*Beep-Beep-Beep*
This sound wasn’t just a familiar one, but also a much-dreaded one. It told Dave many things; “Boss, it’s another weekday”, “Get your lazy ass up, Sir”, “You’ve got 37 Minutes to be at work”, alongside every other thing his twisted genius mind made of the beeps. It also reminded him that he’ll probably be needing that already drafted “Reply to Query” word document on his laptop yet again – Or perhaps finally, the only other word Document in that Folder “OX-SAB. INC – Personal”
Why Dave’s alarm clock was set to exactly 6.23 A.M was beyond Dave himself, but the reasons he convinced himself with were a bit elaborate; Knowing he had just a few minutes to take a bath, get dressed, and drive from his exquisitely furnished Apo flat, to His Asokoro Office, would make him spring to action immediately the beep went off, and not “rest a bit” after hitting the snooze button as he was used to doing several times, when it was set to 4.30 A.M.
It made sense, it worked.
Meet David Ola-Wright, or “Dave” as his Family, Friends, Colleagues and Famzers called him. Dave had been arriving at work a lot earlier, since his alarm time changed these past 3 weeks, and Mr. Walforte still didn’t seem impressed.
“You’re late still, Dave” he said to him, with his cocky smile and eyes on the Digital clock above Dave’s head.
Dave loathed the Pale Man’s guts and wanted so much to cut them out.
Adam Walforte, the American Expatriate, or “Bitch” as some of his subordinates secretly called him. His hobbies were; Making life miserable for his well-paid subordinates, secretly and smartly being racist, and chilling in his expensive Maitama Mansion – Company property actually, as all Adam brought from West Virginia were his DVDs and Clothes in a carton. Everything else in that mansion was the company’s way of keeping their C.E.O/M.D comfortable away from home.
Dave was a genius and he knew it, the company needed his expertise and he knew that also. Dave knew computers almost more than he knew himself, or anyone else. He was the head of the I.T department and was one of the top earners of the company, behind the white men of course. Racism wasn’t quite new to Dave, he had a lot of that schooling in Germany, but then he really wasn’t going to have any of that in his own country, No!
Dave’s 5 Years in University of Stuttgart, Germany were like fire and brimstone. He remembered the British professor “Prof. Thomas”, who always brought Bananas to his cryptology lecture, for Dave. Was that racist or just a homo sexual gesture? Dave didn’t care, he loved eating the yellow fat Bananas and still topped the class. Dave went on to finish as the best graduating student, and turned down a lot of jobs in Germany to come back Home…But not to this racism, No!
Dave didn’t think his B.Eng(Hons) in Computer Engineering was enough, he went on to M.I.T, Boston, United States of America, to get his M.Sc in I.T with E-Business, right after his youth Service, well… He was best graduating student yet again, to the dismay of the Chinese guy “Lee-Lee Cho”, who thought the best come back for being called “lily” by Dave, was to call him “Nigga”. Needless to say, what the black community did to his Kung-fu-less ass.
Dave yet again turned down jobs in the United States, offers from Maple Inc, McPhillips, and others, to return home yet again, to make a huge difference. Dave not only had Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, but also numerous certification courses, all well completed. He knew he was going be hot cake in Nigeria, and he was right about that.
Dave was obviously too qualified for his job, but he did it well and got paid a lot of money too. He was happy, but not necessarily accomplished. Adam, on the other hand had a B.Sc in Geophysics, and was white, and probably, or certainly felt threatened by Dave. Adam was always nagging and querying him, for being few minutes late, and telling him that all monkeys needed to learn, was how to jump trees.
“Dave, I said you’re late again today. What do you have to say for yourself this time?” Adam said, bringing him out of the reminiscence, still with the smile, but this time, with the Devil’s Blue eyes looking right into Dave’s thick Glasses.
“I’m Sorry?… Can I just say ‘I’m sorry’, again?” Dave replied.
“I’m sorry ‘I’m sorry’ won’t cut it, as always” Adam said, breaking eye contact to get the carefully typed “Query letter” off his desk, to hand to Dave.
He loved giving Dave these himself, being his only worthy black rival. The others received their queries from the Head of Human resource Department; the “White fat baldie”.
Dave got back to his office and opened his laptop, he’s already started editing the drafted “reply to query” word document.
– *light bulb moment* –
He has opened the only other word document in the folder, and with the brisk movement of two fingers : *CNTRL + P*
Dave went over to the printer with a stapler, stapled the two printed sheets together, and made his way back to Adam’s office.
“Nothing’s wrong with my internet Dave, you may leave.” Adam said, without even looking up.
“I bet nothing is wrong, but I need a few seconds, please. Look up.” Dave said, holding up the sheets he had just retrieved from the printer.
“30 Seconds, make it brief.” with his blue eyes straining to see what was in Dave’s hand.
“what’s that?”
“You see these WHITE Sheets? They make absolutely no sense without these BLACK prints.”
As soon as those words were uttered, he made for Adam’s Desk, dropped the letter, and left the office. Adam’s heart sank, as he started reading the title of Dave’s letter… OF RESIGNATION
