A NARROW ESCAPE

Generated by Meta AI

I couldn't believe What had just happened. I pinched myself to check if I was dreaming. What was I going to do now? I thought to myself Questions upon questions kept running through my mind as I stood in front of the ironing table, staring at the cloth I had just burnt. I had successfully gotten myself in big trouble.

I observed the dress, seeing if there was any way I could salvage the situation or patch it up, but it was badly burnt. How had I made such a stupid mistake? I scolded myself for the fifth time at that moment. I knew for sure that my boss wouldn't take it likely with me. But that was not what scared me the most. It was the owner of the dress that got me trembling to my knees. Why her dress of all the customers we had? I cried in a loud voice. I looked around the shop, I was alone. My colleagues had gone for their break at a restaurant opposite the street. I was supposed to finish up ironing the dress and meet them there, but then this had to happen.

I couldn't help but shake with fear. My boss was supposed to walk in any moment from now. She went to deliver some clothes to a client some hours ago and should soon be back by now.

"Why me?" I said out loud to no one in particular.

I couldn't think straight, my palms were all sweaty, shaking with fear even. I pushed the material to the far end of the table like it was a curse. I didn't know how long I stood there, thinking about a solution. I was sure the iron wasn't too hot. So how come the dress had got burnt? It had to be high current, I concluded. Just then, my boss walked in to see me standing near the table with shaky palms and a sweaty face. As if reading my thoughts, she immediately knew what had happened.

" You've burnt the dress" she said, surprised and angry at the same time.

"I um..." I tried to speak, but no words came out.

" For Christ's sake, this is Mrs Adora's dress. That woman is a troublesome woman, you know how she is " she said again, adding to my already frantic state.

Mrs Adora is a no-nonsense woman, one of our biggest clients at that. Money was never a problem for her as far as we delivered. She is that kind of woman that holds her things we such value and pride. And often prided about how she bought her materials in Ghana, China, India and the rest. And unfortunately for me, this material I had just burnt was the one she said to have bought in China. It wasn't the kind of material you would just go to the market and see. It was an exceptionally rare material.

And to top it all, she was supposed to come tomorrow to collect the dress. This was a recipe for disaster. We were doomed. Knowing the kind of woman she was, she would bring down this place or worse, get me arrested, if I couldn't afford to pay for the damage. And God knew I was penniless. I was just an apprentice, I wasn't earning a salary or anything of that sort. Not to talk of paying for a material as expensive as this.

" Ma, I'm sorry, it was an honest mistake", I began pleading with her, suddenly finding my voice.

" The current went up high suddenly while I was ironing, that's why it got burnt" I said, trying to explain myself.

However, she paid no heed to what I was saying. Lost in her own anger. I could literally see smoke coming off of her. She rendered insults upon me, and I couldn't help but stand there and quietly and swallow all of it. Soon after, she stomped off inside her office and came back with the same material, spread it on the table and began cutting it. I stood there dumbfounded. Where did this other one come from?

Still perplexed as ever, I watched as she cut exactly the same style as the other one and handed it over to me.

"You're lucky the material remained enough to sew another one." She said to me.

" Now start sewing and finish up this dress before you leave here. If you damage this one again, you'll pay for it" she said sternly, and left me to my work.

I quickly sprung into action, making sure to be extra careful as I sewed the dress. The next day she stopped by to collect the dress. It fitted her perfectly, and there was no problem. As she left, my colleagues began teasing me, having found out what had happened yesterday.

" Amarachi imagine if there was no extra material remaining to re-sew back the dress. " Faith, one of my colleagues said.

" That would have been a recipe for disaster" I said, and they all laughed at that.