The company episode 2

The company 2

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Stanley could hærdly contain himself. He was boiling in,side, but there was nothing he could do. The managing director was his boss and he couldn’t fight him. But he was very disappointed that his boss could place money ahead of human lives. Many lives for that matter. He decided to plead the case one more time. Probably his boss would have a change of heart. But immediately he opened his mouth to speak again, the managing director shunned him in the most intimidating manner. Stanley sluggishly stood up and left the office.

As he walked the way back to his office, he tried so much to convince himself that he had done the best he could to prevent the distribution of the substandard hydraulic fluid. But the more he tried to convince himself, the more his inner self accused him of not doing enough. Back in his office, Raphael was eagerly waiting to hear what the outcome of his visit to the managing director was. He had his heart in his hand while he waited for Stanley’s return. Immediately Stanley opened the door, Raphael rushed to him. “What happened, Stan? What did he say?, Raphael rushed questions at Stanley. Stanley ignored his questions and rather went and sat on his seat dejectedly. Raphael was unsettled and continued questioning Stanley.

“The old man chose money over human lives” Stanley managed to say after many questions from Raphael. The distribution will go on as scheduled”, he briefly concluded. Instantly, Raphael had mixed feelings. He initially prayed the managing director would not punish the people involved in the production process of the fluid. But hearing that the fluid would be sold made him worry about the damages it could cause to human lives. I guess we never really know what we want until we are presented with delicate options. They both kept quiet while engaging their consciences in deep thoughts. After some minutes, Raphael asked “is there no other way to convince him to discard the fluid? We can bear some part of the loss”. Indeed the conscience is the strongest police to humanity.

Stanley told him he had done his best and had left the rest for he who controls the universe. After work that day, Stanley went home in a low spirit. His wife noticed his mood and asked what was wrong. But Stanley told her it was nothing. There are certain things one shouldn’t tell his spouse, especially things of such sensitivity. It is not keeping secrets, it’s rather protecting them from hurts. Stanley quickly did all he had to do at home that evening and retired to bed early. He needed to rest his head before it explodes.
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Three weeks later, the fluid had been distributed and its effects had started coming. A truck carrying sand and descending a hilly road lost its brake. The driver did all he could to stop the vehicle, but nothing worked. The truck rammed into a kindergarten school, killing half of the infants and their teachers. It was a very gory scene as the guts of those children littered all over the place. Some of them had their heads leveled on the floor while some of them had all their tender bones crushed by some debris. The oldest among these children was four while the youngest was below six months. Two of the dead children were the only children of their parents. It was really a heartbreaking scene.

In another occurrence, a motor mechanic had jacked a vehicle using a hydraulic jack. As he was under the vehicle doing some repairs, the jack failed. The vehicle fell on him with its edge resting directly on his thighs. The force of the impact crushed his femurs instantly leaving him in an excruciating pain. The people around couldn’t help him as the weight of the vehicle was too much for them to lift. The mechanic remained there while arrangement was made for a towing vehicle. Before the towing vehicle would come, he had died. The most heartbreaking part was when he left a message for his family begging for their forgiveness that he had to leave them so soon.

In another scene, Stanley was driving along the highway when he saw a herd of cattles crossing the road from afar. He started engaging the brake only to discover that the brake system of his car had failed. Before he could do anything, his car slammed into the herd of cattles at a great speed. With the sound accompanying the impact, Stanley jumped up from his sleep with his body covered in sweat. He had dreamed of some of the possible scenarios allowing the substandard hydraulic fluid into the market could cause. There and then, he swore to fight with everything within his grasp to make sure the fluid was not distributed.
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The next morning, he went to the managing director with a much more bolder countenance. “Sir, I will not allow the distribution of that substandard fluid. Its cost to human lives would be more grievous than its monetary cost to the company. I pray you engage your conscience here to see the picture clearer. I also pray it never comes to that, but if it does, I will use everything within my disposal to fight it”, Stanley said without any sign of fear. The managing director was surprised at Stanley’s boldness. He wondered what had given Stanley so much courage to walk into his office and talk to him as if they were equals. As he was still awing at Stanley’s courage, Stanley added “I will give you twenty four hours to weigh your options and decide on what to do”, before turning to leave.

What happened next?

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