Sorry Not Sorry

It's hard to be funny when making a follow-up call to collect your money.

Lemme take you back to the events that led to that follow-up call, made on June 3rd, 2022.

2ND JUNE 2022

I was in a state of despair. I had lost my Bible-Hope. And this led me to make a rash decision.

I was walking around the city center [Mombasa] with t-shirts. I saw a Toyota Probox parked adjacent to Mvita Clinic.

So I approached the driver.

"Hi. My name is Kennedy. I am selling Polo t-shirts. Are you willing to have a look and buy?"

"Sure!"

The driver selects the ones he likes.

"What's the price?"

"500KES each"

"Give me a discount."

"Well, they'll be 400KES each after applying the discount."

"Come on! I picked six t-shirts. I'll give you 300KES for each."

300KES is a significant loss. However, I saw the 1,800KES as adequate compensation for running a Facebook ad and attracting more customers.

"Okay! I'll accept 300KES for each t-shirt."

"I won't pay the whole amount now."

"Why not?"

"I need to go to Mtwapa and fit the t-shirts. Then I'll let you know which ones didn't fit so that you can replace them with other t-shirts that will fit me. "

My facial expression had hesitation written all over it.

"Look, I'll send you 1,000KES to your M-Pesa now, then you'll get the balance after I fit the t-shirts."

I nodded.

Surprisingly, he only sent 650KES. That's the first red flag I ignored.

*****

QF2821R9L8 Confirmed.You have received Ksh650.00 from M*****D K****M 0724*****7 on 2/6/22 at 4:34 PM New M-PESA balance is Ksh***.00.Download M-PESA app on http://bit.ly/mpesappsm & get 500MB.

*****

Ignorance is a deserted road! What was I doing?

3RD JUNE 2022

I called the debtor at around half past noon.

"Hello!"

"Hi. My name is Kennedy, the guy who gave you t-shirts yesterday---"

"Let's talk when I get off the Masjid."

"Sure!" 

I hang up. 

He never called back. So I made a follow-up call some minutes past 1400 hours. 

He didn't receive my call.

I wanted to redial, but I assumed maybe he was very busy. I decided to text him instead. 

*****

Kindly pay the remaining balance. 1,150KES.

If the t-shirts didn't fit, direct me where to pick them up in Mtwapa. 

Kennedy. 

*****

I didn't get a reply; he didn't return my call. 

1500 hours, 1600 hours... 2359 hours. I still didn't want to accept the fact that I would never get paid.

It was so stupid of me to trust a stranger. 

My despair left me more broke and with additional problems that could have been avoided.

I think I should begin self-therapy via EnkiQuotes: Don't blame people for disappointing you; blame yourself for expecting too much from them.