SUICIDE NOTE

BY CARL ABRUQUAH
Kojo lay on his bed the whole afternoon, reflecting deeply on the misfortune that had befallen
him that day. He had long heard from many sources that his beloved fiancée Bertha had been
flirting with an accountant of the National Investment Bank, and when he confronted her this
morning, it had led to a violent quarrel. At the end of it all, Bertha had declared, “I am done!”
and stormed out of the house.
In the evening when his temper had cooled down, Kojo had a shower and put on his favourite
clothes- a black corduroy pair of trousers, with a blue jacket over it, and took a taxi to
Bertha’s house, which was a couple of miles away from his house, at the Pedu estate.
The sight that he met at Bertha’s house almost knocked him senseless. As soon as he dropped
from the cab in front of the house, he saw a car moving away with Bertha seated in the front
seat. It was the accountant’s car alright. It was clear. All was over between them.
Kojo walked away from the house completely dazed. Just as he reached the junction of the
Pedu estate, he heard a voice call behind him.
“Kojo! Kojo!”
Kojo turned his head back and saw that it was Angela, his best friend’s girl. Angela run up
quickly to him and hit him hard on the back.
“Oh Kojo! You look very pensive today. You did not even pass by my place to say hello!”
She burst out.
“I am just from Bertha’s place and I just caught her moving out in the accountant’s car. She is
through with me!” Kojo said sorrowfully.
“Oh...that girl? That is her life! She will never change! Why don’t you forget about her and
find another person.” Angela suggested.
Kojo was silent. Angela and Bertha were both students of the University of Ghana and had
been Kojo and John’s partners when the latter were in the final year at the same university
last year. After completing their courses, they had continued with their affair since they lived
in the same town.
Kojo always considered himself as the unfortunate one of the two because his partner had
turned out to be a flirt, and he wished deep in his heart that Angela should rather have been
his girl. From the first time the two couples met at the fanfare organised by his hall in the
university, he had had an eye for Angela, but since John had immediately declared that he
would take Angela, he had had to console himself with Angela’s friend, and he had lived to
regret it.
“Does that mean you will not be at the beach tomorrow?” Angela asked him.
“Well, maybe I’ll be there.”
“Please do come…You could strike a new acquaintance there!”
Kojo thought deeply and nodded his head in agreement, and at the same time waved an
oncoming taxi to a halt.
“So long, Angela!” Kojo said and waved her as the taxi roared away from the Pedu estate
junction.
Kojo dropped down at the front gate of the Adisadel College where he worked as a tutor, and
walked up the school road to his flat which was at the top of the hill and under one of the
houses over which he served as housemaster.
He unlocked the door to his house, walked straight to one of the armchairs in the sitting room
and slumped down into it.
Then he let his thoughts fly. He thought about Bertha, and then found himself thinking about
Angela. Angela was an outstandingly beautiful lady with smooth tan coloured skin and a
well-proportioned body which he admired greatly. Deep in his heart, he wished he had come
home with her. He tried dismissing her from his mind, since he did not want to be disloyal to
his best friend, who was also a teacher at Mfantsipim Secondary School only a stone’s throw
away. However, Angela’s image kept slamming back into his mind until eventually he fell
asleep in the armchair.
The next morning, Kojo woke up quite late- at about nine o’clock, had a quick wash down
and donned a pair of blue jeans with a yellow jacket on top.
It was Saturday, and an Easter holiday, and so Kojo found the beach crowded when he
reached there. However, it did not take him long to find John and Angela. By chance, he just
caught sight of them having a swim in the crowded waters of the beach.
As soon as they saw him, they came racing out of the water to him.
“Hey Kojo! Angela has told me about Bertha! Poor you!” John burst out, looking at Kojo
pitifully. “Let’s move over to our spot and relax for some time.”
Together and hand in hand, the three friends walked up the sandy beach to a huge yellow
umbrella that had been dug into the sand and sat under it.
The morning sky was very clear and the sun shone brightly on the holidaymakers. As the
friends conversed, John and Angela kept caressing each other tenderly, which made Kojo feel
very uneasy.
“I am going for a deep swim,” Kojo declared as he quickly chanced into his swimming suit
and raced down the beach.
John disengaged himself from Angela and followed after Kojo’s heels. Although Kojo knew
very well that John was not a good swimmer, he said nothing as John followed him deeper
into the sea. Soon John was abreast with him and shouting cheerfully.
“Hey Kojo! I have improved tremendously!” He burst out.
They swam on until they were about sixty meters away from the shore.
“Let’s go a bit further and then we race towards the shore!” Kojo suggested.
The two friends swam further into the sea. Then they held hands and turned round.
“Get set! Go” Kojo shouted, and darted through the water towards the shore.
At top speed, Kojo glided through the water without even looking back to see how John was
faring. As soon as he reached the other swimmers, he looked back and realised that John was
nowhere to be found. Not bothered, he swam on towards the shore as if nothing had
happened, and walked slowly up the beach towards Angela, who had somehow fallen asleep
under the umbrella.
