Opana the coffin maker episode 67

Opana – Episode 67
 
© Akoto Alexander
 
On Phone:
 
Client: Hello Quincy, where are you? If I don’t see you here in my office in the next ten minutes, you will come and meet my absence and I promise not to leave behind any cheque for you.
 
Quincy: Am four blocks away from your office, please take your time because I am almost there.
 
Client: I won’t wait for you if my time to leave is up because I have a flight to catch. I will pay you when am back if you don’t meet me in my office.
 
Quincy: No need to worry because I am at the entrance of your office. (call ends)
 
At the Northern Regional Hospital (Intensive Care Unit):
 
Julia: Doctor can you please tell me the current state of my mother’s health.
 
Doctor: Excuse me but please who is your mother?
 
Maame Dufie: The woman who is on the life support machine, I mean Madam Ohenewaa Dotse.
 
Doctor: Oh you are the daughter she has been yearning to see all this while? But why did you keep long in coming to see your mother all this while? Your presence here would have done a lot of good to your mother as she is in the recuperating mood but all the same it’s good you are here.
 
Julia: Doctor it’s not my fault, I stay outside the country and my work there is very demanding. You know when working with the whites if they don’t grant you a proper leave at your workplace and you use your own desgression, you would end up jobless. I made sure to go through the right process before I came to Ghana, please can you tell me the current condition of my mom’s health?
 
Doctor: My dear let’s go to my office so we talk about your mother but I want to assure you that you mother is doing very well, her situation keeps getting better by the day and I believe if she sees you, she will get better than we are even anticipating.
 
Julia: Mmmm Maame Dufie please call Mickey to find out if he has delivered the package to my boss, I will be in the doctor’s office when you are done with the call.
 
Doctor: (offers Julia a seat in his office) Your mother being alive remains a mystery to all of us here in this hospital. Her heart has seized twice or thrice for more than 15minutes and anytime we decide to take her off the life support machine, the heart starts to work again. Your mother is a living miracle and I always thank God for her life.
 
 
Julia: So what is the way forward doctor, do I need to fly her outside the country for treatment?
 
Doctor: My dear to be honest with you, airlifting her abroad wouldn’t be the best idea because she is already weak and you have to first airlift her to Accra before you proceed to which ever country you intend to take her. As at now her condition has been stabilised and stressing her by airlifting her wouldn’t go well…….
 
Nurse: (rushes into the doctor’s office) Doc please hurry up and join me in,side the intensive care unit, the woman on the life support machine is fading away.
 
Doctor: (jumps on his feet) Whaaaaat? But her condition was very stable some minutes ago, please let us go.
 
The doctor, nurse, Julia and her cousin who was just done with her phone call rushed into the intensive care unit only to meet the mother of Julia dead.
 
Doctor: (checks and examines the pulse of the woman critically) My dear am sorry to be the one to break this news to you but unfortunately your mother has given up on us. The Lord that gave has taken, please accept my condolence.
 
Julia: (breaks down in tears) Nooooo! Nooooo!!!!!! This can’t happen now, doctor you said she was getting better some minutes ago so why this news now? Mummy am back for good please wake up, I am willing and ready to stay with you without going back to the States again. I brought a lot of money and things that will make your life comfortable. Please don’t give up on me now, I beg you mummy please open your eyes.
 
Doctor: Nurse please cover her up and prepare her for the morgue.
 
Maame Dufie: Awwwww aunty you didn’t try at all, so you waited all this while for your daughter to come so you give up on her just like that. You could have at least stayed a little while with us before departing.
 
Doctor: My dear please take heart and always bear in mind that everything happens for a reason. You loved your mother but God loves your mother most. She fought a good fight and won her race that was given to her.
 
Julia: (still crying whiles talking) Dufie see what mummy has done to me, she couldn’t wait for me to marry and give her the grandchildren she always spoke about. Now who do I turn to? Who do I call my mom and my own? Who will call me and fight with me to marry and give her grandchildren? Aaaaaaah death you are wicked? I never complained to you that I can’t afford the medical bills of my mother, God why? Why have you taken my source of joy from me this early?
 
