DEAD PEOPLE STILL HOLDING ONTO THEIR LOVE.

Do you believe in ghosts? This is one of the hot intellectual arguments Denzel and Phyllis had been having since they got married. Phyllis gets scared whenever they lose someone close to the extent that she gets scared to be left alone especially in the dark believing that she would see the ghost of the dead person. Denzel would rubbish her fears and make mockery of her whenever she acts that way. He pulled a prank on her on one might when she lost her grandmother and that almost gave her a heart attack. Now Denzel Denzel went to court with a client and decided to drop him at home because he looked tired and Denzel wanted to help him.

There were people gathered in front of the house the man lived so they were worried because in Ghana when you see people gathered in that manner, it means there's a bad thing that had happened. He politely left the man in his car to see to what was wrong before he would allow the man get down because he didn't want the man to be shocked by anything at that time because he was frail. He asked one of the people gathered what was going on and he was told that, Alice, the eldest daughter of his client had consumed rat poison in an attempt to commit suicide but she was found by her younger brother who had called for help from outside. The witness told Denzel that an old woman in the house dragged the lady out and gave her palm oil to drink to enable her neutralise the poison. Denzel asked if they had made an attempt to take the lady to the hospital but he replied in the negative so Denzel rushed and carried the lady to his car and asked her little brother to join them in the car. He calmed the man down and drove them all to the hospital.

The hospital admitted the lady and treated her for her to be stable. The doctor wanted to make a police report on her but Denzel convinced him to and assured the doctor that, the lady wouldn't attempt to commit suicide again and asked to be held responsible if she did. He drove the lady, her father and little brother to his house and asked Phyllis to serve them. After they had finished eating, Denzel took them to his garden and asked Phyllis to join them. He told Phyllis what had happened and Phyllis felt sorry for the man. She was angry with the lady and was really upset so she asked her if she had thought about what would have happened to her old father and little brother if she had died. "You people think you're too weak to fight and therefore choose to commit suicide thinking that, you would end things but then do you know that's the beginning of misery for your loved ones? Have you thought about what would have happened to your father and how it's effect would be on your younger brother? Do you know the number of people who would be calling your dad a wizard or irresponsible for your death? I am very upset this evening because I just heard about a fifteen year old girl who had committed suicide and when the mother heard it she collapsed and had been admitted at the hospital leaving her two year old son with her sister. The girl was being bullied in school for wearing a worn out uniform to school and her uncle who lived with them had also been defiling her until she noticed she was pregnant. The thought of being bullied and stigmatised haunted her until she had lost the desire to live and therefore had to commit suicide. " Phyllis told them and when Denzel noticed that she was crying he hugged her for a while until she was sober. She then apologised to their guests and then asked the boy to go to the living room to play with Beryl while they talk.

" Now, my dear young lady, tell us what's wrong with you so that we would all give you the strength and support you need to fight that thing until you win and if we see that, there's nothing you can do about it, we will all give you the shoulders to cry on and then give you the strength and support to recover and heal from it." Phyllis said with a pleasant face this time. Alice gave a loud sigh and told them what had happened. " My boyfriend of five years visited me yesterday at my hostel. When he came he was cold towards everyone and that was unusual of him. He normally takes his bath whenever he gets there but this time around he went straight to bed without saying anything to anyone. He refused to bath when I asked him to but he kept telling me he loves me and didn't want to leave me. I was worried and thought it was his family that had started giving him pressure again since they were against our relationship because we aren't rich. In fact, he's the one fully catering for my education because dad can't afford to. His family think I am a gold digger and an opportunist because his family is rich. His father is the Member of Parliament for our constituency and they even claim i am not his class since i am just the daughter of an ordinary security man. So I asked him what the problem was but he kept looking at me with a sad face without saying a word and I decided to take a shower. I heard my phone ring and when I came to pick it, Edward my boyfriend wasn't in the room. When I picked the call, it was someone calling to ask me if I knew Edward Danso because I was the last person he called according to his call history. I was told to come to the hospital to identify his body since he had been involved in an accident about three hours ago. I began to shiver and started calling his name but there was no response. My floor mates started rushing to my door but they couldn't open because I had locked it inside. How did Edward go out if the door is locked inside with the key in the keyhole? I began to shiver and even urinated on myself so I had to change my dress. I saw an engagement ring on my jewellery box and it was customised with our initials. What? I screamed and my floor mates banged on my door so I opened the door.

