GENESIS

Chapter 1 of the book-“NON-CONTRADICTORY CONTRADICTIONS”

I. Genesis

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realised they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” 11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” 12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me-she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate it.” 14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” 17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Genesis: Chapter 3:1-19 (The Holy Bible, New International Version)

1

The smell was almost unbearable. Today he could use the words “almost unbearable,” something that he could not have done on the first day. This was now the third day and somehow, he was beginning to get used to the smell. He had no choice really, because he was in a filthy jail cell.

He was in a section of the prison which had originally been reserved for the most dangerous,  troublesome and uncooperative inmates. It had been the solitary confinement section. Now, however, the section had lost its solitary confinement status due to overcrowding in the prison complex. The cell he was in, had been intended to accommodate just one person but with his incarceration three days ago, the crowded cell which had been holding six people, now had seven. Seven people were packed in a cell meant to hold only one person.

The seven prisoners had to eat whatever little food they were given in that little cell. They also had to relieve themselves in one corner of the cell where there was a hole that served as the toilet. On the first day, he could barely watch as one after the other, his fellow inmates would squat at this hole and empty their bowels. Then, he could not imagine himself doing the same thing. But now, on the third day, after having avoided squatting at the hole for three days, he knew the inevitable was going to happen. Any moment now, he would have no choice but to squat at that filthy hole and provide himself with some much needed relief.

He had long suspected that jail conditions in this small African country were bad, but this far exceeded what he had imagined. He felt sure he was going to contract some terrible disease and probably die from it. Under conditions like this, any jail sentence was a death sentence.

Why had his life come to this? He had been a respected banker, his career heading for great heights. But look at him now, locked up with six criminals. He was not a criminal, not really, well, not in the same way that these other guys were criminals. He had not meant to do it. What man could have said “no” to a girl like that? It had not seemed to be anything illegal at first, but as time went on, he should have refused to go along with it. It was stealing. He knew he was stealing but he still did it. All because he could not face the thought of losing this girl, or perhaps, the lure of easy money also had a great deal to do with it.

Putting all these thoughts aside. He went to the corner. Despite having not relieved himself for about three days, his extreme anxiety caused nothing to come out when he squatted over the hole. He was in pain. He greatly felt the need to empty his bowels, but nothing was coming out. He looked around the cell assuming that his fellow inmates would be staring at him. Strangely enough, no one in the cell seemed to take any notice of what he was doing or about to do. They all seemed to be cocooned in their own little worlds. They were really like zombies, unaware of any activities taking place around them. To his relief, there was a loud noise beneath him as he broke wind. Everything poured out in a rush soon afterwards as his bowels emptied. Still, nobody seemed to take any notice of him.

2

Peter had been gainfully employed by one of the upcoming, small but highly innovative banks in the former communist country. He was branch manager of one of the bank’s outlets located in a new affluent suburb of the city. He had been running the branch for slightly over a year when Head Office sent him a graduate trainee who was being groomed for a managerial post within the organisation. This is when his quiet comfortable life was turned upside down.

The graduate trainee was a young woman of twenty five named Victoria, whom the bank thought showed some promise. Peter, of course, was expected to give her all the support she needed to progress in her banking career. The moment he laid eyes on Victoria he had a strange feeling that things at his branch were never going to be the same again. Victoria was the most beautiful, most attractive woman he had ever seen. It was obvious that he was not alone and shared this opinion with countless others. The few male officers at the branch could be observed struggling to hide their naked desires whenever she walked past. The female clerks were also affected but in a way that said, “Why did you have to be transferred to this branch? You are grabbing all the masculine attention and there is none left for us.”

Victoria worked closely with Peter’s “second-in-command,” popularly referred to as the “2-i-c.” This was the branch’s assistant manager who was an elderly woman approaching retirement. Her name was Mrs. Joana Maphureng. Peter had sometimes wondered why the bank had employed someone who seemed to be close to retirement but the answer he always got when the issue came up, was that Mrs. Maphureng had been quite useful in assisting the bank expand its retail branch network. Peter himself suspected that his “2-i-c” was there because of her close relationship to the Chief Executive Officer of the bank. To be fair, she was a good administrator with genuine extensive banking experience.

