I open my mouth in awe when colleagues gist and joke about things that happened within the office walls. It has become a trend that when things happen, I am usually the last to know. The love triangles; the undying lust of the aged, these are some of code names I recently learnt for epic grapevine hot gists. I have myself to blame since I have chosen to focus only on the work alone thereby leaving little room to socialize.When our prayer warrior cum cleaner connived with her pastor to help deliver the office from shackles of invisible demon dogs, I was the last to know. I was not even aware the devil binders who come in daily to pray got their pay after each session while my colleagues and I are told to hope and pray for the best at the end of each month. Imagine, this is the second month now with no pay. How do I tell the bus conductor to hope and pray? I am definitely treading a part that'll get me slapped or beaten.
The office drivers who complain and whine daily even have a more robust take home pay than I do. The essence of complaints about threats from their landlord or creditors is for people like us to help them financially. Sometimes with loans we never get back. It took awhile to comprehend that I was not the only one contributing to make their life a little more comfortable than mine.
While some of us fasted and prayed for salary to be regular, some fasted to trim down spending. If I had known that a cup of tea with a few spoons of cream and cookies does not nullify fasts, I would have sneaked to the kitchenette to do so like my boss who suggested the need to fast.
I got to realize that I was the black sheep of the office, along with 'longus' my tall friend. We never believed in the prayers. We opened our eyes, smiled and even 'YINMUed' at them. Surprisingly, when prayers got answered we were still told to hope for better days. We were practically expected to live on hope.
I was also the last to know that while my friend and I sabotaged the prayer sessions, the prayer warrior (our cleaner) had to organize extra prayer sessions along with the randy security man after office hours. The aggrieved driver who always had an eye for the cleaner gave me the steamy details. The cleaner would not show him a green light because he is married and most importantly, “he can't treat a woman right”. Need I say, she is the boss favourite. She shows more zeal during prayers than the rest of us.
I always have this smile on my face whenever I meet the cleaner. The smile says 'I know what you did'. Whenever she asks me the story behind my smile, I just respond by saying ' you saved the office with your prayers'.
