"Working for the Canadian government is the worst job one can get in Ottawa, except for all the others," Rupert Jacques said to himself, with a deep sigh. Sitting inside the quaint little café located near the empty hotel across from the Ottawa Public Library, the well-dressed, ambitious young black man wondered what exactly he was doing when his life went to hell. I can remember feeling hopeful once upon a time, Rupert thought, lamenting his fate.
It was one o'clock, and Rupert was on his hourlong break, supposedly enjoying lunch. The café was quite busy, even with the Covid mess going on. A pretty redhead giggled with her friend, a well-dressed young black woman. A slim, dark-haired Caucasian male walked in, with his portly and somewhat effeminate Asian male friend. Both of them looked around the café and glanced at Rupert, who looked away while sipping his coffee. He was not looking for anything, thank you very much.
Rupert's lunch consisted of an egg sandwich, hash browns and overly sugared coffee, typically breakfast fare but the brother does not care. Rupert looked around the café, wondering if anyone felt as uneasy as he did. He recognized several faces, people who worked in the same building he did. Everyone seemed to be having a dandy old time, and Rupert resented them for it. Rupert wanted everyone to feel his pain...
In the City of Ottawa, Ontario, lots of young men and women of African descent graduate from Algonquin College, La Cite Collegiale, Carleton University, Saint Paul University and the University of Ottawa, only to end up working at Starbucks, Walmart or Home Depot, while their white counterparts get all the good jobs. The few minorities who get hired by the government are told they ought to consider themselves lucky, and they better perform well and never complain, lest they get removed.
Rupert knows this, of course. Born in the City of Ouanaminthe, Republic of Haiti, and raised in the environs of Orleans, Ontario, Rupert is the son of two worlds. The six-foot-two, lean and athletic, dark-skinned brother speaks Haitian Creole as fluently as he speaks Canadian English and French. Educated at Carleton University, where he graduated in the top five percentile in the accounting program, Rupert thought he'd finally made it when he got hired by Canada Revenue Agency. If the brother only knew what he was in for...
Place De Ville is a vast complex housing multiple towers, all of which are occupied by employees of Canada Revenue Agency. There's a dismal little cafeteria that sells lousy food even in the best of times. Rupert works in the seventh floor, and wonders why in hell he fought so hard to get there in the first place. Not a day goes by that Rupert doesn't find himself the recipient of fake smiles and hostile glances from his so-called colleagues and workplace pals. This place is a snake pit, Rupert quietly laments.
A tall, dark-skinned and strongly built black man in white spaces can and will attract stares, and Rupert knows he can't escape that. Thus far, Rupert has managed to avoid any entanglements with any of his co-workers. One of the first people whom Rupert had to deal with was a creepy old bugger named Charles Hughes, a bearded old white dude who stared into Rupert's eyes longingly whenever they ran into each other. Translation? Hughes is into men, and quite insistently at that.
"Not interested," Rupert told Hughes quite firmly, on that fateful afternoon when the old buzzard accosted him in the cafeteria. Rupert had been dining alone, trying to enjoy lukewarm curry and a can of Pepsi. Hughes gawked at Rupert, visibly shocked by his rejection. Apparently, the old creep is used to getting his way with younger men. Rupert is able to see beauty in both women and men, but creepy old bozos are not his thing. Fortunately, Hughes got the hint and walked away.
Rupert watched Hughes walk away and repressed a shudder, wondering whether the old creep was going to become one of those stalkers that he read about in crime thrillers. Men who stalk men are definitely one of those social problems that society doesn't pay attention to. After all, there's a creepy makeup artist with an online following who targets heterosexual men and he seemingly can't take no for an answer. It took the intervention of female celebrities to expose the creepy makeup artist as the predator he was. What a world.
