Sven-Ole Brandt, tall like his father Claus Brandt assembling his facial expressions, and taller than his mother Heidi Juergensen, well trained body, square face, sleepy eyes, light brown hair, three day old beard, someone most beautiful young girls call a handsome man approachable by many, sat on his favorite blue armchair from Ikea facing the golden framed mirror across his small living-room to discover the upcoming Acne pimple below his lips that reached almost form one end of his face to the other. Being always conscious of his good looks, he tried to squeeze it to make the water come out, and he succeeded; one problem solved he triumphed with the feeling of victory to overcome a problem in his heart; well done!
His older sister Svenja, once a Beauty, since adulthood fluffy with not much progress made in life, living anyhow missing self-esteem and a clear destiny to live up to and trying to achieve, was portrayed in the small photo that was sitting in one corner of his book shelve named Billy bought from Ikea years back also standing alongside her husband; same body structure like his wife missing ambition and drive to make it one day in life to greatness. They got along quite well, most of the time.
While sitting relaxed across the flat screen standing next to his camera equipment, which he used for his professional work with a fizzy drink in his hand and salted Chips from Aldi on the couch table next to him in easy reach and roasted peanuts from Lidl not far out of his sight, he had time to think of times past.
At school, in his early years, his teachers as well as his Uncle Günter, saw great potential in him. In their eyes he was destined to become eventually a Scientist in future to invent something great that would be of benefit to mankind. His eyes and mind were sharp, his intellectual capacity and capability enormous. Everyone was happy to see this handsome young boy grow up talking brilliantly about school matters and his progress made. He himself, deep in his soul, knew that he was made for something special to accomplish in life.
His mother never cared for a good education for her two children, disciplining them, looking over their shoulders to ensure they do well at school. It had been always her believe to leave her children alone, not guiding their progress or pressure them to greatness, but allow them to decide for themselves, from early age, what they thought was in their best interest. She herself, during her Teenage years, never spend much time with her homework from school or read books, but went out to explore and discover her environment and learn about life matters hands-on. It was her greatest joy to hang out in Discos, Pubs and Bars with boys and men, getting pregnant at the age of sixteen. In Big Apple at Dehnhaide Underground Station in Hamburg Barmbek, Heidi Juergensen had spend endless nights enjoying mild forms of illegal drugs much to the concern of her mother, Ruth Willers, that on more than one occasion had been worried about her daughter’s where about and safety while she herself had never cared about her mother’s concerns.
Like mother, like son, he remembered so well his first joint and taste of another world to blow his mind and make him having a good stand among his peers.
“Oh, these were the good old days, wild with parties and parties with no end,” did he tell himself while looking into his photo album in which he carefully had preserved his past events. Even his Facebook page was a clear reflection of the mentality in which he lived his life, no sign of seriousness or greatness, of special achievements and progress made as a human being.
He loved his mother and respected his step-father Hans-Jürgen, someone that was not interested and able to lead him into greater heights in life and challenge his hidden talents to make him wake up finally at later stage in life for a progressive and positive turn-around. It had never come to his mind someone that has no inner strength or power, no spirit for great things to achieve in life, has no sense to see the need for a change of mind, getting up the shirt sleeves, spit into the palm and get moving ahead with hard work, the spirit of ambition, the unchangeable will to overcome challenges on the way ahead and leave the comfort zone behind while having to endure, for endless years, hardships, sacrifices as no weed smoking is permitted, no entertaining of girls, isolating oneself from too many friends to stay focused on the one goal ahead.
It never occurred to him that such a journey is possible and given to each and every one of us; but the choice is in the mind and heart of the individual, left to someone’s personal discretion.
“Where is my beer?” did he look around the room. He had forgotten to bring it out from the fridge. Sven-Ole Brandt got up, entered his tiny kitchen in which he saw the dirty dishes unwashed from the day before, opened the fridge, and grabbed a bottle Holsten Beer, promised to himself to wash the dishes early morning the following day before he sat down again in the living-room.
Enjoying the bitter and cold barley running down his upper body to give pleasure to his stomach and blood circulation, he opened the Chips package, enjoyed the fresh smell of well-made Potato Chips in Salt with a touch of Balsamico Vinegar, newly on offer from his Discounter around the corner in which one Teller enjoyed seeing him each time he went for shopping to open her eyes wide and smell his body odour to feel being a woman that deserves a man like him.
He had learnt, over the years, which these girls all wanted to be near him to enjoy his looks and not his personality; so he had come to realize with such girls life is full of endless dramas. He wanted to ensure that no unwanted baby had to be supported from his pocket, but money earned from working as a freelance Camera Men in various places of the globe would only be for him. For this reason, plans to build a house or buy a flat and settle down eventually, did not cross his mind even in his forties. The money he had on him was spend as needed, not as a starting point to achieve something great in life.
