We lost our parents when we were very young. I was still in school when our father died, and our mother followed a few years later. My elder brother became the closest thing I had to a parent.

We grew up depending on each other. So when I got the opportunity to travel to Germany, I promised myself that if life became better for me, my brother would never have to struggle again.

When he got married years later, I was there for him financially. When the kids started coming, I was there for him. When his business started struggling, I began supporting his family. I paid his children’s school fees, sent money for their upkeep, and helped whenever he had financial difficulties.

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I treated his family as my own. He didn’t have to beg me for anything I could afford.

When I decided to build a house in Ghana, my brother was the first person I told. He was excited. He said, “Don’t worry. As long as I’m here, consider the house built.”

He found a piece of land, and I paid for it. Construction of the house started right afterwards. I sent money whenever he requested it. Sometimes, he sent videos of the workers on site. Other times, he called to explain that the prices of materials had increased.

My wife and I had agreed that once the house was completed, we would relocate to Ghana permanently. We didn’t want to spend the rest of our lives abroad, so we planned everything around that goal.

After six years, the four bedroom house was completed. We furnished most of it before we thought of returning to Ghana.

When we arrived in Ghana, we stayed in a hotel waiting for my brother to take us to the house. Anytime we asked him to take us there, he gave one excuse or another. It was either there were cleaners there cleaning the house or the paint was still wet.

We were in a hotel for almost one month until we couldn’t bear the excuses any longer. My wife was worried that maybe my brother hadn’t built the house after all. I was worried too. I thought he had used the money I sent him for something else while sending fake photos and videos of a house. So I discussed the issue with my aunt, who told me not to worry because she knew where the house had been built. The next day, she led the way while my wife and I followed.

The first thing I saw when we entered the house was a little boy lying on a sofa, watching cartoons. A woman was cooking in the kitchen. When she heard us enter, she came out wiping her hands on a kitchen towel.

It was my elder brother’s wife. She smiled and welcomed us as though we had come to visit. I asked what was going on, and she said, “My husband is not home. He might be on his way by now.”

I called my brother on the phone. “Senior, I’m in the house, and I realise your family already lives here. Is that the reason why you keep giving us excuses?”

He answered, “How did you get there? Who took you there? There’s a reason why I asked you to wait.”

When my brother eventually arrived, I asked him why he had moved his entire family into my house without telling me. He answered, “The house was empty. My landlord was ejecting us. Where do you expect me to go with my wife and children when there’s an empty house?”

The most annoying thing about the whole situation was that my brother knew we were coming and knew the reason we were coming, yet he didn’t tell me anything about this development. I was boiling. My legs were shaking. My aunt asked him what he was going to do now that we were back home, and his answer was, “I’m still looking for a place I can afford. If he wants his house as soon as possible, then he can help me pay for a place so I can leave as soon as possible.”

Before I could say anything, my aunt screamed, “Ebei, Ansah! What are you saying? Is he not your brother? Why didn’t you discuss this with him before he arrived?”

He got angry and retorted, “This has nothing to do with you, so shut up. What’s wrong if my brother helps me rent a place?”

My wife pulled me away and said, “Let’s leave.”

She saw where it was going, and she knew I might do or say something stupid. When we got back to the hotel, my wife called my brother and gave him one month to leave the house.

He screamed, “Who are you to talk to me like that? Do you know how I suffered to build this house? You should be grateful instead of calling to threaten me.”

My wife asked, “So you want to keep the house because you suffered to build it? Just say it, and we’ll leave it for you.”

He cut the call.

It took me one week to find the kind of calm I needed to talk to him. I asked, “Ansah, tell me what to do. This is getting out of hand, and I don’t want it to go that far.”

He said, “You already know what to do. Just help me rent a new place, and all this will be over.”

I asked him to find a place and tell me so we could go and pay. It took him only a day to come and tell me he had found a place. He found a three-bedroom house in a prime area. The rent was very expensive, but he insisted I pay for two years, and I did.

Two months later, he left the house for us. We had lived in cheap hotels with bedbugs and cockroaches and had moved to stay with my wife’s family until we finally got hold of the keys. I thanked him and even paid for the truck that moved his things from the house. We repainted the house, did minor repairs, and moved in with the kids.

A few weeks later, he came trying to smoke the peace pipe. I didn’t even open my doors. He stood outside the gate, calling my name and asking me to let bygones be bygones and open the door.

I didn’t.

The whole experience took the joy out of our plan. A year later, we moved back to Germany to begin life again. We rented the house out and made my aunt the caretaker.

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He called me a week ago and said life was hard and he was on the verge of ending up on the street with his family. He had realised the house was empty, so I should give it to him for just a year to figure his life out.

I told him respectfully that I was going to use the house for a poultry farm, so I couldn’t give it to him.

He said, “I know you’re still angry, but help a brother. Even if you can’t give me the house, how about helping me pay rent?”

I answered, “Maybe I can help when the poultry business begins to yield some profit, but I haven’t started, so how do I help you?”

He stayed quiet on the phone for several seconds that felt like forever.

Then he said, “Thank you,” and hung up the call.

A brother like this?

Never again.

—David 

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