The New Staff

 

It was her first day at work, Bernice had brought some unattended files and dumped them on her desk. Her desk was soon becoming a refuse dump, not of waste but of files. Work was becoming more stressful and Bernice was Martha’s P.A, the woman who dishes out commands like food.

            For these first few hours of work, Rita could feel the prangs of disappointment as she never envisaged it would be this stressful. She was the new secretary to the almighty Martha, her boss, who never takes No for an answer. She could also feel the great urge to ease herself. The workload was certainly having impact on her bladder. She rushed to the rest room to have some break, as it seemed as though break time at New Hills Innovations was only on paper.

            Rita got out to wash her hands in the exclusive toilet sink with N. H. I imprinted all over. The lavender wash fragrance inflicted some sort of relief into her. Looking at the mirror, she could remember herself, that same self, coming for the interview a month ago, with about 3,000 more persons applying for different positions in the prestigious New Hills Innovations.

            She could remember how she got up quite late on that faithful 17^th May. She hurriedly took her bath, got dressed and rushed down to Hills Avenue in a cab. Luckily, the gate was still locked as she expected it to be open by 8:00am, but she was 20 minutes late. She thought of how the interviewer mocked her frightened state and how those scary questions cut through her throat, delaying the answers.

            Annabel, her friend, had told her to always have confidence in herself because she had zero confidence. Being a fresh graduate, she was lucky to have an immediate job offer. How she got this hectic job, she could not explain, as she considered herself the least of many others that came for the interview. But as her pastor would say, “God qualifies the unqualified.”

            “Young lady,” Rita jerked as this husky voice sounded from nowhere, interrupting her stream of thoughts. The voice was certainly that of Bernice.

            “I have been searching for you. You know it is wrong to be absent from seat at this time. I have some work for you. C’mon, get to work.” She said with a wave and a bang on the restroom door.

            “Definitely, this is gonna be tough, welcome to the working class club.” She said to herself, walking behind Bernice and smiling broadly.