Sven-Ole Brandt looked up to the ceiling and declared to himself loudly:” As long as I am happy, so what. Life is not there to endure hardship, it is there to live it to the fullest. What sense does it make to have great plans when we do not know what future holds. Any time life can be over and then what? No way, I live today and I want to enjoy my life as long as I can…that is the bottom line.”
He turned on the TV watching a report about the latest Mars mission from NASA. His eyes got watery and he did not know the reason why. With excitement and great interest understanding the details of the mission only too well, he spoke to himself: “I could do the same…I know I do not need to go out to work for other people on contract and shoot film after film on order of the once that pay me…but certainly I could have pushed a mission into space with my own intellectual capacity and capability to make my mark in space history and be known not only as an aunt that once was on earth, when gone forgotten with no legacy left behind.” He pressed the remote control but it refused to work. Therefore he had to stay on watching the NASA personel in Houston hugging each other to embrace and celebrate their historic achievement. Looking his nerves down, he proclaimed to himself: “Too much work; too many years without seen a result of what I am capable of that I can do. No, I must see the sweat of my day at the end of each day and not ten or more years ahead.”
He did not observe the clock; outside darkness has set in, fresh cold air emerged and came through the poorly insulated windows that were due to be replaced in the next couple of months. His eyes were tired, the clock turned to ten at nights on NDR 3 TV. The moment he saw the face of his Uncle Günter appearing before his eyes sitting in the Night Talk Show broadcasted each Friday live smiling in victory and understanding, his heart beat started running, his eyes got wide opened, any tiredness was a matter of long forgotten past. Sven-Ole Brandt hated his Uncle like nothing else in the world for what he had decided to do against his beloved mother, to unveil her evilness and betrayal she had caused to all other family members.
He listen with high blood pressure pumping constantly against his brain to make it burst, seen Uncle Günter looking so healthy, young, energetic and handsome, unusual for a man of his age and heard from his very own mouth: “My ex-wife Emma Jaoko, after she had confessed having cheated on me with another man from Hamburg that meanwhile has gone mad being on medication as a friend in Hamburg was reporting always back to us in Ghana, and her son Alexander, once my legal son until a DNA test proved not me to be the father of the boy, she sitting upright in bed, proclaimed herself to be the devil, all that is something I will never forget. She always thought I am naïve and stupid, that was as wonderful as it was giving me the much needed protection behind which I was able to work on my own future, a glorious one. My wife and I were always tense to ensure Emma Jaoko did not see what I was really working on, not to stop the divorce process that could have given her something from the big money I was working on. GOD is truly a GOD of righteousness. For weeks I had worked on a contract over financing projects worth more than five hundred Million Dollars and the day my divorce became legal, the same afternoon I went to Tema to the house of my partner and signed the papers as I have come to Ghana to buy CPC Limited, save the company from destruction and make Ghana the country to produce the world’s best chocolate and make it the chocolate player number one in this world. When someone has great ambition, evil spirits fight hard, but when you stay with your Prophets, like my Spiritual Father Prophet Emmanuel Badu Kobi, it is a matter of time to make any Prophecy made come to pass. And that is what had happen; why I sit here to share my life-story with people to encourage them to overcome obstacle laid before them by their families and the strong men or women among them. When GOD speaks and you follow him, the devil is already defeated.”
“This was not the only money you worked on, right?” asked the TV Host.
“Showers of blessings came over us and I know, it will continue when we stay in the house of the Lord,” answered Uncle Günter smiling with a twinkle in his eyes. A reflection of deep understanding of life matters.
“Why did it take you so long to fight against your sister in Hamburg?”
“Everything has its timing as GOD is working timely, only the devil works always. Now the right time has come to expose all her evilness and lies against me before court and in public.”
“Everything has the right time,” repeated the Host and the Guest around were impressed.
Uncle Günter had developed the spirit of fight daily, win daily as he came from a poor family, his father half of his life behind prison bars with shame and disgrace on the young boy’s head; his mother a woman that had cared for her three children intensively being only able to provide an evening meal and Sunday treat as she had worked as a cook and waitress in Canteens bringing home the left overs. This experience in the small boy’s life had left its mark behind as he had felt ashamed not to go hungry to bed based on the full stomach of others. He had sworn to himself, in life he would have never to depend on the mercy of others but stand on his own feet and far above.
As both parents were not bright and intellectually advanced, the young boy made the promise to GOD to study hard to overcome the stupidity that had dominated the family for generations as a curse. His ambition was to know everything there was to know in this world. Not having friends except one, Ulrich Gross, from a teacher’s family to open up a new, exciting world of knowledge and life’s insight, he looked himself in for years with no end in his small room studying hard, writing books from age twelve going, avoiding parties, only focused on his one big goal to achieve. Climbing the school system up with no help from his family, he felt the hardship of his past and circumstances, pulled himself up when facing endless problems on his way, never gave up to finish University, the first in his family to do so.