After Victoria had been at the bank for three months, the assistant manager was allowed to go on leave for a period of six weeks and, during Mrs. Maphureng’s absence, Victoria was given the opportunity to act in her capacity. Peter, who had been struggling to gather enough courage to ask Victoria to go out on a date, had his problem solved by Victoria because she was the one who suggested they go to have a drink at a nearby cafe, after work on the first Friday of her first week as acting “2-i-c”.

The evening did not just end with “the cafe drinks”. During the drinks, the issue of dinner came up and they agreed to go to a restaurant where they would have dinner and “see what happens afterwards.” The “see what happens afterwards” was really in Peter’s mind as it had not been specifically discussed. Well, he could not see too much of a problem as they were “both single and out on a date on a Friday night.”

Just as Peter desired, that first evening together was the start of a steamy love affair. After this first evening, they were now spending all their evenings together. Victoria had a brother who worked at the only casino in town. Although Peter was not a gambler, he found himself spending some time at this casino with Victoria. The two lovers would not gamble heavily. They just enjoyed “throwing away” a few dollars at the slot machines.

One Saturday night, however, Victoria suggested they try their luck at the poker table which was being manned by her brother, whose name was, not surprisingly, Victor. Between them, they actually won about two thousand dollars and Peter was amazed at how easy it had seemed. On their way home, Victoria intimated that the winnings had something to do with her brother, Victor. She seemed to imply that Victor had a way of “dealing them a good hand” which ensured that they came out with some money. Peter did not really give the incident much thought but what happened the following weekend made him question Victoria more closely about what exactly was “going on” with her brother.

Their second night at the poker table, they won $10 000. Peter was astounded! Victoria explained that Victor and some of his colleagues who worked at other tables in the casino, had a way of making sure that certain patrons went away with big winnings. She also said that if Peter wanted to make real big money, he should give her $30 000 the following week and she would give it to her brother who would hand it to his colleagues who would, in turn, “assist in making sure the funds are trebled” in one night. Peter believed her but pointed out that he did not have $30 000. This is when she suggested that they could “borrow” the money from the bank on a Friday and “repay” (return it to the vault) on the following Monday after having used it to create more money. Peter was not quite happy with what Victoria was suggesting they do but she managed to convince him that there was absolutely no risk as “multiplying” the money at the casino would be a sure thing.

Against his better judgement, Peter allowed himself to be persuaded to take out the $30 000 on the very next Friday. Taking out the money was easy because he and Victoria were the two vault custodians. Victoria was going to give the money to her brother before he went to work the next day, Saturday.

Saturday night, Peter and Victoria went to the casino but did not gamble at the poker table or any other table. They were happy to spend time “having fun” at the slot machines. They lost some money at the machines but did not mind this as they knew that the very next day they would have a lot of money. Sure enough, at around midday on Sunday, Victoria and Peter met with Victoria’s brother at his apartment and they were shown “a cool $100 000” parcel.

“Just like that. Amazing !” Peter said to Victoria.

“Yes, just like that,” agreed Victoria.

The profit element of the money, that is $70 000, was going to be shared between Peter and Victor on a 50/50 percentage basis. Peter and Victoria, therefore, walked away with $65 000, which included their initial investment of $30 000. The “seed money” of $30 000 was, of course, going to be returned to the bank. The two lovers were going to spend their profit of $35 000 in whatever manner they would choose.

3

Peter could not go over the ease with which they had “turned $30 000 into $100 000.” He started wondering whether they could do it again and make some more money. Before he could raise the issue with Victoria, the assistant manager, Mrs. Maphureng came back from leave. Peter’s thoughts had been gravitating towards “borrowing” a large amount of money from the bank’s vault again. This “borrowing” route now seemed unlikely with Mrs. Maphureng’s return. Getting the $30 000 which Victor had “multiplied” to $100 000 had been easy because Peter and Victoria had been the two vault custodians. The assistant manager’s return made things difficult because Mrs. Maphureng resumed her duties as co-custodian.

