Vagrants

Chapter 61

I received an e-mail asking me to come for an interview as an Economist intern at an advertising agency. I had applied days ago when I saw the advert with Bimbo.

"Bimbo! Bimbo!!" I yelled.

"What happened?" Bimbo came all the way from the living room and into my room.

"Did I disturb you?"

"No. You just massaged my foot." She shook her head.

"Sorry." I grinned. "I got the job!"

"What? Which job?"

"The one we applied..."

"You and who?" Bimbo shrugged. "Let me see."

I handed her the phone. "I'm going tomorrow!"

"This is an interview now." Bimbo laughed. "You've not gotten the job yet."

"Ehnehn?" I snatched the phone. "Ahh! Good lord! I've already raised my hope."

"Why do you want to work?" Bimbo asked.

"You expect me to keep living off you people?" I shook my head. "Let me try earn small money now."

"Who is asking you to do so?" Bimbo held my hands. "Adeola, please take care of yourself."

"I'm doing just that. Besides, I need to move around to exercise and that means I have to work."

"You're the one that knows." Bimbo shrugged. "If anything happens to my children, I won't ever forgive you."

"Nothing will happen to them."

"Mark today's date because I'm not joking."

I laughed. "You this girl sha."

*

The Bakares had argued over dinner as to whether I work or not. I explained to them over and over again why I needed to do this before they finally understood. They wanted me to take good care of myself because I've already stressed myself too much over the past few months.

I completely understood and appreciated their concern but still didn't budge. They finally agreed with me and the next morning, Mrs. Bakare personally drove me there.

"Thank you so much ma." I bowed my head slightly.

"Don't mention." She smiled. "You'd do just fine."

"Thank you ma." I nodded and got out of the car.

I walked into the large building and met with the receptionist.

"I'm here for an interview."

"Your name?"

I told her my name and she looked in a register, seems they were interviewing lots of people that day. She placed a call through the intercom and shortly after that, asked me to sit and wait.

I sat down on the bench with other people, nervous. I clutched to my handbag and file as I tapped my legs hard on the floor. Few people were called in and they came out, dejected. I got more nervous. What if I was dismissed like the others?

"Miss Adeola!"

I looked up. "Yes, that's me."

"Your turn."

I looked around at the people who arrived before me. "But they..."

"Are you going in or not?"

I got up. "Sorry, sorry."

I was led into a room filled with men and women who were to interview me.

"Good afternoon sir. Good afternoon ma." I bowed my head to greet them.

"Good afternoon. Have your seat."

"Thank you."

"So you must be wondering why we called you in before the others?" A man asked.

"Yes sir." I nodded.

"There are cameras all over and I admire your compassion." A woman said.

"We received an e-mail of your CV and I must say, we are pretty impressed."

"Thank you sir."

"Just so you know, we will have to look into your file to..."

I placed my file on the table. "This is it."

"Oh wow! You didn't mind?" Another woman asked.

"People are fond of drafting fake CVs so I'm not surprised that you'd like to check for yourself."

"Impressive. Most people take offense with that."

"None taken from my side." I smiled.

I played with my fingers under the table while they passed my CV around themselves and checked everything.

Throats got cleared and I looked up. "I see you're a first class graduate. Very good."

"Thank you."

"You must be a genius."

"I can't say ma. I just do things the way I think should be done." I smiled.

"We would live to give you the job but..."

My smiled faded. "But what?"

"Your condition." The woman sighed. "You can't do such with..."

"I can do anything! Please give me the job." I pleaded.

"What if you stress yourself and the baby?"

"I'll go for prenatal care. I'll exercise my body. Let me just work." I clasped my hands into each other.

"Okay." The man sighed. "We'll have a brief discussion and get back to you. Please wait outside."

"Thank you sir." I walked out of the room.

"How did it go?" Someone asked, getting ready to go in.

I shrugged. "They ask me to wait."

"Not my business but you're likely to get the job." The receptionist said.

"Really?"

She nodded. "When they ask you to wait like that, they're considering something."

And she was right, I was called back in shortly after.

"How bad do you want this job?"

"I'm struggling and it would make me happy to get a job I could live off of."

"You're saying you don't have any means of earning money?"

"No sir." I shook my head.

"How have you been fairing?"

"I just managed to do one or two things."

The man sighed. "I'm sorry to hear that you've been striving and we can't offer you much."

"I'll take anything you give me sir."

"You're an intern so we would likely be paying you around 25k monthly." The woman said.

"Is that fine?"

I knew it would at least get me somewhere so I nodded. "Yes, thank you."

"Very well then." The man closed the file. "You got the job!"

"Thank you sir! Thank you very much!" I was very glad to hear this.

"When do you want to start working?"

"Anytime you want."

"Is tomorrow fine with you?"

"Yes ma! Yes. I'll come tomorrow." I packed my things and left.

"How far?" The receptionist asked.

"I got the job!" I screamed.

"Congratulations!"

"Well-done."

I was so happy with this news that I danced my way out of the building.