As a child I realized when playing hide and seek, one really
only needed to hide as close as possible to the seekers, whilst they were
counting down. I would carefully position myself in front of them, concealed as
best I could. The seekers invariably would shout,” coming ready or not” and
whirl away from the position they had been closed eye facing. Which was Exactly
Where I was hiding, then they would run looking for the hiders on the horizon.
I would wait awhile before reaching out to the den and declaring the usual, “Nicky
not on.” Or that’s what we said when we reached the safety of the selected den tree.
We are all grown up now , so this game
is not played formally anymore, however
I really did enjoy the intrigue of hiding as close to the seekers as possible.
Living in a very modest home, in what could be termed a
working class suburb, I have managed to eke out a living. My debt is the same
as the next guy and my overheads much higher than my income. Pretty normal I
suppose, I work for a big company that makes billions of dollars, however what I
really enjoy most, is coming home to the normality of my everyday life. The complete
fear of being hunted by the seekers for one’s wealth and possessions doesn’t
over whelm me when I walk in my front door. as I am sure it does a truly wealthy
man with lots and lots of possessions.
Kobus Visagie, a work colleague, pops round from time to
time, we share a few beers and discuss the rugby or the issues he is facing at
work. Kobus is going to make it very big one day, his dreams are massive, and I
enjoy the discussion of imagining what’s beyond his horizon line. Kobus does
this type of conversation very well. He lives way beyond his means and keeps
company with some really rough characters. People he assures me I wouldn’t
consider being friends with. I don’t encourage
his stupidity in my house. However
watching someone else making interesting life choices is an experience shared
and a life simultaneously lived. All be it through a process of conversation
and shooting the ol breeze moments. A simple guy like myself gets to inadvertently
see what life’s like over that illusive imagined horizon line.
Kobus came to me several months ago with a sure fire scheme
to, as he put it, “redistribute some of the companies wealth portfolio.” Listening carefully to his scheme, I felt it
was ingenious. I told him he needs to be very, very careful, as it sounded like
serious embezzling to me. Kobus just said that he wasn’t fearful of the theft
or being caught or even the police. He said what was really scaring him most
about going through with the plan, was the rumors about the companies silent
mystery owner. A truly ruthless individual, far, far worse than the people he currently was
friends with, (for Kobus to say this , judging the company he currently kept,
meant the person must be extremely frightening) this owner
of the multibillion dollar company we worked for, man or woman, nobody had ever
seen and nobody really knew who they were. It was said that whomever saw them,
never lived to tell any tales. It was
also said that they were extremely dangerous. This shadowy boss had taken on an
all-encompassing persona and when it came to loyalty towards the brand, “this BOSS
was not to be trifled with at all.” I thought it was a strange word for a man
like Kobus to use – “trifled” – I couldn’t help smiling. I told him he
shouldn’t trifle with this cake owner then. I thought it was a funny comment
for me to make, however the silly nuance was lost over his head. He was too
absorbed about his long con that he was carefully planning. Well once we had
finished a few more whiskeys – Kobus’s brilliant plan was neatly laid out. Superbly
crafted and amazingly simple and effective. As I worked in the computer division
of this multi-billion dollar company, I myself had a few skills and with the
framework of Kobus’s plan I could clearly see the intricacies of his effective
thinking. Kobus was going to be very, very rich, without too much work at all. However
was it really worth the risk though?
Now that Kobus had taken me into his confidence he came
round to my little house in the suburbs much more often, to discuss his master plan
of action. He had solicited the help of
several other employees in his department. I told him I didn’t want to be
associated with the scheme so my involvement was never to be mentioned. I was truly amazed how easily people are swayed
when the talk of big money is brandished around. Greed and the thought of an
imagined materially rich future clouds the most honest of us it seems, this has
always saddened me to realize.
I didn’t feel like I was too involved in the scheme, as I
told Kobus time after time, I didn’t
want to share in the spoils of his undertaking. Only it was fun to fathom out
his thinking process and share in the excitement of his long Con. I was just a
sounding board as he counted down his plan. Much time and planning had gone
into the small intricacies of his vision. To think more clearly he had the
habit of closing his eyes to block out all influence so his mind could race to
its wonderfully wealthy end.
I did tell Kobus that it was rumored that the illusive
company owner had dealt with similar threats on the companies recourses, by
somehow making the perpetrators completely disappear. After years of planning,
Kobus was now ready to execute his plan. So it was with a small measure of
surprise to me, when Kobus phoned me to say he had been asked to attend a
meeting with this shadowy BOSS figure, who owned our multibillion dollar company.
I told him he shouldn’t go and he should
resign and move on immediately. But Kobus already had the wealth greed virus
really bad and nothing I could say would change his money fueled little mind.
Kobus told me he was meeting the mystery owner of the
company through a series of chauffeured driven stops. The first pickup was that
evening at 6pm. He was not to speak to the chauffeur who would be masked and he
would be dropped off and picked up at undisclosed destinations around the
country. The drive could take a while, possibly days. He was to eventually be taken to a secret
hidden away villa for a very private meeting. I begged him not to go, however
it was to no avail.
I had to tell him that I was once used in the past to chauffer
people as 1 part of 10 pickup and drop off drives. Nobody ever new the eventual
location of the villa, except the last driver and the frightening thing was
that these people where never ever seen or heard from again. Kobus was
confident that he had this one in the bag. He was traveling armed and totally ready
for business.
It was with slight amusement for me when Kobus got into the
car at way past midnight that night. the
relief on his face when he saw it was me as the chauffeur was over whelming – he
said “man nicky, am i so glad to see you, please get me out of here, I’ve had enough and im
very, very scared.”
The end
