Hamisi was waiting for Mariam in the canteen before the shift began.
It was 06:25. Most chairs were still upside down on the tables, and the kitchen worker was boiling tea in a large pot. Hamisi held a sheet of paper folded twice.
Mariam saw it and stopped.
“You wrote it?”
He nodded.
“You are sure?”
“Yes.”
She pulled out a chair and sat across from him.
“Before I read it, I want you to know you can take it back and leave.”
Hamisi frowned. “I woke up early to write this and now you are telling me to leave?”
“I am telling you your signature is not a debt you owe me. If you sign, the words have to be yours.”
He looked at the folded paper and set it on the table.
“I wrote what I remember.”
Mariam opened it.
The first part was clean: Friday, the Bay Three scanner problem, the supervisor terminal, the ticket showing Mariam’s employee number.
The second paragraph was not.
Victor wanted Mariam gone, it said, and that was why the access was disabled.
Mariam pushed the page back.
“Did you see that?”
Hamisi read the line. “No. But everyone—”
“Then remove it.”
His irritation surfaced immediately. “Do you want my help or not?”
“I want help that can survive the same question six months from now.”
Hamisi took the pen and struck the sentence through.
A few lines later, Mariam found another statement: Management planned to reduce two people.
“Did you see this yourself?”
“Salim told me.”
“Did Salim see it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Remove it.”
Hamisi exhaled hard, but crossed that out too.
What remained was narrower.
Friday morning, around 10:10 to 10:20, Hamisi had been at the supervisor terminal while an IT technician repaired the Bay Three scanner. The ticket list was open. He saw a request with Mariam’s employee number and the action `user access revoke`. The status showed approved by operations supervisor. He did not open the ticket details, did not see an approver name and did not know the reason.
Mariam read it twice.
“That is exactly what you saw?”
“Yes.”
“You can say this in front of HR?”
Hamisi glanced toward the canteen door. “Yes. But I do not want my name turned into gossip around the depot.”
“No one is asking for that.”
“Victor controls overtime.”
Mariam went quiet.
Hamisi had two children. Overtime was not a bonus to him. It paid school expenses. Becoming a witness was not a symbolic act of friendship. It was a risk to ordinary life.
“Then write that you prefer the statement used only for the HR case or mediation unless wider disclosure becomes formally necessary.”
“Will they respect that?”
“I do not know. But your preference belongs in the record.”
He added the sentence.
The kitchen worker placed two glasses of tea on the table without asking.
Mariam started to object.
Hamisi said, “Today I am paying.”
“Do not turn this into a celebration.”
“It is tea, Mariam.”
They both laughed, briefly.
Then Hamisi said, “I slept badly.”
“Because of this?”
“Yes. I kept thinking that if I say I saw the ticket, someone will say I was looking at a screen I had no business looking at.”
“You were there because of the scanner repair.”
“I know. But when people want to make you the problem, they take something small.”
Mariam understood that sentence too well.
“That is why your statement must contain nothing beyond what you personally saw in that situation.”
They edited again.
Hamisi changed I read the ticket to I saw the ticket in the list because he had never opened it. He changed Victor approved it to status showed approved by operations supervisor.
Mariam did not prompt him this time. He was learning the distinction himself.
“You see?” she said. “Now it belongs to you.”
“It sounds weaker.”
“It sounds narrow. Narrow is not weak.”
Hamisi signed at the bottom, added the date and time, then copied the statement by hand. He did not want to use the office photocopier before the shift began.
Mariam took the original.
“Thank you.”
“Do not thank me too much. I am still scared.”
“You can be scared and still say what you saw.”
Before the tea was finished, two workers entered the canteen talking about pallets stuck in the yard.
Hamisi stopped speaking until they passed.
Mariam watched his shoulders tighten, his voice drop, his eyes move toward the door whenever someone came in.
That was when she understood that witness consent was not a signature at the bottom of a page. It had to be respected at every step.
“When I submit this,” she said, “I will repeat your confidentiality preference in front of you.”
Hamisi nodded. “Then I can stand there.”
He folded his duplicate.
“There is something else.”
Mariam looked at him.
“Last year there was an inventory worker. Rose.”
“I remember her a little.”
“She spent almost two weeks coming to work with no duties. The system said active. People thought she had done something wrong.”
“Were you involved?”
“No. I only saw her on the floor without assignments.”
“What happened?”
“She left.”
“Resigned?”
“I don’t know.”
Mariam closed Hamisi’s statement.
“Then we build nothing on it.”
He looked surprised. “You do not want to find her?”
“Not now.”
“What if it is a pattern?”
“Someone else’s story may help later. It may also pull me away from the facts I already have. I have enough to take the next step.”
Hamisi shook his head. “Anyone else would already be searching for Rose online.”
“I want to. That is exactly why I will not.”
At 06:55, workers began coming in for quick tea before the shift. Hamisi put his duplicate inside his wallet. Mariam placed the original in the envelope with the HR receipt.
As they walked out, Denis passed them and looked once at Hamisi.
He said nothing.
Hamisi’s shoulders tightened.
“You can still change your mind before the statement is used,” Mariam said.
“I signed.”
“A signature does not make you my prisoner.”
“I know.”
They walked toward the warehouse. A supervisor called Hamisi over to discuss weekend overtime. He answered normally, but Mariam saw him push the duplicate note deeper inside his vest.
His fear was not dramatic.
It was practical. Quiet. Daily.
That was what gave the signature weight.
Before they separated, Hamisi stopped.
“Mariam.”
“Yes?”
He touched the folded copy in his inner pocket.
“You are not the first person to come here every day and still be given no work.”
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