Take 13: I’ll Figure Something Out! Summer in Tropica

19 December…

      Abdullah sat behind the desk, where two guys were sitting opposite him, waiting for him to say something. Both of them glared at him as if he was their ‘prey’. Abdullah’s body was shaking. He was going to be tested.

       “Tell me Mr. Abdullah, have you ever experienced working with anyone else before?” One of the interviewers took off his black spectacles. He gave Abdullah a small smile.

       “No, sir. This would be my first job in my whole life.” Abdullah replied before he relaxed himself on the chair.

       “Let’s move on to our first question.”

      “Are you sure that he can get this job, Jul?” Rena glared at a guy beside her. He was the Indian cab driver who had saved her from Nick. He had a curly hair and wore a thick dark beard. He was off from his duty today, thus he just wore a simple white t-shirt.

      “Hey, everyone who went into this interview got his or her job in just a day,” he replied.  

      “So, you’re saying that he’s definitely going to get this job?”

      “Yup, he’s definitely going to get this job.” The cab driver smirked. “Unless he’s to stupid enough not to answer the interviewer’s questions.  

      Rena nodded. “I guess the questions must be too easy to be answered.”

      After a while, Abdullah came out of the interviewer’s office with a glare at Rena and the cab driver.

       “What happened? Did you get it?” Rena asked. She was excited to hear what Abdullah had to say.

      “I failed.”

      “What?” the loud voice of both Rena and the cab driver could be heard through the building…

      “Alright, I’m going to find out how Abdullah’s doing,” Al told Nick. He picked his big brown jacket from behind his chair and trotted towards the automatic glass door.

      “Are you sure he’s going to pass the test?” Nick asked suddenly. Since hours ago, Al kept talking about Abdullah’s good chance of getting the cab driver’s job. Al glared at Nick without saying anything.

       A short moment later, someone dashed through the glass door as it went open. He hit Al’s wrist so hard that Al almost fell his head onto the ‘clean and glittering’ marble floor.

       Al couldn’t get his eyes to see who was hitting him, thus he just gave a big powerful punch through the guy’s stomach, instead of pushing him gently to give some room for Al to straighten himself.

       It was Abdullah. He didn’t pass the test. “Hey, hey! Look who’s here?” Al said. Every worker inside the restaurant turned attention towards Abdullah.

      Abdullah was unconscious, as Al’s fist just now hit his stomach. “Sorry, pal. I thought you were a bad guy.” Al smirked.

      “Whatever.” Abdullah finally could speak, with both his hands grasping his stomach tightly.

      Rena appeared a few moments later, followed by the cab driver. Jul shook his head. “Are you alright?” he asked Abdullah. Abdullah nodded.

      “What happened to him? Did he get his job?” Al asked, ignoring the pain Abdullah was having.

     Rena shook her head. “The worst since 60 years ago.”

     “Are you…” Al’s mouth was like going to explode as he ask, “kidding?”

     I can’t stand it. I need to laugh!

    Both Al and Nick laughed as if there was no other thing that was funny in this world. The laughter lasted for a long moment, breaking the silence.

     The cab company had been taking cab drivers like jus solis, yet this guy- who everyone thought would not fail the interview- couldn’t impress the interviewers to take him as their six hundredth employee. Jul had told them that every hundredth worker of the company would receive bonus for each month.

     Poor Abdullah. He should have taken the opportunity. “You have failed us,” said Al in a low voice.

     “Hey, it wasn’t my fault!” Abdullah said as Al began to pull his right ear.

     “Why not?” Al asked while groaning in anger.

     “I’m supposed to have answered all questions until suddenly they gave me the hardest question which I couldn’t answer.”

     “What was the question?” Rena asked with big round eyes widely open.

     “Are you married?”

     “What?”

     Everyone backed away from Al’s tortured friend. They all turned their attention to the Indian cab driver who shrugged at seeing their behavior…

     “I’m sorry… I’d never thought that they only wanted married people to do the job.” Jul explained.

     “That was why most of the people who attended the interview were old men and women. They knew about this all along.” Al shook his head.

     Everyone sat around the yellow table. Meen was also attending the meeting of five, while working on sweeping the floor.

      “I feel like I’m a fool.” Abdullah said in frustration. He’d never been humiliated like this before –with all of Al’s customers laughing at him.

      “I think we should blame the one who’s responsible for recommending the job to us.” Al suggested.

      Rena nodded. “True.”

      Jul shook his head. “I’ve told you before, I’m sorry.”

      “That doesn’t seem to be enough.” Al rubbed his chin.

      “Then, what do you want from me?”

      “Could you please buy us lunch? I’m hungry, you know.” Al suggested while rubbing his stomach after his chin.

      “You could go to the shushi restaurant just across the street. I heard that they give a lot of special offers there.” Rena told Jul.

      “Hey, I don’t have enough money, ya know? I’ll have to pay my taxes, my wife and my children…” and Jul continued on until everyone got fed up with him.

      “We’ll have to think of a punishment for you later. Right now, I have to figure out a way to solve ’s problem.” Al said as he turned to Abdullah. Abdullah looked messy –as if he lost his hope to live.

