LAZZO visualised a happy-ending storyline as he watched Maria trudge the sprawling dusty township road.
Her feminine vital statistics that included dimples which formed when she invoked her radiant smile was in his mind the hallmark of her facial beauty.
She  was a new catch from the North-Western Province who hailed from a village near the sprouting mining town of Solwezi called Kyawama.
The village name rhymed with Lusaka’s  Chawama township and this thought naively thrilled him!
There were whispers that she was a ‘government office registry clerk’ at some remote station at the foot of the Mukinge hill.
Lazzo had trapped her in his usual way at the watering hole which was like a revered pool for casting his fishing net.
When he briefly excused herself to go to the ‘gents room’,  she turned to Lazzo’s mentor.
“Your friend is an impatient man and the way he turns to look at women says it all because you know, I must admit I am a sick woman.  Well, it is up to him but I can’t see myself convincing him.  He will think I am lying,” she trailed off as Lazzo returned.
Lazzo’s mentor had never heard such a blatant admission from a woman in his lifetime and wondered where she got the audacity from as a long standing cassanova.
He asked himself why she was saying all this and everytime he thought he had arrived at the clue, more questions seemed to arise.
The confidante did not also know what to say to her as the music blared loudly from the gigantic speakers as usual and somewhat interfered with his concentration.
However, there was a remote prospect of lessening the volume as the generation of the noisy atmosphere was based on the premise of luring more patrons far and wide.
As for Lazzo, little did he realise that he was about to drift into an abrupt and most brief romance in his life.
Everytime he stole a glance at her, she was the sort of woman he had read about in novels at school and was not only cute but gorgeous!
“Now, that is more than just pretty!,” Lazzo exclaimed in his mind as he continued his guzzling.
As the going got absorbing, the scintillating woman also excused herself gracefully weaving through the imbibing patronage.
Lazzo’s  mentor spoke to him:”She reminds me of one other mesmerising woman who used to patronise the watering hole. I am really sceptical about very good looking women because they naturally attract too many other men and it is possible that you are not the only one with a soft spot for her.”
He went on to explain how the eyebrow-raising woman would be accompanied by a pimp who usually played second fiddle.
It was rumoured that the pimp was a de facto boyfriend who played the role of an analyst.
His preoccupation was to study the woman’s client and encourage both to socialise to an extent where the client was up to his neck in drink!
Then he would gradually ensure that they moved from the watering hole to another place where manipulation would not be under surveillance of the familiar faces at the watering hole.
Once out there, the victim was sure to lose either a phone or cash and sometimes both!
This was because the pimp was a crafty pickpocket who would inevitably find a chance to pluck out the wallet or phone from their hiding places…
If the pimp found no chance, he would leave the task to the missus through the ‘bedroom manoeuvre system’ which rarely failed!
Lazzo recalled that an anxious client rarely was cautious because of two factors:  They would be extremely excited, drunk and eventually oversleep.
He recalled an incident in the past when one woman he had befriended took off with K400 and a pair of spectacles.
The recollection somewhat vividfied the picture of some women one met at random at the watering hole…
Lazzo’s mentor reminded him that sometimes, these wayward women could be physical and when one crosses their path, victims would regret.
The inevitable happened because when Lazzo woke up the following morning, the could only find the wallet empty as the woman sat by his bedside waiting for ‘service charges’.
He only found a K50 note tucked in one of the wallet compartments and obviously not knowing what happened in the night offered to part with the only single note.
The woman however pretended that she was sympathetic and decided to at least buy a chicken for a day and give him back the change!
It took three days and there was news of a  bereavement in the hood because as the grapevine had it, the woman was at a terminal stage but was busy disregarding the doctor’s advice to refrain from ‘leisurely activities that gratified the senses’ but to no avail.
A further three days found Lazzo hospitalised at a local clinic in the hood suffering from a disease only talked about in whispers.
It was a harrowing experience at the hospital but one thing happened there because some of his mates consoled him and smuggle small bottles of home brewed hard gin.
It still baffles him how he survived the yesteryear’s romantic merry-go-round which had seen many depart.
His mate across the road had gone the same way after being medically restrained but disregarded the advice and still drunk the home brew with mirth!
The grapevine had it that if a partner of an infected passes on, then the other spouse follows suit not very long after.
As he lay down to sleep, Lazzo was still thinking about his transient love but his mentor never confided in him that the woman had warned that she was sick.
His mentor somewhat kept this as a closely guarded secret but one day at the watering hole let the cat out of the bag when he said that he knew many issues about the watering hole patronage but he had learnt one thing: When a man had made up his mind to love a woman, no intensity of hollering or negativity would dissuade him from his course!