Resurgence

25. Stitches

“Sometimes it takes a heartbreak to shake us awake, and make us realize we’re worth so much more—than were settling for.” – Mandy Hale.

•••

Never had cold air been so hot.

The chilly, damp air being disbursed by the air conditioner of Sky’s receptive lounge was heavily infused with the heat glares beaming from multiple angles, encroached on his mobile figure. It was a standard reception, with a large counter which lined one center and rows of benches that occupied the other end separated by a narrow runway. As he proceeded into the adjoining room that led to the corridor of offices, he realized it would take more than wit and courage to prevent himself from melting to the ground like plastic that had come in contact with a beam of laser.

He kept his head down and maintained a calm equanimity, until he arrived at his office to clear his stuff out. It had been a little above twenty hours, since he had been released from the state’s capital detention site at Ikeja and it had been nothing less than fifteen hours that he had received an official email from Sky informing him of his new ‘employment’ status. He expected it of course, he had tarnished their image by his stint at the Tijanis and they were dispensing resources to recalibrate their broken image in the eyes of the public and they definitely needed to dissolve all relations with him to move on. He had once been their face, but he had soiled that image and now he was going to be kicked out of the picture frame.

He thought he had thought the worst, and was prepared for the moment but as he halted by his desk with a big brown box to unload his belongings into, he felt the welling of tears in his eyes. Devotion and diligence of three years, gone down the drain with nothing to show for it. He wasn’t going to start from scratch, he had hit rock bottom which was far worse than starting all over again from the starting line. He had been disqualified, disbarred and banned from ever participating in the race in the future.

His face and name had been marred all over national television. Every household in the country, knew him as the one responsible for the disaster that traversed the site of the Tijanis at Ikeja. He didn’t require the insight of a sage to know that he had been blacklisted by every architectural firm, both conglomerates and infant firms alike. The only way he could work in one, was if he set up one of his and what sort of investor would agree to fuel his cause, when he had been complicit in the undertaking of a destruction of a large scale.

One thing was for sure, his career as an architect was technically over.

But did he regret the decision that jammed the detonation button of his life? He didn’t. Still, that fact didn’t automatically freeze the tears welling up in his lids or make the pain piling up in his heart wither to nothingness. He still had to contend with the bleak life that was awaiting him, like a passenger by a bus stop.

His train of thoughts was interrupted by the creaking sound of the door, and he didn’t need visual confirmation to know it was Ose. Who else cared enough to visit him? Adeola could but, they became enemies the moment he dragged the image of Sky into the mud. As far as he was concerned, she only liked him because he had been a great asset to the sky, but now that he had become more burdensome than a liability—all relations between them had gone extinct.

“You’re quite quiet,” His friend said, as he walked across the room to lower his hands on the chair lodged beneath Tari’s work desk. “But then you’re mostly quiet so, of course you wouldn’t be noisy now. Just wanted to check up on you and all before you leave. You know that—”

“I know I signed my death wish that day, Ose you don’t have to explain these things to me.” Tari cut him off midway, slamming the huge box down on the desk which resulted in the blaring of a loud thud sound. “The company has to cut away all its ties with me so it can move on and survive. It’s even a miracle that members of the public haven’t headed over here with planks lit with fire to burn this place to the ground. You know, payback in kind style like I did with the Tijanis.”