Chapter 15 Anansi

William sipped on a cup of tea inside the old building with this old man staring at him so intensely that he felt that any minute he would catch ablaze from it.

" so how is it Anansi," said the old man.

Well, old was an understatement he was so wrinkled that the lines covered his whole face and make it so his eyes looked like it was always closed, with his white beard reaching to his chest the white of his beard making his already dark skin look even darker than it already was.

As William sat there with the old man staring at him " what would your name be old man".

"Ahh I'm sorry Anansi I haven't introduced myself yet" the old man was not insulted by being called an old man by the young man in front of him, as the old man stood up he held out his right hand and lowered his head slightly.

"Anansi I am Abdalla father of Abdu, son of Ade and while you are in my house Anansi you are a welcomed guest"

As William pondered on how to ask a question that could be of help to him as he now understood that his original idea of coming to the old man to find why he had called out to him with a name he did not understand had been answered he wondered what he should focus on next.

William decided to ask Abdalla when his son would be home as he wondered if he could get more useful information from someone who was not as fanatical as Abdalla with his faith however he knew it was a long shot but hoped the extra time before Abdu got home would help him think of the questions he needed to answer.

While they waited Abdalla continued to discuss the gods of his old country and how when he had come out to Australia the whole idea that people believed in one god or not in any shocked him to his core as he of course knew of different religions and atheism he was shocked by how widespread it was and how almost everyone these days had lost faith in anything and did not worship or pray.

He did not understand why so many people where happily ignorant of the world and did not seem to have a yerning for more knowledge and information like he did.

he eventually settled in Australia even though he found it to be a place lost in a thick fog of forgotten hopes and dreams of something bigger but content with there every day this seemed like mini heaven to Abdalla who had always been raised in a highly religious environment where everything was because of the gods and nothing could just be bad luck or and accident thus the phase he liked the most as every other Australian did was "she'll be right mate" it was a way of them letting go of the stress of the moment and trusting in time to heal all wounds.

This is why even though he was crazy worried about why Anansi was here and could not let go when he saw a god in front of him he still was kind and stopped bowing when asked and considering what he thought was a living god was in front of him he was relaxed and wanted more than to worship the god he wanted to see why he had come and to allow the outcome to present itself to him, plus he did enjoy the new company.

William sat and listened to the man's stories of how he came to Australia on a boat at that time to explore the world and experience new things and even though in Australia at the time a man being black was not looked upon with great favour but as the newer legislation to encourage immigration as well as how most of the young men who had gone through the second world war had served alongside darker-skinned as well as aboriginal people the prodigious around them was being lifted and thus when Abdalla saw how victoria and Melbourne seemed to become more multicultural he decided to move here.

William was interested in learning more about the old man and his home country but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

......

Across town, William's other Alice was having an unexpected guest arrive as well to her office in the human resources department in one of Australia's biggest banks.

when Alice got up from her desk and opened the door a young-looking man was standing there having an awkward look on his face, he was extremely handsome and was a new intern in the hr department.

"hey steve what are you doing here." asked Alice

"wanna go to lunch." asked steve

" I guess I can just let me finish up some work first so come in for the meantime"

as steve walked in he was in a big office that was twice what he had seen from other people in the HR department but this didn't surprise him as Alice was one of the managers at the department.

as he looked around the stark office devoid of almost any personal items but two chairs a desk larger than it needed to be and a single picture frame on it among the mountains of paperwork.

he sat down on the red chairs with dark wood as he looked at the only person he knew by name in the whole department, he had met her at his first introduction of the new interns and learned her name and the reason he had taken special care to learn this short brown-haired woman's name was that she seemed scary to him as she was the one that would decide if the interns stayed on and potentially got the job also it did not help at all that he could not remember anyone name for the life of him as the name would quite literally go in one ear and out the other so much so sometimes he would forget a name in less then thirty seconds after it was said.

after the introduction, though he went to find her for help as he wanted to ask the people around him like what normally happened he had no idea what their names were and he was not going to ask again for a third time in one day so he set out to find the one person he knew.

he spotted Alice talking to another intern helping her with the work and he decided he would introduce himself and get to know her which surprisingly went very well as Alice was very kind even though she help his job in her hands or maybe because she held his job in her hands.

after talking for a bit they actually found a few things in common as steve liked drawing, skiing and tennis as did Alice

so almost every day they would talk but today steve seemed off to Alice as if he was extra nervous more so than just to ask her to lunch as yes it was his first time asking her to lunch but they had many lunches together before that.

Alice decided not to push steve and just let it be as she did not want him to be scared off or feel threatened which was kinda the opposite goal of an HR department.

still, she worried but reassured herself that he was probably just nervous as every time they had lunch before Alice had shouted lunch because she asked she felt it right and steve probably was just wondering if he would get a free meal or not.

this thought of the young man being worried about the meal being free or not made Alice giggle a little under her breath as it was a far fetched idea but funny non the less.

At a nice cafe outside the office, Alice and steve ate together as they talked steve steeled himself as what he was about to ask was something serious and he needed to find the right time to do it that's why he had asked Alice to lunch this time, not the normal where she would ask.

as the food had just been ordered and the waiter had left steve gave himself a pep talk and worked up the courage to ask Alice what he had wanted after about the first month of working at the company.

After a long pause, Steve opened his mouth and decided it was now or never.

Alice noticed how nervous steve was and was a little worried but after he opened his mouth to speak she calmed down a little.

However, after what she heard, she laughed like there was no tomorrow because surely he was joking.