EPISODE 19 - 999 KISSES FOR A SPECIAL WOMAN

Taking a look at the title of this episode, one would wonder why I did not simply imitate Will Smith and make it ‘a thousand kisses.’ I mean, what’s the big deal in adding just one to 999 and making it 1000, a seemingly more perfect number. But I beg to differ. 999 sounds more perfect to me in right now. Aside from the fact that 999 is a hell of a lot sexier than 1000 (don’t you think so too?), I have noticed that lately I’ve fallen in love with a particular set of days. I call them my ‘special triples.’ Think of days like the 6th of June 2006 (06-06-06 0r 666. lol); 7th of July 2007 (07-07-07), 8th of August 2008 (08-08-08) or the similar earlier days in 2001 through 2005 and now, what have we here? The last of the single triple series for at least another one thousand years - 9th of September 2009 (09-09-09 or better still, 999). Hmmm, sounds pretty special, don’t you think? In fact, if only I could be ‘Geebee Almighty’ for just a second, I would be tempted to declare a field day of blessings and great surprises for everyone. Now, that’d be extra cool, wouldn’t it? Before now, I used to call these days ‘jinxed triples’ even up till last year. In fact, I did a post on ‘jinxed triples’ on 08-08-08. There seemed to exist this natural assumption that such days were evil. I think it actually began with 06-06-06 where some sick folks thought doomsday was actually here because of the semblance to the number 666. Come to think of it, today could actually be doomsday. Simply invert 999 and you’ll see. Hoooooo, I’m shaking! I’m shaking! lol.

This episode is actually dedicated to a special woman; one who has perhaps come to mean so much to me and could easily be considered to be my ‘better half’ (not that I totally subscribe to that term though) like they say. I’m dedicating this post to no other but my own girl and babymama, who happens to be a year older today. Yeah, she was born on the 9th of September many years ago, which makes her a 999 celeb. Now, I wonder if this babe is not evil. lol. This woman is not just my number one woman (besides my mum and daughter though. Who says a man cannot have three number one women). She’s the mother of my two-year old daughter, TY and I just thought it would fit so perfectly to continue the series by introducing her into the picture. I would not be using her real name for anonymity sake just like I haven’t been using real names of all characters so you can excuse me for that. However, if you’re so curious to know her real name, you can walk the little extra mile called ‘THE JOURNEY OF FINDING OUT GEEBEE’S WOMAN’S TRUE IDENTITY.’ Funny enough, it’s a somewhat easy journey and some of you guys already know her true identity. Anyways, let’s leave that aside and get on with the real gist. Meanwhile, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABYGURL! You mean more to me everyday and I’m so glad I found you!


By April 2005, I had left my job especially after my experience with the ‘zombies’. Of course my boss was pretty hurt to see me leave but my mind was made up, especially after considering the overall situation. In fact, I left without collecting my full outstanding salary. That had to be paid in two separate installments over a couple of weeks. It didn’t take me too long to get another job, this time in a bigger and much more organized place. It was a cyber café in a more pleasant neighbourhood. The salary was better and much more guaranteed. However, as I came to find out, my new boss was the shrewdest man ever. He was a Masters Degree holder in Economics, my progressing discipline (kinda why he fancied me, I guess) and he had retired after working with the Central bank to begin his own chain of businesses. It was indeed obvious my new boss was a man of means especially considering the fact that he had three offices on the floor and judging by the location of the shopping complex, the spaces were definitely very expensive. The three offices were shared thus: a cybercafe, a photo studio and a bar/restaurant. He had a pretty queer manner in which he ensured that every member of his staff served in all three outlets simultaneously. I was not just a cyber café attendant. I was also a photographer and a bar man! We usually rotated these responsibilities but along the line, I was lucky to be excused from the bar/restaurant services so I was restricted to the cyber café and the studio. It was there I learnt a thing or two on digital photography. From these three outlets, my boss made good money everyday. Our rates were pretty high compared to the ongoing market rate. The location of the business provided the perfect excuse for the higher rates, thus, it wasn’t at all difficult for my boss to maintain a work force of about ten people, myself included. In fact, our monthly salaries put together was a teeny weeny percentage of what he made from his businesses every month. This was a far cry from where I had just left and I was delighted at least for a while.

Mr. Valkyrie (a random name) also knew how to get what he wanted and he never hesitated to talk down anyone who would not do his bidding perfectly. He insulted both his staff and customers alike whenever they crossed his path. No one was at all special in Mr. Valkyrie’s sight and as such, the office always had permanent vacancies, as workers resigned every now and then and some new fella came on, only to resign after a few weeks or at most, a month! Mr. V obviously noticed this trend and thus decided to work on it in his own smart way. He changed the salary payment structure to two separate installments, where he paid half a week before the month end and the other half a week into the new month. That ploy worked so well, since no one would be willing to run away after working an extra week in the new month. Somehow though, I steered clear of my boss’ bad books and we hardly had any confrontations (of course there were a few but compared to most of my colleagues there, I was pretty lucky). The man also believed he was the smartest man alive and he constantly affirmed this to no end.
“Nobody can cheat me,” he would say. “I am too smart for any of you.”
Truly, he was. He had a check on every thing that it was so hard to short change the man. The books were so arranged that every kobo had to be accounted for and whenever there was any shortfall, the staff on duty bore the loss, as Mr. Valkyrie deducted the total amount of shortfall at the end of the month from the fella’s salary. Sometimes, some guy would have shortfall amounting to about half of his salary for the month. Aside from the boss’ attitude, this was the major reason why most of the people who worked there resigned pretty soon. I settled down pretty soon and after studying my work environment for sometime, I realized that Mr. Valkyrie wasn’t really as smart as he claimed or at least, even if he was that smart, he could still be outsmarted and I was that guy who could do that; afterall we were both in the same discipline of Economics. I decided to bid my time.

I had gotten the job during the long break and by that same April, school reopened. I was now in my second year as an Economics student and what made it particularly cool to be in second year was the fact that some new faces would be coming in – the freshers. Hmmm, they looked so cute and for once, I wouldn’t be seeing just the same old faces again. The 100 level students far outnumbered the staylites. Obviously, more people were now interested in the part time University programme after seeing it work successfully for the first year. This time, there were more young people unlike my set where the old jostled for dominion with the young. The new guys were cool and the new girls were a hell of a lot cooler. I allowed my thoughts wander to Lovina and I was indeed glad to be well rid of her. Had she still been in the picture, it would have been pretty difficult to get in the groove with the new blood. Babygurl (BG) was one of the girls of the new blood. She was a fresh student of Business Administration. Actually, that wouldn’t be the first time I was meeting BG but that would be the first time I was seeing her as a student of my school. I had met her almost a year before through a friend of mine, another colleague called Sam. Sam, Simon and I used to hang out a lot and at a point we were like three inseparable kids. We had a fourth guy, Bayla, who was a little older and was hardly around (except for lectures which he often missed too) due to the fact that he worked in a big organization on the island. Sam had introduced me to BG on that fateful day as his friend and we had exchanged pleasantries but I never took any special notice of her. At that time, I had still been deeply engrossed in my affair with Lovina to notice any girl. Like every young guy with a tinge of youthful exuberance, Sam had painted a bad boy picture of himself and how he had girls at his beck and call. In fact, he claimed BG was just one of his many girls and truth was, we always envied him for his collection of babes as he claimed. There really was nothing exceptional about BG though. She was petite and cute in a little way and I never really took any notice of her until I saw her almost a year later in school.

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT EPISODE OF GEEBEE’S TRIP.