Woes of Koosam 12

WOES OF KOOSAM

Samuel Cobby Grant

EPISODE 12

The following days were quite hectic.

The atmosphere at the Shipping Department was one of chaos and hiccups. It was that time of the year in which the company did its annual maintenance, refitting machines and equipment was a necessary evil.

It was the department’s core mandate to make sure that all the shipments were cleared on time and that meant that Kobina also had to ensure the fast procurement of any component that could be locally acquired, was despatched on time.

His module on purchases ran on well-oiled wheels. He greatly outdid himself, even by his own high standards. As usual, he chipped in to help those in other sections with their duties.

Being busy gave him no time to brood on his personal affairs and he was so thankful for that. The only time he found himself thinking about his failed love issues was when he got home from work, but he had realised that life sometimes left one with a tinge of bitterness despite some traces of satisfaction one encountered.

He, one day, had a phone call that the man who had tried to kill him was now well enough to stand trial and that it was required of him to be at the courts on Wednesday. He was in constant touch with the prosecutor and was realistic enough to understand that it was yet another hurdle that must be jumped.

On the day of the trial, he took the day off to enable him to be at the court’s premises. He would have wished that Abena was there to give him strength but that was not how it was going to be. He sighed and waited for the case to be called.

He patiently sat in the courtroom, listening to case after case being called but the one that concerned him wasn’t called. Neither did he see the accused person being brought in. He initially thought he was at the wrong courthouse until he espied Captain Omar and the police investigator sitting in the back speaking to each other in hushed tones. It was only when he approached them that he learned that the accused person had escaped from lawful custody. He had given his police escort the slip.

There was nothing he could do than to leave, so with time on his hands, he went to see the mason who had been moulding the cement blocks and told him of the purchase of twenty bags of cement.

“You get sense o, Massa,” the mason said concerning his block manufacturing strategy.

He smiled and left. He had a weird feeling that something bad could happen but he had no idea what it could be. He had already placed Auntie Ama’s phone number on the blacklist. She didn’t know where he now lived either.

He found himself at the beach. It’s his number one favourite place in the world and he wanted his privacy to meditate and put things in the right perspective in his mind.

Being at the Beach always got him relaxed.

Just staring at the shimmering surface of the sea with its far-off arc-like line that seemed like it was the end of the world had always calmed his nerves.

The beach was secluded, and he was in a world of his own, out of touch with the real world around him, with his mind floating on a woozy plane when he was rudely jerked out of his reverie by raucous from ahead on the deserted beachfront.

He stared at the group of people disinterestedly as they walked on the sandy beach and jumped comically out of the way of the constantly onrushing waves.

“Tourists,” he thought as they moved closer into focus.

He could now see the tattoos on their arms and various parts of their bodies. They were all Europeans except for one who looked like Abena Tawiah. He looked on with amusement as one of the men suddenly tried to push Abena Tawiah’s look-alike towards the onrushing waves. She shrieked and laughed when she saw how the rest were laughing at her.

Kobina’s amusement turned to that of surprise. The pain he never knew existed smashed into his heart and he closed his eyes in anguish. He couldn’t bear to continue looking at the unpleasant spectacle before him.

He stood up from the obscure corner he was and stared again as if he couldn’t bring himself to believe what his eyes had seen. His breath rushed out in wheezes as if he was on the verge of having an asthmatic attack. He wished he hadn’t seen what he was seeing.

He winced painfully as he heard the familiar scream he knew all too well. As if drawn by an invisible force, his eyes beheld the way the man caught hold of the laughing lady, his tattooed arm encircling her waist in his playful attempts to get her feet wet.

The rest were all laughing at her vain attempt to wriggle herself away from the strong grip of her captor.

He shut his eyes tight again, opened them again and left quickly.

Abena successfully wriggled herself from the man’s hold and her fleeting glance landed on the back of Kobina Sam just before he rounded the corner and vanished from view.

“Strange,” she mused at how most men these days looked like Kobina at first glance. “Am I going crazy or what.”

She had found herself at the beach because she being in charge of crew change had taken them to the airport for their flight to Accra but it had been cancelled at the last minute due to a technical problem.

She had managed to get them on the next flight which was four hours away, and one of them had suggested that they went to the beach to while away time. That was how she found herself at the beach as a target of Wayne’s antics.

She looked again for the image that had so suddenly reminded her of Kobina even in her moment of distraction but it had disappeared.

With an effort, she shirked thoughts of him away and turned to her rowdy charges with a charming smile on her face.

Kobina Sam walked like a man on a suicide mission. He walked listlessly and constantly drifted to the middle of the road only to be brought back to reality by the angry honking of horns by angry drivers.

Insults and catcalls were thrown at him.

He had no exact destination in mind but found himself at the office which was very close to the beach.

He went into his office, switched on his PC and the lighted image of Abena stared back at him while silent tears cruised down his face.

But even in the face of misery and heartbreak, he was able to encourage himself to move on.

Still ‘Operation 4000 Blocks’ he said with determination and chattered a taxi home without calling for Godwin.

***

Abu Moro was questioning the wisdom of the decision to take up the selling of locally made leather-handled knives.

 He had made no sales since the beginning of the day and was beginning to think that it wasn’t such a great idea after all. Not even the fact that he was positioned in an area known for the sales of items of that nature had helped. He was thinking of calling it a day when his eyes fell on a man approaching his location.  He watched as the man walked towards him, his gaze on the displayed knives.

He smiled, displaying broken teeth and beckoned on him to buy his sharp knives.

The man picked and examined the largest double-edged knife he had and bought it without haggling over the cost.

“Maybe it’s turning out to be a lucky day for me,” Abu said, happy that he had managed to sell the knife at twice the cost.

He watched as the buyer crossed the road and merged with the crowd.

Eshun had known exactly what he was doing when he outwitted his police escort and escaped.

Even the money he had taken from his wife’s bag when she visited him in the hospital was part of the plans he had in mind. Buying a butcher’s knife was another step in the pursuit of the grand plan he had in mind.

Now, with the knife hidden safely in his pocket, he went straight to Sikafo Ambantsem No 2 to await his quarry. 

The promotional episode for this story ends at Episode 12.

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