'Can I ever make it? No, I think I was created to be there, serve people, make them happy while I remain sad.' Chuckles, 'I can't even the last time I was genuinely happy. I can't even eat things I want, I only eat what's available. Gosh! This shit is crazy mehn. All those prophesies must be lies.' He hisses. These are thoughts going on in the head of Cynthia Morgan as she is seated in her seat in her office. Cynthia Morgan, a young lawyer in her late twenties in an estate company. She is a hairy, moderately heighted pretty young lady. She is the fourth and the last born of her family. She has two female and one male siblings, all married except him. Altogether her mother who is the only surviving parent has eight grandchildren from Cynthia' siblings.
Ever since she joined Josphat Realty Limited as the Legal Officer, she considers herself useless in the office. She is placed in the general office filled with a number of Marketers. In her office are Jane Jones, a Marketer, chocolate skinned lady in her twenties with a wide and breathtaking hip with a backside that matches the wide. There are two big tables inside the general office, each of the tables can take four persons. Jane Jones is seated on the extreme end of the second table like Cynthia Morgan who is seated in the extreme end of the first table which can be taken that Jane Jones is seated in front of Cynthia Morgan, just that there are two seats in-between the both of them. Directly beside Cynthia Morgan is Pete Stones, a fair skinny guy in his mid twenties who is also a Marketer in the company.
'Barrister?' Mr. Douglas, in his fifties, bald, white beards with potbelly calls out as he opens the sliding glass door that links the side of his office to the general office. Mr. Douglas is Hon. Mickel's childhood friend. Hon. Mickel is the CEO and the brain behind Josphat Realty Limited. He gave Mr. Douglas a small spot within the office building to use to run his private estate business. Mr. Douglas through his wide clientele has brought in over $10M investment into the company's properties. He is not employed neither does he employ any of the staff in Josphat Realty Limited.
'Sir?' Cynthia replies
'Come over, let's talk. I have a business proposition for you,' he replies and walks back to his office.
'D Law, remember me in your paradise,' Pete quickly chips.
Cynthia smiles and stands up, 'you don't even know what he wants to say yet, you are already tagging along.'
'Whatever he says, just know that my interest is insured in the whole deal. At least, no matter how small, I should be able to get something small.'
Cynthia shakes her head and walks out of the office through the glass door and closes it after herself.
On this side of the office are four different cubicles, two on the left and two on the right. The first two, although set up, are empty. The last are occupied. The one on the left is occupied by Mr. Douglas while the one on the right is occupied by Miss Donna who is also a Marketer. Each time, Cynthia is always like, 'why is she not with the other marketers? Why am I with the other Marketers and she's alone here when I'm a Lawyer and not a Marketer?'
Cynthia knocks Mr. Douglas' door which is wide open and walks in, 'Sir, you said I should come over.'
'Yes' looks up from his phone. 'There's this property I want to buy. You know I've been staying at the outskirts of town in a rented apartment but now that God has answered prayers, I want to move to town a bit.'
'Ok Sir. It's a good thing, Sir.'
'It's a new house actually but I will still do some adjustments and fittings to it. I want you to draft the necessary documents for me. I will be buying it for $14,000. I will send you all necessary things you need for the draft on WhatsApp. So how much do you want to collect?'
'Ehh! God has finally done it. Thank God oh! My time has come.' This quickly runs through Cynthia' head. Cynthia smiles, 'Sir, the normal thing is that young lawyers collect ten percent of the price in the transaction while senior lawyers collect between ten and fifteen percent. So Sir, I will collect ten percent of the $14,000.'
Mr. Douglas looks at him scornfully, 'and how much is that?' 'That will be $1,400, Sir.'
'Ah! No, that's too much. I will give you 50.' Surprised, thinking he meant $50,000, '$50,000 Sir?'
'Are you kidding? I said I give you $50, you are $50,000.' Chuckles. 'Where do you want me to see it? I will give you $50, is that ok with you? The document must have your Seal.'
'Sir, I'm very sorry but I can't collect $50 for such a property.' 'Ehn Ehn?'
'Yes Sir. It's very small, Sir.'
Mr. Douglas laughs, 'you don't know anything. I have a number of lawyers at my beck and call that would draft the agreement for even $10,20,30. I'm offering you a whole $50 so that I won't give an inside job to an outsider that's why I decided to give you the job. I even have a cousin who is a Lawyer. I initially didn't want to give him because I don't want the whole issue of me buying an house to spread to the whole family yet. But it's obvious that you are not interested. You can go.'
'Alright Sir.' she stands up and walks out of Mr. Douglas' office.
'Chai! May we not meet bad luck on our way. To think I was already planning how I will spend that money. I thought God had finally answered my prayers not knowing that He was laughing at me . See you, you don't know what's going on. No problem, keep imagining what's not. Reality will soon dawn on you.' Different thoughts running through her mind. Cynthia opens the door linking that side of the office to the main passage in the office, she goes straight to the toilet, opens the tap and stands akimbo.
