Imperfect Arrangements by Frances Mensah Williams

Author:Frances Mensah Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Contemporary international romantic comedy
Publisher: Frances Williams
Published: 2020-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

Nortey

Nortey scribbled a lengthy comment below the 55% mark he’d awarded the student’s essay and tossed the paper onto the pile. The plastic end of his red biro was ragged from the marks his teeth had inflicted as he powered through the stack of turgid essays on Applied Macroeconomics. Finally reaching the bottom of the pile, he scrawled a few words on the paper, dropped the biro into his desk drawer and pushed his chair back to reach for his briefcase. He had no intention of taking home any papers, but, should he be unlucky enough to run into Professor Ghartey, a briefcase would signal that he was taking his boss’s caution seriously. Although after that fiasco last term with Tony Tagoe, the Prof was in no position to sack him.

It had been three months since Professor Ghartey had pounced on him just before his lecture, but the panic that had seized Nortey that afternoon was so fresh in his mind that it felt like three days. After the encounter, and convinced he was about to lose his job, Nortey had struggled to teach his class, instead mentally rehearsing his excuses and preparing to prostrate himself before his boss, if needed. If he had known that the Prof was going to promote him – being landed with additional classes was hardly a promotion, but it had sounded good when he explained it that way to Maku – instead of fire him, he could have saved himself the trouble.

When he’d walked into the old man’s office, it had almost been worth the ninety minutes of agony to witness his boss’s pained expression as he haltingly explained how Tony Tagoe’s insistence his students purchase his self-published lecture guides if they wanted to pass his module had led one of them to file a complaint against the lecturer. The student’s outraged parents had demanded action, forcing Professor Ghartey to suspend Tony pending further investigations. His boss had also been compelled to transfer Tony’s course module on to Nortey’s teaching schedule – along with a salary increase.

Nortey slipped his jacket from the back of his chair and grinned at the memory of his boss’s discomfiture at having to reward Nortey for what he’d tartly labelled ‘unacceptable tardiness’. But his smile faded as he recalled Professor Ghartey’s parting shot.

‘I would caution you not to take these current circumstances for granted, Mr Quarshie. If my investigation into Mr Tagoe’s conduct necessitates that I relieve him of his employment, I will have to recruit a new lecturer into the faculty. Please don’t give me cause to recruit two new lecturers. I hope I make myself clear?’

With a quick glance at his watch to confirm that it was after five-thirty – the Prof had made it clear that just because the university students were on holiday, it didn’t mean the faculty could slack off – Nortey left his office, relieved to be out of his airless prison. He glanced around warily, but there was no sign of his boss and Nortey whistled merrily as he strolled to his car.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.