Maame Dufie: Take heart my sister, I share with you in your pain because I have been in your shoes before. God knows best my dear. Doc kindly make arrangement for us to take the body of my aunty to back Accra.
 
Doctor: That won’t be a problem, I will like you to get a police report from the police station so that the necessary doc-mentation can be made for you to convey or airlift your aunty to Accra. I will call someone at the police station to assist you when you get there so that everything will be fast for you ladies. Once again accept my deepest condolence my dear ladies. Nurse see me in my office right now.
 
Quincy Room:
 
Quincy: Jack am back and am very hungry. Mr Rupert has released the first cheque for us so I have paid it into our account.
 
Michael Ansah: Oh okay but did you see Julia’s boss personally to deliver the package to him?
 
Quincy: Guy that man and his boys are something else, could you imagine I sat in the man’s hall for over 45minutes and he was not coming out from his bedroom to meet me after I went through a hell of time to get into his compound.
 
Michael Ansah: (cuts in) Jack don’t tell me you didn’t see him so you brought the package back to this house?
 
Quincy: Why would I bring the package back to this house again, after waiting for a while and the man wasn’t showing up I gave the package to one of his personal bodyguards to hand it over to his boss.
 
 
Michael Ansah: Well since you were in the house am sure the package will be delivered to him. I don’t know why this rich people are so arrogant like that, someone comes after you in your house and it takes you infinity to show up and the most annoying part is they always want you to be on time when meeting up with them.
 
Quincy: Hmmmmm say it again my brother but honestly the man has made a mark in life, bro you need to see the mansion that man leaves in. Guy when you enter that man’s compound you are no longer in Ghana. The siren atmosphere, the air, the ambiance and the scent in the house alone can make a lady w-t and the interior of the house alone tells you the man has got taste. I believed the saying that we have billionaires in this country when I entered the house, guy I think when am given the wh0le day to talk about the man and his mansion, I would still not finish my narration.
 
Michael Ansah: Guy all that glitters are not gold, have you for once thought about the work the man does or perhaps what he did to get all those things you are talking about?
 
Quincy: And there he goes sounding like a typical Ghanaian, for us anyone who has made it in life is either a ritualist, fraudster, murderer or a drug baron. It’s high time the airwaves is sanitised from the Blackman nonsense, we need to start thinking outside the box with how we even plan our life. I believe you know in the midde of 2009, he was a software engineer that no one wanted to hire. He had 12years of experience at Yahoo but he was rejected by Facebook and then rejected by Twitter, he had been to a great university and had a great CV. He decided to team up with some of his alumni members at Yahoo and started to create an app and focus on the start up space, in 5years time he sold that app for 19billion dollars to Facebook, believe it or not, that was Brian Acton the co-founder of Whatsapp. When he was rejected from Facebook he said it was a great opportunity to come with some fantastic people and look forward to life’s next adventure. When he was rejected by Twitter he responded by saying “worked out, it was quite a long commute” it’s so interesting to see that someone rejected from two of the top internet companies actually responded with humour and actually responded with positivity. Another man watched his first company crumble, he was a Harvard university dropout and his first company demo didn’t even work but he went on to build Microsoft, his name is Bill Gates. See failures are only failures when we don’t learn from them because when we learn from them they become lessons. If we are going to get up and step out from our comfort zone everything will….
 
Michael Ansah: (cuts in) Hold it there Mr motivational speaker, I don’t know where you are aiming at with your long speech but did you deliver my toilet sample to the lab technician?
 
 
Quincy: Oh that one, I met Maabena when I got to the hospital so I gave it to her to submit it on my behalf. I believe by now they have started work on it and am sure by three days time the results might be ready.
 
Michael Ansah: Then I need to call Julia so I inform her of the delivery and possibly know the time I will set off.
 
Quincy: That is your cup of tea but don’t go and stay long when you go there because you
 
know we have been booked for numerous events.
 