One of the ladies got a WhatsApp video and when she opened it, it was a video of the accident scene and there lied Edward lifeless in a pool of blood. The person that sent the video said it had happened three hours earlier and because he was a politician's son the news and video had been circulating." She burst into bitter tears and Phyllis hugged her. She apologised to her for being hard on her and then hugged her. Her father was also crying so Denzel had to also console him. Denzel had become sober because of the lady's story especially because it was about ghosts.

We rushed to the hospital, Alice continued but when we got there her parents were already there and forbade me from coming close to the body or to them. I have been warned not to attend his funeral. His mother even blamed me for his death. How could I kill the man that has loved me even when everyone was against it? A man that supported my education fully and even gave me upkeep money. He was even taken care of Papa and his drugs. How can life be this wicked? Just this morning, one of his friends sent me a voice recording of Edward. Edward was telling him that he was coming to campus to propose to me because I have completed my degree and he couldn't wait any longer to settle down with me. He told his friend how much he loved me and didn't want to lose me. Now I am living his fear. I lost him. This is the reason why his mother was blaming me for his death. Edward really loved me even in death. He died because he was coming to see me and yet he even cheated nature to come and see me for a little while before he left me behind forever."

Alice's situation was difficult and very heartbreaking that Phyllis sat for a while without a word. She offered Alice a bottle of water and tissues. She then broke the silence when she noticed Alice was sober. " Alice? Edward would have been very sad if you had died. He loved you so much so that even in death, he still does. He wants you to be reminded of his love that's why he left the engagements ring for you. The ring isn't to give you pain or put you in the bondage and gratitude of his love but it is to remind you to live and develop your self to achieve your dreams. He wants you to live and make something out of your life so that you would support your family and prove his family wrong. So you have to do that. I won't dare ask you to stop loving the man that loves you that much even in his death but I would ask you to make him proud of his decisions to be with you in spite of the many oppositions. You also have to understand his family especially his mother. Everyone would act the way they're doing, knowing that he died on his way to see you. They think you're the reason for his death and their actions though not acceptable is accepted. Besides you will always remind them of their beloved son and that's what they're trying to avoid. Be calm and patient. They might come around.

Denzel and Phyllis requested them to stay with them for a while and they agreed so Phyllis asked Melanie to share her roo. with Alice so that her father and younger brother would sleep in the guest room. Phyllis told Melanie to keep a keen eye on Alice and try to create an atmosphere of friendship between them so that she, Melanie would help Alice to recover since she had had a similar experience. Denzel took Alice's father to the hospital for a medical consultation and got him the drugs the doctor prescribed for him before they both came home to sleep.

Phyllis went straight to bed after showering because Melanie had already helped the kids with their homework and had put them to bed as well. She looked at Denzel and sarcastically asked him if he now believed in ghosts. Denzel smiled and said " this guy must really have loved this lady to even rush to see her even in death. I'm jealous of their love o. Would anyone of us do this if we were the guy?". "I even have one of these ghost stories to tell you. In your absence, we have registered a new beneficiary. This is also a ghost story. Our beneficiary was married to a wealthy businessman in Togo and eight years after marriage with three kids, he died in his sleep. His family took over all his property and sacked his wife and kids. Our beneficiaries says that, a month after they were sacked from their house, she had an alert of an amount of money being transferred into her account without her knowing the source. She says this continued for five years until her friend who had been in Ghana for so many years came to visit her in Togo. When she saw her late husband's pictures in her room, she was surprised and asked who he was so she told him everything and the lady told her that was a lie because her husband was married with a kid in Ghana. They decided to go to Ghana and confirm so her friend brought her and her children here. When they went to his house, they saw his wedding pictures with his wife and his wife confirmed what the lady told her. She asked the whereabouts of the man and she was told that he went to work. She told her wife what had happened five years ago but she didn't believe her even after showing her their wedding pictures. They waited for a week and then weeks turned into two months and they had still not heard from the man nor seen him so his current wife now believes she had been married to a ghost for years and was traumatised for a while but she's recovering. Her current fear is that her child might be stigmatised but we are helping her to recover. She had promised to help the man's first wife and her children so she's making the arrangements. The man's first wife has registered with us to learn a trade and financial management so that she would be able to support her children and herself even if she gets help from her rival."

Denzel was calmly processing what he had heard that day and he was really surprised. He had always refuted the fact that ghosts existed but now he had to fully accept that. He told Phyllis that he really loved her and wouldn't want to die now but then since nobody knows what's in tomorrow, she shouldn't expect him to show himself to her if he should die because he knows that would break her more. Phyllis smiled and told him none of them was going anywhere until their love story ended. They kissed each other and Phyllis out of fear held him tightly until she fell asleep. Denzel slept after she slept because he wanted to make sure she was okay before he slept.