A Short Story: Mr Allen's Turmoil 2

Please Read Part 1 HERE

Years passed and he had bought himself a car, a land, was building a house and was really a celebrity in his state. He was planning on surprising his girlfriend with a huge dream wedding and had added to his online shopping basket, a huge diamond engagement ring. Allen had big plans for the near future. He had forgotten his self discipline that kept his notorious acts at a moderate level. The need to impress was increasing and it wasn't long before he felt he needed to up his game and impress a little more. So he kept taking and taking from the company with the amount increasing each time.

A week after one of his directors occasional visit, he was at it again and really living his star like lifestyle. Life couldn't be better at that point, at least up until the point his phone rang and the caller I.D said "Director".




He looked at the phone but couldn't bring himself to pick it up, he wondered why his director was calling him at such a time. He looked at his watch on his side stool to confirm the time, it was past 8 p.m. This was very strange, it was out of character for his director. He was pondered why he was being called this late and something in him kept pointing at his director finding out what had been going on. He knew he had been careless and had gotten greedy through the years, just to maintain his "level". He was still lost in thought when the sound of his phones text tone beeped, his heart leaped when he saw the preview of the text message that had entered on the home scree of his phone. He opened it up and the text read...

"Good evening Mr Allen , sorry to disturb at this hour but I am in town with a couple of external auditors. We would be at the office by 10 a.m so make all your files and documents available for us at that time for audit. Thank you and Good night"

His stomach got upset, he stood up and walked towards his window and opened it up for some air but couldn't breathe, he walked back towards his standing fan and sat down in front of it. He couldn't shake the feeling he was having, he knew something was definitely wrong. It was far from normal for the director to visit twice in a month and now with external auditors. His hands were shaking and he could hardly sit at a place, he was sweating,he kept pacing the room with his eyes wide open and they moved around as if searching for a way out of the mess right there in his house.

The next day he was up early, truthfully he hardly got any sleep and the 30 mins to 1 hour he managed was filled with dreams of his life crashing down, everything he had gotten for himself disappeared in the most embarrassing way possible. He woke up a couple of times from the nightmare in the middle of the night and his pillow was soaked in sweat. He stayed up for the rest of the night and his thoughts were filled with the worst possible outcomes. He left for the office as soon as possible and on his way he wondered how he was going to cover up what he had put himself into. He couldn't tear up the records but maybe he could burn them he thought to himself, maybe get in early before the other workers, start a fire and leave. Yes! he had gotten the perfect solution, a fire!
     He arrived at the office and to his surprise, some of the workers had picked the perfect day to show up early. He could hardly hide his disappointment as he waved every greeting he was given aside. He opened up the office and slowly walked towards his desk and sat down. He was too weak to think of any other solution, he simply tried to reassure himself with some false hope. He prayed they would somehow get side tracked during their investigation and something would miraculously come up and distract them form checking the records. However he still went through the records and tried his best to cover up what little he could.

Just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, the director and auditors decided to show up about 40 mins earlier than planned, he had no other way of covering up everything or anything at all but had hoped the inevitable would be delayed as much as possible. He had no where to run to and nothing else to do. As their car pulled up and they got down he wondered to himself why he hadn't taken off that morning and relocated to a new place. It was too late to think of any other solutions or to dwell on what could have been. He simply walked towards them, managed to force a false smile and showed them towards the office. His heart was beating fast, as they got into the office and the auditors got to work, he found himself more scared than ever. One particular auditor never smiled, it was the lady among them. He knew then that if anything was going to be found out, she was going to be the one to do it. His stomachs discomfort was heard through an audible roar and even though one of the other men made a joke and asked if he hadn't eaten, he couldn't manage a fake laughter this time. He simply ignored it and focused on the lady with the bright red lipstick and a serious look fixed on her face. She flipped through the pages after scrutinizing each thoroughly through her transparent glasses.
        As he had predicted, before 20 mins had passed the lady had stumbled upon one of his carelessness, used a red pen to underline it then flipped the page. She met a second and then a third. Mr Allen thought she was the devil as her smile broadened with each discovery she made. For some reason she only kept smiling and never said anything to him or others. Her beautiful smile was almost irritating and looking at her red lipstick that matched her red skirt and blouse, he felt his stomach rumble again. Mr Allen was generally beginning to hate the color red. He anyway kept hoping that something was going to happen, why wasn't she saying anything? he though to himself. Was she going to let him off? Was she going to cover up for him? or was she just waiting and scheming up the best way to end him. Just when he had gathered enough hope and was waiting for the perfect opportunity to signal the lady for a behind settlement, she spoke up...
      "Mr Allen right? That's your name.." and he nodded in acknowledgement.
She  moved her finger towards one of the places she had marked with her red pen and said " Do you care to explain to us, the reason why...." Before the lady could finish her sentence Mr Allen's knees where to weak to hold him up, he was down on knees as he spoke with a cracked voice. "I will explain everything...."