Michael Ansah: Ah before I forget there is a phone I have with me here but the screen is cracked, I have some vital informations on it which are very delicate but am bothered to share the content with any living soul.
 
Quincy: You and your stories, tell me what the information is and maybe I can be of help. You know they say a problem shared is a problem half solved.
 
Michael Ansah: Bro some problems are better not told and keeping it discreet remains the best alternative. The least you know the best for your life, please can you cook something so we eat because am really starving and I feel I can swallow a very big whale with a single gulp.
 
Quincy: Glutton, you don’t want to share your secret with me but you want to enjoy my continental cuisine. If you think you are not strong enough you better call Henrietta to come and babysit you but you know there are some catching up I have to do in town with our clients.
 
At the Village:
 
Opana: I summoned you guys here because you know we go way back. You have my back and I also have yours. I will need you guys to do something very important for me.
 
Skido: Chairman you know we are your boys and we are always willing to do what you require from us, just say it and consider your request done.
 
Opana: I like your zeal and passion to serve me anytime I call on you guys. What I require from you guys this time around is a very tough and a herculean task.
 
Atongo: Boss so far as you go pay us good money we go do what you want make we do for you. You pay us and we go do exactly what you want make we do give you, for money I fit to kill my mummy self give you.
 
Opana: You this ugly guy and money, you love money but you never grow handsome. Is it that you have allergy to handsomeness or you didn’t wait for God to finish working on you when he was moulding you?
 
Atongo: (frowns as he talks) Boss you anytime you meet me then you want to dey my top, if I be handsome like you think say ebi this job I go do. Like I dey act movie for the city self, you wey you be handsome man, enor be coffin wey you dey do for this village. Why say you nor take your fine face nor go job for the bank or tv top, you think say handsomeness dey put food for table top. You think say…….
 
Opana: (cuts in) My friend shut that gutter you call your mouth up, you think being a coffin maker is a child’s play erh? How many coffin makers do you have in and around this village? Almighty Jesus Christ had a carpenter as his father, open you mouth again and I will take you off this mission. It’s indeed true that when you play with the dog it licks your mouth.
 
Skido: Chairman Opana please calm down, you don’t have to be all worked up dealing with your small boy. He is our top marksman and without him our team is not solid or complete, please overlook his needless comments.
 
Opana: Well I have forgiven him even though the mission I have for you doesn’t require any force or action. I want you to poison some people.
 
Skido: Hey this is very serious than I even thought off, how many people are we talking about?
 
Opana: Oh I can’t tell but I believe it’s going to involve over 30people.
 
Skido: Over 30 people? Why do you want to wipe out an entire family?
 
Opana: No it’s not just a family but possibly almost every family.
 
Skido: Mmmm chairman can you please speak in a plain language so that we all can understand.
 
Opana: (looks left and right before talking) I want you to poison the stream we drink from in this village.
 
Atongo: Boss why you want to wipe out the entire village and sell it give some other people or what?
 
Opana: No I want to use it for one district one factory project. When you talk I feel like slapping your ugly face. Now tell me if you are in or not?
 
Skido: But wait ooo, most of the people in this village drink from that stream so why do you want us to poison it? Has someone stolen you coffin or taken your girl from you?
 
Opana: If someone has stolen my coffin are you a detective to investigate for me? If my girl has been taken away from me, are you are counsellor? Are you guys in or not?
 
Skido: It depends on the amount involved in this mission.
 
Opana: How much will you guys charge me for this mission?
 
Skido: (whispers to Atongo before talking) Mmmm chairman since you are our man and we have known each other for a while, we will charge you fourteen thousand cedis only.
 
Opana: (scre-ms) Why? Am I hiring you to assinate the president of the country? If I had such amount do you think I will come to you for us to undertake this mission? Wait oooo, what at all will you be doing in this mission apart from pouring something small into the stream of this village. Yours is to go to the outskirt of the village and pour the content of the bottle I give to you in the water at dawn without anybody seeing you and you want to charge me this preposterous amount. My friend mention a reasonable amount so we strike a deal.
 
