ONE BAD TURN!
By David Nwajiuba
It was the twenty-third of December.
Oke looked at his wristwatch, 6:22 pm, a few more minutes to the close of the
day’s work but the day still held a little light outside. He hated his life
more now that Christmas festivities were on all around town and he and other
workers still had to stay late at the boutique because the season was
favourable for sales. The only consolation he had was the elegance about the
boutique, the beautiful Nkechi, the new employee and the quality custom made
uniforms they all had to wear- it gave him some form of importance- three short
sleeved shirts and two golf styled premium t-shirts for the male workers. The
uniforms were so good and of top quality, Oke had considered wearing them,
severally, to occasions and events. He hated Madam Mabel for having ordered the
word, “SECTION ATTENDANT”, to be sewn unto all their uniforms in bold cursive
font.
Nurmbergers was one of the large boutiques in
Port Harcourt. It was well air conditioned and partitioned into three man
segments- Adult Male, Adult Female and Youngster. It had soothing light décor and
serenading musical blues playing continuously over the tiny speakers all over
the place providing a calculated psychological ambience that made it easy for
customers to spend like they had black belt in shopping or were nuclear
relatives of Aliko Dangote. You never knew what hit you, until you came out of
the boutique, saddled with purchases you had no budget for or need of.
Oke and a few other staff members
that had worked for a while at Nurmbergers had, each, devised a unique means to
gaining extra cash. The unwritten code was, no one was to know the other’s
strategy yet each was to help cover the other’s track when requested or as
appropriate. At certain times they executed joint sabotage against the boutique
but this was rare.
It didn’t help that Madam Mabel,
the boutique’s owner was arrogant, selfish, stingy and rude to her workers. She
had heard how workers had ripped off their bosses and had determined never to
let that happen to her. Hence she treated all her ten staff members, with great
suspicion and severity.
Everyone but her knew that, she had raised an army
of very sleek and ingenious thieves as staff members. She had noticed that most
times when she made unannounced visits to the boutique, they appeared to have
funny looks on their faces that suggested that they were covering up trails
from her, but she just couldn’t place her hand on any clue as to any wrongdoing
on their part.
Edidiong, the boutique’s disposal guy and longest
serving staff member, often joked that, the staff members had so perfected
their rip-off act, complete with sign language and gestures to communicate when
needed; such precision that even the United States FBI, with all the forensic
help it has, would have a hard time detecting any foul play at Nurmbergers.
Oke spotted a young man walking
in idly, approaching the adult male section of the boutique. He looked very
well dressed; an almost overly starched sky blue military-styled, short sleeved
shirt, an expensive-looking cream coloured chinos trousers and shiny polished
black pointed shoes. Oke smiled to himself, he stood up from the long stool and
brushed off the creases on his shirt. Part of their job as section attendants
was to help customers find their way around and encourage them to buy as much
as possible. The workers got bonus for doing that.
