Urgent matters

Was it real? Did he just stand up for me? No! it can’t be, the voices echoed in shock as he was, since they were bonded as brothers, he was always the mistreated one, apart from nanny, no one else ever stood up for him. But here, his own oppressor bridged him from further embarrassment, back in high school when the bullies would pick on him breaking his pencils on the first day of school, Tony just sat and watched feasting on his grief. When Tony framed him and imprinted the terrifying trauma that wakes him up at the devil’s hour screaming, the beatings he endured falsely for an alleged sock he hid in his barn, now he was his knight in his predicament All those years and the empathy surfaced, the cobwebs in his heartless shell brushed off and that dim light finally glowed, Ricky wasn’t buying any of this, none of it at all.

The meeting was to commence in ten minutes, at the time the room was empty and a large table of mahogany material and brown grey color with seats tucked to it opposite to each other was centered. At the far end a smartboard was nailed to the wall switched on and its company logo HM displayed, on the left side opposite the door on the top near the ceiling a rectangle box shaped air conditioning was placed, its remote was held by the secretary who walked in. “Seats check. AC check.”, Palm-the Masons company secretary-murmured, a quick check was cautionary incase a bomb was planted or a short wire in the devices within, with each scan she checked the box on her paper she clipped on the plastic handheld clipboard. Satisfied she began setting the smartboard, navigating to test run the apps for displaying the day’s agenda an icon after the other she clicked till all was ready and then was she comfortable sure that if anything did go wrong, she had no part in it. Minutes after she settled, her clipboard on the table, her glasses on and her coat unbuttoned, often she preferred her official attire, her white ironed shirt tucked in her black fitting dress followed by her coat with black Baridef flats, the men of the hour came in. The organization committee walked in followed by the finance and advisory council, each wore their own suit most in black though except the advisory who went with the gray look, and Tony, who preferred the brown look since it went well with his skin ton. This meeting was an abrupt one since all was discussed three days before and they sealed every hole and exploited the benefits, this had its own agenda and knowing Tony this was more important than the ones they scheduled.

“Gentlemen and lady, I know this is abrupt but we need to discuss about the elephant in the room.”, Tony greeted his subordinates considerate of gender, “Palm pull up the newspaper of the night before the gala.”, he addressed. Palm obedient as usual, pulled her seat back and walked steps to the smart board, aware of the date the newspaper was released she clicked the G****e icon and on the blinking cursor she keyed the date on the virtual keyboard, a second after she clicked the search command at the end of the cursor the newspaper filled the smartboard zoomed to 120%. “Go to the business section page 14.”, Tony said again, Palm able to count began swiping the pages till she reached the number fourteen, she then rotated the paper to vertical posture and some adjustments the image became clear. “Now gentlemen I need you to read the headline.”, he phrased, rising from his seat he walked towards the smartboard letting his committee read silently the highlighted area.

“We as usual are number three and those above are the agrovet companies we know too well. Come on guys some applause for being the leading technological company in the region.”, he announced, the committee adhered and a round of applause for a brief moment followed by some pleasant murmurs and light claps. “Now I want you to observe something.”, he paused, moving to the side Palm was, he thanked her for the help and released her to take her seat and continued after he was certain she was settled. “Over the years we have been the top ten with common competitors dropping and rising. We have been the only consistent words from the beginning. However, we have a new chess player at number seven.”, he worded zooming in on the number seven he talked about.

“The Kangs enterprise. We have invested in every venture and this is the only investment that has made the most success. We gave them the funds for their idea and now they are growing to compete with us in the market.”, he described the scenario. The committee wasn’t getting a grip of his idea because none of them saw the elephant he was talking about, if Kangs enterprise was growing as fast and successful wasn’t it a good thing because this meant their shareholdings had tripled from their initial worth, and it called for a celebration not this meeting of a paranoid senior. They hadn’t seen the bigger picture, yes there were ripping benefits but that’s the exact bait that could reel them into their plunge. If the Kangs at some point grow to the peak they compete with the Masons it meant they will make less money and profits, also their investors will be shifting from them to the Kangs and with no investors no funding, and no funding no Mason enterprise. The benefits were temporary but the downside was eternal, the committee hadn’t seen this end of the road of their land with honey and fruits of gold.

“Palm who are the most dominant company in the sales market?”, Tony asked his secretary, “The Masons sir.”, she replied, Palm was the only among the member who saw what was ahead the same way Tony did and she never sugar coated a fact if it was a spade, she called it a spade. “Now do you know what happens when we have competition and I mean stiff competition?” he rhetorically questioned, “With competition we lose investors, our profits go down, literally everything that brings as money is sliced by half.” He emphasized pausing to observe if the committee was getting the idea. “If we have a decrease by even one percent everything changes, no cuisines and sushi for lunch, workers have to come with their water and pay to use the restrooms. Now what happens when we lose by fifty percent?”, he questioned this time needing an answer.

