THE PROPHECY

By: Bismarck Nii Ogbamey Tetteh
WHEN Komieteh turned twenty, he went to see a fortune teller so he would know what his future would be like.
“All is well, your future will be great, blessed with children and riches.” the fortune teller predicted. She however added that there was going to be a complication. Komieteh was going to loose his first child when the child turns twenty and his death would be remembered by his family.
Mr. Komieteh was initially worried but after five years, when things started to look good, he forgot about it. He got married to Sally and after some months, she was pregnant, when they went to see the doctor, he confirmed that it was boy. When the baby was born, the couple named it Bruce.
In his youthful days, Bruce was very helpful and industrious. Not only would he do the chores for his lazy brother John, but he could fix electronic gadgets, small toys and even sometimes his father’s television set when it got broken.
When Bruce turned twenty, he had an accident whiles trying to save Jane, a five year old girl who stayed across the road from being rundown by a car. When Mr. Komieteh, heard about it, what the fortune teller had told him about his son immediately struck him. Naturally, the thought of losing his intelligent first boy frightened him.
In that accident, Bruce suffered a serious fracture in his leg and was hospitalized for three months. And even after he was completely healed, Komieteh could not leave him all alone at home so he took three months break from work.
The three months was up and he had to go back to work. Bruce had then recovered fully but he had to stay indoors because his dad begged him to. After two days of staying at home all alone he asked his dad to help him get rid of the loneliness.He allowed Komieteh to baby sit for Aunty Sarah, Komieteh’s sister. Jane had three children.
One Tuesday afternoon when Bruce thought he had put the three kids to bed, he also decided to have a short nap. Whiles he was sleeping, Kweku, one of the kids lighted a candle and it accidentally fell on one of the mattress in their room. Bruce who was in the next room woke up when he heard the kids screaming, rushed into their room only to see that the most of the things in the room were on fire. He called the fire service department and tried to get the kids out.
While waiting for the fire fighters, he went into the fire and succeeded in getting two of the children to safety but the third one was trapped under the bed. With all bravery, Bruce managed to get into the inferno and saved the life of the last child. Unfortunately on his way out, the door frame fell on him.
When the fire service people got to the house, that particular room was on fire and the kids were standing outside. They put out the fire but Bruce was died. Incidentally, he died out of suffocation, and not from any burns.
On the day of his burial, Komieteh told the people present that his son died saving three children. What the fortune teller told him some years ago had come to pass.

Moral Lesson: “Heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences”.