₦airaland Forum

Iamehmakute
Judette
Mario1983

Before Ify left the next morning, we rehearsed the plan. It was finally agreed that I would try to inveigle myself into my boss’ emotion. We did not easily agree to it, but it was deemed necessary in order to have something for the CEO, in case he was spying. We also decided that Ify would be among the ladies to work on the CEO, just to keep an eye on things. And if she happens to be the chosen one, then so be it. I felt bitter that she had to descend that low to help clean up my mess.


Life in the office went on as usual. As far as I could tell, no one knew what was happening except the CEO and me. My boss and I got along fine as we always had. It helped that she didn’t know what I’ve been asked to do. Over the next few days, things started happening. The CEO started moving closer to the net of one of the girls, a shapely twenty-two year old undergraduate. We hired five girls and paid them five thousand naira per outing. We gave them a different version of the story. They had done much more for much less, so it wasn’t a big deal.


Strangely, things changed between me and my boss. We had always communicated through phone calls and, occasionally, text messages. When she sent me a happy-new-month message, I thought nothing of it, and then she started sending me messages on whatsapp and calling “to check on me”. My first thought was that something must be wrong somewhere. Maybe she was even on the side of the CEO, trying to… do what exactly?


Three weeks later, my CEO was running out of patience. He called me into his office one evening, towards the end of work (there was something about that time) and told me I had one week to bring him pictorial proof that I was indeed working on our agreement. He asked that I get him something, a picture of me in a restaurant or bar with my boss, sitting unusually close to each other, anything to show a work in progress. He didn’t care how I did it.


I got home that day and was lost in thought. Ify’s mother had been admitted to a hospital in Enugu, so she had gone to be with her with no estimated time of return. I decided to put the deal with the girls on hold till she returned. They didn’t know me (every arrangement was made through Ify), so I decided to maintain my anonymity in case things went awry. It suddenly struck me, one evening, that I could actually drug my boss and carry out the plan. Why hadn’t I thought of this before? Ify would have objected straight away, but she wasn’t around, and I didn’t have to tell her. I did not embrace the decision easily, but I had no choice, I was running out of time. My face would be edited off the pictures I would take. She would know it was my doing, but yeah, life is unfair, and when the chips are down, it is everyone for himself. Ify may not like it when she returns, but so do I.


On Friday, I feigned a little fever and decided to go home earlier although we had work to do. I asked my boss whether I could come over to her place on Saturday if I felt strong enough. She easily agreed. We had been getting along well recently, I had even called one morning to ask how she was doing and whether there was something I could do after she complained of a migraine and left quite early the previous day. On Friday evening, I went to a drugstore and got what I needed and informed her that I felt better and would be coming the next day.


On Saturday morning, I set out for her place. My heart was beating, but time was also ticking. Self-preservation is the first law of nature, I consoled myself. Ify would be mad at me, but right now I wasn’t thinking straight. If Ify would leave me, so be it. Time eventually heals all wounds, I thought, as I pressed her door bell. The sound of her approaching footsteps sent my heart racing and brought sweat to my palms.

I was fervently hoping Nneka Arima would win. But all the same, she has made a name for herself and made Nigeria proud.

Jonathan Tel is the overall winner of the 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize with his story ‘The Human Phonograph’.
Five regional winners were selected from nearly 4,000 entries. ‘The Human Phonograph’, the winning entry for Canada and Europe, was selected by the judges as the overall winner. In an interview to mark his win, Jonathan says, “I think of the short story, along with all the other stories that were regional winners, as existing as it were alongside each other, having a sort of genial conversation, stories interacting and remarking to each other.” You can listen in on this conversation and sample the various stories that enriched this year’s Prize by following this link to the other regional prize winning stories.
http://www.commonwealthwriters.org/jonathan-tel-winner-2015-short-story-prize/