And Debo jumped! By Wale Bakare

As Debo walked past her desk, Maureen looked up at him and smiled. He returned the favour and for the first time in weeks, the smile went beyond his lips. His eyes held a certain quality this morning that had been missing the last few weeks. Today, he did not have the weary, tired look he had taken to sporting for a while. He looked ‘almost happy’! She had actually resolved when coming to work this morning that she was going to go over to his office and have a chat with him. They had been friends since joining the company on the same day 4 years earlier but he had been moved out of ‘The Maze’, the labrynth of cubicles that served as offices for junior officers and given his own private office. Such was the speed of his rise through the ranks that he now had coffee delivered to his desk unlike her and other occupants of The Maze that had to get up and walk to the machine in the lounge to fetch their own coffee. Despite this, nobody begrudged Debo his promotions as he was the same friendly lovable guy and he didn’t pull rank on any of his old mates. He still hung out with them and shared a beer at the lounge down the road after work. She still felt something for him even though she had been married for over 2 years and they never really dated though he had made a play for her where they first started working together. He was a lovely guy but she knew he wasn’t ready for the kind of relationship she wanted. She wanted marriage but, though they were age-mates, he was still ‘rocking life’. So they had agreed to remain friends and still flirted occasionally. At least until a few weeks ago.

That was about the time Maureen noticed that he was becoming a bit distracted. Always the first to say ‘hello’, he sometimes didn’t even reply now when you greeted him or he would call you on the intercom to apologise for not responding earlier. And once, she had overheard raised voices coming from the CEO’s office while Debo was in there with her. She had meant to ask him about it but she had to rush home as her 2 year old was running a temperature and she decided to do it the next morning. By the next day, things seemed to have stabilised and she didn’t think it would be right to drag it up again. However, Debo continued to change. Known for his impeccable dress sense and almost obsessive attention to his appearance, he was now sporting a grizzled look from not having bothered to shave for several days. Maureen initially felt he was trying to join the Beard Gang until last Friday when he committed what, in Debo’s Bible, would count as the ultimate, unforgivable sin: he came to work in the same clothes from the day before. That was when she became convinced that something was definitely wrong and she had had to have the chat with him. She would wait behind after work to see him. She was however called into the Boss’ office at the end of the day. She wanted to know what was going on in Debo’s life as she had also noticed he came into work in yesterday’s clothes. Maureen couldn’t help with an answer and by the time she came out, Debo was gone.

After discussing the matter with her husband over the weekend, he encouraged her to make sure she had a talk with him. They had become somewhat friendly when they met and Debo used to tease him that he snatched his wife. Her mind was made up. Seeing how he looked this morning didn’t change her resolve to talk to him though it looked like he had gotten over whatever the problem was. He was the impeccably dressed Debo they knew and he had a smile for everybody. She would see him during lunch. There would be no ‘Big Sister’ talk. She was relieved at that. She powered on her computer and settled down to work. That was when the commotion going on outside filtered through into the office. Romanus, the Security Man, ran in shouting: “Madam Maureen! Madam Maureen! Come quick! Na Oga Debo!”. He handed her a plain whit envelope with her a single word on it: Maureen! She ran after him and the rest of the staff followed closely. As they poured out of the 14 story building, they saw the crowd that had gathered in front looking up, with several fingers and all brands of mobile phones pointing upwards. She looked up and saw Debo seating on the edge of the flat roof, his legs dangling down and his briefcase open as he threw the contents down, a sheet at a time. The Chief Security Officer stood a few meters away and was appealing to him to come away from the edge but Debo just ignored him. When the last sheet of paper was left in his hand he looked down, and Maureen could have sworn he looked directly into her eyes and into her soul, from 14 stories high. He let go of the last sheet of paper and as it floated down, he heaved himself off the edge, almost as if he had placed a bet with some invisible being that he would make contact with the concrete floor before the paper. Maureen screamed and passed out, still clutching the envelope with her name on it.