Skido: Chairman the amount in question is nothing compared to the job we are going to do. You know this job and it’s risk involved so please don’t complain because what you will gain later is hundred times what we are charging you.
 
Atongo: Boss you how much you go pay, talk make we know how much edey your body.
 
Opana: For once you have spoken sense my fearful looking friend. Well I intend to take one zero away from the amount you mentioned so I will give you guys one thousand four hundred cedis. Nothing more nothing less, if I tell you I will add even a pesewa then am a liar. Deal or no deal?
 
Skido: Chairman how can we subscribe to such a hefty assignment and accept a peanut or chicken change as the price tag. If you were not our man like I will tell you to go and spend your money on pr-stitutes, even when we kidnap someone how much money do we charge our client?
 
Opana: Kidnapping and pouring a small portion of poison into the stream which one is a hefty job? When did your libido for money rise like that? You guys should accept my offer so you go and undertake the job I have given you before I hire the services of some other person or group of people. You think you are the only people in this field of killing and kidnapping huh?
 
Skido: Are you so serious about the amount you are quoting for us over here?
 
Opana: Do I look like a comedian or clown on the stage? I am deam serious so you better stop behaving like amateurs and take my offer.
 
Skido: Chairman I swear by the sole of my feet that, if you try anything funny or try to give this assignment to anyone erh, I will personally spill the beans and blow your cover to the chief. See erh you have dipped your hand in the food meant for the spirits so you must eat it by force.
 
Opana: Hey see, a child breaks the snail shell but not that of the almighty tortoise, I doubt whether you know the reason why every tortoise has a cracked shell at its back or do you think your childish threats can push me to change my mind or add any money to the one I promised paying you guys? See if you walk to the palace and tell the chief anything, what makes you think I will cover you up with all the bad things you people have been doing in and around this village. Since you don’t look ready to accept my offer I will look elsewhere, see you guys some other time. (walks away)
 
Atongo: Charlie the man make serious ooo, edey walk away from us.
 
Skido: Don’t worry I know what exactly to do, we won’t rush for this mission but we will get paid at the end of the day.
 
Atongo: Hehehe why now you be magician or mallam? How say we go get paid as we no do any job give any one, this one dierr me I nor dey barb.
 
Skido: You will understand at the right time, let us get out of here and watch me play my master game the way I know do.
 
The Boss Mansion:
 
Karl Simpson: Alberto you were sounding very excited when you called me early this morning what is the good news this morning?
 
The Boss: Karl take a seat whiles they serve you something to eat and drink. Mmmm Ginola tell the maids to come and serve us breakfast right this moment and tell them to serve everyone in the house with what the person wants to eat and drink. I am the happiest person on this earth today and you will get to know my reason soon my white brother from another mother.
 
Sheikh Nazir: (walks in) Ina gaishe ka da salama daga Allah (I greet you with the peace from Allah). How is everyone doing?
 
Karl Simpson: (whispers into the ears of the boss) Albert please take it easy with him when he raises issues concerning his consignment, am now feeling his sentiments as he said he has been duped before.
 
The Boss: Mmmm where is this youngman, Ginola or Trouble who is around here?
 
Ginola: (rushes in) Boss you called me, please is there any problem?
 
The Boss: Go to the bar and get me the finest non alcoholic champagne I have there, today is a very good day for me and I can’t just keep calm.
 
Karl Simpson: Bro what is it that you are not telling me, why have you discovered some new business deals?
 
The Boss: Karl, relax for me because when I pop the champagne everyone will hear what I have to say. Ginola tell my son and apparent heir to my entire conglomerates of businesses to join us here as I pop the champagne.
 
Ginola: (walks in with the champagne bottle in his hand) Boss please he said he will join you soon.
 
The Boss: Ginola! Ginola!! Ginola!!! You see I called you three freaking times, I don’t know why you want to bring darkness into my bright and excited day. As you only brought the bottle of champagne what do you expect us to drink the champagne from? I won’t insult, yell, scold or even spank you this morning because I am overwhelmed with joy and excitement this morning.
 
