I’m so glad May is over. With two weddings to contribute to and a sick relative, I barely had two coins to rub together. I’ve never been so glad for payday, even with these meagre earnings. The weddings I mentioned were of a friend and a cousin and there was no way I wasn’t going to contribute because these are two very special people to me. After two outfits, presents and “miscellaneous” costs, my account balance was zero. If you’ve been in my situation, you surely know the pain of those last few days of the month before salary comes in. Mine have been agonizingly slow and in the end, I decided to borrow a little money from a colleague or else risk starving. I’ve bailed a couple of people out before and so I thought one of them would return the favour. I was wrong. Everybody has been broke and those who weren’t were probably just being mean. Worse than being broke is going around begging for money only to walk away empty handed, knowing that someone could have helped you but they just didn’t. You regret having asked at all but a part of you is also mad that this person is simply being selfish. To be honest, I felt like grabbing one girl’s purse, taking out a few notes and yelling, “I’ll pay you back next week!” I didn’t have the courage to do that though and in the end, I had one last option; asking John, the guy with the biggest ego in this office. Everybody knows that asking him to do anything for you is asking to be talked about to whoever will listen. He wants everyone to know how big his heart is and as such, we all know about Alex who’s been having legal problems and how John’s intervention helped. There’s also Alice, who lost her dad a while back and John made certain we found out about his role before, during and after the funeral. Another colleague, Paul, who went to school with John, has a young daughter who unfortunately is sick most of the time. With no insurance, life has been pretty tough for Paul but lucky for him, John stepped in and somehow managed to convince his doctors to treat the little girl. “That’s what friends are for,” John likes to say, which I agree with, only that I feel he should relay that to Paul, not the rest of us. There’s no doubt that what John does is good and the world needs more people like him. If only he didn’t brag about it because that only takes away from the kind acts. Even the Bible says that the left hand shouldn’t know what the right is doing. Back to my predicament, I knew I risked joining the long and well publicized list of people who’ve been saved by John but I was at the end of my rope and so I let go of my pride and proceeded to beg the man with deep pockets. He asked how much I needed, and went ahead to check his shirt pocket and then his pants. Pulling out his wallet, he handed me four crisp notes, saying he would now have to pass by the bank since he needed to have his car serviced and buy toys for his children. I don’t need to know that, I thought to myself, forcing a smile when it was killing me that I had to go through this. I kept my word and paid him back the second I was paid. Now my only hope is that he doesn’t turn this into a song. To be continued…
