#17

“ T..thank you very much, sir”
“Happy to be of help even to the devil's son”
I felt my chest sinking. My heart was about to drop to my stomach. I felt so ashamed of being part of my family. I was silent the whole time he escorted me to the front of my dorm.
I asked him to explain to me how my father’s decisions affected his life.
He said to me while helping me up the stairs because I had sprained my ankle.
“My father struggled to get a job and when he finally got a job a few years in, everything seemed stable in our family. Then your father Came in and bought all the businesses in my area. This led to them letting go of my father because he had no qualifications for the pharmaceutical company.”

“But this happens all the time, Companies buy out companies.” Trying to understand his point of view.
“Yes! You are right” he said. “but there isn't a haven for employees that have been let go”. We had a long discussion about how big companies and conglomerates could work more in favor of their employees. He was a business major like me and he wanted to work in hoodwink's pharmaceuticals later to create better working conditions for people like his father.
“Where is your father now?” I asked, “what does he do? How is he?”
I kept asking so many questions because I felt so much pain from hearing a different side of another person's life story.
“He is a janitor at Springwood high school. It's one of those rich people's schools. The pay is good since it’s not one of those public schools. it gets us by mostly”.
“Oh damn that’s my school, that's my alma mater. I remember your father, old man Jenkins. He was always nice to us and talked to me at least even though I was quite troublesome” I was happy to find something linking us together.
“I got in trouble a lot too you know,” he said, “but my dad got my head straight. When I got into college, I knew that my expectations for me had changed. you know we can use your position and influence to make great changes in this school… and bring awareness to issues that need to be dealt with”.


In my mind I'm like “when was I ever in the position of influence and when was I voted into a position that could change this. I am just the son of a popular billionaire, that's it.”
In my mind, all I was thinking was I should introduce this dude to jazz. They are people that would love to fight for good causes.

Manne Jenkins was one of those old dudes that love children. Whenever we got into trouble he always helped us out of it. He opened the door for me and Asia to hide from the head teacher. He always told us about his children. He was always proud of them. His son played basketball and he had one of the best shots in school and praised his children a lot. always told us to concentrate in school so that’s good we won’t end up as delinquents or social castaways that used drugs or made a lot of poor decisions. He was a good mentor for us. Always ready to listen to people's issues, most of the students loved him and I respected him. Whenever a fight broke out in school or there was a conflict between us, he was always quick to squash the beef and told us that love and respect was the best way to deal with things. He hated seeing young people quarrel. “Leave the hate for old people like me”. Or whenever the student is being bullied by a jock. If he is around he intervenes and dies the situation down. I respect him as a father figure for most people in springwood high school. Most of the time my father was not around because he was always away on one business trip or the other.

When I got into my room. I saw Andre, Who was back from this trip, lying down on his bed looking at the ceiling. “Hey bro, how was your trip, man?”
“ It was fruitful... I Met his mom bro and she was first pissed off and didn't let me in the house.” he said placing his two hands on his head. “ you were supposed to protect him… I thought you were his best friend”
“ Then I begged her to come out after two days… I held her as she cried in my arms” a sad expression was worn on his face. “ Why did you love this happen to my son!”
“ she screamed those words on my chest bro… I was so heartbroken and I kept telling her it will be alright and repeat myself. I Left her in the arms of her husband ”. Knowing Andre for a few weeks I felt he would bounce back from the grief.
“ Did you see the army of people outside?”
“Yeah… they are protesting for more school funds or something like that … I passed them after class” Andre looked at me befuddled as I explained to him how I was harassed by the mob “ they kept shouting education is for everyone. stop cutting out funds. moving in circles in front of our building” my voice crackled so much because I felt guilty remembering my conversation from earlier with Jenkins and what he told me about how my father had a hand in the struggles of most of their life and how there would be other families like his.
I remember when I was much younger When I was in the car with my dad many times with groups of people. What’s the entrance off the pharmaceutical company trying to stop my dog from I’m from entering I remember oxen ask him dad who are these people stopping us from moving he always said don’t worry this It is just bad people that don’t want daddy to prosper and his business flourish”. My dad was this old idealistic American rich man with conservative beliefs. He is a good father most of the time, but recently he has been distant and negligent. He is hardly at home and nowadays he doesn’t have time for my mum. so the home doesn’t feel so comfortable for me. When I decide to go home for Christmas I will try not to stay too long, especially when a fight breaks out between mum and dad.