already to stressful. But I wasn’t as upset as the strikers, and the reason for their anger was deeper than mine: how was it possible to succeed to meet the minister, discuss with him on a table and finally end up with an unsure promise?
“We know where politician promises always end,” I heard some of them affirming.
Subsequently, the din became louder and provoked insecurity among our group. Tempers were flaring, tension had built to bursting, and people’s nerves were fraying, our bodyguard noticed the danger coming, they were now on their toes. One of them whispered something to mister minister, surely to notify him the emergency of living the place. A minute later, we all left our chair at the same time and started heading to the door hurriedly. But to our surprise, the group of strikers outside during the talk was now blocking the way out angrily. Hopefully, the gendarmes used their ferocity to free the exit. However, therefore a clash occurred; people were punching me, kicking me hard, and hurting me so bad. I was sadly witnessing what I predicted anxiously for weeks since the day my boss decided not to listen to my advice and instead follow his dangerous plan, what was the result: we got our ass whoop!! I who did everything to prevent this was now struggling to save my life and health in this rush like a trapped mouse. It took me a great effort to come out of it and none of the gendarmes came to my rescue as they were all focused on mister minister.
Despite all this violence from people, we couldn’t expect this kind of animal behavior, the entire group succeeded to return safely in our car. My clothes were clear proof of the brutality in that rush as it was torn and wrinkled almost everywhere, no need to add that I wasn’t as glamour as Caroline as me to be. I was shocked but my colleagues seemed more traumatized than me, I could see the terror on their attitude, one of them was whipping his sweating face while groaning like a maltreated puppy. None of us had done this physical effort for years, my back really hurt but compared to others, my situation was better.
Mister Minister came out of this with no scratches or damage; he was as fresh as before our arrival, elegant in his very expensive suit. Concerning him, the gendarme did a wonderful job; they protected him perfectly but what about us? We could normally take this as an injustice and started feeling a kind of jealousy but what would have been the need for this kind of feeling and conclusion? That’s how things are in our country… There was at least something to be content of, nobody died, and they shot no striker although they were enough reasons for the gendarmes to use their guns; however, many of those protesters were rudely brutalized too.
But all this would have never happened if only mister minister followed my plan, I was upset, all this was his fault! We were obviously in a weak position; we were a small group in enemy territory, this meeting should have not been held. But since he always wanted to be looked like the angel, the hero, what could we do? His obsession was risky for his workers and I had to tell him that eyes to eyes, I was too angry I needed to let it out.
It was with all this resentment that I came to his office the following day. He who considered me as his son needed to hear my sincere complains. Being the boss is also to assure the security and the good conditions of his worker, he had to assume that he had felt in this mission. And if only I followed Caroline words my reaction would have been harder, she was more upset than I was and it was understandable. My harm had her massaging me all night long. I had the grudges against him and not even our mutual respect and friendship could stop me.
But as he entered his office and started complaining about his reaction really took me by surprise. Although he didn’t apologize about causing the brutality we endure, his statement about our greatness after our sacrifice got me pleased. I saw myself as a kind of hero too, as a martyr of a good cause. He then started to show me the future fruit of this sacrifice on the peace in the country and resolving the crisis with the teacher. He affirmed that when the national opinion will know what happened, when they hear about the violence that these strikers use on a small group of peaceful people who just came to listen to their problem and follow their request, they will, therefore, stop bearing support to those protestors, and then we will now have the position of power.
He didn’t need to add more to make me forget the massage with hot water my wife administered me the previous night, and the unusual physical effort we were forced to do to save our life. I was letting myself be literally subjugated by the exceptional logic from the wise man mister minister was and started to feel guilty for showing shameful selfishness. He succeeded to change my mood without making a real effort; I was coming to ask verbal reparation and excuses from the man but I found myself guilty of misjudgment of the case. It takes much humility to come to this kind of conclusion; mister minister was a unique person. Those guys too disrespected and insulted him, but he didn’t complain about that, he instead took advantage of it.
Many other leaders would have sought revenge after this kind of humiliation but not him. He would instead seek for peace and calm everybody. Now that he was in a better position he would quietly end the crisis by bringing a resolution that would contain every party. Just for acting like this, for displaying such wisdom, such a vision, he deserved a Nobel Prize!
I quickly shared the mister minister’s perceptiveness to Christian as he came to office in the afternoon intending to pity me. He too found his mood rapidly changed from indignation to delight after hearing our boss affirmation. Then we both entered a serious celebration, this was a victory, something really rare during this period. As two of the most favorite mister minister’s supporters and disciple, we couldn’t stay without praising his lucidity and his ability to always find a solution in any complicated case he will face.
“This is definitely the week of good news Paul, guess what? I invited Caroline for a date and she accepted!” Christian added shortly.
This other good news made me happier than the previous one. However, a guilty feeling bothered me subsequently. This love affair that was starting was also a violation of one of our internal rules private relationship between members of the same department were highly prohibited, and as their chief, I had to sanction them. But this time around, I didn’t border myself of reminding him the rule or even advise him to act with much discretion; I simply judge this incoming romance like a little violation by an ordinary good and honest employee. Regardless of the number of colleagues that date before them without been sanctioned by anybody, there was not enough reason in my point of view to feel reproachable about any irresponsibility as a chief. I was convinced that Caroline will be a good girlfriend and eventually a good wife for him even though my opinion was influenced by the fact that she and my wife had the same name.
A little time later, Andre’s sudden arrival startled us and ended our cheerfulness. As usual, he’d surely previously bored Jasmine for long minutes after receiving bad answers from the girl, he’d then put down all his frustration on the handle of my door before entering my office without knocking as if it was a Chinese shop. It wasn’t hard to perceive that he and Christian had not a friendly relationship, matter of fact their obvious hatred was well covered by a kind of mutual respect they always displayed whenever they meet. Their characters were dissimilar, though Christian was quiet and gentle, Andre was disrespectful with people, a ladies’ man, and pretentious. This man was a mad dog, but as bizarre as it could be, he was also my best friend for a long time.
“Mister Paul, I hear you get your ass kicked yesterday,” said the latter before sneering like a hyena happy to see a lion defeated after a fight.
This mockery sounded like a nuisance to Christian’s ear and made him feel uncomfortable. But instead of reacting by words, as respectful as he was, he left the place to keep himself away from a man who can so easily make fun of somebody misfortune.
An embarrassing moment of silence took place
