Adjoa's Trial

Part 2

I remember deciding to join the corporation in the last week of university. My mother was skeptical of the move because the company wasn't best known for human rights protection for minorities.

"Adjoa, you don't need to work in that company. Why do you want to go there so badly?", she said.

"Mummy, this is the best and most highly recognized companies in the country. Working there would be amazing for my career. I mean I would get so much exposure. I would learn so much.", I said trying to get her to understand my motives.

"Yes you could, I don't deny that but you could learn just as much at a different company. I have a terrible feeling about this decision you are making. Just last week there was a scandal about racism in their company. How much melanin do you have huh? If they can be racist to them, what stops them from being racist to you?", she said as if I hadn't taken it into consideration. I had.

"Ok fine, they had that one issue last week but they got rid of the racist man. They haven't had any other issues. Mummy, I have honestly speaking weighed all the possible ramifications before applying for the job. I think-

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait ,wait, wait. What do you mean you already applied for the job. Adjoa, didn't I tell you to wait at least one week and pray over the issue before deciding on it. Why don't you ever listen to me huh?" she said, getting increasingly louder with every word.

I bit my lip and pondered carefully over my response because I knew that things could go south real quick if I answer wrong. Oh who am I kidding, after I failed to listen to her, every single excuse is going to be wrong. Knowing that she wouldn't want to cause a scene, I said very carefully, "mummy, I honestly did think about what I was doing for a while before I did it. I wanted to apply a month before graduation and I did pray over it."

My mother could tell that I was lying. I mean the octave of my voice kept getting higher and I started to sweat. We were sitting in an airconditioned room. My friend Aimee, who was sitting in front of me watching the happy families and their newly graduated children, started giggling.

"I don't even need to look at you to see that you are lying", she said.

"You don't need to help me. Thank you very much" I replied snarkily.

"You're welcome", she said cheekily.

"Are you two sure that you are friends. Hei!. Why are you so mean to each other. Hmm." my mother said.

"We love each other Ms. Apem. This is just how we express that love."

My mother shook her head because she didn't understand the way that Aimee and I interacted. She was so caught up in our relationship that she didn't realize that we managed to change the subject.

She started ranting about the way that friends are supposed to treat each other. Maybe because she had never seen us being nice to each other. I looked at Aimee, amused because, I knew that she knew that I knew what she did. She looked right back at me with the exact same expression on her face.

My mother, probably realizing that we had changed the subject and eager to get back to it turned back to me and opened her mouth in order to begin addressing the issue again. My little sister, Aku, came barrelling in with food just bursting at the seams with information about her school.

She talks so much to me about school that I feel like I already attended her school. I mean sometimes things got so dramatic that I would think that she was making some of it up.

She started speaking animatedly about her friends at school and how some girl dropped out because she got pregnant, I wasn't paying much attention to her because I was too busy stressing about my interview. You see what I hadn't told my mum was that, King and Sons turns away seventy percent of its applicants. I knew that I would most likely not even get the job, that's why I was so unbothered by the issues that the corporation faced because I would most likely never experience them.

I took in a deep breath and tried to think positive thoughts, Aimee gave me a look as if to ask, 'what's wrong?'. I shook my head and put the interview out of my head for the rest of the event.