Good By Tomorrow

Trigger warnings: mentions of rape, drugging

Goodbye Tomorrow

John stood mindlessly complacent, and motionless, like what he used to jokingly call the” bohemian clown” when making jest of his friends whenever in camaraderie. devastated by news of his sack, he leaned helplessly against the desk in his office close to his boss's and demanded repeatedly to know why he had been relieved of his job, the sack letter, there on his desk, peeping through, from the envelop, while John steers intermittently at it,

"I am sorry, I have been instructed to terminate your appointment with Brainfield, the order is from above" said his boss, Mike felt sorry for John but couldn’t help him “and you have the right to see her if you so wish”, he concluded, referring to the CEO of Brainfield bakery who had just returned from a long sabbatical leave to do her masters in Bakery and Pastry management art. John had barely  worked for six months before being shown the way out, taken aback by this scenario ,he pressed to see the overall boss whom he hadn’t seen before and when he finally  met her in her office, he couldn't believe his eyes Jane! He exclaimed, “are you the owner of  Brainfield bakers, are you kidding me?”, yes I am" replied Jane, “I asked that you be relieved of your appointment, and I know you should have a clearer picture of why this is happening to you now, she didn't familiarize herself with him even for a nanosecond  but went ahead to declare to him her reasons for the termination of his appointment "if I had been around when you were getting employed ,I don't see how that could have been possible" She  affirmed, "buttttt”, John tried to explain what happened in the  night of June 10, 2015, and Jane cut in "but what?", "I am innocent of all these ,I was only trying to revive you back to life on  that fateful night when you slumped" he insists

John and Jane were colleagues at Marble insurance company in the heart of Florida couple of years ago, they both worked as the marketing manager and assistant marketing manager respectively, they attended the same high school before furthering their studies at the higher institution. John went to University of Chicago and Jane to Chicago State University. Since high school days, she had always seen John as a rival because of a particular incident that happened during their home economics practical class where both were selected as best students to represent their school in a catering competition, Jane was later  dropped and asked to let John represent their school because the rule changed and only one person was permitted to feature in the competition, this didn't go down well with her, and somewhere in her heart, she was nursing envy and rivalry for John .John didn't do well too because he need a strong partnership 

Now, their path crossed again, being partners with the same insurance company, for Jane the Rivalry has just begun, and she was bent on proving her "supremacy" over John

Jane  had left office on this fateful day in the morning, on appointment to woo  a client whose clientele and patronage would change the success  story and fortune of their company for ever, his boss had been pressuring her to win the insurance deal from Season motors ,he maintained that that had been his long time dream, after a consistent series of notable failed appointment ,she was finally able to pull through and seal a deal with Season motors, her status with her  company was going to  change for good , and wage doubled, elated by this feat, she dashed to the office like bomb abroad and came in at around 8 pm .and John still trying to  finish the loads of work on his desk when she came in, “yes! I got it, I made it" she screamed as she handed John the contract papers," it's never looked real before tonight, it's been long time coming" she expressed, with enthusiasm wow! really? This calls for celebration, John reacted with gaiety, he  pulled back from his chair to reach out for a bottle of wine from his cabinet,  poured for Jane and himself and made a toast to a successful breakthrough, then  hastily went back to  rounding off the assignment from his computer so both of them could leave for  home as soon as possible as their tradition was, while John chatted, he went at a moment notice to correct a glitch on the computer, but noticed he had been the only one talking, and when he lifted his head and turn towards Jane to be sure the streams of communication was still flowing ,Jane lay lifelessly on the floor,  he quickly rushed towards her, confused and dazed, not knowing what to do to, he screamed and shouted her name passionately and repeatedly, ‘’Jane ,are you ok?’ ’held her by the hands  jacking and shaking her continuously  with the whole of his strength, but Jane wasn't responding ,John became terrified and more  confused ,his confidence and strength were deflating like balloon punctured with needle ,his composure and innocence were leaving him almost immediately and  sweat glistening all over him, he pulled off his shirt and started  fanning her ,but Jane showing no sign of revival, then, thought of resuscitating her came to his mind, and after two rounds of blowing air into her lungs through her mouth and pushing her chest with the heel of his hands, suddenly ,Jane coughed, and revived back to life, but just as he was about getting up from her ,Mr. Russell and one of their colleague came in, the expression on their faces showed suspicion, that something sinister had been going on between them, "it's not what you think  sir ,I can explain”, John said ," explain what !, so, this is what you guys have been up to lately" ? their boss questioned, but Jane was confused, didn’t know what was going on,  she tried to figure out her last conversation with John, but couldn’t ,after a while, she remembered the wine, “did you hypnotize me, what did you put in my drink?" looking towards John, she  held him by his inner Byc singlet, asking ,"what have you done to me, what have you been trying to do ,she inquired repeatedly while also checking herself meticulously, then rushed quickly to the rest room to check herself properly, to confirm if she had been defiled,  but the strange feeling had been having had been there all the while even before she got , she was left more confused. She still maintained that John had been trying to take advantage of her,John was perplexed, his shirt lay damp on the floor, testifying against his innocence.

