Drugs

Chapter II

August 17th, 2019

There was paperwork piled high on top of my desk. One held the dreaded words of the date I had feared before—the 19th another the date of my meeting with the Mayor. The AC was cold despite the suit that I wore. The glass door initialed with my name in gold, gave a fitting touch.
It also made it easy for me to see all the other workers within the area. Their eager heads were down, busy at work.

I drank my black coffee, it was hot to the taste, I inhaled its rich aroma as I took in the view of all the surrounding buildings. Some old, some new, they all were smaller. Almost like looking down as a hunter focused on its prey.

To imagine I would own the very place three years ago, that I had once been fired from. Some people might say that it was fate, luck, or maybe even destiny. I don't believe it was nothing of the sort it was by my own hands that it happened. It was through my suffering and perseverance that it did. Despite the money my mother left for me, I was the one to turn it into far more than what it originally was, me. All I needed was the opportunity.

I watched the smoke rising to the sky. This city looked the same at the top as when I was at the bottom. Corruption, desperation, and disparity persisted. It was mind-blowing at times, seeing things from another pair of lenses. How much the rich could get away with by greasing political figures pockets. The charade was all revealed to me when I made my way upon its stage. That's what it was all about to be at the top. One must be a superb actor and know what faces to wear for the occasion. A glorious puppet show: one face for the politicians, one for business meetings when either dominant or weak, one for workers, one for at home and another for the media. So many faces and promises kept and unkept that a man might forget who he truly was in the end.

In the years that passed, nothing had really changed for the poor in that regard. These fools could not see that they were merely dealing with a ticking bomb, or maybe it was that they were unaware because they had never experienced it. Although, once I started the unconventional approach to help others, I got rid of that stupid job cut reforms. Sometimes I wondered what the actual role of Hernando Cortes was? To be the United Association of Capitalist (U.A.C) lap dog. He really was a man that did absolutely nothing.

Most Pelgarians saw me as a hero, a white knight that saved them from a form of despair. Why I did it? I still couldn't quite grasp it. A loose set of ideas came to my mind, still, it did me well publicly. I figured it boiled down to the fact of the experience I had with it, even though I used it one last time to get rid of my former boss, Mr. Vanderbrook serving him his papers of redundancy two years ago brought the sweetest joy to my face. Thinking back on his facial expression made a smile come to my lips that bastard had it coming. Hearing the office cheered as the villain had been slain. How long had that bastard made my life hell in that office? It was now his time to struggle and see what it feels like to live at the bottom.

Now, instead of mandatory firing workers each month, this company was geared towards not only job protection but helping the common man. Almost like a reminder or a gift to my former self.

Charities, the more I supported and the more I gave only reinforced the dominant position I had on making change. It was nothing hard to give that which you already had so much of.

Praise was high from both the common man and those at the upper-class level. Did I become a celebrity almost overnight and was that a good thing or bad? My face does look good graced upon the buildings in the city, something I can't deny I enjoyed seeing it.

Money always seems to attract more money, without it, nothing was possible. It wasn't long before all the rest of the competition and businessmen alike started to do the same. Fools, of course, this was only a patch on a bursting dam. That had long since reached its point of no return. At least one thing when it all went to hell the people would know who was true to them.