Gray Skies

Fomi Leaves

Chapter 20

Fomi Leaves

I wake up to the ring of my mobile phone. It says anonymous on it, half awake and in a croaky voice I answer it

“Good morning, it’s Paul, is this a good time to talk?”

“Hi Paul, as good as any, shoot” I clear my throat and take a deep breath, squinting as my window faces the east and the sun is gleaming through my thin beige curtains straight into my eyes.

“Got some news for you, you got the job! They really liked you and their response has been positive, they want to know when you can start...”

Paul goes on to tell me the details of the new position that has been offered to me from the last interview that he had set me up for, by this time I’m fully awake, my hand raised up to the side of my head, fingers going through my ruffled hair, in disbelief I simply nod and almost agree and murmur to every sentence he says. This job pays at least two and a half times what I earn at this place, free medical and dental cover, a company car and numerous other benefits. All I could think about when he was giving me the news was how I’ll finally be able to get my own house, now have something to offer, move onto the next phase of my life.

After the phone call I sat up for several moments reminding myself of the time when I was sat with my father, contemplating how in an ideal world if her parents would be reasonable enough to give me a chance, what I would have to offer to her as oppose to someone who would be a Dr or an engineer. Surely they wouldn’t want to give away their daughter to someone who earns close to peanuts, sure I would keep her happy, but you can’t feed off an emotion or feeling. But still, delusional, I was comfortable with where I was in my life and career. It’s only after she left me that I really understood what my father emphasized and I started to stay up late at nights filling in applications, each one taking a good part of forty-five minutes, all getting repetitive and mentally exhausting. I must have filled out several dozens of them and attended only a fraction of interviews from them.

I jump out of bed and pray to God, thank him for his gratefulness. I missed last nights prayers, past few months I have been attending them regularly, asking for what I want and doing what I can to get it. It seems the hard work that I put in is finally paying off, the repetitive trips to the agency, the countless phone calls, the paper cuts from opening all the rejection letters nicely folder in a brown envelope, sent first class, as if they couldn’t wait to give me the bad news, all coming through the first slot of mail through my door each frequent morning, every letter starting my day to work with a cheerful note. After a while I gave up on opening them.

I call my brother in the early hours of the morning to deliver him the good news, recently I have gotten much closer to him, calling and seeing him more frequently then before, almost jump starting the relationship back to what we use to have when we were kids living under the same roof.

Fomi doesn’t seem to be around this morning, as a matter of fact he hasn’t been around since the other night. I hope I didn’t say anything to upset him. The silly bugger, he’s so sensitive at times, what he doesn’t know is how much I owe him for being there for me. Every time I’m upset or down or even alone, there he is, to help me through it, that’s nothing out of the ordinary for Fomi, he just comes and goes as he pleases, like a figment of my imagination.