Mira pressed the required buttons on the drink machine, while she was waiting for her drink to be served, something caught her attention on the television, she heard the name of a village close to where her grandparents hailed from being mentioned on VNN, she turned to look at the screen but whatever was being advertised had ended.
With her hot cocoa drink and a packet of cocoyam chips in her hand, Mira headed for a sofa directly opposite the television, a wave of relief washed over her tired limbs as she plopped herself into the soft cushion, she groped around in the semi-darkness for the remote control.
The gadget was nowhere to be found, Mira hated it when people did not put things back where everyone expected them to be, she had no choice but to watch the rest of the sport news, she gazed blankly at the screen and shut out all that was being said about an ice hockey match.
Her stomach growled in protest as she opened the packet, she quickly wolfed down her chip and debated whether to go for a second serving, another loud growl from her stomach helped her decide.
As she got herself off the sofa and headed for the machine, one of the cleaners walked into the room.
“Good evening ma’am” he said.
“Good evening” Mira responded.
“I didn’t know there was anyone in here” the young man continued, ” I was coming to clean up the place”
“Sure, go ahead” Mira replied, ” this place already look pretty clean, so Iam sure it won’t take long for you to get it done”
A few minutes later, Maria finished her second helping of chip, she was now faced with a new problem, her eyelids felt heavy and ahe could feel her eyes dropping shut, she could barely hear the man on television anymore, there was a paise in the programme to allow for advertisement.
Mira had almost drifted off when she heard the name of the village mentioned again.
Her eyes snapped open, this time it was a full advertisement instead of the brief message she had heard earlier o, she listened as a five-part series, exposing childtrafficking and child slavery across five continents was announced.
Of the six places mentioned on the Africa continents, a community close to her Grandparents village was one of them, she was shocked! Was there child trafficking in their hometown, and was it so bad that it was now of international concern? She had to see what was in this documentary.
Fortunately, the documentary movie was to be shown in the first episode, she still had forty-five minutes of her break left according to the clock on the wall, the programme was to start in five minutes, at least she would watch a good chunk of it before her break was over.
“Hey! What are you doing here sitting in this semi darkness all by yourself?” A voice asked.
Mira was a bit startled, she hadn’t seen anyone open the canteen door this time.
“Just had my lunch” she replied.
“Lunch at this late hour?” Her co-worker asked in surprise.
“You know our finest ingredients gets delivered twice a week, and soon to move up to three times a week, I prefer to quality-check these items myself before they get sent out to the kitchen crews” Mira replied, ” I just finished one batch, I will be doing the second after my break”
“Why don’t you let your assistant do these inspection?”
“Those are the ingredients that brings sixty percent of the profits in this place, I don’t want that to change on my watch”
“Well, I guess it’s that kind of attention to details that got you promoted” Mira’s colleagues observed.
Mira uttered something under her breath, she didn’t like talking about her swift rise to the top.