The Straw

Siri was at the office typing the monthly report and eating a sandwich. She did not try to think of anything as she worked tirelessly. The looked at the empty Manager's office and sighed. At least she would not be cautioned for any late coming. Miss T was unusually quiet and the office had only one or two people. Where were the rest she wondered? Running late?

She looked back to her computer and continued typing and eating and soon finished her snack. She was hungry again and her stomach felt hot. She looked around at the half empty office unsure of whether to quickly run out as if going out to run an errand.

Several of the workers came in greeting her merrily. She mumbled her replies. She did not understand why they came in group or greeted her. No one called her server, spoke to her or requested of anything. Since she wasn't needed, she decided to go ahead to get some snacks.

She quickly put on her jacket adjusting the turtle neck and adjusting the shirt securely into her trousers. She looked up and everyone was looking at her. She flinched and looked back down at her untied shoes and bent down to tie them.

Miss T walked towards her and she sighed exasperatedly. She was too hungry to deal with her today. Why was she voraciously hungry today?

"Hey! Hey!"

Miss T chimed beaming beautifully, Siri noticed that her chest was not as protruded and she looked decently attractive. Siri took of her work glasses to clean them; something was definitely off.

"Did you hear?"

Siri did not want to encourage the conversation so she shook her head and continued tying her shoelaces under the table bent into two at the waist struggling to securely fasten the boots.

"The Manager was replaced."

Miss T said, laughing eerily, Siri, shocked and startled at the news raised her head trying to ascertain if the news was a prank or was the truth. The desk reminded her of its position just above her head and she moved back wincing in pain from the assault eyeing Miss T, who nodded her head in affirmation.

When did Miss T start acting this way? she seemed funny and out of character. Siri wondered if maybe the respect she though Miss T had for the Boss was actually disdain. People were good at pretending these days so she did not know what to think.

"Hey!"

Miss T shouted roughly jolting Siri back to consciousness.

No one will ever know about yesterday.

And with that she walked merrily away swinging her thick hips, Siri bent down to pick up the glasses she just cleaned and wore it. She looked around and Miss T was already seated. A message came in on her desktop and she opened the email.

It read

"We saw you yesterday "

She looked up from the computer and looked around and the workers stared back at her. She swallowed the saliva that was built up in her throat and began to cough. More emails came in, and the notification kept dinging making her head swirl

"Slut"

"Wreck"

"Server"

"Gold digger"

"I hope you die"

"Pervert"

"Peeping witch"

"Leave the Manager's man"

"You're disgusting"

"Slavegirl"

"Ni-"

She looked away from the computer in that moment and felt a million eyes stare at her. She immediately felt pressed but kept looking at the people staring at her. Suddenly she felt something hot trickle down her legs.

Siri woke with a start and ran to the bathroom, she gagged as she removed her trouser and she sat on the toilet seat. She looked down at her pyjamas. They were wet patches especially at the front. She held her head in her hands and felt nauseated.

She stood up from the toilet, quickly took of the pyjamas and went into the shower, she picked up the shower cap from the shower head and she deliberately had a cold shower. She shivered terribly as she trailed her wet body into the room. She looked at the time, it was 5:00am and she sighed, relieved that she did not have to sleep again. She walked back to the bathroom, picked up her towel and went into the room.

She quickly changed into a simple shirt and shorts and sat on the sofa.

The shocked looked on Zack's face quickly crossed her mind and she felt ashamed. Her grandmother had always told her violence was never accepted in any situation. It was the same grandmother who beat her silly when she was growing up for the smallest things.

She opened YouTube and started watching some videos and in her recommended folder she clicked on immigrants being harassed by people on the street for some times nothing at all. She watched protests against racism and police brutality and clicked on to watch the same happenings in other countries. She clicked on more countries and continued to string the pattern of discrimination. She was not surprised. She knew the discrimination happened everywhere.

"Ah! The world's messed up."

The alarm rang and she looked back to the alarm clock by her bedside table. She wished she did not have to stand up to turn off the clock but she stood up taking her phone along still watching videos, she went to the closet and began to change into her work clothes, the day was beginning to brighten up and when she was done dressing, she took a photo of the view and uploaded it to her Instagram page. She only had a handful of flowers on her private account and she did not follow anyone. How she wished her grandmother was on Instagram. She smiled at the thought.