Albert: (walks in) What is making my dad so happy this lovely morning because I don’t remember the last time he exhibited this mood?
 
The Boss: My son get a glass and join us make merry, you will get to know my source of happiness very soon.
 
Karl Simpson: Am waiting patiently to hear what you have got for us this morning since you have decided to keep me in suspense like how Akoto Alexander has kept his readers waiting and in suspense.
 
Sheikh Nazir: I am also waiting my brother because of the call you gave me to rush over to your house before 12noon.
 
The Boss: I won’t tell you with my mouth but your eyes will see for itself soon. Please join me in my study as I bring to light what you want to know, my son since you will be the one to handle my flint of companies I invite you to join us. (all of them walk to the study)
 
Quincy’s Room:
 
Michael Ansah: I need to call Julia so I know how safe she is and how her mother is doing as she saw her personally. Her cousin called me but he line wasn’t clear for me to hear what she was saying.
 
Quincy: You should have done that long time ago, apart from running into the toilet, tell me what else you did profitably this morning.
 
Michael Ansah: How could I do anything when every now and then I had to go and drop passengers. Ah she is even calling me with her cousin’s phone.
 
Julia: (on phone with Mike) Mickey were you able to deliver the package to my boss?
 
Michael Ansah: Yes my dear but your voice is not sounding friendly this afternoon, don’t tell me you are missing me that is why you are sounding like you have been crying or is it because of the stressful journey you undertook?
 
Julia: Far from that Mickey, what did my boss say when he got the package?
 
Michael Ansah: (scratches his head before talking) He was a happy man the moment I mentioned your name.
 
Julia: Did he ask you the reason why I didn’t come in person?
 
Michael Ansah: No my dear, he just took the package and went in,side the house. (Quincy holds his mouth when Mike spoke)
 
Julia: Hmmmm this is strange for him not to ask of my whereabouts knowing how delicate the package was.
 
Michael Ansah: Hey enough of your boss issue, how is your mother doing? I hope your presence alone has rekindled her strength and she is back on her feet.
 
Julia: (burst into tears) Mickey my mother decided to only wait and see my face once again before kicking the bucket. Mickey my mother is no longer a mortal or human being.
 
Michael Ansah: (feeling a bit concerned) Awwwww accept my profound heartfelt condolence my dear, the good Lord knows why he chose to call her now. I know it’s hærd and I feel your pain all the same, I will rush and join you over there right this moment.
 
Julia: That will be great because I need someone strong to handle things over here. I need someone who will…….
 
Maame Dufie: (snatchs the phone from Julia) Mickey please don’t mind her because we are working on some doc-ments so that we airlift her to Accra. Since I have your phone number I will be updating you frequently and please start arranging a hearse that will convey the dead body to the morgue when the flight touches down.
 
Michael Ansah: That won’t be a problem just send me updates on any development that takes place so I know the next step to take, meanwhile please accept my deepest condolence for your lost and kindly be strong so that you can do or take the right decisions for your cousin. (call ends)
 
At the Bosses Study:
 
The Boss: Gentlemen I warmly welcome you to my study, I know by now you guys are wondering why I invited you over to my house this lovely morning. Sheikh I must admit to the fact that you have been a pain in my neck and a thorn in my flesh, they say everything that has a beginning definitely has an end.
 
Karl Simpson: Albert you have been whining and going round and round without hitting directly on the nail. Save us the time and pleasure so we know what the celebration is all about.
 
Sheikh Nazir: You have spoken my mind my friend because I don’t know why I would be given a champagne in this house for the very first and even order your maids to serve me anything I want to eat this afternoon.
 
The Boss: I will enlighten you of your burden very soon, Ginola get me the white napkin and the lens. Gentlemen I am about to present to you the consignment we have been waiting for, the most expensive ancient black diamonds….
 
I don’t know why but am a bit scared over here. Don’t ask me why because I know you know why I am scared. Let the discussion continue across all platforms and as usual you know how to get in touch with me always.
 
To be continued