VIBES

First job is something different, something very peculiar. Especially, when you know that you will be paid a big sum for the work.

It had been almost a month for me, working as a PA for Mr. Green, one of the famous and successful businessman of the conurbation. Daniel, a good friend of mine, told me about the hunt of Mr. Green for a new PA. Basically, he worked as a rainmaker for me. My daily schedule became quite busy. I kept myself immersed with the new job. As one of the perks of this Job, I was given a service of free pick and drop to the workplace. The driver, would honk the horn at 8 am under the two floored building, where I lived as a tenant. After assisting Mr. Green for a long day, I would make my way to the same building, with the same driver, in the same car, yarning and dozing. Luckily, I wasn't jaded with the job, atleast for a whole month.

I went upstairs of the great, luxurious mansion and greeted Mr. Green with the same smile and enthusiasm, "Good Morning Sir". He was on his dinning table, having breakfast. It seemed, That day he was too busy thereby he had his breakfast late after all he was a person who started his day at 5 AM.

He greeted me, "Good Morning Miss. Nancy"

I loved this trait in him of talking respectfully with everyone.

He washed his hands in the marble sink, wiped them with the towel and pulled out a piece of paper from his black file. He handed it to me. I saw Only $563 written on it and I recieved the first self earned cheque of my life, the first salary. I felt like a dog with two tails. I thanked him heartfully.

The day went well. While returning home, I decided of sending my first salary to my parents. I was daydreaming about the stipend when our car suddenly crashed to a person. I was startled by the accident. I immediately peeped out of the window and saw a young man in a black hoody. His face was covered. He looked agitated. The driver yelled, "you idiot!" The guy ran within no time. I felt concerned and was about to get out of the car but the driver stopped me, "ma'am, I don't think you should get out"

i froze and glanced at him, "why?"

the driver turned to me and said, "you can fall in some illegal matter. I think you should avoid it"

i agreed to him. My home was just a few steps Away so I asked him to drop me at the accident spot itself.

After few days. I saw the anonymous man again while going for work and from that day he kept bothering me. I would spend most of the leisure time standing out in the veranda, searching for him and noticing his uncommon movements. The man would just roam around few houses, suddenly start nipping, peek in the houses of neighbours. He did give me a negative vibe. I felt as if he was a criminal or maybe he was about to commit a crime.

For two days, he just disappeared. I was worried and kept overthinking. Unnecessary thoughts stared popping in my mind. Eventually I stopped thinking about him and felt that I was overthinking about something which I didn't even knew.

A couple of days later , I saw the same guy in the same outfit standing on the gate of my workplace, Mr. Green's abode. Whenever I looked out of the window, I would find him just standing before the Mansion, In an immobile position.

One day I saw him wrangling with the security guards near the gate. I informed Mr. Green immediately and he told me to call the police. He was getting late for an important meeting so he left the place without giving a look to the stranger boy.

I had to handle the case in the police headquarter. I did the formalities and the boy was imprisoned. He introduced himself as Kevin green. For a moment I felt that he was Mr. Green's relative but he started calling himself as his son. I wasn't ready to believe his statement. I asked the officer to wait till noon as I wanted to make a confirmation by Mr. Green himself. I gave declaration to the officer that I was suspicious about him, his actions, his intentions from many days. Maybe he was a robber or a murderer who wanted to kill Mr. Green, I told the officer clearly.

During this whole Period, I was sitting in the police station, before the lock-up. The boy glanced at me and pretended to look somewhere else when I looked at him. This happened for many times. I felt uncomfortable and went out, away from his sight. Meanwhile I was giving a contemplation about the whole situation. I knew that Mr. Green had a son and he was in UAE for his business work. Everyone was told the same thing. I claimed that the boy was lying for sure but then my mind thought diplomatically. I never saw Mr. Green talking to his son. His wife died 7 years ago. He had a son who was unpopular, so is the stranger saying the truth? I kept thinking critically about it.

Mr. Green approached the headquarter in the evening. He entered and saw the boy. His face turned blue. Mr. Green was very surprised to see the boy. I went, next to him and informed, "sir, this is the stranger..." I was about to complete when he turned to me and said in a low, aggressive voice, "why did you catch him!"

I was confused, instead of appreciating me, he was schooling me. I said, "sir, he says that he is your son"

Mr. Green widened his eyes and said, "he is!"

I was completely bewildered, "you said, your son was in UAE"

Mr. Green rolled his eyes and said, "it's not the time to prove things"

He turned to the officer and said, "I am sorry sir, my PA has mistaken, the guy isn't a culprit or anything like that, I asked him to meet me few days later but totally forgot about it and the guards thought that he had some wrong intentions"

I was unable to understand anything. Mr. Green was trying to conceal his son But why?

The officers left the boy and Mr. Green left the station without further conversations. I felt sorry for Kevin. As soon as we came out of the station I couldn't stop myself from apologising to him.

"I am sorry" I said in a weak, polite voice. Kevin didn't respond and walked further.

I was very guilty and wanted to apologise to him soon. I was a kind of person who preferred sorting out grudges in an early time.

I went behind him and said sorry again. He turned back to me and gave a cold look but didn't say that he forgave me for the mistake I did. He went straight fixing his cap. I yelled, "can we talk?" I was confused after saying it. It came suddenly from me. He turned back and I realised what I actually said.

"You wanna talk to me?" He finally uttered in his bold, rough, manly voice.

"Umm.. yeah" I said.

