"If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
" -Chinese proverb The first thing that strikes you about Koforidua, when you come in through Nsawam-Suhum or Akuapim hills in the eastern region of Ghana is the awesome and imposing mountain called Mountain Obuotabiri which surrounds and protects Koforidua.
However, many say Mountain Obuotabiri has lost it's beautiful greenery.
Unfortunately, Kudjoe didn't seem to acknowledge or appreciate anything beautiful about Koforidua, as far as he was concerned; his time in this town was already ticking even before his arrival.
The main purpose for his visit to Koforidua was to sell off his father's large plot of land, use the proceeds from the sale to travel out of the country.
"Life was hard in Africa," he mumbled to himself.
Nothing he did ever yielded results.
Ever since graduation from the university, he had not been fortunate to gain employment and so delved into all manner of businesses.
The last business he ran was a cybercafé (a group of people had loaned him money to start up the business).
Trouble started when thieves broke in one night after the cybercafé was closed for business and carted away all computers, printers, scanner, and every hardware at sight.
That signaled the abrupt end of the business.
This indeed was a negative turning point both in the business and life of Kudjoe.
Not too long after the sad incidence, his creditors who loaned him money came calling.
He tried his best to come up with a reasonable explanation about the sad predicament.
Before he could fully express himself in intelligible words, they pounced on him and beat him to a pulp with a promise to come back to send him forth to an everlasting rest beside his forefathers if he did not pay up what was due them.
He regained consciousness at the hospital.
His mother kept vigil for many nights at St.
George's Catholic Church for his speedy recovery.
The days spent in the hospital were hellish because he kept having nightmares of being beaten to death by the same group of people.
With the help of his friends, he fled to Nigeria before his injuries were healed and before his mother could bring his favourite meal of Banku and Okro soup to entice him to reverse his fleeing agenda.
The fear of dying kept him away from Ghana for a long time.
Despite the pleas from his poor mother and siblings to come back home when his father was diagnosed of a terminal illness until his eventual demise.
Two years passed, Kudjoe who seemed to have gotten over his fears decided to go back to reclaim what rightfully belonged to him as the heir.
After meandering through his thoughts for a strategic return, he came up with an alternate plan which was to sell the land and leave the country for good.
"The land has been sold to the Mensah's," came the quiet reply from his mother on his arrival that night.
Kudjoe smiled and his smile soon turned into little jerks of laughter that gradually grew into a big and loud outburst.
When he gained full control of himself, he looked intently at his mother and asked, "This is a joke, right? "No it isn't," came his mother's calm reply.
"Your father left specific instructions for you inside his chest.
I'm sure you'd get all the answers you need in there.
" These words filled him with rage.
The land was more important than any stupid thing his father must have left behind in his chest.
Besides, there was no proof that his father had sold the land to the Mensahs'.
Proof or not, his father couldn't have sold that land without his consent.
The land was due him and no one could come between him and that land not even the Mensahs'.
He rushed out in blind rage amidst pleas from his mother and his siblings to keep calm and go through what his father had left behind in his chest.
"Kudjoe," his mother pleaded.
"Remember, anger lies in the bosom of fools.
Think deeply before you act!" He ignored her advice, went in and took his father's cutlass and headed straight for the Mensahs', which was just three houses away.
Right in front of the Mensah's house, a serious fight ensued between him and Kwabena, one of Mensah's sons.
They both struggled until there was no more strength left; each one trying to out-do the other to prove who was stronger, as if it all depended on fist fight.
Suddenly, there was a loud crashing sound and Kudjoe felt a strange sensation inside of him.
His mother's words reverberated in his ears; "Kudjoe, remember, anger lies in the bosom of fools.
" Just then, it occurred to him that he had just been shot and his whole life flashed quickly before him like a movie.
He fell on his knees and his vision gently slipped into blackness.
In split seconds, Kudjoe's life hung on the balance.
Doctors tried to revive him.
Sadly, he had already lost a lot of blood and two days later, he died.
The police never found the real culprit who shot him, as Kwabena Mensah was tried and acquitted at the Koforidua Regional High Court.
A few months later, Kudjoe's younger sibling, Ama was clearing out his room and she found the chest.
Inside the chest was a handwritten letter explaining the reasons for the sale of the land, the proof of the sale to the Mensahs' and a cheque for the sale of the land written in favour of Kudjoe! THE END