AFTER what appeared to have been a long time away from the miscellany of the hood, Lazzo appeared to have come back home to roost.
The only difference was that different watering holes had sprung into place and many faces completely new.
He appeared to have gone into exile during which he had found himself new male and female partners.
He bumped into a friend who told him to his face that he had heard much about his absence somewhere on Kabwe road.
“I heard that you had met a scintillating dame in the wild!”, bragged Kay who could not hide his fondness for Lazzo who had turned out to be a
true compatriot at the watering hole.
When the going got a bit rough in the wild, Lazzo thought of returning home to a welcome of uncertainty.
Upon arrival in the hood, he discovered that the family house was rented out to tenants one of whom advised that his aunt who could be of help was
also a tenant far out of the hood in an eastern medium density area.
It was in fact Kay who fished out a K5 note to facilitate Lazzo’s tracing expedition. He had arrived to a rude welcome having no phone which he lost while in the rural habitat.
Kay also provided the use of a phone to the incommunicado Lazzo who was given instructions on how to locate his aunt.
Lazzo began to realise how rapid times changed and the latent implications alongside the dynamics of change.
Firstly, he noted that the conventional system of locating houses by foremost identifying watering holes was one mnemonic device he would live
by for a long time
Upon reaching the largest watering hole on the main road deep into the middleclass hood, he should turn right after three deviations.
At some point, he got stuck and decided to approach a shopkeeper by the road side use his phone ofcourse after buying airtime!
The dedium sized gentleman wore a kind face, the sort that pastors were expected to flaunt to a largely permissive society that had no signs of ever repenting!
He was asked exactly where he was and he pinpointed his place of standing and it was getting dark.
“Where you are is quiete near here but it would be very helpful if you can find a taxi and ask the driver to bring you here because this is in fact cutting a long story short!,” said his aunt with finality.
He turned to the meek face again and asked if there was anywhere nearby Lazzo would find a cab parked.
Sure as the sun rises, the gentleman promised to help Lazzo as he had a private list of reliable cab drivers in the locality.
Soon, taxi pulled by and out came a man with a trustworthy but passive looks exuding a look of a man who had been ordered to remain sober at all times!
Lazzo began to fathom the two gentlemen on the spur of the moment as a fitting reason behind the ‘birds of the same feather flock together’ adage.
When the taxi arrived at the spacious middleclass dwelling, the cab driver sounded his ring horn and after slight delay, there was a sound of unclogging locks at the gate which slided open.
He saw his aunt who he thought was favoured by providence because she had spent her entire life living way above the average threshold so common in the hood.
In fact, the comparison to the hood Lazzo was accustomed amounted to giving an extreme example.
Lazzo had not had a decent meal for what appeared to be ages because his helter skelter lifestyle did not provide a cinder of a chance for crumbs that would fall under the rich man’s dinner table!
He recalls having recounted his life’s ordeals as being when he survived on a yam popularly known as ‘mponda’ in the hood.
Lazzo remembered the hard times he been through that other people could have skipped owing to their inheritance that provided for them by leaps and bounds!
Now, Lazzo was in the living room so many people called a’seat’ in the hood where even the difference between a ‘seat’ to sit on also referred to the ‘sitting room’ as ‘a sit’.
Too many issues boggled Lazzo’s mind in the hood but now he was far away from there and could do with a bit of comfort as he joined his kith and kin watching DSTv.
Lazzo compared his come-back  expedition to his locating a Zambian friend he had grown up with in the hood.\
He had no extra cash to spend at the hotel and his plan was to get back to the country after buying a few articles meant for his ‘Katemba’ on Lumumba Road.
At that time, he hit on a brilliant idea …
He had heard that his childhood friend had a lucrative job in the foreign country.
He decided to go to a newspaper office and ask for a telephone directory which to his expectation listed his countryman’s landphone and other details.
His compatriot was very pleased that Lazzo had traced him in the city and similarly was told to a car park somewhere in town close to where he had phoned from.
Lazzo did as told and was on his way to the low density area dotted with plush homes to Lazzo’s appreciation.
Again he had been instructed to find a cab which he would pay for on arrival and this happened almost like at the click of a finger!
As Lazzo sat in the spacious room with his far-away look glued to the television set, he could not help thinking about how many hapless souls on the globe lived the sort of life he was living…*
He soon fell asleep and snored away his blues in the spare room, his sleep was of one who had found a spell of comfort in a world largely engulfed in turmoil…