In my formal workplace, I was completely in charge of finance, receiving money from sales, keeping it in my possession, and sending records to the manager. The manager, in turn, forwards the records to the CEO before the CEO provides instructions on which part to deposit into the company's account. Most times, depending on how the income came in, we keep some of this money till the end of the week, Friday, before depositing it in the bank.
On a particular Friday morning, I was on my Off day, and before leaving on Thursday, I balanced up my record and handed everything to the manager for the staff on that Friday to take the money to the bank. Actually, the person that normally covers for me whenever I go on shift is not fit for the position; she was just helping me, so I could take my rest for the day.
It was 8:00 a.m. when my phone rang. I was still in bed, and when I checked, it was the manager. I just clicked on the power button to silence the ringtone, threw it in a corner, and folded myself with the duvet. I wasn't ready to answer any official calls...they should respect my off day.
The phone rang again, and this time, I wanted to end the call and put it on DND, but no, the manager is someone who knows to my house, and he could come looking for me.
"Hello, good morning, sir." The voice I gave him quickly informed him that he's disturbing my peace.
"Sorry, I know I'm disturbing. The money and record you submitted didn't tally; I checked through the calculations, and up to N3,000 is missing in cash. I could have corrected it because I know it might be a mistake, but I had already sent the record to the CEO, so..."
"A whole N3,000!" My mind flared up, and I couldn't curtail it.
"Yes, please come over to the office right now; let's sort it out," he said, ending the call.
I knew I didn't steal any money, but my mind was beating hard because, in a situation like that, if the mistake is not found, there's no way anyone would believe my righteous story.
I jacked up from the bed, reached out to my jeans, trousers, and polo I had the other day, and put them on. I didn't bother to take my bath; I only brushed my teeth. I came out to the road and boarded a bike, and off I went to the office.
*"Good morning! Good morning! Hey, good morning!" I greeted all the staffs I met in the hall, and they were all surprised to see me, knowing fully well that I was supposed to be enjoying my day on my bed. The surprise on their faces gave me relief because it shows that the manager has not told any of them.
"Kingsley, you're here; the manager has been looking for you. He's upstairs!" That was Deborah, the lady who's standing for me for the day. She walked into the hall from the kitchen and announced to me immediately she saw me.
I headed straight to the second floor, with my mind beating hard and praying the situation would get resolved with ease.
"Good morning, sir; I'm here." I entered the office and found scattered booklets of my daily reports on his desk while he was busy checking his phone.
"Welcome, come and check these ones." He pointed at some of the booklets on the table, and I began to flip through them, carefully searching for the devil in the details. My body had been soaked with sweat, and I wanted to go and turn on the fan, but I remembered that he doesn't like cool weather. I just stayed put and continued my search.
The searching took me up to 15mins until I saw the error
"Sir, I think I've found it; my 5 is looking like 8, and I think you sent 8 instead of 5, hence the reason for the N3,000 omission. I shifted close to him, and pointed at the misinterpreted figure.
He looked at it, brought out his phone, checked what he sent to the CEO, and let out a big sigh. "Yeah, it's correct; the mistake is on me. You should learn how to write clearly. For God's sake, you're not a doctor."
At that moment, the dripping sweat on my body got dried off instantly, my once restless heart became as calm as that of a new born baby that knows no problem.
"Yeah, sorry, sir." I began to arrange the booklets and packed them back to the shelf where we brought them out.
After that, I zoomed off to my house and let him sort out the remaining issues with the CEO.