I was now restlessly pacing from one room to another in the office; clenching my fists, opening them then clenching them again. My very irritated client was calling for fifth time now. My team mates hadn’t arrived at the event venue YET. I stared at the screen and kept it on my desk facing down. Still pacing, a colleague in his fifties called out my name. He was seated back on his chair, picking his ear.
“Girl, you’re a good person. God won’t let you down.” It struck me; not the words, but how he said it. So calm, so relaxed in his speech. I had been murmuring my prayers all along but it was in this moment, in his words, that I remembered that my faith is supposed to supersede my worries. It was almost like a new revelation to me; that for what I strive to be, God won’t let me down. I was awed. I sat down and almost immediately, my team mates called that they had arrived in time. I was really relieved. I thanked my colleague and went on supervising this critical event via phone calls.
Some few weeks later, the HR comes to me and informs me in a whisper that the same colleague is no longer part of the team. He’s been caught embezzling the company’s money and it had occurred several times. I swirled in my chair to face the HR directly. My jaw had dropped by now.
“What do you mean embezzling?” I had used this word a thousand times in my writing pieces but at this moment, I just wanted it to mean something else. My heart sank. My mouth could no longer utter any words. I was saddened.
By lunch break, I couldn’t still bring my mind to accept the truth. I mean, wasn’t he the one who told me that God doesn’t disappoint? That so long as you’re doing your best, he’ll give you a way?
I was now seated at the office kitchen where we usually have our lunch. My other colleague in his thirties, came in and grabbed two chairs. He sat on one and rested his feet on the other chair as he began to eat.
“Why would he do that? Why would anyone do that? Steal from people you’ve been with over ten years?” I started. I can’t really remember what he answered me because it was more of a monologue at this point. But I remember him agreeing with me. That it is wrong and detestable. That poverty or struggle was never a justification. We talked until the lunch break was over. I was a bit relieved talking it out and after some few days, we all got used to his absence.
Almost three/four months later, I came to work late due to some assignment I was to do first. Walking merrily to my desk, I suddenly noticed two police officers at my thirty year old colleagues’ desk ransacking it. In a frenzy of panic, I move to the manager to ask what’s happening. Embezzlement and fraud, she says.
I looked at him, eyes looking down, a sheen of sweat covering his forehead and upper lip. One of the policemen stood aside talking to our boss before walking out with him. I look at him again, walking towards the office exit, each policeman on one side. I remembered our conversation in the kitchen; my heart sank.
That’s the thing with humans, you just never know who they really are. I sighed heavily. How do you ever trust people when all they do is hide behind masks? I guess that’s just the thing with humans, they disappoint. A lot.