Morning came and John had resumed office to finish the assignment left the previous night when his boss gave him a sack letter, still trying to digest the disappointment, his phone rang and when he picked it, Jane had gone for a medical check up that same night to assertain the true situation of her status, began to rain curses on him “tell me the truth, you bastard! what have you done to me, why did you do this to me" she asked severally. After taking the urine sample, to test for date rape drug, result of the report showed she had been raped without her knowing it, traces of very dangerous substance found in her blood sample, Rohypnol was detected, the doctor's report confirmed it. all he kept saying was  "God will surely vindicate me”, she became more infuriated, threatening legal actions but shame and the stigma of rape discouraged her and decided not to speak out because of the stigma, instead opted to seek counsel and psychological therapy before taking any legal action. 

She couldn't coop with working for Marble insurance any longer and tendered her resignation letter and went back to revive her father's defunct bakery, rebranded and named it Brainfield. 

After the rape saga, put the past behind him and moved on with life.

Before the insurance job, John had enrolled in a catering school where he finished well but didn't continue in that field because of the cost implication in setting up a bakery which has been his dream. As he left Jane's office to get his personal belongings and documents, Mike, his boss, approached, waiting to hear from him why he was fired, "remember the case I used to tell you that got me sacked from Marbles insurance company? Jane was the victim”, he explained as he cleared his throat, an intense bitterness welled up in his mouth, Mike, feeling sober for him, patted him in the back to console him, “John, you are in two days, but you can give it your best shut, “he added, and that was the turning point in John's life and career.

John entered for the contest but didn’t  win because he needed a partner who knows his or onion, he later was supported by a friend with a space and startup capital to start his own bakery business and coincidentally, it was located in the same town with Jane's Brainfield, that was how Dailybread bakers was born, the rivalry and competition increased and became very intense as each tried to be the leading bakery in their locality, especially when Jane heard about John's Daily bread being in the same locality with hers. But there was something that kept happening each of them had been struggling without the other

One evening John's Dailybread received a call from the food and nutrition department of University of Florida to supply them with some snacks good man, and very talented, I trust that you will make it wherever you find yourself, only be strong and be courageous, your God will vindicate you  " he encouraged him and handed  him copy of a reality baking contest ,"it's will be closed and bread, but before their arrival, Jane’s Brainfield had gone ahead to supply them, when John's staff saw Jane's staff offloading their supplies, a little altercation broke out between them, degenerated into war of words and later turned out into a brawl, John and Jane's rivalry taken to another level. John wasn’t happy with the situation and decided to see the management to know why their supply was rejected, and he was told that Brainfield had been initially contacted to do so but there was no response and that made them go for Dailybread, they tendered their apologies but promised to work with Dailybread sometime in the future. As John was leaving the premise of the department, he ran into an old family friend," Will!”, John screamed,"Hey! John, how do you do”, Will asked, “am good and you" John replied," cool brother "Will answered. Will's father is the head of department of food and nutrition, when will saw John he wondered what brought him to  department and when John told him why he was there, Will smiled and said to John "the contract is already yours", what contract?, John inquired, the University is looking for a reputable bakery to be its sole supplier of snacks and bread and will be allocated  a space for bakery in school, and the department of food and nutrition is in charge of this”, Will revealed to him, John tried to hide his emotions but a huge smile exploded unto his face ,and they both exchange contacts and promised to keep in touch.so John  made a bidding, meanwhile, Jane had been bidding for the contract for a long time now, and she has someone in the same department lobbying for her, the day for awarding the contract was fast approaching, and John full of hope he would get the contract, but was disappointed when Will told him there had been disagreement among them over who gets the contract, between John and Jane's lobbyists, Jane's lobbyist is the daughter of University of Florida's Vice Chancellor ,who also works with the department of food and nutrition, when the news came to John ,he tried to understand the kind of rivalry that has been happening between them, Will then advised he teamed up with Jane if not they will both loose the contract but John wouldn't let go and Jane not ready to make up with John either.

