Thread by @BKCommunicatio1

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

He had arrived in life, he thought. As he looked out over his kingdom, so to speak.

Hours before he had been appointed the CEO of the country's leading bank. All the buildings he looked over from his 20th floor perch, belonged to his bank, by virtue of them being mortgaged to support their underlying business.

So yes, he had a right to call all this and much more "his" kingdom.

If you had asked his teachers, contemporaries, friends and relatives 33 years ago whether he, Joseph would be where he was today they would wonder what you were smoking. And no, they would not want to partake of whatever it was.

Thirty three years ago he was a goat herd. Herd, was being a bit charitable with the truth, for his father's goats could be counted on his right hand, not his left. But that is another story.

He was the last of nine siblings. He was marking time in the fields while the rest went to school. He was four years behind schedule though he could count to a hundred already and recognize all the letters of the alphabet.

He was literally conscripted into school when a local chief had spied him running after his father's favourite goat under the midday sun

Joseph would never forget the searing pain from his ear, as he was dragged through the local trading center to Kankumuro primary school

It came as no surprise that the headmaster in his thread bare shirt, tie dangling from his scrawny neck like a noose and patched up trousers admitted little Joseph without questions.

The chief, a giant of a man -- they said he ate the leg of a cow alone on public holidays, had put the fear of God in the villagers since he arrived to their dusty corner of the world 13 months ago

All the while his mind was with the goats. His plan was as soon as the chief left the school he would run back to his goats and drive them home when the sun was half way to the horizon.

It was baptism by fire for little Joseph on his first day. He was once again grabbed by his already sore ear and given six of the best on his bare bottom for trying to leave the class without permission. Up to that point he had run around in only an oversize khaki shirt.

The face of master John, set in a horrible rictus of effort swung his cane towards the Joseph's, up to that point, innocent bottom

The beating did not have the intended effect -- subservience and obsequious, but rather triggered a defiance that ensured that while it was the first time he was being caned it would be far from his last

A problem child he was. What kept him in school was his sharp mind he took number like a duck to water, languages -- English and Latin like he was born for them.

That and the indulgence of headmaster Peter, who saw something in the little scrawny kid with the big ears that all his teachers didn't.

He was suspended in his fifth year in primary -- he beat a standard seven pupil, who dared to laugh at his breaking voice.

But headmaster Peter, suspended the suspension when he came back from the big city where he had gone on a teacher's workshop. His deputy master Joel suspended Joseph in his absence.

LIfe was no easier at home. Joseph was often late for school, missed whole weeks mid term and on several occasions missed his end of term exams -- he had to herd the goats. In addition to being a royal pain in every class he set foot in.

It was a miracle, he thought as he looked down at his Rolex, that he even managed to finish his primary school. It was quarter to seven in the evening.

His quick grasp of concepts meant he was often bored as his lesser mortal classmates struggled to come to terms.

At the end of his primary he was the top kid in the district, which was not saying much as he was the only one with first grade.

His continued schooling was not certain. The bursary he had enjoyed through primary was not extended to secondary school.

So he went back to what he knew, herding goats -- his father had added sheep to his portfolio by now, content to wait and see what life threw his way.

He made it to university to study statistics.

His journey from his second intermission as herd boy with no future to university was just as improbable as the first. Suffice it to say it involved a benevolent priest and an adolescent change that tempered his sense of defiance and made him withdraw into an introverted shell.

His father had by this time passed on, and his older brother -- a car mechanic, was doing what he could to help Joseph with his upkeep at the university

Forgetting himself one evening. He shook off his serious demeanor and followed his friend Simon out for a drink in the valley. Bottled beer was way beyond what they could afford.

In a dark hovel that passed for a bar, but served as a bedroom for Mama Teo and her barmaid daughter, Esther, he got drunk for the first time in his life.

Or at least what hey told him when he had come to in a hospital bed, days later -- head thumping and blurry eyed.

It turns out Mama Teo's supplier had liberally adulterated the day's supply with ethanol. He was lucky his friend, Justus, never regained his sight.

Joseph suffered a series of retake, which doomed him to a pass degree.

That was the first and last drop of alcohol that ever passed between his lips again..

After university he returned to the village. This time there were no goats to herd. They had been struck down by disease and his mother was eking a living on the small plot that she lived on.

He abandoned his campus airs and helped the best he could. But it was hopeless. To give him or her a chance he knew he had to return to the big city and look for gainful employment.

She gave him the only money she had. A ward of small denomination notes, secured tightly in her weather beaten handkerchief. She had had that handkerchief for as long as he remembered. The money was not enough for transport to the city.

Back in the city he went knocking from door to door for a job.

