by Umari Ayim

Episode 9       

On Personal Relationships And Meeting Jude Again

– Read Episode 1 of the compelling story HERE.

– Read Episode 2 of the compelling story HERE.

– Read Episode 3 of the compelling story HERE

– Read Episode 4 of the compelling story HERE

– Read Episode 5 of the compelling story HERE

– Read Episode 6 of the compelling story HERE

– Read Episode 7 of the compelling story HERE

– Read Episode 8 of the compelling story HERE

There is an uneasy calm in the boardroom as Tokunbo finishes speaking. I fiddle with my pen and wait for Richard to address the room of fifteen executives. I know how this is going to end. I know Tokunbo will win this. I feel bad for Henry. It won’t be long before the hopeful look on his face is replaced with disappointment.

“I am sorry Henry, but we are keeping Mr. Amokhai.”

To his credit, Henry maintains a stoic expression, refusing to let his disappointment show. As for Tokunbo, not only is she visibly delighted, the gloating coming from her mind is enough to make me want to scowl at her.

Soon her saccharine sweet voice is floating towards me, “I hope the assistant administrative manager is okay with the decision taken at this meeting?”

I stiffen as the entire room focuses on me. “Is there any reason why I shouldn’t be?” I ask Tokunbo, imitating her sweetness.

A self satisfied smile on her face, Tokunbo gives a nod and says, “no reason at all.”

When Richard declares the meeting closed, I walk out of the boardroom, my mood soured and my temper reaching a boiling point. I can’t help feeling betrayed on Henry’s behalf. How could Richard choose his ex over his best friend? How can he not see how calculating Tokunbo is?

I decide that the battle line has been drawn and resolve to show my support for Henry whenever I get the opportunity. Back in the office, my intercom is ringing just as I step through the door.

“Hello.”

“Hi.”

“I’d like to see you in my office.”

“Why?”

There is a moment’s pause before Richard answers my question.

“Because I am your boss?”

I replace the phone back in the cradle and leave my office for Richards’.

Richard’s office is a healthy blend of burgundy red and mahogany brown, and even though he has the sleeves of his shirt rolled up at his elbows, his jacket hanging from the coat stand beside his desk, he still manages to exude a commanding aura.

“Please sit down,” Richard tells me when he sees that I am determined to stand behind the chairs at his desk.

I pick the chair to my right and settle into it. “So what did you want to see me for?”

Richard picks a paper off his desk and hands it over to me. “I want you to take a look at that.”

I look down at the paper. There are several tiny figures arranged in neat columns, but I am too conscious of Richard’s eyes on me to make sense of the information before me.

“What do you think?”

I zoom in on the figures and then realize that I am holding a copy of the company’s account.

Raising my head, I attempt aloofness. “I am sure I will need more than one minute to make sense from it.”

Richard leans back in his swivel chair and holds his gold fountain pen between the thumb and index fingers of his hands.

“That paper in your hand shows that either the auditor is a very good fraudster or Henry might just be chasing after shadows.”

“Okay?”

“Tamisho, what I am saying is this, the evidence there is not enough to nail the auditor.”

“What about the gaps in the report that Henry talked about?”

“I have gone through Henry’s report,” Richard says with a sigh, pushing his chair forward and dropping his pen on the table. “At some point I threatened to sack the auditor based on that report, but after several meetings with all the parties involved, I have come to the conclusion that I need more evidence to arrive at a fair conclusion.”

I remember my encounter with the small man at the gate of our home and also remember Richard’s thoughts on sacking the auditor weeks back.

What changed?

“You are being lied to.”

“How do you know this?”

“I just know.”

“I don’t run my business on a hunch, Tamisho.”

“Great then,” I tell Richard, standing up from my seat. “You have your mind made up, so my input is not necessary.”

“I did not say that.”

“But you implied it.”

“I am not done talking to you.”

I pause in my steps and turn to walk back to Richard.

“Okay?”

Richard ignores the careless shrug of my shoulders and continues, “I usually prefer my employees to put up good professional conduct around this place.”

“What does that mean?”

Richard sighs and laces his fingers together. “I don’t want pettiness to get in the way of work”

I narrow my eyes at Richard, feeling the heat creep up my face. “I am petty?”

“No, you are not,” Richard says with another sigh.

“Okay, now that you have finished with me, I will like to return to my office.” I pause and give him a scathing, “permission to leave now?”

