A Silver Lining (#Wattys2018)

chapter 23|Stock new

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Song: Can't take back years by Phil Collins".

Dedicated to: Dictamy

Quote: Our generation think its cool to not care, It is not. Effort is cool. Staying loyal is cool. Try it out".
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Three and a half weeks.

I was in another meeting, and the usual members were present, including Asiwaju and Williams.
No, we weren't having a meeting because Asiwaju had something to say to us, the meeting was held just in time, for the new stock exchange values to be announced.

There was a little delay in the announcement and the room was trembling with so much tension. The delay, on the network television lasted for about five minutes, then the announcements rolled in.

There was no surprise. Asiwaju had given us a diagram in our last meeting, indicating all possible reactions and outcomes. There was no surprise, at least for me. Asiwaju was a genius, and he had so many companies to testify to it.

The man anchoring the program, appeared to be a newbie, with his constant eye gestures and I wondered if he had stolen his script from Asiwaju. The figures and stocks were almost exact.

PAIGE LTD, did not take the news with Joy. In the span of a month, we witnessed eye shocking changes in response to our rebranding and advertisement.
Our goods got exhausted before their usual allocated period. Asiwaju was definitely a magician.

Our goods sold in thousands, the rebranding was a good idea. The idea to include advertisement was even better. PAIGE LTD, did not shift immediately into a solid ground, the possibility of liquidation did not suddenly vanish over our heads, but we knew we were walking in the right direction.

The news ended and the television was promptly turned off. Mr Phil spoke to us, with ruefulness. He expressed his joy at the stock exchange value update we received, and talked about our most noticeable competition, Five crowns.

His statement veered off, entering a part that we all were silent and unhappy about. The grey areas and our weakest chain. There was no sign of improvement, although our biggest and smallest chain were experiencing significant changes, we were at a point where total dependency on that was equal to complete ruin.

There was going to be a change of plan, we were going back to the ideas that we pushed aside, because of fear. Asiwaju's plan.

When Mr Phil had given a thousand apologies for our rash decision concerning the grey areas and weaker chain, Asiwaju replaced him, and stood in our front.

His expression was no different from when we had chosen wrongly the first time. He flashed a smile and reassured us, of his understanding. Then we entered another world. A world of probabilities, numbers, weaker chains and Grey areas.

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Asiwaju and I, it was safe to say we avoided walking in the same path. Avoided long conversations involving the both of us. Avoided and shot down unnecessary ideas, that revolved round, me showing him certain places that had links to PAIGE LTD.

What we could not avoid, ignore, or shot down was a bundle of sunshine named Jason. I remembered that day at the hospital, like my cell phone number. Asiwaju's response to the doctor's statement was laughter. One that mocked the sanity of the doctor. He did not believe it, he exited the room, not after calling everyone daft. Nurse Rita, was the only person in Jason's room that made an issue out of it.

Miss Ann left afterwards, it was getting late, she had to resume work the next day and she couldn't offer any assistance.

Doctor Stephen exited the room, after leaving a textbook worth of instructions to Nurse Rita. Nurse Rita did not stay long either, she checked the ongoing transfusion and wrote a long list on her clip board. She left, with the promise to check up on us after a while.

It was just me and Jason. My eyes were heavy with unshed tears, and my head ached from too many thoughts and conclusions.
The next day, when I found my way back home freshened up, and brought some necessary things for Jason. I found him in Jason's room, singing and laughing with a wide awake Jason whose tiny hands held my phone.

I screamed and demanded he exited the room, he didn't argue with me. Jason did, asking why I had sent uncle Asiwaju away, uncle Asiwaju who doctor Stephen claimed to have helped in making him strong again.

It continued like that, every single day. I would scream, threaten him and the hospital and Jason would repeat the same set of questions.

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Today is a Friday and a public holiday. I was happy that I didn't have to go to work, and Jason was happy that he wouldn't have to go to school. So we settled into the living room's couch, watching some cartoon that Jason called Princess might.

The doorbell rang, and Jason ran to open it, I followed him asking how many times I had warned him of running to open the door.
The Sundays poured into the room and Asiwaju stood on my doorstep, his body blocked some of the rays from the sun. I wondered what he was looking for.

He moved into the estate about two weeks ago, declining further persuasion from Mr Phil concerning the company's estate.

Jason had taken quite a liking of Asiwaju. He was our three-houses-away neighbor, who played basketball every Thursday in the field. The new neighbor, who was always outside and so it was not strange that Luke and Jason spoke to him often. He was also uncle Asiwaju, the uncle that donated no helped in making him strong again.

"Yes?" I demanded, staring daggers at Jason who suddenly stopped chatting and trudged inside the house with a frown.

"Hello, I wanted to return this" A familiar purse laid in his hands. I recognized it as the purse I left in his car the day Jason was hospitalized.

I grabbed it, and slammed the door in his face. I went to sit down then went back to lock the door.

"Mummy" Jason spoke, looking at me with dark brown eyes under his lashes. "Why do you always frown when you see me and Luke with uncle Asiwaju?".

"Why do you, dislike uncle Asiwaju?"

Sidelines
Hey 👋

Update was a bit late, I apologize.

I just realised that in the story and today, there is a public holiday. Hurray 🎉🎊🎉🎊

And seriously, I did not do it intentionally..
Why am I feeling so giddy?.

Happy independence day, Nigeria.

Comment the day your country got her independence.

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