We went to a nearby cafe. Both of us were silent for a moment. I ordered cappuccino. He hesitantly said, "you've ordered the coffe, you'll have to pay for it"

I said, "okay, I know that" I felt very weird. The only Son of one of the rich business man in the town didn't have money to pay for a cup of coffee.

"I am sorry" I apologized again.

He nodded his head, "fine"

I was very curious to know about him so I started the conversation by introducing myself, "I am Mr. Green's PA"

"Oh, so you are the new one", he said. I was baffled.

He continued, "that means he fired Georgia, what the hell is wrong him!"

I asked, "who is Georgia? And why do you seem to be homeless? Why don't you stay with your father?"

He glanced at me for a second and said, " I don't stay with my father, he fired my girlfriend and kicked me out of the house"

"So, Georgia was your girlfriend?" I asked

He nodded weakly and said, "she was his former PA but Georgia belonged to a middle class family. As soon as she became a part of our business, we got into a beautiful friendship and after few months I fell in love with her and proposed her"

It sounded like a typical love story. I could predict the further part of the story as well.

"We had a beautiful relationship for a month or two. One day, dad caught both of us in my bedroom. He slapped me. He scolded me, according to him, I lost all my standards, falling for a middle class girl"

"That's such a narrow minded thought" I complained.

He agreed and said, "he thought that he lost his name and respect before his servants too, just because of me. Within no time he kicked me out of his house and I guess he fired Georgia too"

"So, are you and Georgia together now?" I asked caringly.

He shook his head, "it's been 2 months, I haven't seen her face. I roamed around everywhere, tried to search for Georgia near his mansion but didn't find her"

"meanwhile, I trapped you in a legal case" I completed.

He nodded and said, "so, tell me, loving a middle class girl, is a crime, isn't it?"

I said, "of course not but what are you up to now?"

Kevin looked at me and said, "I think Georgia committed suicide or dad killed her"

I exclaimed, "why would any of these happen!"

"Because class matters a lot to such people!" He said in a louder voice.

Everyone around started glaring at us. I glanced around and suddenly my hand hit the coffee cup and it fell on my dress. This added to the entertainment for people. Kevin expressed his unimpressive feeling by rolling his eyes and I excused him. While cleaning my dress in the washroom a battle of thoughts started in my mind. Who was right? Should I help Kevin? But why am I worried about their personal lives? Will Mr. Green fire me too? Should I give some money to Kevin? Should I search for Georgia? Many questions started arising in my mind. I felt sick of them but at the same time It was proven that Kevin was a good man and I understood that my vibes were indicating me a wrong feeling. After a thought process in the washroom, I came back to our table. Kevin had sipped all of the coffee So I finished mine too.

We were walking back to the crossroad where I asked him to have coffee with me. As we were walking, I realised that I started feeling a safe and good vibe from him.

“Do you want me to find Georgia?” I asked genuinely.

“Thanks but she is my girlfriend and I am very possessive about her” he said sarcastically.

I gave a small laugh. It was the first jovial moment we had in an hour. I realised that Kevin was getting a little friendly with me. I wanted to respect his efforts.

I asked him frankly, “can we become friends?”

He looked at me for a while and said, “no, I don’t want to make you jobless and if you don’t mind I don’t feel like making friends after the incident”

I definitely had a sad feeling of rejection only for a second because I was happy to know that he was honest. I also agreed to his reasons.

We were silent for a long time and we reached the place. Before a bye which was actually a goodbye, Kevin asked me the most kind question till then. “Listen, I don’t know when things will sort out but I am asking you for a favor”

"And what is that?" I asked

He said babbled, "just take care of my dad"

I nodded politely with a smile.

"So.." he said

"So?" I asked

"Bye then" he said with a weak smile.

"Oh yeah, bye" I thought he was busy and I didn't wanted to interrupt him.

We parted our ways and I went directly to my rent home. While traveling I kept thinking about him and for some reasons I wanted to meet him again.

    I had a peaceful sleep that night but the next morning I realised that the biggest tragedy of my life was waiting for me. 6am in the morning and there was a large bang on my house door. I felt I was dreaming deeply in my sleep untill i heard another loud bang. I woke up tensed. There were another three big knocks on the door and finally I opened it. My landlord, the police officer, two lady constables were present, the officer showed me the arrest warrant without saying a word and gestured the lady constables to arrest me. I was in total confusion.

"Whats wrong with you?" I asked angrily

"Leave me I said!" No one was ready to hear me. What have I done, will you .." I was interrupted, "shut your mouth and get along with us" the lady constable said.

"Help me!" I yelled to the landlord but he turned his head.

After being imprisoned I understood that Mr. Green was dead. He was murdered by someone and the only proof, the call details in his cellphone manifested that the threatens of being killed were given from my number. I was baffled and shocked at the same time. Meanwhile Kevin entered the police station and he gave some statements against me. He suspected me to be the real killer, he said that I was trying to threaten him and his father from a long time. I killed Mr. Green for money. He made some stupid fairytales about me. I wasn't able to understand why Kevin was lying and who killed Mr. Green. I definitely knew that this a bad strategy of someone to trap me but who?

I kept thinking for a long time and I remembered that I kept my cellphone on the table in the cafe while cleaning the spilt coffe from my dress. Kevin had changed my sim card and he was the actual killer. I told the officer about it but all the evidence were totally against me, I the favor of Kevin.

It's been 2 years and I haven't found a strong evidence against the cunning, rogue Kevin. My vibes changed my whole life and made it hell.

-Suha Mutwalli.