"goddamnit!" Oliver exclaimed as he hit the horn on the steering wheel. "What am I gonna do?" He shut his eyes and leaned his head on his driver's seat. "This... this can't be happening. At least not today!" He remarked.
There was a meeting in the office at 9:00 am, after which he was supposed to hand in some statistics to the CEO.
Unfortunately, his car had a rear flat tire -before he reached the highway- which took him a whooping thirty minutes to repair; and now he was stuck in traffic.
"Hey, sir." He called out to a traffic police officer through his rolled-down window.
"Hey." The officer responded.
"What's going on..?" Oliver inquired.
"An accident." He retorted.
"An accident?"
"Yes. A collision. Police were searching for two men who led off-duty officers on a high-speed car chase. But who knew?"
He giggled,
"Their forty days were over; and not just over."
He giggled again as he leaned on Oliver's car door.
"Unfortunately over... Their car collided head-on with a cement truck. Turns out they were driving in the wrong lane. How sad. One of them died right on the spot." His mood became dull.
"Yeah, Car accidents happen fast." Oliver voiced.
"One moment you are cruising along, and the next second a driver in a jaguar jumps the lane and hits you head-on." The officer said amidst crocodile sobs.
"I thought you said it was a cement truck?" Oliver crossed his eyebrows.
"I did... Yeah... The..." He began.
Oliver knew he wasn't going to leave anytime soon. He swiped his phone and his eyes widened in shock. It was 9:17.
"Thank you very much for the information, sir." He showcased his gratitude as he dialed a number on his phone.
"But that's not all that happened!" The officer remarked.
"Here's something for you." Oliver fished out his wallet from the breast pocket on his shirt and drew out a new-clean $100 banknote.
"You can go now." He rolled up his window.
"Please pick up the phone Cindy." He said between clenched teeth and crossed fingers. Although he called her thrice, she still didn't pick up.
He tried his luck by dialing Olivia's number.
"Hello," He said ardently when she picked up his call.
"The meeting started 30 minutes ago, Oliver! Where the heck are you?" She had excused herself from the meeting.
"I'm stuck in traffic."
"Are you serious? Conrad...I mean boss is mad like hell." She emphasized. "And the statistics..."
"Don't worry. I'll be there in time to hand them in to him." He interrupted her.
"What do you mean 'in time'? It should be discussed during the ongoing meeting!" Olivia retorted.
"What? Okay! Here's what you'll do..."
-----------------------------------
Olivia drove off from work in her car. It wasn't her red coupe. She now drove an Audi Q3. She could have purchased any other type of car, but she specifically bought this type due to its modern, classy, and well-built in a compact package. Not forgetting its comfort when she wrongly calculated the time she would spend stuck in traffic. This was her new lavish lifestyle after one year of working at Global TechKicker Company.
She drove off to IssahFund Bank in an unusual hurry to deposit some cheques that lay in her office drawer for over a fortnight. She hardly had any time to pass by the bank since she was always busy running some errands for Conrad; the company's Chief Executive Officer. After all, he was the reason behind her success. Had he not promoted her to the Chief Financial Officer in less than three months of her working at the company? Furthermore, she had so much going for her. Her intellectual skills also paid off. This made most of her previous co-workers begrudge her her affluence.
Upon reaching the bank, there was a long queue where she was to deposit her money in her savings bank account. She was impatient to wait in the long queue, however, she knew it would take a fortnight to get the chance to deposit her money in the bank; if she didn't deposit it that day. After waiting for approximately half an hour yet witnessing no progress in that queue, she moved to the queue for those who were depositing money in their current deposit account. There were only two people ahead of her. She counted 15 people in the queue she had left. She was a patient lass but not that patient, waiting for 15 people to be attended to; especially when she was in a hurry.
She heaved a sigh of relief when her turn to be attended to reached.
"Hello, ma'am" A dark-skinned, slim lady in dark glasses greeted her. She looked at her with her head bent low since her Natural Braided Updo; not well plaited, fell over to her forehead partly blocking her vision.
"Hello," Olivia thought, apart from her falling over Natural Braided Updo, she appeared quite sensible; someone whom she could easily reason with.
'This is going to be trouble-free.' Olivia thought to herself.
"I would like to deposit these cheques in my account,"
Olivia spoke in undertones after she had pulled out three cheques from her handbag and laid them before the banker.
The banker adjusted her eyeglasses and, "All these!" She exclaimed. "Do you know the risk you're taking depositing such a huge amount of money in your current deposit account?"
She interposed.
"I'm willing to take that risk," Olivia replied. The truth was that she disliked waiting in long queues at the bank just to deposit her money.
"Are you sure about what you want to do?"
"I won't turn back. I'm more than willing to take the risk."
That's okay... If you insist... that is. However, that'll put my job on the line. Kindly deposit it in your savings bank account." The banker suggested to Olivia.
Olivia counted the number of people who queued there. "21! No way." She could wait for 15 people to be attended to, what about 21 of them?
Olivia turned back to the female banker.
"You look more sensible than you sound to me. So, if you'll please let me deposit this money here and withdraw it tomorrow, I shall 'sort you out' very well. Isn't that a good deal?" Olivia requested.
"Well... That would violate our policies. Moreover, I'm not gonna lose my job over some pence. Please, ma'am."
"You don't understand..." She was staring at the banker contemptuously.
"It's you who doesn't understand ma'am. Kindly excuse me. I have to attend to the people behind you.
Olivia turned and looked at 'the people' the banker had just mentioned. She saw only one person; a shabby-looking man with long unkempt dreadlocks. She sneered and turned back to the banker then forced a smile on her countenance,
"Thank you for your time." She walked away enraged.
"Doesn't' she know who I am? Who the hell does she think she is?"