The Road That Leads To You

CHAPTER TWELVE

I woke up happy and energetic on Monday morning. It was day one of being an employee of 360 News. I wore a black leather skirt, a white blouse, kitten heels and a black bag that could contain my notebook, ipad and purse. I had Greek yogurt, berries and strawberries for breakfast. For lunch, I prepared fish pepper soup and rice. I packed my lunch in my lunch bag, fed Blue and off I went. I didn't have a car so I took the bus. Taking the bus was always fun and drama filled, when the bus was full with passengers, we began our transit. Ten minutes later, a bald, thin man who wore a faded blue shirt and a black trouser whose dye had begun to fade, stood up and addressed us.

“Good morning everyone. My name is Mr Pascal AKA Quick Doctor and I'm here to introduce to you, good medications that you can use for yourself. They are NAFDAC approved, so you can trust me.”

“All these medicines are fake.” the woman with the crying baby said

“Yes, I concur. I patronized this man a week and some days ago, and I regret it. I became best friends with my toilet for seven days!” said the man beside me.

I couldn't help myself, I laughed.

“Aunty, don't laugh oh. It's that serious, do you know that I can sue him for poisoning?”

“Yes you can sir.” I said

Almost everyone in the bus had one or two ugly experiences to share and the man, knowing that a lot of passengers were privy to his dangerous scam, sat down and remained quiet for the rest of the journey. I got down from the bus when I reached my destination and I began to walk to my place of work. I was excited and nervous, I kept on doing breathing exercises to help calm my nerves. When I arrived, the HR welcomed me with a handshake and showed me my desk. There was a desktop, a printer, a pack of A4 papers, a box of tissues and sweets on it.

To my new colleagues she said, “Hello everyone, this is Miss Ketura. She has skills, very valuable skills and I need you to work with her, show her around and make her feel welcomed. In fact, Mark, show her around, put her through anything that she doesn't understand, ok?”

“Yes ma'am.”

“Thank you. Back to work everyone.”

“Hello Ketura.”

“Hi Mark.”

“Welcome to 360 News. Emm yeah, that's it for now. I believe you know how to search for news online, right?”

“Well, yes I do.”

“Good, you're new here so you won't be asked to go out and look for news. We are a big news station so we have whistleblowers in every nook and cranny you can think of. They give us all kinds of news, especially the kind we are interested in, which is political gist.”

“Noted.”

“A little advice from me to you, a lot of workers here are in competition with one another, they think it's not obvious but even the blind can see it. Just keep to yourself, talk when you need to, keep your business to yourself and most importantly if you have any grievance that is work related, tell the HR don't discuss it with anyone. If you do, you'll regret it.”

“Thank you for telling me all of this.”

“You’re welcome, dear. I think I'm going to like you.”

Mark left and went back to his desk. It was beside mine and I was glad that it was so. The competitiveness that Mark talked about displayed itself during our office break. The girls looked at me like I was unwanted and the guys stared at me like I was there to take their jobs.

“I told you.” Mark said as he joined me

“Told me what?”

“See the way they're looking at you. I've seen your work online and I'm sure they've seen it too.”

“What makes you think that I trust you?” I trust him already, I just wanted to hear his answer

“You better do. Why do you think no one really talks to me except the HR, Maria, Johnson and Pedro? I don't tolerate their bad behaviors and they know I'm very comfortable in my own skin.”

“Okay I dunno who they're, but, okay.”

“They're not on duty today. You'll see them tomorrow. I'm reliable, I don't like negative energy and I hate gossip. And I love my job, the money that comes from it is a plus.”

“If you say so. I don't really care about what they think, I'm here to work and boost my career. I'm not a people pleaser and I sure won't hesitate to put anyone who dares me in their place.”

“That's it. I like you, you're my bestie from now on.”

We laughed and began to eat our lunch. Mark is a chit chatter, not in an annoying way but in a lovely way. He speaks warmly and softly and he smiles whilst talking. I realized that the HR paired me with Mark intentionally because she understands the dynamics of the office and she wanted me to be in good hands. My first day wasn't filled with activities, all I did was type, print, and talk with Mark. Mark is the accountant but when the work is too much, he assists. 7:30PM was my temporary closing time, so I bade Mark goodbye and went home. I hadn't spoken with my mum and uncle Ezekiel for a while so I called her. Mum was doing fine, she had expanded her business and was doing well for herself, uncle Ezekiel left priesthood and is now into farming. He focuses on grains and tubers at the moment and he plans to buy a plot of land in the East where he would grow palm kernels. Mum told me that she and uncle have been going on dates and she enjoys it. The neighbours are gossiping and some religious people have lost their respect for uncle Ezekiel. He doesn't care, she tells me, he is happy, they're happy and that's all that matters.

“You haven't asked about your father Tura, it's been years.”

“Why should I? He's not a father, I don't care about him.”

“He asked about you.”

“When?”

“Last week and yesterday. I told him that you're doing well.”

“Did you tell him where I live?”

“No dear, I would never do that. I want you to forgive him at least. I'm not saying I want you to bring him back into your life if you don't want to, but let go of everything.”

“Back into my life? Mum he was never in it. I have forgiven him, maybe, I don't know. With time maybe I would find out how I really feel about him. All I know is, I don't want to see him, I don't want to talk to him and I don't want to even remember that he exists.”

“I understand Tura. So how was work today?”

“Fine mum, it was cool. I made a new friend. His name is Mark. He's chatty, fun and accommodating.”

“That's nice. I'm so happy for you baby.”

“Thank you mum. I just called to check up on you, say hello to uncle Ezekiel.”

“Thank you love, I will. Night night.”

“Good night mum.”

Blue meowed and jumped on my lap. He loves to sleep on my lap and on my head, he had eaten already so I knew that he wanted to sleep. When he fell asleep I placed him on his bed and I went back to the living room. I watched a movie on Netflix, ate Greek yogurt, did my yoga and cleared the sink. Miriam texted me on w******p, she wants to introduce me to Henry. She asked me to pick any day and I chose Saturday. Henry was the first man that Miriam has ever dated, she is very selective and careful when it comes to men, she rarely pays attention to them. So, for her to choose Henry and even want to introduce me to him, he must be a good man. I slept off and woke up briefly in the middle of the night. Whenever my body clock wakes me up like that, I check my emails, watch a movie and go back to sleep. I opened my email and I saw a message, it was a notification from my bank. I opened it and I was shocked. Money was transferred to my account from an anonymous sender. It was untraceable. Someone sent ten million naira to my account, just like that. When I had calmed down, I gasped. Jaden. What if it was Jaden? Who would send me hat amount of money if not him? How did he get my account number? Is he back? What is he up to? Why now?