Suddenly, one of the swimmers raised an alarm, and Kojo turned back and just caught sight
of John’s head and arms above the water way out into the sea. From all directions, life-savers
rushed into the sea and swam in John’s direction. Kojo pretended as if he was shocked and
raced after them.
When John was brought to the beach, he was completely unconscious, and immediately, a
huge crowd gathered around the life-savers, much eager to see him revived.
After some frantic attempts without any sign of success, there was no other alternative than to
rush John to the hospital.
“What happened?” Angela asked Kojo hysterically.
“He said we should swim deep out into the sea and have a race to you. We started the race
alright, but because I was ahead of him, I did not know what was happening behind me. It
was only when that lady gave the alarm that I saw that John was in trouble!” Kojo explained.
By the next day, the worst had happened. Although the hospital staff had been able to revive
him when the body was brought to the hospital, John had finally died in his sleep that night.
After John’s funeral, the universities reopened for the third term, and Angela had to go back
to school to finish her final year with a gaping vacuum in her heart.
After that term, the two were always seen walking together. Both had lost their partners-
Kojo to an accountant, and Angela to the sea. That they became lovers was therefore no
surprise to anybody.
In October, Angela was posted to serve her National Service as a tutor at the Wesley Girls
College int own, and the two took this opportunity to cement their relationship. Once during a
visit to Kojo’s house, Kojo had mustered up courage and propose to her, and she had not
refuse. In a week’s time, they had their engagement with the blessing of their parents, who
were also living in the town, and a week after this, they had their marriage in the church.
Things happened so smoothly for them, and in no time they had forgotten about their
previous partners.
On Christmas Eve, Angela came over to John’s house and they had a jolly good time
watching video in the sitting room and caressing each other from time to time.
At about ten o’clock in the night, they quickly locked up and retired into the bedroom
completely exhausted, and fell asleep in each other’s arms.
That night, Kojo had a dream, and in the dream he saw John standing in front of his bed and
looking at him with a very puzzled look in his face.
“Ei Kojo” John said. “So you saw me drowning and didn’t even try to save me! Ei Kojo! Ei
Kojo!”
Then the dream shifted to the beach, and the scenes of that fatal day flowed in the dream as it
it was now happening. Kojo saw how he had encouraged John to swim further into the sea so
that they could have a race, and he saw how he had looked back and seen that John was
nowhere to be found, and how he had walked on. Then he saw the swimmer raise the alarm
and then suddenly he woke up to find Angela’s arms coiled around his neck.
“Kojo! What is wrong? You really scared me!” Angela burst out. “The way you shouted was
so scary!”
!i just had a nightmare.” Kojo said and rolled away from Angela.
When Kojo woke up again, it was around 7 o’clock in the morning and he sat up in bed
reflecting on what he had dreamt. He had actually helped his closest friend to drown, and
here he lay with his friend’s girl. It was only now that he begun to feel that what he had done
was treacherous. Angela was still asleep so he quickly got out of bed, had a wash down and
got himself dressed up.
“Angie! I have to check on a friend this morning. I’ll be back in an hour’s time!” Kojo said as
he shook Angela awake.
About thirty minutes later, Angela rolled out of bed and walked straight to the sitting room to
open up the windows. As she passed by the dining table, she saw what looked like a note on
it. A bit bewildered, she picked up the note, and begun to read through it. It was from Kojo,
and as she read on, her heart beat faster and faster. The note read…
“Dear Angie, I know you are going to be shocked by what I am about to disclose to you. I
will not mince my words, and I will go straight to the point. John’s drowning was all my
making, and I did it because I loved you. I loved you from the very first time we met, and I
must confess, I never loved Bertha. I really don’t understand why I did it, but when Bertha
left me, my love for you became uncontrollable, and the devil used that to get me. Angie, I
swear I wasn’t myself that day. I knew John was drowning but walked on…why? Because I
loved you and wanted you for myself. Angie, I cannot continue living with this gnawing
torment in my conscience, and so I have decided to end it all in the same way as John did. I
am going to the beach to that same spot where John got drowned. This is the punishment I
really deserve for such a treacherous deed. Angie, tell the whole world what I did and show
this letter to John’s parents, for evil must surely be put to shame. Angie, goodbye forever.”
Angela could just not believe what she was reading. Acting instinctively, she rushed to the
telephone and quickly dialled 999. “Hello! Is that the police emergency?” “Police station
here!” A voice growled at the other end.
“Hello….please there is a man trying to commit suicide by drowning at the beach! He is my
husband, and he left a note saying he was going to drown himself!”
“Where are you calling from?”
“Adisadel College house number twenty-nine!”
“Okay! We’ll rush to the area!” The man said.
Angela walked slowly to the sofa in the sitting room and lay down on it sobbing violently.
She tore the letter up and flung the pieces all over the sitting room floor. It was too late. Kojo
was a good swimmer. He would swim far out into the sea before drowning himself. The
police could do absolutely nothing. All was lost.
THE END.