Without waiting for his answer, I whip towards the door and walk out of Richard’s office. It is when I am settling down behind my own desk that I realize that Richard was still speaking when I left his office. The words ‘but I still want to talk’ continue to play on repeat in my mind, but I refuse to feel contrite.

******************************

 

 

“Where are you going to?” My reflection asks, giving me a careful look. She has remained silent for the most part of my rant against Richard.

I pull my hair back into a loose knot at the nape of my neck and brush the fringes falling over my eyes to the side.

“Going to take a walk.”

“I think you should wait for Richard to come so you can both work out your differences.”

“I am not in the mood to work out my differences with him.”

I begin to close my eyes but my reflection holds out her hand to me. “Wait!”

I stop in the middle of trying to take away her powers and open my eyes to look at her.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t think this cardigan fits,” my reflection says, reaching down to pinch the fabric of the black V neck cardigan with long drapey ends.

I watch as she continues to move the cardigan around on her body in an attempt to make it appear ill fitting. When that does not work, she decides to stand with her stomach sucked in and her back slightly hunched.

“See?”

I shake my head at her. “You are trying to make it look bad. There is nothing wrong with it as far as I can see.”

My reflection straightens back up and bites her lower lip. “So you are not going to change it for something else?”

“No, I am not.”

I sigh and begin to lower my lids again.

“Wait!”

“What now?”

“The colour of the pants…orange makes you look sick.”

I give an unconcerned shrug. “Well, that is okay because I feel sick.”

“It is too tight for a married woman.”

“I don’t feel very married right now.”

“The wind..the wind, it is cold.”

I look at my reflection and wonder why she is acting weird. “What are you up to?”

My reflection folds her hands under her breasts and gives me an innocent look.

“Nothing.”

“Are you trying to stop me from going out?”

“No.”

“Okay then, later.”

I meet the nanny sitting downstairs with Toju in his white cradle swing. I lift him up from the swing and hold him for some minutes while he just looks up at me with big white eyes. I begin to stroke his soft cheeks and he reaches out to grab the little finger of my right hand, holding it until he falls asleep.

“He has been quiet since you fed him,” the nanny tells me, taking him back from my arms.

“He was playful when I returned from work.”

“Maybe he is just tired.”

I tell the nanny that I am just going for a short walk and also tell her where to find the milk I pressed into the baby’s bottles. She nods and takes Toju back to the nursery. It is completely dark when I begin my walk, which is odd because it is just fifteen minutes after seven. I am a few meters away from Chika’s house when I notice her husband’s metallic gray Toyota SUV pulling out of the compound. The car speeds off into the evening. Chika’s security guard, Thomas, is pulling the gates shut when I get close.

“Good evening ma,” Thomas greets, holding the gate half open.

I return his greeting and ask him if Chika is at home and he points to the road and tells me that she was the other passenger in her husband’s car. I thank him and resume my walking. I take my usual route and walk with deliberate slowness, my mind still on the events of the morning.

Is Richard still having an affair with Tokunbo?

And if not, why is he taking sides with her over the issue with the auditor?

I am lost in thought when someone taps my shoulder with a happy,

“Hello, nice to run into you again.”

I turn startled eyes to find a man behind me.

“Remember me?”

I think he looks vaguely familiar, but after holding Richard’s face in my mind’s eye for the past twenty minutes, I am finding it difficult to recognize the features of other males.

“I don’t think so.”

“I walked into you a while back…” the man stops and laugh. “Or should I say, I jogged into you?”

I look closely at the man and see how different he looks in a beige button down shirt and black pants. A black jacket is slung over the right hand pushed into his trouser.

“Jude?”

The man nods and gives me a bright smile. “Glad you remember now.”

I apologize for my initial reaction and tell him I have a lot on my mind. “Oh, it is cool really…it has been a while after all.”

I ask Jude if this is his street and he replies in the affirmative.

“Imagine my surprise when I saw you walk past.”

So Jude and I begin to chat beside the road. We traverse a multitude of topics within a short time. Weather. Traffic. How often do I take walks? How many kids do I have? What did I think of the state government’s decision to ban commercial motorcyclists from major roads in the state. We talk careers and I am surprised to learn that he is a professional auditor. He tells me his job is stressful and that he is considering changing jobs.

