It’s a recipe for disaster. For instance, Lara and Kwame were great when they were just sex buddies but when they started dating, their whole relationship became chaotic. It’s a mystery to me how they are still friends, though strained. Then there’s people who are married, start a YouTube channel that becomes a successful business and divorce two years later after birthing more children than necessary, gathering millions of views and amassing a cult following.

Lara and Mara were good friends and that should have been enough. A business relationship? Well, I guess more tea for us later.

With Mara contributing 400 cedis, it was decided that the business profit would be split 60/40. Lara had used her charismatic nature to convince the hostel porters to share which rooms had girls in them. You see how easy it is to get murdered in Accra? Why would you as a porter, charged with the protection of students, share such confidential information with civilians?

Anyway, Lara had extracted this crucial information which narrowed down the canvassing she and Mara had to do. So, together they set off from door to door, advertising their product with pride. They got a few people who asked for phone numbers for future purchases and a few who purchased a claw clip or two.

Lara found the entire experience exhilarating. No wonder so many students were starting businesses on campus. It was so fun and rewarding – not to mention profitable.

As they were about hitting the last few rooms, Lara’s phone buzzed to a call from an unknown number. It seemed strange since Mara was the one who was taking call orders and Lara was not expecting any deliveries either.

She answered the phone and froze. On the other end was the smooth confident voice of Mr. Johnson, business mogul, husband and wicked father.

“Hello?” he repeated when no response came.

“Hello?” Lara finally answered struggling to find her voice. Her knees felt like they were jelly and she could use a seat.

“Come and see your mother and I tomorrow. We would like to talk to you.”

Lara couldn’t have told when the call ended. All she knew was that she was sitting on the hostel floor in a daze, her mind racing. She did everything to calm herself down. Mara was already in one of the rooms, having decided to take the lead. She emerged to find Lara trying to stabilize herself.

“Are you okay?” she asked with serious concern.

For the first time, Lara was honest with someone and with herself.

“No.”