       He wasn’t thinking of suicide. He was thinking of something else.

       The shoe. He wanted the shoe. He wanted the shoe so bad that he willed himself to jump into the river just to get one of the limited shoes. He wished that he could get his job quickly, but he just lost his hope.

        “I know you want to do something with your money,” Rena told Abdullah beside her in a low voice. No one seemed to hear her talking.

        Abdullah just stared at Jul opposite him, with anger and frustration. “Glad you know.” He tried to calm himself as he say.

        “Don’t worry, we still have time.” Rena said.

        “Thanks for the advice.”

        There was nothing else to think of. Abdullah wanted to put his mind into rest –he must put himself into rest.

         He felt like he was going to cry as loud as he could.

         But he just couldn’t do anything. He was just a village boy, coming to a big town, with a little knowledge about the life in the city. He was lucky that he didn’t take drugs and loitered around the streets, instead he met an old friend who had good companions by his side. Thank God that he still had good friends.  

         At least they helped him to find a job. He couldn’t look for a good one. He has a lot of talents, but he is still a failure when it comes to interviews.

         No one could help him but himself. He finally realized it. He needed to do some changes. He could only achieve that if only he had someone to push him.

        “Hey, what are you looking at?” Someone woke him up. It was Rena.

        “Uh, nothing.” Abdullah shook his head. He wasn’t paying attention.

        “We’ll continue our search as soon as possible. You’re going to get what you want, I promise.” Rena said.

        Abdullah nodded weakly. “Whatever.”

        He felt like he had something else in mind. Something crazy. That thing might work. He just needed to call Al’s father to give a job for him.

         No, he didn’t think so. Al’s father had a lot of things to think about besides helping him. He had to figure something else out.

        “What if…”

        Everyone exchanged their glances.

        “I work with you guys?” Abdullah asked.

       Everyone grunted surprised at what he just said. More surprisingly, not even one of them came up with that idea.

       “You…” Al pointed his finger at Abdullah. “…work for me?”

       “Yeah!” Abdullah nodded.

       “Hmm. Let me think first…” Al put his second finger on his chin. He had to think of the advantages and disadvantages of this boy if this boy works for him.

        “It’s fine by me.” He shrugged.

        “Hey, wait a sec…” Rena chipped in. “I totally disagree with that idea!”

        Her voice was louder than before. She wasn’t satisfied with the idea. “Why?” Al asked.

        “I kinda like your uniforms.” Abdullah pulled Al’s striking uniform. Rena could only shook her head, as she had put in her heart that it was the ugliest uniform she had ever seen –and she will never wear it. Never!

       “But I think we may have problem,” Al considered.

       “What the problem might be?” Meen asked.

       “Since Abdullah arrived, he had a bad reputation here. Customers keep talking about him,” Al explained.

       “Did they talk something good about me?” Abdullah asked.

       “Unfortunately, not. They’re assuming you as a robber, trying to rob everything in this restaurant.”

        “Why?”

        “Before you arrived, the restaurant is very peace and quiet, but since you came here, we kept having ‘parties’. Did you know that you kept making messes in this restaurant?”

        “Like what?”

        “Like the time you dropped a customer’s coffee onto his shirt… and the time you laughed until every customer in the restaurant heard you?”

        “Now you tell me.” Abdullah said. He realized that he kept making havocs in the restaurant since he met Al.

        “I guess we should give him this job as a last resort.” Rena suggested.

        The others nodded, except for Abdullah.

        “Let’s try the shushi restaurant. I heard that they would pay you a great deal.” Rena said.

        “The one across the street? No way! He won’t pass the ‘Name the Fish’ contest!” Al disagreed. The ‘Name the Fish’ contest was part of the interviewer’s scheme to take their employees. Workers who couldn’t name all the fishes displayed by the interviewers in Japanese language would fail the interview. They would only choose three winners for each contest. Al believed that Abdullah would never gain the opportunity to win the contest.

        “We could only eat there, but we won’t have the chance to get a job there.” Meen agreed as she had tried the interview made by the shushi restaurant.

        “Then, where else are we going?” Nick asked.

        “I heard that your girl had been working with a TV company.” Rena glanced at Nick.

        “She told me that she had been trying to work on it. I don’t know if she had the job.” Nick explained.

        “Let’s go to her house and ask her!”

        “I don’t think that I can go there. Her ‘bodyguard’ is there.”

        “Her father, right?”

        Nick nodded. “I just got lucky that her father didn’t give me a punch because she hugged me.”

        “Sam is really strict when it comes to love.” Al guessed.

        “She cared about her wife.” Rena lowered her voice.

        “Then I’ll go.” Abdullah stood up, and prepared to leave.

        “Do you know where he is now?” the mysterious guy, wearing black coat and sunglasses asked.

        “He’s in the restaurant.” Smith replied.

        Both of them were standing outside the restaurant, near the palm trees, trying to hide themselves from their subject –Abdullah.

         “I need you to do me ‘that’ favor. I’m counting on you, so don’t fail me.” The mysterious guy ordered…

        A bigger problem had yet to come…     

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