His mother had always believed in GOD, he knew, but she had never trusted in him to be there for her. This betrayal made GOD decide not to promote her but leave her in the way her life ended four years ago and it to be the tragedy of her life-time. Sven-Ole Brandt, on the other side, never had to face such problems which could have made him a stronger person to fight his way up to the top where he was supposed to be by his GOD given talents.
Sven-Ole Brandt threw down the remote control that it broke in pieces; stepped on them again and again, got out all his anger about his so much hated, stupid and wicked Uncle as he saw him blinded by his mother. No one ever in the family had accepted Jesus Christ in his life. For them GOD was a word like a red balloon with hot air. His Uncle was the only follower of GOD, what a stupid and useless man; truly someone had to die before he had the chance to destroy, with the weapon of righteousness and truth, the family which self-declared head his mother was; no doubt in his heart and mind about that. His Uncle had to die, he simply had to. In his heart the battle started against him. He tried to curse his name, his wife, his family, his business to the core. It was clear in his soul and spirit, before the family goes down in history, his Uncle had to go down first.
“GOD is always the winner. We pray with our Pastors, Prophets and Bishops against the evil in my family to cause its downfall,” did he hear Uncle Günter saying before he turned the TV off with a fist filled with hate ready for war.
“Yes, our bike is having some faults, but next month I get my Christmas bonus and then for the spring season I and Hans-Jürgen are going to fix it to go out again and have fun in the Altes Land, eating, drinking, simply enjoying life,” Heidi Juergensen mentioned while sharing her homemade cake with her guests she had invited for the yearly New Year’s Party with Berliner, Chips, pickled fish, Wieners, Potato Salad she had prepared the day before, cold Turkey slices, Beer, Wine, Cola, Champagne that was on Sale and candies. She felt happy when having many guest around her that shared with her food, music and drinks, that was the center of her life and she embraced the simplicity of the situation repeated again and again with no human progress made to advance and achieve greater heights in life. It was clear to her, no one of understanding of the matters of earth would be able to approach her and teach her as she would refuse such person. The day will come she will die and all that would be left from her would be dust, no legacy, but only sand from rotten bones blown in the wind to unknown territories. Like a nameless aunt, crawling in the ground, history of time will step over her and crash her to dust.
“This beer is too warm,” complained Hans-Jürgen facing his wife that brought another Potato Salad into the room few minutes before midnight. “Bring a cold one!” he ordered her.
Heidi Juergensen knew his anger outbreaks that got worse by the years forcing her to keep more disciplined to avoid fights. Even she and he were not blessed with much money, but like it was tradition among poor people around the world, it was them that spend much money on fireworks to welcome the New Year while rich people see no need to burn money in the skies.
Sven-Ole Brandt did not remember anymore how he got back home having enjoyed beer, wine, illegal joints not considering to eat enough heavy food. With heavy head and pain in his shoulders, he found his way with half opened eyes into the bathroom to take two Alka-Seltzer’s, dissolved them in water allowing them to give him fast relieve. He felt like vomiting. His body was aching him everywhere. The year before he also had a hangover as usual, but this time it was worse; certainly age took his tow on him. Like his father he had the spirit of a Bachelor with no wife and children by his side to give sense and hold, direction and meaning.
“My Uncle Günter is giving me the spirit of frustration,” it came out of him while forcing himself to swallow the strawberry marmalade roll freshly heated in the small oven of his kitchen. “I hate him so much, he must surely die.”
His mind was not clear, his hands were shaking, his head was burning, his heart felt heavy. He promised himself never again to indulge in endless alcohol and smoke parties…but somehow he was not sure whether he was able to withstand the temptations and stick to his New Year promises.
In his half awareness of the late morning smelling the turkey that his next door neighbours prepared for lunch that Holiday, he looked out from his kitchen through the hall and further through the living room out into the snow on the trees and on the roofs of the houses around his place.
“You love your mother so much and in all your years past you believed everything she said and did. As a true son you protected her well and never asked yourself the question whether what your mother did in her life was right or wrong and whether she misused your good heart as a shield around her behind which she had the chance to engage in her evil works against her family members and others,” was he hearing a voice from far, clear in its words, whispered like coming from an white angle into his mind.
Sven-Ole Brandt turned around and around trying to see where the voice was coming from, but everything was in its place as he knew it, nothing had changed. She shook his head to get the strange voice out of his mind and spirit.
“What will you think of your mother when the right time comes and your Uncle in court and public will, based on evidence, expose all her lies made against him to see her true face and intentions in life. How will your relationship to her be?” the angel’s voice persisted to challenge his conscious.
“No matter what my mother did, she is my mother and I will always stand by her!” answered his soul loud in his mind.
“Even it means your own downfall in life?”
Sven-Ole Brandt paused for a second, looked down, hold his breath, looked up again, felt the cold of the snow he saw outside covering Hamburg in all white and declared:” I do not know anything else in life better than that.”
“Life is by choice, not by opportunities, and everyone is the master of his own fortune or failure,” the voice insisted to clarify.