He had clothes he kept for the office. The clothes were often old with the collar torn. He wore very old shoes. He never used a good perfume. He lived in a 2 bedroom flat in a not so decent neighbourhood.
I tried to persuade him to change jobs. To earn more so he could live better. He would thank me and tell me he is seeking work. I went to visit him at his office. He told me to park far away and walk. I wondered why. I did not.
I had parked and was walking upstairs to meet him. Then the guard called me. I walked back. My friend’s boss was at the car park asking who owned my car. I identified myself. He asked who I came to see. I said I came to make purchases. An intuition told me to lie. He smiled and drove off. The guard came to and said “you are a wise man”.
I laughed. My friend was unhappy with me for parking inside the office. His boss conducted an audit of who owned what car. If you drove a fancy car, he would sack you. If you had kids in expensive schools, you would be dismissed. If you dared to dress well, you must be stealing. God forbid you owned a house, he would lock you up.
My friend had worked there for 15 years. He understood the rules and played with the expected facade. Under dressed and under lived.
Well one day, he resigned his appointment. He was going out on his own. The next week he moved into his own home. A duplex with 4 flats attached. He had two cars parked there. Decent cars. We had a party.
The next Monday his former boss arrested him for fraud. Try as he pushed nothing was missing. The boss spent money to find evidence of fraud. The money was spent in vain.
My friend is enjoying life now. Really living. I asked him if there was some “dodgy deals”. He smiled..,”would I ever tell you? Demola there are people who do not want those that work with them to make progress in life. But they mostly always fail. You can’t keep people down no matter how hard you try” “our boss even takes our names to juju men to lock our future, but see…
Life!
Aiye gba ogbon!
- Ademola Adigun
No comments:
Post a Comment