2 Chapter 2: Help me!!

Ultimately, I thought he was having a stroke or a heart attack. Why didn't I think of it before? I wondered! I turned up the AC and called the office nurse. She was summoned more frequently than you would think. All people in the small cubicles and in small offices were in depression and stress all the time. They needed the nurse at least once a week. The reason for stress varied from person to person. For some, it was home sickness. For others it was money problems or loans or marriage issues. For others it was the fight to be better than others to get a promotion.

The nurse came in and checked his pulse and blood pressure. She said he had high blood pressure and asked him to take some medicines. He didn't reply. He looked at me with a deep and dead stare that I recognised from my childhood. My dad's look when he needed me to be at my best behaviour. If I wasn't at it, he would beat me up and I knew that. I never ignored those stares. Those eyes. The seriousness behind them. But I knew my boss wasn't going to beat me up. Of course. He couldn't even if he wanted to. He knew there was no good firing me. I knew many secrets and confidential information about the company. He wouldn't risk them going public. Even when I knew he wouldn't do that, in my heart and mind, I knew the situation he was in was alarming and serious. I knew there was no way I was out of this one. I was a part of the hole he was in.

Finally, he broke the silence. He uttered only two words. "HELP ME" He said. Help him. I nodded my head and said that I would help him only if he took the medicines. He grabbed the medicines from the nurse's hands and gulped it in two seconds. His actions told me that he was desperate. Desperate enough to risk choking on the pills to be helped by me. The next moment, he motioned the nurse to go out. It was more of a get the hell out of here than a polite you may leave gesture. It was rude, but he was desperate.