“We go broke sir.”, Palm answered courageously, and there the elephant from the skies dropped and threatened to bring this trillion worth company to rubbles, the committee had that mud rubbed from their eyes and they could see it, if they go broke everything seizes. “And the only company capable of making this a reality are the Kangs.” Tony worded with worry all over him, he was deeply troubled his own investment threatened to end him and overgrow the man he is now. “But how are you so sure?”, Mr. Wean- head of the advisory committee- asked, this was intruding how did Tony conclude this fateful day could be as a result of the Kangs, what if it was hate for what they did to his brother at the gala, answers began filling the questions but Tony had the actual right answer not the fictional lies.

“Here is the Kangs stocks exchange graph.”, he phrased, closing the newspaper he clicked a different icon and a graph, appeared on the X axis the exchange rates, and the Y axis the years, at the center was a dotted line that patterned how the graph would look like rising and following to indicate the stocks exchange situation in international time. “As you can see, they have had a consistent rising margin for the past five years. No company has ever done this apart from us and now apparently the Kangs.” He retorted, his hands pointed to the rising green line that grew above the standard margin and it was consistent signaling the increased profits they have had. “Do you still think I am paranoid? Does anyone else think so?”, he questioned, with adequate concrete proof all that rubbish about taking out his anger on the Kangs, the family issues brought into business were buried to never be visited, but ghosts still lurked.

“Now I need ideas how do we deal with this?”, he asked, the situation was clear and now they had to think, how will they secure their free expensive meals, afford their lifestyle, everything was in line so if they had to die coming up with an idea, it was easier than the day of doom to come. “Sir your brother Ricky, he was in a relationship with Mary, right?”, Palm addressed abruptly, “Yes and why is that important.”, Ricky lashed feeling threatened his personal life was involved. “Um with all due respect if you can convince your brother to forge marriage ties with Mary, Elizabeth Kang’s daughter, then that means the Masons and the Kangs family will be one. Also, the Kangs will be under the Masons and so will the company and you control what, how and who controls the stocks.”, she finished.

The days headline the day after the gala on every magazine, newspaper read, “GALA DRAMA”, all kinds of exaggerations were added to spice it up like one read Ricky was a rapist and tried to defile a woman publicly, another the woman was getting back at the criminal who ran away with her daughter, whatever it was the Kangs and Masons were the talk. But now was no time to follow up on who was aiming to spoil their name pinning allegations against them, now was the time to save their own skin before they skin those of others.

“I like that. I will talk to my brother and agree on it.”, Tony complemented glad Palm saved their asses once again, she was the thinker of this whole organization and despite her young age she was highly respected even by Tony. “Meeting is over gentlemen.” Tony adjourned ending the session, leaders first as always he was the took his leave the echoes of members glad they would keep their eating habits intact. “Today’s ribs, last one down pays.”, a member jokingly challenged making a run for it and a stampede roared down the building. Despite being renowned scholars, they had the childish habit still intact, but somehow this habit was what made Tony feel the company as an extension of his home only hear he didn’t hate anyone to the scales he had for his brother.

The soft, Spanish, leather seat freshly imported with the lavender like scent still present he swiveled severally as he awaited his newspaper he ordered for, minutes after he walked in his office. He removed his coat and hang on his wooden tree like coat track, folding his sleeves to his elbows he sat and reached for his laptop attempting to open it and check his emails. “Thank you.”, he whispered to his intern, he had opened the laptop when the intern here for his internship walked in with the newspaper, a young lad with a lot of potential and proving himself to do and Tony saw his young self and was happy there were still hardworking young men. Relaxed well, he unfolded the newspaper and the first page shocked him, the headline as predicted, “GALA DRAMA”, below a sub heading in a smaller font size than the headline probably fifteen, “Marriage Controversy.”. After the sub-heading were three consecutive paragraphs that narrated how a woman was approached on asking her daughter for marriage, how the woman rebuked the land for being a peasant, a man who stole chicken and sold them to their owners, a disgrace whose presence stained what the occasion stood for, the end concluded the lad drank cyanide and ended his life. Lies! He hissed, angered because the truth was manipulated into this lie, this accusation of death and self-suicide, he searched for the author of this section and zoomed every word till at the lower part he saw the author.

“Angela Lomn.”, he read, for a brief moment the anger he had melted away, all that frustration he transfigured into luck, at that time he remembered his promise. After the gala was over he approached Angela and some conversing they exchanged contacts, maybe this was a sign the universe was urging him to keep his promise, reaching for his phone he closed the newspaper and placed it on top of his laptop’s keyboard. He keyed in his pin and unlocked his phone, the phone book icon he clicked and a list of saved contacts appeared and he scrolled looking for the name Angel with a fire emoji at the end.

Found the number he clicked it and the call was in line and the ring started, he grew eager and anxious at the same time, nervous intervened his palms became sweaty and his breaths became tensed. “Hey stranger about time.”, the female voice muttered softly over the phone