Word is bond. Name is all

He was dying to come clean because he simply was tired of walking on egg shells. He was tired of destroying anything that reeked of evidence and has become a shadow of himself. This was not the life he sought out to live, and it was not what he promised his ailing Dad who died on his sick bed minutes after he was done giving the deceased his word, and this was not a matter of God disposing what man has proposed. It’s just a blatant failure on his part to heed to his father’s call and that of his conscience.

Although a man shall not only be guided by his conscience, Vodeka, was bound to what he has been taught by his family and the immediate society he found himself growing around. He learnt a few things from the first institutionalized society he came across; the church, then, the school and then the larger Society through role plays and interactions as time passed by.  All these institutions added up to his nurturing process and the barrage of inconsistent teachings and doctrines has now given him differing perspectives about life even though he’s always reveled in the simple definition of life being ‘how you make it’

He just wanted to be the free-thinker and Lawyer education has churned him out to be and doing what he’s got to do, but the dogmas and the need to please society, which other aspects of society has instilled in him is having a toll on him and he has to find a balance in-between his social, religious, economic, marriage and other lifestyles that appealed to him by not towing and conforming to someone’s ideals.

He was not the one to be judgmental. He allows people to do what they want to do simply because he’s done a few things people wouldn’t like but he did it all the same. However, his main concern was a person knowing that every choice he makes comes with its own consequences. After all, No one is stupid.

Vodeka was an exceptional individual and applied diligence in all he does thus making him excel in every endeavor of his life except managing his own life. Mismanaging his life was explicable because it was the only aspect of his life that did not come with a handbook or instructions.

He did everything he deemed right and at what time, only he wasn’t proud of himself when it comes to his line of work. He has been so promising right from childhood even though it didn’t come easily. He had to battle so many forces but what he had in abundance was self-control and he applied most of it to win the war. Growing up, he was just like his father; very poor, except he did not rob Peter to pay Paul like the Father did, even though they had a terrific relationship and were both proud of each other. And he had one more desire that was unlike his Dad, which is, he was determined to make it in life, to change the vicious cycle that has engulfed his family from time immemorial.

His problem however was, he had some issues with his career and needed to change it. He wanted some time off to find himself, to really recreate himself, to test himself, mentally, physically, spiritually and physically. He was emboldening himself to pursue that one thing that made his work unattractive to him since he considered it a distraction. The only distraction that came with his work was packaged in the form of mouth-watering bribery in all forms. Bribery to overturn verdicts of people with good cases, to connive and condone with third parties and Judges to sway cases their way thus amounting to injustice even in the face of the oath he swears and the word he gave his demised Dad.

Distraction could be a problem in his line of work because what is required to make things grind in their work was a clean mind without an iota of Interference. He’s made a lot of money this way and has saved enough during his four years practice of Law but he was often troubled by the queer voice of his Dad that keeps playing in his mind to do good to himself and that of others even if it caused him, his life.

As soon as he was hired into the law firm, the team of Lawyers offered to help him become a pro in no time because his potentials were tremendous, and they believed in him. They wanted to be part of his success story because it looked like; you were either on his side or on the side of those who were on his side. He had to start hanging around them all the time and every day because it was the only way, he could actually become part of the team. 

The team is a group of friends who enjoys what they do and working around the clock all the time to meet target. Last year the team doubled the marked up target which made them each receive a citation from the company and they intend to step up than the previous performance and all of this was to change his life. Infact, his life was changed and it was welcomed as long as it will make him become one of the most valuable players in his team. He also felt it was interesting being exposed to worlds he’s never dreamt of stepping into, which eventually brought so many problems between him and the ever ringing voice of his dead father in his mind.

He also realized that, he was tied down because of his orientation and other dogmatic experiences that always conflicted with the liberal ways he’s learnt along the line.  Life was complicated and he was burnt on having a simple life. His life became contemplative and was eating him up just because he was continually thinking about going contrary to his father’s death wish, by making money through all sorts of means thus robbing to pay Paul. 

This mind and heart boggling phenomenon got to a crescendo where all he could do to curb it was to answer the simple question ‘what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world for the price of his soul?”  And the answer to this question enlightened his countenance and illuminated his mind that all he could do was to swivel his chair behind his desk to face the screen of his computer to begin typing his resignation letter. He needed to get rid of his thoughts and let himself go. He was almost near redemption as the day was going to be his last day at work. 

His wife did not like the manipulations and the nature of his work and has asked him severally to quit, so the only one he had an issue with was his Boss but he also owed his Dad an allegiance than any other person, not to talk about the happiness that awaits him after quitting and finding something to do that conforms to his ideals. He was done typing his resignation letter.

He pulled his chair back to reach out for the printed document which was supposed to be his resignation letter. He owes nobody an explanation or a reason to leave work and come back no more, there was no decorum about living his life the way he wanted, so he folded the letter into a very neat manila envelope and addressed it to his boss and sent it straight to his boss instead of routing it through the Secretary for urgency sake. He handed the letter over to his boss and slumped in a chair behind his desk.

The Boss did open the letter with same urgency and all he saw on the printed matter was one short sentence which he thought he understood but couldn’t fully comprehend, so he took his eyes off the one short sentence which he’s read overly in that minute second for clarification and all Vodeka could say amidst smiles, without waiting to be further prodded or probed was “yes, I have quit because word is bond. Name is all”

Inspired by @Saygyka