It was an exhilarating evening as Lazzo was treated to an avalanche of his favourite hard drink!
As usual Maria the matriarch of the ‘Women’s Emancipation Front’ in the hood was done with her errands of mealie-meal collection for onward delivery to a bereaved home helped by her fraternity.
The old man who himself was a lifetime member of the watering hole had been found lifeless ostensibly due to the biting cold he had been exposed to than the small bottle of alcohol found in his faded checked jacket pocket.
After a drinking binge, he had failed to reach home and was far away from its perimeter. This turned out to be  a long tale of the hood!
Many blamed the owner of a house nearby who should have taken him in but failed to act the Good Samaritan way.
Someone said something about the old guard inevitably departing one after the other living the younger generation to its own devices.  But another imbiber contented that it was the other way round.
He asserted that the younger generation consisted of a daring cadre of resilient youngsters who in their relentless outreach for adventure sooner or later met their Waterloo long before their time!
The man with a slanting forehead usually mistaken for someone from a neighbouring country said he wondered why society was gripped by a spirit of dishonesty.
He made the observation after the failed Good Samaritan insisted that he did not recognise the beleaguered and late member of the watering hole.
The much criticised indifferent inhabitant of the hood later in low tones confided in his mate that he feared that although the late had traces of consciousness at the time most patrons were retiring, he could at least have been helped by the Good Samaritan that never was.
“I wonder what this world is coming to, how can a person in his right senses bypass the patriarch of the watering hole  and proceed as if nothing was happening!, “ the rotund and slanted faced man said amid murmurs of disapproval from a cross section of the patronage.
He thought such conduct bordered on deceit and infidelity to life’s challenges by a given individual.
Then he likened such behaviour to what happened between the lion and the hare who was employed to look after the cubs as the lioness went hunting a long time passing.

• the lioness provided the meat for the hare to feed the cubs and then would take leave to hunt some more.

At this time, the lion had wandered far from its original spot in the forest leaving the lioness and the cubs.
As was the norm, the lioness provided the meat for the hare to feed the cubs and then would take leave to hunt some more.
Sooner or later however, the lioness noticed that the cubs’ nutrition was still at zero point and she got worried.
She asked the hare what was happening to the cubs because as far as she was concerned, she was delivering the necessary meat of a duiker, kudu and impala often.
The hare defended himself and said perhaps there was something wrong with the health of the cubs.
But the truth was that the hare merely smeared soup to the mouths of the cubs and ate the meat.  This he did for many days until the lioness decided to investigate the matter.
After the delivery of a carcass of duiker on a typical day, the lioness gave the usual instructions and pretended to have left but hid in the grass  nearby to watch the hare’s activities!
To her dismay from her hiding place in the thick of the elephant grass, she saw the hare smear soup on the mouths of the cubs one after the other.
Later, the hare braced himself for a hearty meal as he sat in front of the cubs which were hungrily watching him.
He had hardly devoured the leg of a duiker when the lioness pounced to smite the unwary hare.
But the hare had a razor-sharp reflex mechanism and made one long leap into the adjoining grassland springing to safety as the hare headed for a thicket and hid in a hole by  an anthill.
The lioneness had no option but to retreat and vowed to settle scores with the hare as the latter smiled to himself as he always did after a silly and naughty act!
The man concluded his metaphorical narration stating that in life, there were people and situations that portrayed hypocrisy and lack of compassion in the hood.
It was getting crowded and dark at the watering hole as most patrons’ neurons in their heads were intensely activated by the alcoholic intake.
Lazzo to think that humanity never learnt and that despite repeated warnings about the dangers of alcoholic consumption, a myriad of imbibes were multiplying each day.!
The same went for smoking which even carried warnings such as “Smoking is a danger to your health” many were mindlessly puffing away at the white-wrapped tobacco oblivious to the danger posed by the pastime.
In fact one incessant smoker once told Lazzo that he had been smoking for many years now since he was a teenager and nothing had happened to him.
He added that ‘even some doctors’ at the helm of the anti-smoking campaign smoked!
Lazzo secretly admitted that he had never come across such intransigence in the hood!
as he watched a private television programme in which a fervent eater of bush rats sold at a township marketplace did not pose any health danger to the eater.
This was after an outdoor television presenter tried to link the bush rat to bush meat to Ebola which had generated much debate in the hood. He noticed that already, some people were desisting from handshakes!
He thought there was no dull moment in the hood which was proving to be a hub of social dynamism including stigma!
The overriding effect of the four-hour outing was taking its toll on Lazzo’s sobriety and again, the female bartender was beginning to manifest her beauty as the prima donna of the watering hole and he thought it was time to call it a night!