They had a small civil wedding two weeks later on the day of the leaver’s jam. I tried to wriggle out of going to the ceremony but Pope wouldn’t hear of it. I was determined to sulk throughout. I couldn’t believe I was giving up being with Ekow because of the stupid ceremony which was only for family and very close friends. Naadu had shown up in a brightly patterned yellow, blue and pink kente slit and kaba which had gold thread woven in between the sections. The bodice of the kaba was done in blue lace. She had shaved off her beard. Black pin-prick spots were visible on her chin if you looked closely.

Pope was in a blue caftan.

Since Pope had perpetually been in a good mood since he made the announcement about the baby, he gave me money to buy a Christie Brown outfit and shoes from Sepha. Naadu had wanted me to choose a blue outfit. I bought a short black dress. Pope absolutely refused to allow me to wear it. He said it would hurt Naadu’s feelings. I got the exact same dress in dark red. He just sighed and shook his head but he didn’t say anything. I guess he hoped people would not equate the red shade of my dress with mourning.

I was particularly proud of the multi-coloured button bib necklace I bought though. I was sure I was the only one from school who owned one. Unfortunately, one of the buttons came off just before the ceremony but I quickly pinned it back into place with one of the safety pins I carry in my purse. I don’t think anyone noticed apart from Aseye. She was the only person I invited and I was glad she decided to ‘dog’ the leaver’s jam and attend the ceremony.

“Wow, look at you! You should be on the cover of Ovation! Aren’t these from Christie Brown?” she asked as I did a 360 turn for her to see everything.

I nodded. It’s true what they say that ‘clothes make the man’. I felt like royalty.

“Are there going to be any reporters from the newspapers and magazines?” she asked, fluffing her hair and looking around as if she expected cameras to start going off.

“No, it’s strictly by invitation. Guests are not even allowed to take photographs during the ceremony. Only the professional photographer.”

“Charley, if we were the same size I’d have borrowed your dress. You have to hurry up and lose weight so we can share clothes. And that bib, oh my, it will go with anything, anything. You’re so lucky.”

I know Aseye hadn’t meant to be unkind but it still hurt. Her comment put a damper on my mood that didn’t improve even after she ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ over the button bib necklace.

As I sat through the ceremony, I tried really hard to make myself happy for Pope and Naadu. I even tried to like Naadu. I made a list of her good points—she didn’t pick her nose or put her handkerchief and money in her bra like Nyewayo. She was really good with flowers and she loved Pope. I couldn’t go further than that because images of her with her beard and her loud raucous laugh kept flooding my mind. How could you like someone whose likeable attributes you could count on one hand?

The reception was held in Naadu’s house at Weija. ‘Naadu’s jungle’ might have been a more appropriate term. There were trees and plants everywhere. Not just in the compound but inside the house also. You’d have thought there’d have been some order with the arrangement, I mean all her bouquets and flower arrangements looked neat and tidy and the colour combinations really matched, but in her house, goodness! Everything was growing everywhere.

An old bathtub, buckets and cooking pots had all been converted to flower pots. There were vines creeping all over the building so that I couldn’t even tell what colour it had originally been painted. Right by the front door were two huge potted palms. On the steps leading to the door were various terracotta pots with all sorts of cacti and ferns in them. The compound looked like a broom hadn’t touched it in a million years. There were leaves strewn every which way. A small gravel path led from one part of the jungle to the other. Different coloured caladium plants lined the path. You couldn’t take three steps without brushing the leaves of one tree or the other from your face. It was as if Naadu had dropped plants anywhere and left them to thrive for themselves without bothering to prune or maintain them. I tripped on a vine of morning glory and was glad there was no one there to see but Aseye.

“This is a jungle. This is not Eden.”

“She’s your stepmother. Show some respect,” Aseye said stifling a giggle.

“Step-monster. She’ll never be my mother.”

“We just have to get a couple of wild animals and we’ll be set.”

I giggled. “I’m sure she goes swinging from tree to tree when she’s alone, like Tarzan. On second thought she’d probably snap the rope in two with her weight.”

Aseye threw her head back and laughed.

The reception was in full swing when we joined the guests behind the house. There was about an acre of more jungle land at the back. I could hear water running but I didn’t bother to investigate. I was certain there were snakes somewhere in all that greenery.