Consequences of Ignorance

Sam’s phone ranged so loud inside the bank, because of the silence, it startled some of the customers and it angered the bank manager. 

“Turn the phone off Mr. Sam, this is a banking hall,” the bank manager growled, fury in his eyes. Sam had been tempting him to pour out his anger for some time now, and he was finally succeeding. 

Everybody inside the bank turned their attention to Sam whose phone was still ringing aloud, even the man who was busy dialing the honorable guest's number looked at him disgustedly because of the sound. 

Sam didn’t listen to the bank manager, he didn’t care about the eyes that were staring at him, he was getting used to this everyday humiliation; yesterday it was at the restaurant and now today, it was in a bank. 

His life had gone from bad to good, and to bad again since Amelia left him for Derek. 

Sam looked at the manager scornfully, before picking up the call and he immediately he did, the middle-aged man that was calling the honorable guest saw that the guest had picked so he spoke. 

“Hello”

Sam was confused at first, he turned his gaze to the man that was calling the honorable guest and waited for him to say the word again.

“Hello!” the man spoke again, and that was when Sam realized that it was him who was indeed the honorable guest, he quickly placed the call on loudspeaker, and for the last time, the middle-aged man went on. 

“Hello!!” he stressed, this time everybody heard his voice aloud from Sam’s phone, and the bank went into a state of pandemonium. 

Sam turned and looked at the bank manager, a happy-evil smile on his face, “It seems I am the honorable guest, after all,” he said. 

The manager was left speechless, and so was the clerk; she was shocked to the brim, to the extent that her mouth was agape and she wasn’t aware. They could not believe what their eyes were seeing, it was too much to comprehend. 

They had ridiculed this man all day, and just realizing that he was the honorable guest was more than just an embarrassment to them. 

The middle-aged man’s face suddenly reverted into a bright smile, he thanked his stars that he didn’t say any hilarious words to Sam when his phone rang aloud in the banking hall. 

“I’m glad to meet you Mr.?” 

“Samuel Jonathan,” Sam completed reluctantly, he had been saying his name too many times in one day. 

“I’m Christopher Logan, and I’m the president of this bank,” the man said and went over to Sam to shake his hand. 

The sudden change of events was still very much a surprise to the people in the bank, no one was concentrating anymore; both the workers and the customers had their attention on the situation. 

Sam wasn’t so surprised that the president of a bank called him, he had seen unreal things happening rapidly in his life, just some hours back; he was owing the restaurant he worked for five hundred dollars and had nothing like a truck, not to talk of a car. 

Then all of a sudden, he was driving a Cadillac to a bank where he was the guest of honor they were expecting. It wasn’t too surprising anymore, even though it was still playing strings in his head. 

After they shook hands and exchanged pleasantries, it was now time for the questioning; Sam was still lost, he couldn’t figure out why the bank president called him, nobody told him he was going to be an important guest in this bank today; if he knew he’d have prepared. 

“Why’d you call me? I have no details that I’d be a guest of honor in this bank,”  Sam asked, curiously. 

Christopher smiled, Sam was behaving just like he expected. 

“A hundred million dollars was sent to your account yesterday, but there’s no way you’d be able to use the money with your normal card. You need a golden card, and I’m here to provide you with one,” he explained. 

This was a second blow to both the clerk and the bank manager. Sam was really telling the truth all this while, he just didn’t have the right card with him. The bank manager couldn’t help but regret his actions, but it was too late now. 

“Are you really sure he had a hundred million dollars in his account, sir?” Out of guilt and fear, the bank manager had to ask the question to really confirm if it was true. 

Bids of sweat started to gather on his forehead, as he waited for an answer from the president, 

Christopher was confused at first, he was wondering why his manager and clerk were looking so petrified, what really had happened while he was away?

“Why the hell are you asking me such a question? What is going on here?” Instead of answering the question, Christopher threw two at the manager. 

Sam smiled softly, staring at how the man who was shouting at him a few minutes ago was looking so terrified. He turned his gaze to the clerk and their eyes met, all he could see was shock, fear, and surprise.

When he saw that none of them was ready to answer, he decided to do it himself instead. 

“It’s rather disappointing that you employ people like this, Mr. Christopher Logan,” Sam started, and the manager's heart sank immediately. 

Christopher focused his attention anxiously on Sam, wanting to hear what really happened that made them so terrified. 

“Mr. Manager here and his clerk have embarrassed me too much for one day, disgraced me, and talked down on me in the presence of everybody in this hall. Just because I didn’t possess the golden card in other to spend the money in my account, they called me a fraud,” Sam paused. 

He shook his head as if he was having pity on himself, he then continued. 

“If it weren’t for you, I would have been taken into custody by the police just because of a one thousand dollars loan I owe,” Sam concluded, he was so glad he had the opportunity for the first time in his life to report his humiliators. 

Now they’d be able to feel just how he felt being humiliated and embarrassed. 

Christopher got very angry on hearing all that Sam narrated to him, and the way the manager and the clerk were looking, without uttering a word, it was confirmed that he was speaking the truth. 

“Is this how you treat customers?” 

“The both of you are fired!” Christopher finalized, anger written all over his face. The bank went silent like a graveyard….