Mirror’s reflections #1 – Chapter III: Choices ( fool)

Previously

Traveled into the past conundrum, Sofia’s mind was only drawn back into the present by her papa’s voice.

“You slept till late. Won’t you be late for the interview?”

“Not today,” she finally spoke, “tomorrow.”

Speaking of the interview, Sofia wasn’t exactly excited. She had lost count of the interviews she had already attended, each time to naught.

How different would this be? And then, what if she was again asked to do the same thing as the last time?

“You should be able to pass this one,” her father, encouraged, alluding to her obvious apprehension.

Sofia sighed, “Hopefully.”

“Your papers are good,” her father added, “You said that yourself.”

And say that she had. But that was in the beginning. She had just graduated and come home carrying her first class degree. Sofia still remembered the excitement, the expectations.

Finally school was over. The hard toil was behind. And it was time to start life. It was time to work. And with her first class degree, a job wouldn’t be hard coming. And she would earn just enough to fund papa’s medical procedure. He had just been diagnosed.

How wrong!

The experience of the last few weeks had made that clear, as interview after interview came to naught. Good papers alone didn't get you a job. It was that simple. And for a woman, well, that was a different thing altogether.

She still remembered the last time, and its events. Apparently she had to do just one last thing, and the job was hers, the boss told her. She only had to sleep with him.

Other employers had previously disappointed her by demanding for ‘motivation’, a polite way of alluding to a bribe, but this fool had raised the bar higher. She had walked out of his office without a word.

It was now months since that incident, and she still had no job. Was she right to walk out on him? It would have just been a one-off, and the job hers. And all this stress wouldn’t have been. And papa would have had the operation.

A part of Sofia was inclined to regretting that decision. Maybe Tracy was right. It is a go-getter world out there. And she needed to come to terms with it. But then again…well.

“Pfoooooo”, she sighed, suppressing the anger, or was it the regret?

Papa of course didn’t know of that incident. She had never really told him about it. Could she confide in him now? But to what end? She didn’t want to cause him more worry.

The papers are good, yes. But…”

“You don’t have the bribes to give”. Her father cut in, this time turning to look at her for the first time. Sofia conceded.

“Yes.”

And of course he understood. “I know, but you just have to keep trying.”

“But for how long?” She came in, this time unable to hold back her frustration. “May be I should try offering a bribe.

“I know it is wrong, papa, but I need a job. We need money. You need to get treatment, and I am tired of dirtying in the garden every day when I have a degree lying in the house” she spoke, releasing every weight she felt inside.

It is not as though Sofia expected her father to agree. Of the all the vices she could associate with him, dishonesty was not one of them. And true to himself, her father didn’t mince his words.

“Do not let your concern for me cause you to make wrong choices my daughter” he said, starting towards her.

“Your place - yes, is not in the farm,” he continued, and taking her hand, finished: “but whatever you do, whatever choices you make, remember this: dirt in the hands is better than dirt in the soul”

2. Chapter II: And if a house be divided against itself...(ash)

I. Chapter I: Yellow Horizons