'God, what kind of thing is this now, ehn? How can you say you want to pay $50 for a property of $14,000? Ehn?' Pauses. 'But why are people this wicked? Assuming I'm his child, would he be happy if I told him someone offered me such an amount to draft a document for a property of
$14,000 for him?' She whispers to herself in the toilet. 'God, pls help me. I'm also your child. Wait! Or am I no longer His child because I really don't understand.' She washes her hands in the water rushing in the basin. Opens the door and walks back to her office using the door leading to the office from the main passage in the office. On entering the office, she discovers that Pete is no longer on his seat. Cynthia just goes to sit on her chair. Just as she is sitting down, the Intercom rings.
'Don't worry, I will pick it,' says Jane.
Cynthia feels relieved thinking that the call might not even be for her, 'alright.' She tabs the Shift key on her laptop and continues watching the movie she was watching before Mr. Douglas called.
'Hello! Alright.' Jane replies the caller and drops the receiver. 'Barrister, the call is for you. Success said Mr. Joel said you should come to the Conference Room, there is a meeting. Success is the Secretary, Mr. Joel is the Chief Operating Officer, the next person to Hon. Mickel, the Chief Executive Officer. The three of them have their offices upstairs. Success' table is at the center immediately you get upstairs.
Immediately, Cynthia stands up to leave, 'but I wasn't told there would be a meeting today. Only God knows what this meeting is all about now.' She talks to herself as she climbs up the stairs. 'Madam Success, pls where is Mr. Joel?'
'They are already in the Conference Room waiting for you,' she replies.
Cynthia is surprised to hear. Hee mind quickly goes straight to the incident she had with Mr. Douglas. 'Has he gone to report me? Is this how this man behaves? You ask a staff member to do something for you on a personal level, the staff rejects the proposed payment and you immediately go to report him? Like, you went to report someone you are old enough to give birth to?' Her mind quickly processes the whole thing.
'Pls, who are the people?' she manages to ask her.
'Mr. Joel, one woman in hijab and two other persons that followed her,' says Success.
Hearing the composition of persons present at the meeting, she is mildly confident that she can handle whatever the meeting is all about.
She turns to head to the Conference Room which is the third room on the right to Success' table, 'alright, thanks.'
Entering the Conference Room, Cynthia quickly grabs a chair and sits down. 'Good morning Sirs. Good morning Ma's' Cynthia greets them.
'Alright, so let's start the meeting,' says Mr. Joel. 'This is Brr. Cynthia Morgan, she runs errands for the company.' he introduces Cynthia. 'This is Puzzle LP, a law firm that the Company is retaining their services basically for the City Joy Project. This is Hajia Rahama…' points to her, 'the principal of Puzzle LP. They have served and still serve as the Legal Representative for a number of real estate companies in this country.
'Wait! She is a Lawyer right?' Hajia Rahama asks with a cool sweet voice. She's light in complexion and very beautiful. Although she's in a hijab covering her body, but you could easily sense that she's well structured with a nice soft butt that matches the body of a lady in her late forties or early fifties. She has small, round and naturally pink lips. As she talks, you can see her soft lips moving slowly like when the cool evening breeze blows against the green grass in a slow motion.
Nodding his head, 'yes, she is.' Mr. Joel replies.
'Then she is not an errand lady. She is a Lawyer, she's one of us.' Hajia Rahama corrects him immediately. Turns to Cynthia and stretches out her hand, 'Good morning! How are you?'
'I'm fine, Ma.' Cynthia replies as they shake hands.
'This is Triumphant…' points to her who is directly beside her, 'and that's Ray.' The both of them shake hands with Cynthia. Triumphant is slim, dark, pretty, early twenties while Ray, late twenties, chocolate complexion and masculine. 'You can just call me, Miss Rahama.'
'Alright Ma,' Cynthia replies.
'So Cynthia, you will be the liaison officer between our company and their firm. Anything they need concerning the City Joy Project, make sure it's always made available to them. If there's any of the documents or anything that's not readily available, just contact me for the rest.' Swipes at her a small bundle of paper stapled together on the table, 'this is a copy of the Agreement between the company and them, you'll open a file in their name and any other thing would be kept in the file.'
Cynthia grabs the bundle of paper, 'alright Sir. No need of going through them? Possibly for some questions, addendum or subtraction.' He looks at Mr. Joel and then at Miss Rahama who is busy looking at her.
Miss Rahama folds her hands, rests her chin on them and looks at her.
'Don't worry, everything has been reviewed and we are ok with every term written there,' Mr. Joel replies.
' Alright then, Sir.' Cynthia replies.
'So you will collect their number in order for further communication.' 'Ok Sir.'
