Mistress of Evil

4

They are busy talking to each other in a very low voice, waiting for the receptionists to tell them what to do next when in few minutes time, a young guy also walks into the reception. He also greets everyone in the reception and is about going to the reception desk when he sees Neha and Flora discussing, with their heads looking down ......

“ Hi babes ” he greets the two of them and them begin to walk to where they are sitting instead of going to the reception desk

“ Sally! Sally!! ” Neha and Flora choruses Sally's name as if they are hailing him. This is how Neha and Flora calls him ever since the three of them have been friends since their college days. The three of them are very much best of friends. Sally hugs them both, one after the other and then joins them to sit on the seat where the have been sitting before his arrival. “ Seminar attendants please ( the receptionist begin by looking at everyone of the people sitting on the reception chairs ) you can now go up to the third floor ” the receptionist says and Flora, Neha and Sally, with five other people sitting on the chairs too, all stand up from the chairs and then begin to walk to the direction that the receptionist just directed then to, through her finger. They get to a part where they find an elevator and it is Sally who presses the bottom by the entrance, resting on the solid frame of the elevator's door, and the door opens. Sally and everybody that left the reception at the same time, to include Neha and Flora, all walk into the elevator. Sally them presses the bottom on a similar portion of the door's frame. The door closes and the elevator begins to move up to the floors in the upper part of the glass house. They get to the third floor and the elevator stops moving. Sally again walks to the portion of the frame and then presses another bottom for the door to open. The door opens and everyone gets out of the elevator. But before they could all get out, two people, a male and a female arrives at the elevator and then enters as they all get out. They all walk directly to where the conference room is, the room in which the seminar is suppose to hold. They get there and they enter into the conference room.

Already in the conference room are some attendants of the seminar. Mr. Aleric, one of the most popular teachers in the Bhopal College (BC) spear heads the seminar. The seminar is focused on “ Online Job and Working from home ”, a topic that is projected on a white board in the conference room. Aleric's mentorship has been the source of inspiration for the trio of Neha, Flora and Sally. The hall has thirteen attendants already on seat with eight attendants to include Neha, Flora and Sally who just entered, coming from the reception. Majority of the attendants are alumnus of the BC. They all properly enter the conference room and Neha sits on the seat by the right when looking form where Alric stands, with the theme of the seminar been projected behind him. She sits on the fourth seat away from the seat at the edge of the arc formed by the U-curved conference table. To the next role, also on the same side with Neha, but third seat away from the edge of the arc, sits Sally, and to the next seat, the second seat away from the edge of the arc sits Flora. The three of them when in the BC usually sit next to one another and with the same arrangement, Sally usually sit in the middle of the two ladies. They prefer Sally sitting between them, if not, Flora and Neha will always distract each other. It’s not like they do not get to distract one another with Sally in the middle, but the distraction is always minimal as compared to if Neha and Flora seats directly beside each other. The conference goes on for about two hours and everyone of the attendants had said one thing or the other concerning the theme of the conference with Aleric sitting when one person is talking and then resuming the anchoring of the seminar. After everyone, to include Neha, Sally and Flora had said one thing or the other, America then stands up again to round up the seminar .......

“ Telecommuting, where individuals primarily work from sites that are miles away from central offices, is making inroads into India’s work practices. This practice carries several promises but also confronts many hurdles in its adoption. The advantages include reduced traffic congestion and commuter hassles, higher productivity and better work–family balance. The problems it confronts include structural and cultural issues such as lack of adequate infrastructure, societal resistance and organizational culture of command and control. This article proposes many possible solutions to enable telecommuting. These include information dissemination, redesign of jobs and appraisal systems and careful configuration of telecommute programmes .…. ”

Mr. Aleric is presenting, but seeing his chest, Neha remembers her incident with Lucifer. She begins to feel in her head, what Flora had said about him. While in the taught, Flora stones her with a little wrapped paper and she regains her consciousness. “ Neha!!! ” Aleric calls ...

“ Where the hell were you? Where did you take your mind to? Or should I say what were you thinking, what is it that is bothering you? ” America ask Neha

“ Nothing exactly, Nothing! ” Neha replies, trying to comport herself at the same time

“ Then pay attention to whatever we are discussing here please. Your contribution at the end of everything will be very helpful ” Aleric says and then turns to the entire attendants again

“ ......... Everyone should endeavour to get me an article of five pages, written on the challenges of telecommuting, using his or her own experiences. We need to get a journal ready for the achievement of TELECOMMUTING as a school course even if not yet as a department. Thank you and we shall meet again in a week time for compilation ” America tells everybody and then ends the seminar

Everyone stands up from their various seats, shake hand with one another and then exit the conference hall one after the other .......

“ I have a gist for you ” Flora says in a busy body, facing Sally

“ A gist? Tell me about it ..... ” Sally asks, feeling curious

“ It’s Neha ..... ” Flora cuts Sally in

“ What is it about her? ” he also cuts her in due to his high curiosity

While both Sally and Flora are busy discussing about Neha, Neha herself walks to America and says hi to him. She is still with Aleric and they are still discussing about her ……

 “ She got into trouble few days ago ..... ” Flora continues

“ Trouble! When?! ” Sally asks, looking at Neha

Neha who is still discussing with Aleric, turns back and sees him looking at her, so she walks back to them, having finished with her pleasantry exchange with America .....

“ Don’t give me that look! ....... It was all your fault. Both of you, especially you Sally ...... You both left me to walk home alone ...... ” she challenges both of them, especially Sally

“ Really! Is it this much! ...... Can someone tell me what actually happened? ” Sally exclaims, still curious and willing to hear about the incident they are both talking about .......

“ She spilled her coffee on one beautiful young guy on that day .... ”

“ Yes! Exactly after you skate away ...... People were screaming my name and waving at me and it was when I was waving at one police officer while he was going from behind me that this guy called Lucifer turned around to bump into me …... ”

“ Lucifer?! ( Sally asked surprisingly )You guys even know his name already. How come you know this much and I don’t know anything until now? ” he asks, fading Flora

“ Good! I met her yesterday on her way out of the Play On ...... ”

“ To do what at the boutique? ”

“ To buy Lucifer another shirt. The coffee really messed his shirt ”

“ Oh, I see. That was a whole lot of trouble indeed.  Hungry please. Can we go and get something to eat? ”

“ Of course! Let’s go to my home, I will treat you guys fro today ” they leave Mirror House and head to Flora's home for lunch.

Neha works in SWEET RESTAURANT, same restaurant where her mother, Eli works. So she works there every Thursdays and Fridays to assist her mother and to be able to fend more for herself and other family members. She is from a very low income family with two younger brothers of the ages of 19 and 11. She is busy collecting orders from customers who are seated on the tables, taking the orders to the food desk and then taking the ordered food back to the costumers. While doing that, a man, one of the customers from distance calls for an attendant to attend to him. She walks to meet the man and as soon as she gets to the man and sees who it is, she suddenly feels shocked, so also does the man feels shocked after seeing Neha .......