John and Jane both received a separate call from the department of criminal justice, when Jane got there, John was already seated, they both steered at each other, and Jane sat in a diametrical opposition to John, while both wondered the reason for the distress call, the head of the criminal department showed up and asked “you must be Miss Jane ,and turning to John ,you are Mr. John, five years ago ,there a rape case involving both of you ,we are sorry, we got the wrong person”, the police boss said, then ,he asked that they bring in the culprit, and to their greatest shock ,Mr. Russell came in hand curved, they broth screamed in unison ,Mr. Russell, John was full of emotion as tears glistened in his eyes, and Jane couldn't hold back her feelings too and they both wept uncontrollably, the police boss continued,’’ there has been several cases of rape reported to us and we decided to lunch full investigation into it to end this incessant molestation, we started noticing unusual circumstances but with similar trend, the culprit would drug their victims with a very powerful date rape drug, leaving their victims with memory lost, and taking something significant from them, and when we checked  with most of the victims, there was something similar, all the rape happened the same day he had appointment with them, but they never remembered having any appointment with him because of the effect of the drug used on his victims’’, he concluded by bringing out a memorabilia and showed it to Jane if she could identify it,’’ it, this is the gold chain my mum gave to me on her dying bed’ ’replied Jane, she looked towards John with remorse and tried to apologies to him ,but he turned her down, left and walk out of her .For several days ,Jane kept calling John, begging him to forgive her for what she had put him through, she sent some of John's friends to him also ,but John remained adamant and was determined never to reconcile with her

One morning on a Saturday, John had been invited to their town’s annual festival, and Jane was also invited, she has attended it severally because of her influence and her organization’s impact in the town, but for John would be his first. when Jane saw that she couldn’t get John’s attention, she decided to go through someone very dear to him on John’s friend advice who asked her to meet John’s grandma who will be coming to the festival.

On the evening of the festival when event was getting to climax, John’s friends and his grandma who was a prophetess showed up, but John wasn’t expecting the grandma because she has been restricted by old age and doesn’t go out, when he saw her, he was bewildered but the she assured him that she was fine, ’’I will share a very lovely story with you today’ ’the grandma said and continued, way back in Africa, before relocating to the State here in Florida, your grandfather and I never liked each other but providence brought us together and even while married we did things separately but never made any significant achievement, on several occasion, prophecies would have it that until we come together and work together, we may never succeed because we have been destined to be together.

One fateful morning, while preparing to vend pap to my clients, your grandfather had approached me to stay back to supervise a building project scheduled to start, with every material ready for the project, but I told him point blank I wasn’t going to be available, he insisted that I would have to stay or else I would not make sales, even if I succeed in going, he cursed, and I cursed back telling him  he will not succeed in carrying out the project on that day, then I left.my clients were gathered together waiting for me ,as I dropped the bowl of pap to begin sales, the weather suddenly changed and rain started, everyone took cover under this mighty iroko tree known as chlorophora, and persuaded me to start selling to them, immediately upon opening the cover from the pap, this ugly vulture pooed into the pap and polluted it and that ends the business of that day, your grandfather on the other hand ran at a big loss because the rain poured in torrent that the foundation of the building in question, the sand including the cements were all washed away by the same rain this is the law of karma, or if you will ,the Isaac newton’s law of motion which states that to every action there is opposite and equal reaction. And   remember I used to tell you that your wife is at logger heads with you right now? I have been talking in futuristic terms and not at the time. Jane is the one I have been talking about, I have never known or met her before last week when she came begging me to appease to you’’ then Jane appeared in the company of one of John’s friends, inspired by her grandma’s words of wisdom, didn’t hesitate to enrapture Jane in a warm embrace. They both fell in love afterwards and the contract to supply the University of Florida was given to them. `