Finally, he asks for my number and I dictate it to him. As soon as he enters the number into his phone, we decide to break our little meeting. He says he will call me one of these days. The stroll back home is a a brisk one. It is almost nine and for some reason I am worried about Toju.

 

*************************

 

“That was a long walk,” Richard tells me as I soon as I come out of the dressing room. He is on his sofa, legs stretched out and eyes watching my every movement.

“I needed the air.”

“I came back home some minutes after you left.”

“Why did you decide to leave work early today?”

“I wanted to talk to you…I have been trying to talk to you all day, actually.”

Richard begins a long winding speech about his company’s policies and how he does not like personal relationships interfering with the way things are run in his company. Halfway into the speech, I cut him off.

“I get your point.”

Richard looks up from the fingers where he was counting the number of staff the company had hired in the past month. “You get it?” He drops his hands and asks me what his point is.

“I quit.”

“You quit?”

“Yeah,” I tell Richard with a shrug. “You harped about this in the morning and if we are still on this at this time, then you are driving at only one thing.”

“And what is that?”

“You don’t want our relationship getting in the way of work.”

Richard leans back into his seat with a sigh. “Is that how you see it?”

“Yes,” I tell Richard with a nod. “You probably have realized your mistake in hiring me.”

“I have a best friend and an ex on my payroll, and you think our relationship is the only personal relationship I have in that office?”

I feel a muscle strain in my neck and I massage the place as Richard and I continue to stare at each other. When I am tired of shifting from foot to foot, I tell Richard that I need to check on Toju and he watches me leave without a word.

Toju is in Shadda’s arms when I get to the nursery.

“You should try to keep your emotions in check when feeding him,” Shadda tells me when I walk to stand beside the chair where she is. Toju looks at me solemnly and then gives me a smile.

“He was running up a fever after you left.”

“I caused it?”

“Babies are sensitive to stress. They depend on you for everything, so it is normal for them to catch your stress bug.”

I look away from Shadda to Toju and he is still watching me in that solemn old man way he has been watching me all evening.

“Can I hold him?”

“No,” Shadda says, shaking her head.

Denied my own son, I stand idly and watch as Shadda croons to Toju until he falls asleep. Shadda returns him back to his cot and we stand together watching him sleep.

“He is going back to his shell.”

I turn to Shadda. “Richard?”

“Yes.”

“I am not too happy with him, right now.”

“I warned you not to push him away.”

I tell Shadda about the morning confrontation and she listens even though I know that she already knows everything I am reporting back to her. I ask Shadda if she thinks Richard is still in love with Tokunbo and she tells me to ask Richard myself. I hold my son’s tiny hand for some minutes and decide it is time to face his father.

“And the Jude guy…”

I stop to look back to Shadda as she returns back to the chair beside Toju’s cot.

“He is an excellent auditor.”

A mysterious smile on her face, Shadda leans back her head on the chair and closes her eyes.

 

*******************************

 

Richard is on the sofa beside the desk when I open the door to his study. He opens his eyes, his face betraying little emotion as I walk to meet him.

“Hi.”

“Hello.”

“Do you want to talk now?”

“About what?”

“Your decision to quit your job.”

“What about it?”

“I don’t want you to form a habit of threatening to quit every time we have a misunderstanding..”

I think deeply and realize that I don’t want to quit my job either, but I wait for a minute to pass before I say, “fine.”

Richard asks me if there is anything else I would like to discuss with him and I tell no.

“I am going to be working overnight in my study today.”

We say awkward goodbyes and I leave Richard’s study. I decide to have a chat with my reflection before going to sleep.

“You knew I was going to meet Jude on the way, and you were trying to stop me…right?”

My reflection does not bother denying. “Yes.”

“Okay, I am glad I did not fall for your tricks.”

“I am glad too.”

I look at my reflection with suspicion.

“Why are you glad?”

“Because he might just be the antidote we need for the Tokunbo poison.”

I remember Shadda’s parting words to me in Toju’s nursery and agree with my reflection. That night, I go to bed with high hopes. In the morning, the bed beside me is empty and the pillows on Richard’s side are missing the imprint of his head. I square my shoulders, hold on to some of the euphoria of the night before and head to work.

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Umari Ayim is the author of ‘Twilight at Terracotta Indigo’ and ‘Inside my Head’ both winners of the 2011 ANA NDDC Flora Nwapa prize and 2012 Poetry prize respectively.

Umari blogs at www.umariayim.com and tweets from @umariayim