Ephrem Endale Contributer
Recently a couple of us had this daunting task of cooling down a guy we knew who got the marching off orders without any prior signs. I talked about this earlier; but somehow the sacked guy story keeps coming back. Very skilled in his field it wouldn’t take this more than a week or two to land a better paying job.
But everything came so suddenly he was one difficult guy to pacify. He felt betrayed by an institution for which he gave all he has and kiore for years. And his wife! Well, she was in celebratory mood! “Better things will come.”
She took the whole thing as a Heavenly intervention to help her man get a better paying job. These days you really admire her type who try to see the twinkling light amidst the sea of darkness. We really need more of them! But that is not always the case.
Say a guy didn’t see it coming. But when the blow lands it hurts; really hurts. He has been sacked. He has to tell the lady of the house. In fact, doesn’t only have to tell her only tell her; he actually has ‘break the news’ to her! The waters wouldn’t remain calm for long. No cameras, no mics; no nosy journalist colleagues of mine! Just him and her. He knows it’s not going to be a happy day. But he has reached the bridge and has to try to cross it.
“I’ve been kicked out!”
She just looks at him. One would have noticed a little more emotion on the face of some boutique doll. I mean, give the poor soul a break; the lady had every right to react in a thousand and one ways; not even one of it a soothing, ensuring peck or two on that fast deflating cheek of his. Just a month or so back he himself told her the pay rise would be in the seven or thousand birr range.
That’s a lot of money. Even his long gone grandma would certainly jump at that. (I am waiting for someone, somewhere to throw a few thousand my way so my granny, gone when Napoleon holed up in Elba or some island, would jump in joy. Ha! (No, the Napoleon thing is just a slip of the fingers on the keyboard and no sarcasm intended, no underlying meaning, no nothing!)
So had her plans seen the light of day the following few months would have been the happiest of the guy’s life. That lady has real brains when it comes to planning things such as recreation and festivities. The irony, ladies and gents, is that those with the money don’t know real planning (Forget ‘the other bed’ stories!) when it comes to real, healthy and satisfying recreation, while those without the money are full of them.
Do I stand by these words of mine? Of course, I do! I have every right to keep the ‘anonymity’ of my sources! (These days every other news organizations is doing just that; protecting the identity of their sources. Believe me the info world is so heavily sedated you can go away with any claim; may God bless the ‘anonymous sources!).
The shock and confusion steal onto the face of the lady of the house marking the beginning of a new, involuntarily altered storyline.
“Sorry, what did you just say?”
Ok time to stand up and be counted. Show her he’s not one to be kicked all around the house which was in need of much repair. Unless he acts like some macho Undertaker of WWE fame, or some hero who single-handedly knocks to the ground everyone within a fifty kilometer radius she is going to roll over him, and he’ll not have the chance to call for help. The contours appear all across his forehead and even beyond. Just one look and a ‘Don’ would have said; “That’s my boy!”
“You heard me. I’m not going to say it again.”
He sees changes he never thought a human body was capable of. It seems every single cell in her was in the process of transformation from a really sweet and very ‘submissive’ lady into, what else, a tigress! And this is not some symbolism stuff or something. He’d find out what a transformed tigress means when the nails come searching for flesh. An invisible, soundless tsunami washes away every sign of a contour on his forehead.
“Sorry, I was saying I’ve been kicked out.”
She is quite, too quiet for comfort. He puts on you jacket and is slowly getting up when a stern, final “Sit down!” practically sends him through the chair when he involuntary dumps his eighty something kilo flesh and bones into the sofa!
There is this story I think I mentioned in an earlier piece. A long time ago there was this friend of mine who had a real heavyweight for a girlfriend, who without exaggeration is about ten or fifteen kilos heavier. Yes, they were in love; In fact we admired him! For such a skinny guy to win the heart of such a muscular young woman something must be in play behind the scenes.
When he felt tipsy no one amongst us knew how to handle him; except his girlfriend. There was this swimming pool in the apartment complex they lived; No she didn’t give him swimming lessons. She gave him cooling-off lessons. She threw him into the pool! Now, Don or no Don, that’s my girl! The few times he refused to be dragged to the pool he got vicious, and I really mean that, vicious jabs and uppercuts!
I’m not sure if disagreements of the present times go this far. But for the fellow who breaks the news of his being fired to his better half the punches could come in more way than one.
I’m not sure when the next “I’ve been sacked!” fellow would come knocking. It’s not going to be long; that I can tell you.
The Ethiopian herald December 27/2020