Never in my life had I thought that I would be hailed as a hero. But as I walked through the cheering crowd, their faces full of relief and gratefulness, is was exactly what was happening. Pushing my way through the hoard of people whilst trying to be polite at the same time, my memories took me back to the incident that had led to this.
*****
“Hey pick that up. Oh god and this dust! You had one job, Sierra, one!”, the captain reprimanded me.
Apologising profusely, I quickly got to work. My job as a cleaner on board the cruise ship was not the most satisfactory one but it paid all the bills. The only thing I hated to deal with was our perfectionist captain. He was in a crankier mood than usual because the Minister was going to host a party on the ship today.
I stopped momentarily and took a look at the deck. It was elegantly set up for a grand celebration- colourful banners hanging everywhere, the floor squeaky clean, minuscule bottles of expensive air-fresheners at the corner of the room, white-lace-covered round tables laden with piles of aromatic food and bottles of sparkling champagne scattered around for the guests to enjoy with rows and rows of ridiculously decorative chairs on the left side and a massive fountain in the shape of the political party’s logo stood proudly at the centre.
“Rich people things”, I muttered.
Soon after, the guests arrived and the ship managed to cover the distance to the party shop within half an hour. The Minister had booked this whole ship, not for a typical three-day cruise but just for us to travel into the midst of the sea, quite close to the land but far enough to not spot it, just for his extravagant, rich party.
Fifteen minutes into the party, something happened. How it happened is beyond me but one minute I was sitting down for a quick rest and the next minute all of the invited guests were running around like children with terror painted on their faces. The floor was brimming with briny sea water and the captain was yelling instructions to lower the rescue boats.
Quickly gathering my wits, I dropped my broom and rushed towards the emergency boats and because my luck hates me, the rich minister was just behind me.
“Out of the way, you ignorant peasant. My life is more precious than yours,” he spoke in his gravelly voice while swatting me away like a housefly.
I simply sighed and let him go first. But the rich, old fool somehow managed to trip over absolutely nothing, bang his wicked head on a metal railing hard enough for it to leak crimson droplets and fall a comical descent into the azure waves. (Quite the slapstick comedy if you would ask me later.)
He flapped his sausage arms and wailed for help, “I can’t swim! HELP!”
Not one person moved an inch.
I wanted to follow suit. I did not know him personally and he had just declared his so-called superiority over me. But I decided to listen to the rationality of my head rather than the pettiness of my heart and jumped right after the halfwit.
*****
To be honest, I had not done much-just grabbed his ringed fingers and guided him towards the nearest boat. He was the one who made it a big deal and hosted this jubilant festival to celebrate his ‘hero’. Seriously, do ministers not have any work other than throwing parties left and right?
I was convinced that this was just for gaining people’s attention. After all the next elections were coming up soon.
I took a calming breath as I saw his approach in all his rich glory. He made an exaggerated speech about the ‘rescue’ and how it mde him appreciate the worker more. Of course, the fickle crowd cheered in response.
After the whole ordeal, he approached me.
“Why?” he questioned.
I understood what he was referring to.
“Because I have humanity in me.” I turned to walk away hoping I could find a subtle escape and go back home but changed my mind barely three steps away from him and with all the disgust I could muster I added, “And because I’m not rich.”
Then I swiftly returned to the din of the festival.
If they wanted to label me as a ‘hero’ they could but I knew deep down I was simply a ‘human’.
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