Frankly Told: The End
“So what am I supposed to do now?” his voice echoed throughout the office.
Out of cubicles, heads peered to see what the commotion was about. He stood with his fists clenched. Beside his heaving body lay an office seat, a victim to his anger, splayed across the corridor. His 6’2 frame towered over her and though mild, the shadow cast by the light from the buzzing fluorescent bulbs injected some fear into her. A decade of practice and still the emotions of the line of duty were a wave too big to scale sometimes.
“Sir,” the attendant pleaded to avoid a grizzly aftermath. “Please, sir. Have a seat, we can figure this out.”
“No!” he remained on his feet; his face hot, with tears welling up in his eyes. “What do you mean figure this out? There is nothing to figure out here. I am all out of options.”
The attendant sat calmly, her demeanour gentle and soft yet seemingly unmoved. The look on his face told of the pain that had rendered his heart home to sorrow with no consolation. It pained her to see the man at wit’s end. Perhaps, she thought, there was still a chance to work around the situation. In her hands, she held a document. As he stood before her, breathing like a beast about to pounce, she flipped it open and began to peruse it again.
“Maybe there is something we may have missed here,” she affirmed as she bounced between her computer and the leaves of paper before her. “Have a seat, will you?”
“Normally, how we do this is we look for a next of kin first,” she started again after a beat of silence, he remained nailed to his position. “I see though that you left that section blank. I am wondering if we can use that avenue.”
“I have no one left in that place. All I know is here,” he said, his tone sounding a little defeated. “All I have is here.”
“Who can we contact here?” she asked.
“I wasn’t very social. I don’t think up until now I had seen the importance of it all. I didn’t have much time to meet people between school and the two jobs… I…” his voice trailed off.
“You have lived here for close to 5 years, correct?” she inquired.
“Yes,” he picked the seat off the ground and brought it into the cubicle before subjecting his full weight on it until it groaned. “I came on scholarship but I decided to get some employment to cater for the needs outside school.”
“What about your supervisors? Managers? Bosses? Colleagues?” she prodded.
“Beyond a professional relationship, we never kept in touch,” he stated. “I just kept my head down, did my job like I was supposed to and went home. I didn’t want any trouble or nothing like that. Never exchanged numbers.”
“And you didn’t have friends?” She searched his eyes but he looked away.
“I had a lover, met her in uni,” joy threatened to come back to his eyes but left again. “We were meant to keep each other in check as we waited for documentation but …”
“I see,” she said. “I assume she was your main contact and you hers?”
“Ayyo, what’s with all these questions then?” His walls rose higher. “Are you going to help me or not?”
“I’m trying to find a way to,” she pointed out. “Walk with me?”
She got up and began to walk down the aisle. He sighed deeply and followed her lead. Those heads that had popped out of their aluminium cages had sunk back in and the office returned to its hum of phones ringing, printers printing and conversation in hushed tones.
She finally came to a stop before a large wall of a collage of images. He slowed to a stop before the same.
“You see these faces?” She pointed. “They stood where you are standing now. Each and every one of them, down on their luck but not anymore. It is our job to ensure you are back on your feet in as fast a time as possible. Whether that is here or not.”
His eyes darted from image to image. They rested back on her. Not fully convinced still, his lips parted and he spoke.
“My partner left me 3 months ago. It had been a downward spiral so I guess I understood why things came to an end. I had just lost my job, alcohol had driven me to negligence and debt. It had been a tough year. I can only imagine how hard it must have been for her.”
“I thought I could brave it but I couldn’t beat the loneliness of knowing I was stuck here. I couldn’t go home because my parents… remember that flight 540 ? Yeah…. Yeah. Another few months prior to that.”
“I’d hate to have to go back to a place I an not at home at because my parents aren’t there. I have no means to earn anything to get me out. I’m pushing my luck with the deadline for deportation fast approaching.” He bit his bottom lip. “If you are going to send me home. Send me home then.”
“Do you want to stay or do you want to go?” She asked point blank.
“There is no place for me in my home country.” he looked down-trodden. “There is no place for me here either. If you kept meeting endings like me, I don’t think you’d want to go on for a while. Maybe these visa things came back to haunt me at the right time.”
There was silence between the two. He looked as if he was searching for the right amount of air.
“How do you know when to stop fighting the end?”