Miss Rahama opens her wallet, brings out her cards and hands it out, 'this is my card, all my contacts are there.'
Cynthia collects the card, 'alright Ma.' She briskly goes through the card. Miss Rahama keeps looking at her.
She points to her staff, 'they will also give you their contact.'
Triumphant quickly writes something down on the jotter with her, tears it out and hands it out to Cynthia which she collects.
'What's that?' Miss Rahama quietly but audibly asks her.
'Ma, I forgot to bring along my card, so I wrote down my contact for her,' Triumphant replies. 'Alright.'
'So I think that's all for now or is there any other thing you'd want us to discuss?' Mr. Joel asks, looking at everyone present at the meeting. But none is saying anything. 'I guess that'll be all for today. Cynthia, you can go now.'
Everyone stands up to leave. Mr. Joel leads everyone out, followed by Miss Rahama, Cynthia, then Triumphant and Ray. They all walk to the point where Success' table is.
'You guys can wait for me in the car, I will be down with you guys shortly,' Miss Rahama tells her staff. She looks at Cynthia and smile, Cynthia smiles back.
'Alright Ma,' they replied. They greet Success and start walking down the stairs. Cynthia tries following them so he could go back to his office.
'Barrister, pls come,' says Success.
'Alright.' Cynthia replies and goes to meet her, 'hope no problem.'
'Who are they and what are they doing?' Success puts her unnecessary inquisitiveness to work. 'The way you sounded that time, I thought you knew them.'
'Me? No, I'm just seeing them for the first time.' she replies.
Cynthia shrugs, 'anyways, they are lawyers and the company is retaining their services.'
Success is surprised to hear that, 'but why? There's you, Brr. Jay, the Company Secretary and also Brr. Tony, why bring them onboard again? For what purpose?'
'Well, maybe you'll ask the owner of the company himself or better still, Mr. Joel who is the COO, only them can give you a better answer. I can only do what I'm asked to do which I think will be a good decision for the company and if it's a bad decision, I advice the company against such. The onus of decision on both the CEO and the COO.' Success looks at her sarcastically. 'Anyways, each of us have and serve a different purpose. For example, I can't represent the company in any litigation because I'm a salaried staff. The Rules of Professional Conduct prohibits a salaried staff from representing the company paying his salary. Mr. Jay is the Company Secretary and I believe he generally represents the Company legally. I don't know what Mr. Tony does, so I can't say much about him but these people are basically retained for the City Joy Project only.'
'Oh!'
'Yes. Is that all?' Success is trying to process everything. 'I will be downstairs in my office then.' She picks a number of sweets that have mint from the bowl of sweets from Success' table and heads downstairs to her office.
'So I'm just an errand lady in this company? Chai! Cynthia, so you went to the University, took the Bar exams twice and ended up being the errand person. I said it that things shouldn't be like this, a Marketer in a separate office while a lawyer is joined together with other marketer.' Pauses and opens the door. Pete is still not back to his seat. Cynthia goes to sit down on her chair. 'But even if I'm an errand lady for the company, should I have been introduced like that? A Lawyer for that matter. This issue of not being from a family or lineage of generational wealth is a serious issue or how else do I explain this? Anyways, it's well. It's a matter of time.' She sits down, goes to music on her laptop, puts on her earpiece, starts playing the songs on her laptop and starts going through the documents. Listening to music while reading helps hee focus. It's not that she is actually listening to the music, but the music playing in her ears helps her to channel hee energy and focus to the document and totally ignores her environment. She goes through the Agreement clause by clause till she gets to the Fees clause.
'Wow! So these people will be collecting $24,000 exclusive of VAT and Tax from us per year for the next two years. Guy, that's a lot of money. That means, at the end of the years, this woman would have collected $48,000 from this company. Chai!' She drops the bundle of paper on the table. 'Now, just imagine she has other companies she's collecting at least, let's say the same amount of money from, that means, in a year, she makes well over $500,000. That's a lot of money that can perfectly change someone's life.' Folds her hands and continues thinking. 'She's even single. Whoever is lucky enough to eventually wifes her is made mehn. No wonder she looks so fresh and soft. Who will make such an amount of money yearly, be single and not look that fresh and soft. Even I, if I can make half of that amount in a year, I will be softer and fresher than her. But what if she's into ladies? Because she doesn't look young, how come she's still not married? Well, a lot of things may be responsible.' She picks the paper and continues reading. But the thinking won't just let her be. 'I wish I too could be like that. I'm not even asking for much, just one good client that would be my link and door to other good clients. At least, I have colleagues that went to the same school together and it's their client that got them their first car. Sam even told me his client gave him one of his terraces. My guy quickly perfected his marriage and moved into the apartment with his wife. God, just a single client like this. And if you want to make it two or three, I won't say you did too much, I will just accept them, appreciate you with all my heart and make sure these clients are well taken care of legally. Because how long will it continue like this? Those we started this legal profession together have all gone ahead of me. They are even getting married.' She remembers something.
