Chapter 1
‘Efua, we have decided, you are going to boarding school next term inside of Junior High.’ Mama Afryea started. ‘The name of your new school is St Austina’s Complex School. We will pack next week so that means today is your last day at Ashiaman Academy.’ Efua felt her heart thump. She was very excited. Ever since she had watched A Little Princess last summer, she had always wanted to be in a boarding house.
That day at school, she ran and broke the news to everyone that she was going boarding. Her best friend, Caimile, smiled sweetly and said, ‘I’ll miss you, Efua, write me a lot of emails and send me lots of texts’. She was surrounding with kind messages like Caimile’s but then a girl she disliked greatly, Tawiah, smiled sickly and said, ‘Poor Efua, your mother is sending you away because she doesn’t want you to see your father marry another woman, poor Efua!’
It had never crossed her mind about. Her head spun viciously the more she taught about it. Luckily for her, a nicely drawn ‘sad to see you leave’ card made her forget her previous thoughts, ‘I’m not a baby any longer, I’m in Junior High and I am going to boarding school!’
So, she set off for boarding school several weeks later. ‘Mama, I’ll miss you maa but I must learn to be a young independent woman, bye-bye!’ she said. And with that, Efua sent off on the school bus. As soon as Mama Afryea got home, she saw their maid, Abronoma, pacing up and down the room.
‘Ah, Mama Afryea, why send your daughter away? Or is it because her father is getting married - polygamy like that?’ said Boahinmaa naïvely.
Mama Afryea looked in horror. ‘You, Boahinmaa, you stick your pointed nose into everything we do, you make us suffer; first you brought a man and next your daughter, Abronoma, with that abomination, Kojo, now, you are being nosy? I think I should have replaced you earlier,’ she snapped.
Boahinmaa crawled in sweetly at smiled at Abronoma. Mama Afryea took her opportunity, ‘You, and Boahinmaa, leave, we will find, uh, aha Aseye, will do your job! You should leave to the kitchen now!’
