Engelskraft: Love of Wasted Angels

Goodbye, Abram

The morning sun seemed timidly hiding behind the clouds. The fairly gray weather affected Ailey's mood. I don't know why he has felt uncomfortable since he woke up this morning. It was as if the universe forbade him to move.

Arriving at the store, he saw Siti sitting pensively at the cashier table. His face was pouting at the monitor screen in front of him. His eyes seemed to focus on reading something that was there.

“For Siti. What's so early in the morning, why is it pouting?”

Siti who was shocked by the arrival of Ailey immediately changed the window she was looking at. It was like he was hiding something.

“Hmm, why panic so? Our sales down?” Ailey's worried.

“No, it's nothing. Let's get changed before the store opens!” Siti said to divert the conversation.

Curiosity enveloped the woman. As soon as she saw Siti was no longer nearby, Ailey opened the computer and saw some of the sites that were being opened by her colleagues. But he did not find any discrepancy. One by one he closed the page and left a company inbox page connected to Abram's e-mail store. There he saw an email titled “An Employee” Discharge Announcement sent by personnel.

The email broke his heart. With trembling hands he opened the email. Ailey was aghast as soon as she saw the contents. A photo of her face shows her being fired from Abram. Really something that does not make sense because store sales are starting to improve, why is there a dismissal of employees? Not believing what he saw, he perused the sentence below him:

“Hal Firing: Health condition that does not allow itself to work”

His body was petrified, his vision blurred. Why is the reason for his dismissal related to his health condition? Is the HIV infection known to management? Thought in the heart.

“Siti, City! You know this stuff? What really happened?” Ailey asked in panic as she called her friend.

Siti who saw Ailey teary-eyed could only look at him pityfully without speaking a word. Her eyes were in tears as she was unable to hide the bad news from her friend.

“Email this from earlier you noticed? Why am I fired?” Ailey gripped both of Siti's arms hysterically.

“Ailey, you... You have HIV?” Tanya Siti trembled.

Ailey flinched and let go of her grasp slowly. The tears were flowing more and more unbearable.

“HIV? Do you know where?” Ailey's voice sounded nervous.

“This news has spread since this morning throughout the store employees. Tell me, do you really have HIV?” Siti continued to ask.

The woman did not reply, she simply turned her face away with an anxious look. It was too heavy a thing that he received that morning that made him unable to give a firm answer.

“So, all that is true?”

“Sorry, I hid it all this time. But don't HIV sufferers still have the same right to work?” Ailey said as she showed her face wet with tears.

Siti just stared at him in silence. Slowly tears also flowed down her cheeks out of pity for her friend. He had not spoken yet, Ailey immediately left him alone.

***

A thousand steps were taken by Ailey towards the Abram Corporation building. He barged inside without heeding the cynical look of the people around. Immediately he was in the personnel room to ask for an explanation.

“What does this mean? Why am I fired?” His protest.

“Ailey, sorry we can't accept employees who have a serious illness like you. This will certainly disturb other employees when they are near you.” Obviously the employee personnel.

“Isn't there no government law that prohibits HIV from working? If there is, please specify which rule!” Obviously Ailey can't control her emotions.

The employee was silent to Ailey's protests. He sighed then replied, “You were right. Maybe you can ask your boss who asked for this dismissal.”

Ailey flabbergasted. Emotions peak. He's never been this grim since his rape case. He immediately left the room and headed for his boss room.

Lina's room door was opened violently without permission by Ailey. Lina who was inside was shocked to the point of almost jumping off the chair.

“It turns out it was you who fired me? What do you mean?” Ailey's asking was full of anger.

“Why still ask? It's clear that HIV sufferers like you will be a burden to this company. You don't think about other employees because you feel uncomfortable working?” Clearly arrogant.

“Then do you and the company think of me? All this time I have been patient with a boss like you. But this is already out of bounds.” Typhoon Ailey.

“What a disrespect!” Lina Protests.

Plaque!

The slap floated onto Ailey's cheek from Lina's hand. For a moment the room was silent.

“You are really shameless. Already fired I still dare to slap me. Are you a human being?” Ailey said with her raucous voice. Tears in his eye bags. As much as possible he kept it from flowing in front of that arrogant superior.

“Don't blame me! Blame yourself for daring to approach my fiancee.” Clearly without guilt.

Ailey straightened her body and let out a long sigh as she was tired of listening to such drama constantly from Lina.

“I've never approached your fiancee. Please ask him yourself.”

Lina looked at Ailey sharply as if she wanted to say that she did not care about the defense. He got out of the chair and went to the door of his room. While fixing her hair, she extended her hand out.

“Please go from here, you are not part of Abram Corporation anymore.” He said without seeing Ailey.

Exciting emotions filled Ailey. Not wanting to add to his fatigue by arguing, he hurried his feet out of the room. Just stepping his feet a few meters, his entire body trembled because it had just vented the anger he had been harboring all this time. The tears she was holding back began to flow profusely. Abram's surrounding employees looked at the woman with pity but no one dared to approach her because the HIV issue was already spreading.

His lanky legs walked limply towards the elevator. His gaze was blank because the emotional upheaval he felt was so great. The sound of the bell from the elevator was heard and the elevator door opened automatically. Without looking around, he went inside and the elevator started moving down.

“What are you doing here? Aren't you on shift at the store?” Kevin's voice broke the woman's daydream.

Ailey turned her head and saw Kevin next to her without anyone else there. His face and red cheeks from the slap stole Kevin's attention to make him anxious.

“You've been crying? What happened to your cheeks? What happened?” Soft question.

Ailey rubbed her wet cheeks with her hands. Then he tidied up his tangled clothes. He could not afford to stare at the CEO who seemed to know nothing.

“Pak, if I may ask you something, I beg you not to treat me well like this again.” He said stammering with his head lowered.

“Means?”

“Don't be nice to me..” Continue while looking up at Kevin. “I really appreciate your kind treatment to me so far. But what would people say if they saw a CEO like you treat employees like me so special. I don't want anyone to misunderstand.” Ailey said as she smiled a smile full of sadness.

“Why are you suddenly talking like this?” Kevin asked curiously.

“Blessed with Bu Lina. From now on, just treat me like your employee.” Ailey was clueless hearing her own talk. “Oh, I forgot that starting today, I am not an employee of Mr.” anymore

Ting. The sound of the elevator rang indicating his stop on the ground floor. Ailey breaks through the elevator door and runs out in a hurry leaving Kevin still full of question marks. He guessed what Ailey meant. A puffy face with a swollen cheek disturbed his mind.

Some of Abram's employees entered the same elevator as Kevin. He accidentally stole their talk.

“Pity, yes Ailey was fired just like that by Bu Lina without any prior notice. In addition, the dismissal should be personal. Time announced by email to the entire office network?” Whisper one of his employees.

“Iya, anyway. But honestly I agree, the hell with the dismissal. I don't want any HIV sufferers working around me. Scared.” Reply to the others.

Kevin was surprised to hear the conversation. Her knees were limp so she had to lean her body against the side of the elevator behind her. She hasn't even had time to confirm the HIV drug Lina found on Ailey. Deep in his mind, Ailey's face still forced a smile on his cheek even though he had been fired. At that moment, Kevin realized how tough the woman was.