“Hello Mr. Donald, nice to meet you,” Mr. David said as he stretched out his hand for a handshake. The blonde man was the director of a particular notorious hacking hub that he had conspicuously named 'D Cyber Café'. In this hub, so many application softwares had been hacked into and an even greater number of viruses had been made and released to the internet. Long story short, it was the center of every single cyber crime you could think of. The group of wanted hackers could get into anything computerised.
“Nice to meet you too,” Donald replied with a shaky voice. He was sweating as a result of walking two miles under the scorching midday sun.
“So... How can I help you?” Mr. David asked.
“I need a job sir.”
“What kind of job do you need?”
“Any kind of job that is available sir,” Donald replied unsure of the possibility of him getting the job.
“Okay, give me a few seconds,” Mr. David said as he made a phone call, after several minutes of talking on the phone, he hung up.
“Okay, I'm sorry Mr?”
“Donald, Mr Donald”
“yes, Mr Donald, I'm afraid we have no reasonable job available now”. Mr David said feeling pity for the well dressed man sitting opposite him.
“but I can do anything sir even if it's unreasonable”. Donald quickly replied as if he was expecting the answer he had just been given.
“really?”
“of course sir”
““arrigh then” Mr David replied in an accent that seemed funny to Donald. He actually meant alright not “arrigh”.He made another call. This time the duration was short.
“yes, Mr Donald, can you clean floors, toilets and all that stuff?”
“yeah sure, I would”
“okay then, you're hired, you can start... Today should be Thursday”
“yes today's Thursday”. He couldn't forget that because his rent expired that day.
“you can't resume on Monday, or would that be convenient for you?”
“most certainly sir”
“arrigh you can go”. Mr David said repeating his earlier mistake.
“thank you sir”. Donald said as he got up.
“we would be expecting you”
“okay sir, good day” Donald left the office and entered the elevator to the ground floor, passed through the cold reception and out into the midday sun again. He had been hoping to get the post of a computer operator, or computer engineer or an IT consultant, but surprisingly he got the post of a mere Cleaner. He had no other choice than to accept the offer without grumbling.
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He crossed the street and got into a taxi and after seven minutes of driving he got home. He pushed the doorbell and wondered why he was doing that in his own house. Shortly after, his wife Diane opened the door and welcomed him with questions.
“did you get a job Donald?”
“C'mon honey that's not the way to welcome your husband home”
“then teach me how to welcome a lazy husband home”. Diane retorted still standing at the door way.
“you know that I'm not lazy, you certainly do”. Donald replied, trying to be calm.
“then why haven't you gotten a job then?”. She cried aloud.
“can you at least let me enter my house Diane”. He protested in a low tone.
“your house?” she asked sarcastically.
“yes, my house”. Donald replied, surprised at the question.
“well Mr man your houses' rent expired today”. She replied with her hands on her waist.
“i certainly know that”.
“then what've you done about that”
“I'll ask the landlord to give me more time”
“more time?”
“yes of course, I'll do something about it”
“how long Donald, how long?”. She asked, leaning forward.
“maybe two weeks, I'll ask to get paid by the day”
“how? You've gotten a job”
“of course, I've gotten one”. Donald replied confident in his answer.
“What kind of job?”
“a cleaner”.
“what in the name of heaven are you going to get, being a cleaner?”. Diane resumed shouting.
“its better than nothing
”oh really?“
”yes of course“
Diane didn't say another word, but slammed the door and turned the lock. Her children had gathered behind her, silently watching.
”oh my dears, go and have your siesta“. She said to them suddenly calm. They had two children, a boy and a girl, Daniel the older of the duo was just ten years of age, while Hilda, his younger sister was seven years of age. Herself and Donald had been married for eleven years. Eleven years of constant nagging, eleven years of problems, quarrels, fighting and all manners of disagreements between them.
”but wasn't that dad at the door?“ Hildah asked.
”certainly not, it was the delivery man“. She replied.
”what did he deliver?“ Daniel asked too.
”i couldn't pay for it“
”how much was it?“Daniel asked again.
”you don't need to know, don't bother me, go to sleep, it'll soon be 1pm, you haven't had your siesta, I promise, when you wake up you'll eat something good. Dad will soon be home okay?“
”yes mom“. They both replied and went up the stairs. Diane just crashed on the sofa and started sobbing. What kind of marriage was this? Why me of all people? She thought to herself. Right now so many thoughts ran through her head , so many options, she thought of divorce, thought of suicide and many other negative things but erased them from her mind and decided to stay because of her children. They needed her. She suddenly remembered that she made her children a promise of eating something good and seeing their father when they woke up eventually by 2:30pm.
She got up, wiped her face with the hem of her dress and started towards the door.
”Donald you can...“. She paused when she realised that there was no one at the doorpost. She looked left and right but couldn't find any trace of Donald. He had obviously vanished. The fact that Donald might have left, angrily, vowing not to come back, scared Diane. But that was not what played out. Donald had actually gone back to the 'D cyber café' to resume work immediately.
He got down from the taxi, back into the cold reception into the elevator, up the elevator, out of the elevator, into the passage and finally at the director's office.