Junkyard Blues

Chapter Sixteen

69 C Chapter Sixteen t wasn’t like he had made any decision; he told himself, when he walked up to his boss the next day. He was just trying to gather some nuts for the coming dry season and that was all. And the truth was that if somebody had asked him why he had decided to go see his boss, he would have simply blinked fast and stood there looking at that person with an open mouth and a tight tongue. It’s nothing! But he was going to demand his salary from his boss, and when it was still two weeks to the end of the month. He was going to demand an advance pay and it was all for nothing (just gathering nuts for the dry season when there was still time). He wanted to believe it was just some reflex action controlling him, but somewhere deep inside he knew different. He had already started seeing… What!? “What!? It’s still two weeks before the end of the month,” the excessively fat man with the thick jowls that fell almost onto his shoulders like a bulldog’s said looking up from the plate of roasted meat on the table before him. The man was his boss, and the only spectacular thing about the man that he knew was the size of his jowls and his ability to eat throughout the day. “I’ve a problem,” Jude whispered standing before the man and looking like a tiny louse that was going to be crushed at any moment. “What kind of problem? Huh?” the man asked, picked up a piece of meat, looked at it with some admiration and then shove it into his mouth. “It’s still too early to come here and ask me for your salary,” he said chewing the meat, his thick jowls dancing like they were suddenly going to detach themselves and fall onto the floor, “If you want my advice I’ll tell you this, it’s not even early enough to start thinking about your salary before even coming here to ask for it.” It’s my salary! Jude felt the fuming start inside; couldn’t the man see that it was something serious? Had he ever come before him to ask for his salary before I 70 it was the end of the month? No, he had never done that, this was his first time and the man needed to see that it was absolutely necessary. “I know it’s your salary and you feel you’ve the right to ask for it but,” the man shook his head, his hanging jowls sweeping to and fro, “I only pay when the month’s over.” The man promptly shoved another piece of meat into his mouth, a mouth that looked amazingly small compared to his thick face and those jowls. “I’ll work till the end of the month,” Jude said hating the man sitting before him, “It’s not like I’m planning to quit work or runaway.” “I didn’t say so.” Then what’s your problem you fat pig? And how much’s the salary even? “All I’m saying is that it’s not the end of the month and I pay you only when the month is over.” Jude begged, practically going down on his knees before the man. Pleaded until the man looked up from his precious plate of roasted meat with a look of eternal satisfaction on his face and said, “Okay, I understand, but I can only have the money tomorrow. Go and come tomorrow.” It was the next day, his prematurely paid salary safely in his hand, and the money that Derrick had given him for the recruitment exercise on top of it (after all using the money for the recruitment exercise would’ve been just another waste of time, just another senseless way to waste money, he reasoned), that the picture became clear. It was there before him, hanging there before him and painted in bright colors. He was staring at that picture, unable to turn away from it, staring at it as if it was the first time he had ever seen it but knowing that it had been there all along. You just didn’t want to look at it. But now he was looking at it, lying on his bed and listening to the constant screaming of the child, and only seeing that picture. There was a word...