“Please just fire me!”
He was as shaken as any tree shaken to its roots. The storm had gotten too strong.
He cried harder. Like a ballet dancer on her pointe, his life had taken a fast turn, a sharp twist.
The previous day, he had reported a theft in the company where he was working. He had reported his senior who was the head of his department and his colleagues who were asking him to take part in their evil plot. Reporting them, to him, was the best to do and it led to the culprits being sacked.
— A snitch does not belong here —
That was the note he got after being praised by the managing director of the company. Some of his remaining colleagues ganged up on him and pasted the words aforementioned as a sticky note on his desk. The next event was to be called upon by his boss who looked terribly vexed.
“Was this your initial plan? To make a fool of me?”
He was clueless – his boss's words were like a subordinate clause followed by a comma so he anticipated the main clause. His boss spoke further. “I've discovered who you really are. You think you can make me sack your cohorts while you carry on with the evil scheme?”
He started realising the bog he just got mired in.
“Read this mail!”
And there, he read the email sent to his personal email address by his senior who was sacked the previous day. He was trying to implicate him.
— You must think that you are smart to get rid of us in order to get all the money to yourself. I'll ruin you —
All he said to tackle that mail was not believed. He realised that it was the joint work of his sacked colleagues and those presently in the company. They all spoke against him.
“You don't think that they just want to get rid of me for reporting those sacked?"
“What about the text message you sent to the sales manager?”
“What text message?”
It dawned on him that he had earlier seen a text message on his mobile phone and he had been confused because he did not send the recipient any message.
They collected his phone and searched for the message but it was not there.
“You deleted it?”
He nodded. “I didn't send the message. They must have used my phone when I was away from my desk. I saw the message and I didn't understand it so I just deleted it.”
“And you expect me to buy into that lie?”
“Sir, I can recover the deleted messages from a phone shop down the street,” one of his colleagues said, "I think he needs to follow me.”
“Do that. We need evidences to get him arrested.”
He felt his life was in shatters. The messages were recovered and he was like a fish caught in a net.
— Send the money now —
— How much? —
— You know it already. Just do that and I'll send the robbers to come in and act like they're robbing us of it. —
— Alright —
“I didn't send that. God sees everything.”
“Why God? Why is there no one on your side? Are you that bad?"
“If you don't want me here, just fire me. You don't have to send me to jail. I'm not a thief. Don't ruin my name. Don't make me earn a criminal record, please!”
All his pleas fell on deaf ears. That evening, he landed in police station and was thrown behind bars.
When the managing director came visiting, he continued to beg in tears.
“I served you like in serving you was my existence. I loved your company. I only helped you get rid of the thistles in your vineyard. Why do you have to pluck me with them? You didn't just uproot me, you gave me to the hungry flames to consume.”
“I loved you but you fooled me.”
“Fine. But do this one thing for me. Bug the office and check everyday. It might help you realise the truth.”
The next day, his boss returned for his release and when they got back to work, the purge in the company began.
…
Having integrity – holding firm to one's principles – is a good thing but its consequences can be overwhelming. This story is fictional but it's more of a reality. The protagonist here went through a hard time. It might be harder in some cases.
Thanks for reading 💕
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28/8/22