Resurgence

1. Worlds Apart

“Look,” Tari picked up on a similar wave of seriousness as Ose continued to speak. “You might have your reservations for Fola and Tej—and while I may respect that ‘cos they’re sort of valid in your head, it hardly has anything do with the rest of us here at the office. No one gives two shits if Fola doesn’t show up at the office for an entire year, well no one except the receptionist of course...” Ose stroked his almost bare chin and arched a brow as if reconsidering his words. “…probably because the cumulative sum of the tips he gives her in the morning all through the year is more than the salary of the janitors. Who knows?” His friend straightened up and said abruptly, “But that’s not the point here.

“The point is, his family owns this company. He can lazy about all he wants. In fact, what am I saying? It is expected that he drags himself about, frolicking all working hours long. It’s what kids of business magnates do, and taking into consideration how much he lazies about...if there is any such word―” Ose rolled his eyes and sighed. “He is still pretty much hardworking in his world―”

“You’re not actually telling me to get used to him being like that now, are you?” Tari arched a brow. “Not even in ten green moons would that happen and you of all people know it.”

“You know what? Pretty much, yeah. You should actually ignore it. Take it all in and suck it up like cold beer.” Ose nodded vigorously, his finger propelling forward and backward like he double tapped an invisible air panel. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you to do. It’s only a matter of years before he’d inherit the company and take his grand dad’s place, and unless you plan on dying before then―you’d be pretty much under him, yes or yes?”

“Why does death come into this? There are other ways through which I might not be here when that time comes around.”

“Like leaving this firm to another one? Uh, hello! Nope. Big no. That’s not happening because well if you didn’t fully understand the meaning of the sentence – ‘Biggest architectural firm in the country’, let me enlighten you further that it also means, no other company in this country would pay you as much as we do and also provide such vast, mind blowing job opportunities like getting to build the house of probably the most celebrated couple in the world, right now―”

“In the world?” He echoed Ose’s words and made a subtle grunt. “That’s a little bit far fetched, isn’t it? Dayo Tijani isn’t exactly the prince of England, you know.”

“Do you also understand the concept behind figures of speech? I doubt. If you did, you wouldn’t blindly attack that–―”

“You could have just said most celebrated couple in the country―”

“That. . .would have come off sort of lame, taking into consideration the build up and the level of seriousness my voice was at. It had to be something colossal―”

“Africa then―”

“For some reason, Africa sounds quite small compared to even Nigeria. I mean, asides from South Africa and Ghana, and Nigeria of course which other African country would you consider if going on a vacation―”

“There are different sorts of vacations. Ones for pleasures, one for exploring and of course, one for connecting with inner spirits and all them zen ish. So yeah there are many other places to consider like Kenya―”

“Really?” Ose gave Tari one of his best sarcastic looks. “Connecting with your inner spirit thingy and you’re supposedly thinking outside the box? Apparently you’re dead stuck in the middle of the box ‘cos no, my friend, right here—” He tapped Tari’s desk with the tips of his index fingers. “—We have it right here in the country. We have to be the most spiritual country in the world.”