Daniel Olas - Five Hours to Die

5Hours To Die

DanielOlas

Copyright 2015Daniel Olas

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Tableof Contents

thedeath that kills men hovers around me and I can smell its scent allover me. It aura alone snuffs life out of every mans soul. Withdeath I now walk hand in hand and he said to me; Aint you afraidof me? And I answered; Why should I? Im only afraid of you whenI havent seen you but now you are my close friend!!!

INTRODUCTION

I just want to end mylife Im tired of living! Mr Thomas had told me one day but Inever took him serious. I had taken his words to be the commonwords of the wretched that finds it difficult to survive daily andpasses the night under bridges and sheds. Mr Thomas works in afactory where I also work. Its a soap producing factory that hasmanaged to ward off competitions in that area. In short, its theonly business setting in the whole of Magbona very remote area inLagos, Nigeria. We mixed the chemical while some other categoriesof staffs take the mixed chemical to where its further processedfrom there, we dont know what happens again; we only know thatafter some hours, we see soaps already packed and ready fordelivery.

I wasnt toowrong about my presumptions. Mr Thomas has been working in thisfactory for eight unfruitful years. According to his story, hejoined this factory as a manager and for the next two years, thefactory managed to produce five hundred soaps due to some financialconstraintstoo bad! The management accused him of embezzling thefactorys money and was given the choice of either going to jail orstaying back here in the company for another seven years as alabourer staff and on a half salarythats worst than jail. Thechoice he chose kept him here. With a wife and three grownchildren, Mr Thomas last resort is to commit suicide and die. Butdeath isnt sweet its easy to commit suicide with your mouth thanyour hands I guess Mr Thomas has not been finding it easy to dothishe could only say this with his mouth; but thats not enoughto die.

The suffering hehas been through in this factory for the last five years should beequal to the seven years he would have spent in jail. I heard thatmost often, for five months, his salary would be withheld just forno reason. While his colleagues smile home after the month, hecries home. I was so full of pity for this man but my own case isworse. I did my findings if truly Mr Thomas was responsible for thefinancial breakdown of the factory and 95 percent of my result wasnegative. He was implicated. The real embezzler of the money wasthe account managera friend to the CEO of the factory. So, he wasactually suffering for the sins of another person. Hope he getsvindicated one of these days.

Stories like thisare common. Go around the town and the cities and you will seepeople been punished for what they did not do. Its normal in thisour country seeing thieves walking gallantly around the town whilethe innocents dodges and hides in their closets for fear of beingcaught as the thief. Hundreds of people goes to jail everyday withvery few among them committing the actual crime they are beenprosecuted forits no longer new.

Mr Thomas was anaverage man. At least, he has never owned a big organization thatdictates the economy of the nation to an extent; he was only amanager in an infant factory. He was just like every Nigerian whofate works against. But me the heavens were against me and theearth never wished me good even though I tried to live a life ofsimplicity and modesty even in my state of affluence. But just asthe notion has rightly said Good things often dont happen togood people. I had never dreamt of working as an employee not totalk of a labourer in a factory; but I stopped living while I wasstill alive and that day, I became a dead man walking. I killedmyself while the elixir of eternity surrounds me like bees would tothe nectar. I knew the real difference between being rich and poorwithin five hours. There and then, I knew how fast wealth cantravel from one man to another man. Within five hours, my beautifulimage became a silhouetteonly my shadow could be seen. I becamedead while I was alive in just five hours!

Therewas a man whose story I would like to share with you! I said as meand Mr Thomas sat on one of the containers used for transportingthe soap after the production.

Really? But you know we are late already we should be goinghome now and my wife would have being waiting for me. Mr Thomassaid not really ready to go home. I guess he said that so that Ican hurry up and cut my story short.

Iwont delay you then! I said re-adjusting myself on the container.A man once lives

CHAPTER ONE

The arrival of the CEO ofRONS has been announced and the staffs are at their best eyeservice. The secretary who has been gossiping is now typing falsedocuments that have not been given to her. The receptionist openingfiles that have existed long enough on her table to be burntbutsuch doesnt happen in RONSand that gave her the opportunity tolook busy. The CEO is known for his strict sanction towards erringstaffs that jokes with their work. The sanction often including thededuction of a certain amount from the erring staffs salary;depending on the gravity of the offence, and none is ready to be ascapegoat. This has however been a threat on the part of the CEO toget his staffs down to their desk without necessarily enforcing amore rigid rule or a purely-business approach.

The incessant andear-deafening good morning enveloped the offices as Mr Ronaldpasses through his staff offices before getting to his office. Eachstaff relieved that s/he was busy when Mr Ronald passed them by.This has saved the morning. Getting caught by your boss whiletalking about what happened last night in the neighbourhood is abad omen and often a day spoiler especially Mondaysand thats evenworse; because it means youre going to have a bad week. Its widelybelieve in not just in the rural areas but the corporate world thatMondays unveils and decides how a week is going to look like. Whatwe call superstitions often are not mere tales but an unexplainableway that this Mother Nature operates. And here in Africa,superstitions form the basis of most of our traditions andbeliefs.

This impressionof course has become an orientation that every inductee in RONSmust pass through often taught by the surviving predecessors. Anorientation that tells you that you must be an eye-serviceperfectionist and if at all you are perfidious, then you have a lotto do to earn the trust of the boss. And so, eye-service becomes anorm among the staffs of RONS save for the egg heads and thephlegmatic(s) who derives joy in minding their business withoutnecessarily meddling with others affairs but you know, a localsaying goes thus; it will only take a while before a sheep startseating faeces once it start making friend with the dog. So, in somecases when the shit is about to or it has already hit the fan, alittle of eye-service would not after all make them vulnerable tothe sanction.

Mr Ronald hassettled down in his office when his personal assistance cameknocking. The office of Mr Ronald is richly furnished withexpensive executive chairs. On his desk are piles of flatfliescontract files to be precisetaking up to two-third of thedesk. Theres another desk at his right and on this desk is placedthe desktop. Two chairs are placed opposite the executive chairthat Mr Ronald is sitting on with the desk separating them. To theleft of the other desk and very close to the wall is a three-setteeand a table with a vase containing jasmine and rose. On the wallright above the head of Mr Ronald is an artistic portrait of himhanging perfectly on the wall with adorned frames. Very close tothe setteeby the rightis the shelf containing books. On the topof this shelf are awards that the organization has won and the onesthat Mr Ronald has bagged personally.