Mr Allen walked towards his car at the end of the day, long after the auditors and director were gone, he was evidently worn out both physically and mentally. Nothing would have prepared him for what he had faced inside that office. When he got home he sat down and everything that happened kept replaying in his head. He didn't know where to start now, how to explain everything to everybody. He thought of his girlfriend that he had promised the world, his friends, his image in the city, how was he going to keep it up? How was he going to explain to everyone that he had lost his position and that to make it worse, his "kind director" had demoted him to the lowest level in the office and that his pay was going to be reduced to almost nothing.
    The condition was that he was going to keep working with the company as a regular worker. He was to return all the property he had acquired. The investigation would continue and when the total sum he had stolen was figured out, he would pay it up through any means the director wanted and decided. It was either that or he was going to be tried in front of a court and sentenced to years in prison.
     He had to keep up his image he thought to himself, he couldn't let people see how low he had fallen. But how was he going to do that? Either way he couldn't give up, he would find another way and he would keep living the life he is already used to. There was no turning back he thought to himself. He had to find another way through this. The embarrassment would be too much for him to bear. He would act like he has given up but he wasn't going to stop. His image was too precious, he was going to maintain it. Even though he was still worn out and his heart was still drumming as fast as it could, he was thinking up ways to carry on from where he stopped. If he could just figure something out, maybe befriend the new manager and offer to split the money they make with him. He didn't know if it was going to work for sure, the only thing he knew was that he wasn't stopping. He had people to impress and and image to maintain.



Alright now let's analyze what has happened so far with Mr Allen. He started out with small theft and his greed got the best of him. He became a big name in his city and among family and friends. His girlfriend also expects a lot from him now that he is a "big boy" seeing that she manged with him when he was nothing. Now he has been caught and all those people he has been killing himself to impress are still going on with their life. They don't even know what has happened and because of the position he has put himself, he can't afford to tell them. He is instead looking for a way to to keep up his image and not disappoint everybody.
   

 This story was told from a larger point of view but if you check closely, this happens to most people. You put yourself in a position that you can't come out of, you struggle to impress people around you with a false image that you can't maintain. Sometimes you aren't up to that person you claim to be and every single day you struggle to meet up just to impress people who hardly care about you.
    You have to know how to cut your coat according to your size. It is impossible to maintain a false image forever, demands would definitely go up and you would need to up your game. It is only a matter of time before everyone sees you for who you are or circumstances turn around to expose you. The sooner you embrace who you really are the better for you. You can work hard for a better tomorrow but until that tomorrow comes, just be who you are today. The people that you try to impress with this image you paint of yourself would carry on every day with their life, they aren't as stressed as you are because all you see is who they really are. They aren't trying to impress you or any other person. Can't you see that you are the one being used? To make it worse, just to keep up the image you would go to any length and go through all the trouble. You have a choice to make, you can choose to be real and free. You can also choose to be fake and stressed and risk going through the worst kind of shame when everyone finds out who you really are. So what is it going to be for you? Would you wipe that fake image and come out as the person you really are before you're in too deep or would you maintain the fake life.


Stop with the false image you paint. Face the life you have and struggle for what you want. The outcome of living a fake life is never a good one. The pressure isn't worth it, learn to be humble and do the much you can afford to.