'Oh my God, I've not called my Babe.' she removes the earpiece from her ears, checks the time on her phone, 'fuck! It's almost 12 and he said I should call her by 10.' Starts dialing his number. 'I hope he won't be angry with me. How on earth did I even forget? And I still remember when I came back from Mr. Douglas' office.' The call drops. 'This network people shouldn't even try that with me this morning.' She dials the number again. She is nervous. "Pls, go through. God, don't let him be angry with me. You know I still remember but this meeting just messed up my brain and reasoning.' The number starts ringing, 'oh! Thank God.' Unfortunately, he drops the call. She dials the number again and the same thing happens. She decided to send him a message. 'HEY BABE, I'M SO SORRY FOR NOT CALLING AS AGREED. IT HAS BEEN A SERIES OF MEETING FOR ME IMMEDIATELY I GOT TO WORK. I JUST CAME BACK FROM ANOTHER MEETING. I'M VERY SORRY, PLS. HOPE YOU WERE ABLE TO MEET UP.'
She drops the phone, puts on her earpiece and continues with the movie she was watching before Mr. Douglas called her. Shortly, her phone vibrates, she picks it and it's a message from her Babe, Rii. 'HEY MY QUEEN, YOU DID NOTHING WRONG. I WASN'T ABLE TO SLEEP AS I THOUGHT I WOULD, SO I WAS ABLE TO MEET UP WITH THEM. SO HOW FAR WITH ALL YOUR MEETINGS? I WISH YOU A STRESSLESS DAY, MY QUEEN. I LOVE
YOU!' Cynthia blushes as she reads the message. She drops the phone and continues with the movie.
Pete opens the door and comes in. 'My personal person is back.' He pulls out his chair and sits down. 'So Barrister, what's the 411?'
Cynthia could see him talking but can't hear what he's saying, she removes her earpiece, 'sorry were you talking to me?'
'Yes, I was. So you didn't hear all I've been saying since.'
'No, I didn't. You know I had my earpiece on. What did you say?'
'Ok. Don't worry, I will repeat what I said. I said what's the 411?' Cynthia looks confused, 'I don't understand. What's 411?'
'I mean what's the next thing now? I hope my interest is secured in the deal,' Pete asks. 'Ish! My Dear, let's just be doing well.'
'I don't understand. Who's not doing well?' Laughs. 'I mean I hope you didn't forget me in the deal. At least, I should get something, no matter how small.'
'Oh! I don't think I will be able to do the work.'
Surprised to hear that, 'ah! Why? What happened? So he was just whining you? This man ehn… and I was already thinking something positive will come out of it and I too will get something from it.'
'No, it's not like that. The work is available but the pay is not just what I can take.' 'How much is he offering?'
'Actually, the price of the subject matter is $14,000, I told him five percent, he said he's going to give me just $50. He also said he has people that would collect less than that from him and still do the same. I told him I can't do such a thing. He said he would go and give it to his nephew who is also a Lawyer. I was even thinking that since he is the CEO's friend, he's always here and more and better briefs can come from him. I can take $1000 but he was keen on his decision, that it's either $50 or nothing and I kept my cool.'
'$50 for a property of $14,000? How does he want you to grow with such an amount? But in a cursory look, Barrister, like you said, why don't you take the work, hopefully from the next one, he would pay better. Just use this to welcome him.'
'My Dear, I can't. I know and I've seen people like him, once you fall for it for the first time, you are in it forever. That's how you will keep doing it for him and he will keep taking advantage of you. You look at, can he approach Mr. Jay and Mr. Tony and offer them that amount? He knows he can't try that with them. That's why he decided to try it with me thinking I would fall for it but my dear, it won't work.'
Aligning his thoughts with her, 'that's true. Those people will make sure they collect their normal percentage or nothing will be done. It's good as you set things straight like that.'
'Que Sera Sera, my dear,' she replies.
'Yes, what will be will be. But it's painful tho. I was already planning how I will spend my share of the money.'
They laugh. 'You can't be serious. Money that's not yours, that you are not even sure of getting, you've already spent the money. You really need to stop dreaming, Bro.'
'They said this life is for dreamers. If you can dream or picture it, then you can achieve it.' 'I see, now you've dreamt this, now, let me see you achieve it.' They laugh.
'Don't mind me, I didn't picture it well.' They laugh. 'You are not just a serious person.'
'It's alright. If this one doesn't work, another one will come. We keep moving.'
'That's the spirit, Bro. And you never can tell, he might still change his mind and come around. But I doubt the possibility of that happening. But as they say, we live in a strange world and stranger things happen every now and then. This might as well be one of the strange things to happen.'