As if Victoria had been reading his thoughts, she surprisingly, indicated that it should still be possible for Peter to “borrow” money from the bank despite Mrs. Maphureng’s return. Peter did not see how the “borrowing” could be done without Mrs. Maphureng’s cooperation and there was no way he was going to ask his assistant manager to cooperate in “stealing money” from the bank. Victoria, however, insisted it could be easier than Peter thought. She told Peter to observe how Mrs. Maphureng set the opening combination for her dial on the “double dial” vault door. Victoria pointed out that when two custodians worked together for a long time, they developed a certain level of trust between them and they start to make short cuts, thus compromising the objective of the institution of dual control. After some time of working together, tasks that operational procedures say should be confirmed independently by each custodian, begin to be done by one person with the other custodian just countersigning as if he or she had carried out the check independently. This lax attitude can also manifest itself at the time of opening the vault door. In the proper procedure, the person who is working on his or her dial should perform the duty in such a way as to ensure that the colleague does not see the combination numbers. As time goes on, however, one or both custodians stop to think of their partners as potential threats and will become careless and stop ensuring that their colleague does not see their combination numbers.

Although Peter had expressed a lot of scepticism when Victoria was explaining her “mutual trust theory,” he began to think that there might be something to it. He found himself looking carefully at Mrs. Maphureng as she applied her combination to her dial. Sure enough on all the occasions he had observed so far, the elderly lady did not seem to be taking all the precautions. She would just get to the door and “twirl away” without a care in the world. Peter began to think that it might be possible to memorise all the combination numbers as Mrs. Maphureng worked on her dial. He devised a plan. He was not going to try to memorise all the numbers in one day. He would do it over a three day period. The combination set was composed of six numbers and he was going to take note of the first two numbers on day one, the second two numbers on day two and the last numbers on the third day.

Peter was surprised at how easy it had been to get Mrs. Maphureng’s combination. He realised he could have taken note of all the numbers on the first day if he had wanted to. He had, however, stuck to his plan and obtained all the numbers over the planned three day period.

One Friday, Peter and Victoria remained at the bank doing some paper work after the vault door had been locked up for the weekend. After half an hour of pretending to work at his desk, Peter called Victoria over to the vault door and with a smile worked on Mrs. Maphureng’s dial, then his own and swung the door open. They decided to “borrow” $500 000 as they did not intend to do this again. With $500 000 invested, Victor would hopefully make so much money none of them would have to do something like this again.

Victor and his colleagues would work with the money on both Friday and Saturday nights and see how much they would raise. Victoria was convinced they could end up with more than $2 million after “two day’s work”, which would enable them to put back in the bank the $500 000 and still remain with over $1 million.

“Imagine raising a million dollars just like that,” Peter thought greedily.

On the other hand, “borrowing” $500 000 from the bank made him uncomfortable. Who wouldn’t be uncomfortable? It was a lot of money after all. He kept on telling himself, however, that the risk was negligible. He convinced himself of this although he did not know exactly how Victoria’s brother and his friends would manage to multiply the money. There were other questions he should also have asked himself. If it was so easy, why were these guys still working at the casino? For that matter, did Victoria really need this job at the bank when she had a brother who could “create” money? But he did not ask himself all these questions.

Victoria and Peter took the money to Victor later that evening before he started his shift at the casino. After handing over the money, they went to a restaurant for dinner. Peter did not have an appetite. He kept on thinking that he had just handed over $500 000 of the bank’s money without solid guarantees that he would get it back. Victoria assured him that all would be well by Sunday morning as they would have not only the bank’s money back, but huge profits as well.

As before, midday Sunday, they went to see Victor. They took with them two cases as they intended to put the $500 000 to be returned to the bank in one case and the rest of the money in the other. Peter was relieved to find out that Victor actually had the money together with a handsome profit of $1 300 000. So Victor handed over $1 150 000, the “investment amount” of $500 000 and the 50% profit share amounting to $650 000. As planned, they placed the bundles that made up the $500 000 into one case and the $650 000 in the other case. On their way to Peter’s apartment, they stopped at the main railway station where they rented a locker into which they placed the case with the $650 000 less $10 000 which Peter said they could enjoy during the week. Victoria indicated that she was happy to have Peter keep the key to the locker. She trusted him, she said.

Victoria did not accompany Peter to his apartment this time. She asked to be dropped off at her own place as she was expecting some family members to visit her later that day. Before Peter reached his own apartment, he decided to stop at a service station to fill up the car with fuel. When it was time to pay the fuel attendant, he decided to pull out one bill from the $10 000 he had pocketed from the money that he had just collected from Victor. When he gave the money, which was a $100 bill, to the attendant, the young man looked carefully at the bill and then at Peter. Then he said, “Sir, this money is fake.” Peter said that was not possible and he took back the bill to look at it closely. When he examined the bill closely he wondered why he had not noticed that the money was counterfeit. It was clearly a forgery.

