Christine had gone down the hall to the washroom. Dawson glanced over to the next bed where a four-year-old boy, also recovering from cardiac surgery, was sitting up in bed working on a coloring book. At the third bed, a nurse was attending to a teenage girl.
This hospital room was semi-private. In the adjacent ward, private rooms existed for those who could afford them. Everyone at this exceptionally well-equipped center had either money or good fortune. Located in Ghana’s capital, Accra, where Dawson and his family lived, the center was the only one of its kind in the entire country. He could not help but think of the multitude of children in Ghana dying from congenital heart disease for lack of medical facilities.
Dawson occupied himself by reading the lead article in today’s Daily Graphic newspaper. The headline was “Malgam Makes New Offshore Find.” Malgam, a UK oil company, had been the first to discover substantial petroleum deposits off the coast at Cape Three Points in Ghana’s Western Region. It had been producing oil at the rate of about 70,000 barrels a day. On an international scale, this wasn’t much, but the plan was to increase it to 120,000 bpd over the next twelve months. Meanwhile, Malgam kept making new discoveries and appeared to be doing very well financially.
The oil find was changing the political and economic landscape of the Western Region, especially in the regional capital, Sekondi-Takoradi, the twin city about 180 kilometers west of Accra. Its unofficial name was now the “Oil City,” and apparently, Ghanaians, foreigners, banks, insurance companies, and hotels were flocking to it. Since one visit to see his aunt when he was a teenager, Dawson had not been back to Takoradi, or “Tadi,” as people affectionately called it. He could only imagine how much the city had transformed in that time.
Christine came back to the ward, looking lovely in a batik skirt and a kingfisher-blue top. Dawson could not count the number of times she had turned men’s heads today alone. It always made him smile with pride and think, Sorry, you can’t have her.
She sat down beside him, leaning on his thigh. “You can take a break for a while, if you like.”
“I’m okay for now,” he said, slipping his fingers into her soft palm.
Hosiah must have heard their voices. He stirred and his eyes fluttered open.
“Hey, Champ,” Dawson said, smiling. He passed his hand gently back and forth over Hosiah’s hair, cut low just like his dad’s. The more the boy grew up, the more he resembled Dawson.