She ate the last remaining piece of pizza and drank water. She eyed the soda longingly before closing the fridge and picking up her bag. Finally, she went to the mirror in the bathroom and combed, oiled and placed her hair in a bun. She wore her earrings, smoothed and curled her edges and applied light make up. She picked up her shawl from the door where it had been hung and tied it around her neck. She got to the door and was about to open it but abruptly stopped in front while she held the door knob. She bent low placing her ear on the door, listening closely for any sounds from the opposite apartment. She remembered what she had seen in Miranda's apartment and shuddered. She felt embarrassed and a wave of discomfiture washed over her, she quickly shook away the feeling and walked out the door, she walked briskly away and ran down the stairs almost running into someone.

"Hey! Watch it!"

The woman's voice was unnecessarily loud as if Siri was not right in front of her.

"Sorry ma'am"

"Its Mrs Conrad to you."

"Yeah. Okay. Have a good day"

She began to walk away but then turned back and called the woman's attention. The woman was about to climb the stairs.

"Funny I ran into you this morning because I have a quick matter to discuss."

"I don't plan on reducing the rent young lady if that's what this is about."

"No. That's not it."

Siri took her away and led her outside the building amidst the woman's complaints.

'This had better be good Siri."

"I wonder if you could talk to Miranda about uh the frequent noise that usually disturbs the uh apartment."

She could not believe she was making a noise complaint she thought that kind of a thing was for some others. Was she now a Karen she thought? Biting her fingernails.

"Who's Miranda?"

"The lady across from me."

"What room number?"

"304"

"The sugarbaby?"

"Huh?'

The woman kept quiet and Siri looked at her watch, she did not want to be late.

"Here's what you'll do..."

Siri listened closely to the woman admiring her beauty even in her old age. She looked to be in her sixties but still walked straight and poised. She had no children so she stayed alone in another rented apartment down the street and only came to collect rents or pass across any information and such.

Siri left after conferring with the woman and walked to the bus top quietly and when the bus arrived, she took her seat at the back.

The bus had only one or two people scattered here and there. She plugged in her air pods and settled in to watch some more YouTube videos. The noise from the video she was watching seemed very realistic till she noticed that the voices shouting in the background was actually the passengers in the bus shouting in real time. She took off her pods and leaned forward to catch the crux of the matter.

"Turn off the video right this instant!"

A passenger shouted at a young boy while the people in the bus started to murmur loudly in groups

"I'm just watching a video? The other kids are also watching stuff."

The boy replied, a scared yet defiant look was plastered on his face. He ignored her not moving a muscle while the other passengers kept silent. Some of the kids in front were looking back and laughing while the others continued playing games with their phones making the bus even rowdier. The boy ignored her

"Didn't you hear me boy?"

Two elderly black couples sat three seats away and were literally shooting bolts of lightning from their eyes. A woman who had had enough spoke up

"Hey, pick on your own size!"

Someone shouted at her pointing fingers and telling her to sit down so as not to distract the driver. The driver glanced briefly in the rear-view mirror and immediately went back to minding his business. The voices grew louder and the argument became more heated

A guy who had been as silent as Siri, as if waiting for a challenger to make the altercation more interesting took out his phone and started to record whooping exaggeratedly. The boy by now had stopped the video and was staring at the people who were at each other's throat. A look of perplexity and embarrassment clouded his face. Why did he look embarrassed? He'd done nothing wrong.

Siri looked ahead battling within herself on whether to ignore the situation or react, the shouting got worse and she looked at the woman squarely, seeing Zack's face instead. She pressed the bell as the bus approached her stop and ran straight to the woman who almost got a heart attack.

The woman moved back afraid of the hostile environment she had created and the person right in front of her. She looked at Siri and said in a much lower, shaky tone

"What? What do you want?"

Siri held out her fist and pointed out her middle finger in the woman's face as she made the call to whoever she had decided to report to amidst more shouting and whooping. Siri wordlessly alighted and looked back at the kid in the bus

As the bus pulled away the kid looked through the window and smiled broadly at her giving her a mock salute.