“Look, I got this money from the bank on Friday and it looks like they actually gave me forgeries,” Peter said to the fuel attendant who looked at him with a look that said, “Oh yeah! I don’t believe you. You were trying to pull a fast one on me.” Peter then quickly pulled out his wallet and selected smaller bills which were more than enough to pay for the fuel. “Keep the change,” he said. The young man put away the money after having examined it very carefully to make sure it was genuine.

When Peter got to his apartment, he took out the $10 000 from the casino money and examined it. Sure enough the rest of it was fake money. The entire $10 000 was made up of fake money. His heart began to pound fast. He pulled the case with the $500 000 towards him and opened it. He examined the money and to his horror, the money was counterfeit. Peter was now in a state of panic. This could not be happening. He took out his mobile phone and called Victoria’s number. There was no answer from Victoria. Her phone was ringing but there was no answer. Peter decided to drive out to her place.

When he arrived at the apartment, he discovered that she was not there. She had indicated that she was expecting some family members to visit her but now she was not home. Well, maybe she discovered she did not have something for the kitchen and decided to go to the shops. But why was she not answering her phone? He had to talk to her. This was a nightmare!

He decided to go back to the railway station to collect the other case and check the rest of the casino money. He collected the case and drove back to his apartment. His worst fears were confirmed when he opened the case and examined the money. Unbelievably, it was all fake money.

The full import of what was happening began to sink in. He, Peter, had been taken for a ride. This was a con of major proportions. Where was Victoria? Was she somehow involved in this scam? No, that could not be. Not Victoria. He would try her apartment again. He drove all the way back to her apartment but she was not there. Well, she was sure to be at the office the following day. But what was he going to do about replacing the bank’s money? He decided that he would still take the fake money, the $500 000 in one case and make sure it was placed in the vault in such a way that it would not be given to the cashiers to pay out to customers. He would, then, have to come up with a plan to replace the fake money with genuine notes.

4

On getting to the office the next day, he soon realised something was extremely wrong. He had arrived very early so that he could quickly put away the money in the vault before the staff arrived. Today, however, Victoria, who would normally arrive before him on these Mondays, was not there. He began to think that she had run away. But no, she could not run away. She had a job at the bank, or did she? He was relieved to hear somebody arrive and to see that it was Victoria. He wanted desperately to ask her where she had been the day before when he had wanted to tell her about the fake money. Her greeting told him straight away that he was going to be in for a tough time. Although nobody was around, she was calling him “Sir” and pretending that they did not have a close intimate relationship. She was acting as if nothing had happened between them. He was shocked. Is this how this is going to play out? Victoria pretending that nothing had been going on while he is left holding the can. No wonder why she had “trusted” him to keep the key to the safe deposit locker with the “$640 000.” He now knew he was in deep trouble. This was now going to be just his baby, so it seemed, despite the fact that they had been in it together.

The whole day, he could hardly concentrate on his job, all the time trying to figure out how he was going to get out of his predicament. He was now sure that if he were to go and talk to Victoria’s brother, he would also pretend that nothing had gone on between them. When they closed the bank for the day, Peter rushed to Victor’s place. He found him getting ready to go to the casino but of course, he pretended that he had never seen Peter in his life before. Victor actually got angry and told Peter he was mad and should go away before he called the police. Peter was truly troubled. Why was this happening to him?

Peter went back to his place, still wrestling with trying to find a solution to his problem. After a considerable length of time he decided to take $50 000 of the fake money (part of the $650 000 “profit”) to the casino in the faint hope of somehow gambling his way out of his problems. In his panic he thought he could use the fake money to place some bets and hope that he wins enough money to replace the bank’s $500 000 or at least a significant portion of it. The fact that he could be caught at the casino trying to use fake money and get into further trouble did not seem to occur to him.

At the casino, the moment he tried to buy some gambling chips with the fake money, he was arrested by security personnel. Casinos are very alert to people who might want to pass counterfeit notes. The security guys searched him and found that he actually had $50 000 of fake money on him. The casino called the police and two detectives took him away. Although, the police did not have a search warrant, Peter did not object when they decided to go with him to his apartment first before taking him to the police station. Of course, at the apartment they found the rest of the fake money and Peter knew he was in real deep, deep trouble.

The next chapter-Exodus- will be published not later than Friday, 19 November 2010.

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