He knew he did not inspire much confidence with his secondhand clothes, sweaty pits and worn out Clarks, a second hand pair given to him by the benefactor priest when he was joining university.

His second stint on a hospital bed happened around this time. One day tired and light headed from the hunger in his stomach he passed out as he trudged back to his place.

Fortunately it was still light. A good samaritan in one of those huge four-wheel drive vehicles stopped and took him to a nearby clinic.

Nothing wrong with this one, he heard a distant voice say. The boy is just hungry.

When he came to a while later he had a drip attached to his left arm and an angel sitting at the foot of his bed.

Mama Tina, as he came to know her, it turned out was the good Samaritan that brought him to the clinic. She was glad to see I was up but she had to run. She left her card, assured him she had cleared the bills and pressed a ward of notes into his left palm.

He walked out of the clinic that day. With them money she had left him, he bought some food, payed off the arrears for his one roomed apartment and he could have sworn he had grown in confidence.

He lost her card. So he never saw her again. which was sad because he thinks she turned around his pathetic existence.

He got a temporary job at an audit firm as an office assistant. It was for a month, while John, the real office assistant went on leave.

He was in heaven. His breakfast -- he got to work at 6:30 am and lunch were covered. Supper he could do without. For the first time he could send his mother some money. Not much but more than she had sacrificed for his fare on that hot dusty, afternoon seven months ago.

Life was looking up. Joseph could swear no he could see light at the end of the tunnel.

He never saw it coming. He was called to the lead partners office. Nothing unusual about that. What was unusual was that the first person he saw when he entered the office, was the bull faced head of security.

The managing partner was seating across the table from a tearful Angela, an associate partner and he glared at Joseph.

I, we, don't slopiness, he barked at Joseph. What is your name again? He opened his mouth but nothing came out. He felt a bead of sweat running down his back.

As it turned out their annual application for renewal of their audit services with the central bank had not been received and as a result they would not audit banks the next year. meaning losses of hundreds of millions of shillings to the firm.

Angela swore she had finished the application in good time and sent Joseph off to the bank with the application.

So what happened to it? He had never seen the always cool. calm and collected managing partner the way he was that day -- breathing heavily, read eyed with an ugly vein bulging out of the center of his forehead.

He probably want looking any better. His insides felt like they were going to let loose anytime. I dont want to know he barked, hurling a diary at Joseph from across the table. Get him out of my sight.

Joseph did not need any more prompting spiriting out of the office and not stopping until he was at the door of his apartment.

He had forgotten the keys to his place in the kitchen.

As they say when it never rains but it pours

In his mad dash home he had overtaken his brother, Jeremiah, who was coming to visit

Things were not good at home. Their sister, Janet was on her death bed. And he needed to rush home.

It was all he could do not to break down into a blubbering idiot as the hills and trees flushed by his window on the night bus home. His brother said nothing all the way home. She was his favourite sibling.

He returned back to the city after the funeral. She had succumbed to a "long illness". She had wasted away before their eyes, shuttered away in the back of the house. Wounds festering. Her bowels uncontrollable. It was a bad way to go, Joseph thought.

Unfamiliar clothes were on his hanging line. The door to his apartment was flung wide open and the wooden shutters to his windows open. What was going on he wondered?

HIs thoughts were broken by a lady coming out of "his" apartment a basin laden with wet cloths, pressed to her ample bust. Hello, she sung out. Is there a problem?

That is my house, he answered. Oh! You must be Joseph, she ducked back into the house and came out a paper in her outstretched hand, this is for you.

He couldn't believe it. He was out of a job. Just buried his sister and he was now evicted from his own house. He sat down heavily on the cement veranda, head in his hands. He cried. Huge heaving sobs.

You have a call, the new tenant in his house said. He must have dropped his phone at the shock of his landlord's treachery. DIdn't he know he was in the village, burying his sister? Ok, he didn't tell him. But he should have asked.

Where are you, it was Angela from the audit firm on the phone. Huh? Joseph managed as he wiped his tear using his shirt sleeve.

The boss wants you. He has been looking for you. Where have you been? Anyway he wants to see you now.

He had a good mind to tell him to go to hell. Why? You just come.

It turned out that the central bank had got their application, they had acknowledged it on the day it arrived but it had somehow been waylaid with all the paper work they receive.

In discovering the error the managing partner had wanted to make good. HIre Joseph back. Until he saw his CV.

Why didn't you tell us you are a graduate? the partner, always one to cut to the chase asked, when Joseph was ushered into his office.

Anyway how about we make you a trainee, he said. Joseph was still catching his breath after running up the five flights of stairs and could only manage a nod.

That was 16 years ago.

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