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YOUR SPEECH THANKS THE PERSON WHO TOOK THE CREDIT. THE WOMAN WHO DID THE WORK IS WATCHING.

Tomorrow, you will accept an award for your community project.

Tonight, you are rehearsing.

The speech is polished. The sponsor has approved it. Even the pauses for applause have been considered.

You reach the sentence thanking your mentor for the original idea.

At the back of the room, your colleague looks up.

She remembers the beginning.

The unpaid months. The work nobody wanted to support. The mentor who opposed the idea—until donors became interested.

Now that mentor is about to receive a beautiful thank-you.

Your colleague will receive a seat in the audience.

You stop reading.

Unfortunately, the person being thanked has influence over the funding that keeps the project alive.

Correct the speech, and you could put that relationship at risk.

Read it unchanged, and tomorrow your voice will help make a false version of events official.

Uncle Rwamiti is testing the speakers.

“We can hear you,” he calls from the back.

Your colleague looks up again.

He lowers the volume.

“Is that the version you want us to hear?”

You glance at the speech.

For years, you have said honesty matters. You have encouraged younger colleagues to speak up. You have complained about people who take credit for other people’s work.

Tomorrow, there will be a microphone.

And consequences.

Your colleague gathers her things. Before you appoint yourself her champion, perhaps you should ask what she wants.

Does she want her name in the speech?

A private correction?

Or simply to stop hearing someone else praised for the beginning she remembers?

The microphone goes live for one final practice.

Now you must choose.

Rewrite the speech tonight?

Ask your colleague what she wants?

Bring her and the mentor together to review how the project actually began?

This is “Applause for Stolen Work,” an adult game from Uncle Rwamiti: Your Move.

You make the choices. The story shows what follows.

Play free:
https://www.unclerwamiti.com/?story=the-rehearsal

Then tell me: what would be hardest for you to risk—the funding, the relationship, or your colleague’s trust?

Uncle Rwamiti, the uncle your parents should probably never have introduced you to.

Your move.