Syndedeménos (Connected)

CHAPTER 16

No clock. No cell phone. There was not a single electronic device that could tell a four-digit number and answer Keenan's question: what time is it now? Keenan finally tasted life without knowing the signs that told time to pass unless he saw a sign from the sky. No one could tell whether it was past midnight or not.

The night went very slowly for Keenan. After spending several hours sitting against the glass wall, Keenan decided to get out of bed. He even intended to not close his eyes at all. He was still wary of the arrival of insects that might jump back into his body.

Silent footsteps hit the tiled floor between the two rows of people who were fast asleep. When walking from one end of the room to the one near the kitchen, ten children are on the left and the rest are on the right. From the moonlight that entered between the glass patches, it was seen that some of the children had pulled the thin cloth that was considered a blanket over their bodies. Some of the other children had come out of their blanket positions and showed sleeping positions with their feet on their friends' bodies.

The only person who stepped foot that night also stopped walking. His footsteps were almost approaching the exit from the bedroom which was always open because there was no door there. He turned his head to the side, where someone had been in a hurry to get up from their sitting position because they saw a figure moving.

"I need to go to the toilet," Keenan said to Mateo who was already looking at him with a sneer.

Mateo also followed Keenan to the front door of his destination even though Mateo's actions were not needed because Keenan could not escape other than through the dining room. After doing one of the basic human needs, Keenan came out of the toilet and prepared to speak a dialogue that he knew the person beside him would not reply.

"I can't sleep in there and will be in the dining room until morning. It shouldn't be a problem because keeping me in the dining room will be easier."

There was no answer from Mateo either a nod or a shake. Keenan didn't even intend to ask permission for his actions, so Keenan immediately took the seat farthest from the exit in the dining room so that his words could be trusted more by Mateo.

Although Keenan said that he wanted to sleep, he didn't feel sleepy at all. As he sat down he continued to think about the past when he had contributed to his father's company. His mind kept working like a computer that forgot to turn off.

When seen in the mass media, Keenan Aldrich had the life that everyone dreams of. He had lived well, had achievements in his father's company and was still able to live his teenage life at school. But the achievements he had made had an impact on the lives and futures of the employees at his father's company. With the data analysis made, Keenan had suggested firing almost a third of the employees of the wine companies he worked with.

In addition to solving internal problems, Keenan had also provided analytical data regarding distributors who had relationships with the company. With the target to be achieved, the distributors had been fôrced to release the supply of goods from the wine factories which became their main sales and experienced a decrease in turnover of at least five hundred percent.

And to prevent a massive demonstration, the data created by Keenan had been manipulated again by the company's directors. Then they too could blame the people concerned on the basis of exaggerated mistakes. The public should not know anything about Keenan's role in the riots that occurred last year and neither should Keenan's involvement in the Marygold hotel scandal. No. Except for the people in the company who had betrayed and wanted to bring Keenan down.

Aquila said that he had a boss who ordered him so Keenan tried to dig up his memory of the people he knew to be matched with the potential person of Aquila's boss. Keenan's mind traced all the movements of the people around his life. Starting from Tobias Foxglove, as a commissioner of his father's parent company and also the older brother of Keenan's stepmother. Until one by one other people who are in his father's company. The bottom line was that too many people want him out of the position he will accept next week.

So many people didn't want Keenan to be a manager at such a young age. Of course. All seniors in the company would feel Keenan was not competent enough compared to themselves. Although no one knows what had been sacrificed by an eighteen year old boy who would be officially appointed as manager of his father's company next week.

Why hasn't there been any word from Sean at all?

From the bottom of his heart, Keenan hoped for outside help while he only planned something simple to survive in this building temporarily. He was too tired to analyze everything that was going on in his mind. Maybe also because his sleepiness had started to come when the sun was about to rise, Keenan felt himself increasingly helpless.

*****

Keenan opened his eyes and found a familiar box on the side of his face. In addition to the black lunch box, there was a tote bag full enough for its contents to stick out. When he raised his head from the pillow, Keenan felt a pain in the back of his neck which indicated that he had slept for a long time with a sideways position.

Maybe Keenan had only slept for two to three hours because he hadn't missed breakfast. The children made their beds in the next room and the adults and several children were busy preparing breakfast in the corner of the same room where Keenan was sleeping. Loud noises began to sound in Keenan's ears and maybe it was the sound that woke him up.

After Keenan's eyes blinked a few times, he realized that someone was watching him from across the seat. That person was the one who brought Keenan breakfast and bags. The direction of the person's eyes shifted from the cell phone screen to the person who had just woken up from his sleep, until finally Keenan returned his gaze.

"Eat that before children come," said Aquila while pointing at black colored box beside Keenan.

Keenan didn't hear well what Aquila said. But he just nodded resignedly with his eyes still blinking and trying to be fully awake. Then Keenan also chose the activity of washing his face as a medium used to make him aware.