Perched at the far end of the counter where moralists fear to tread, Lazzo began to reminisce on the old adage that half a loaf is better than nothing…so the English postulate!
His life was indeed one of half measures but better than nothing.  He was a product of a broken home and a series of half-siblings all over the place.
In his escapades since adolescence, he had got mixed up with all sorts of characters on both sides of gender.
As he downed the sixth bottle of lager for which he had been criticised for too long, a man with a long face in the opposite direction was narrating his current day ordeal.
He did not like the behaviour of his half brother who was constantly walking around flaunting airs of arrogance on the premise that he had more money than anyone else in the broad extended family system.
“So you don’t know that money makes some people very pompous and stubborn but the only thing that it succeeds in doing for them is to project them as very sensible people even though their speech shows empty-headedness?,” he asked in a tone that suggested he was in agreement.
The man further lamented that he had been attending a funeral for a relative and he was the eldest in the family.
His half brother had the penchant to think that he was ‘manager’ of everything that took place and he relegated him to some ****
He tried to protest at a dark corner caucus at the funeral house but it seemed  the poor folks listening to him did not bother as long as necessity was executed.
“My friend, these people will not agree with you as long as your half-brother keeps counting banknotes in their faces,” said another imbiber seemingly amused at Lazzo’s plight.
Lazzo then thought hard about the inverted pyramid in news writing which in effect meant important facts were ordered in line with their perceived relevance.
He chuckled to himself on realisation that the mere fact of having money would skyrocket someone to importance!
Then he remembered the ‘son of the hood’ who had found his way to the upper echelons of authority in the land.
On assumption of his throne, he was a subject of gossip at the watering hole because the poor man suddenly woke up one day and discovered that he was very important!
As time went by, neighbours in the low density area where he had gone to dwell noticed that someone could be taken to London but the village mentality would not be removed from them!
Littered round his mansion were an assemblage of wrecks and other discarded debris that had outlived usefulness.
Alongside this development, he had also acquired the attendant aura of authority but without intellectual substance.
In his case, his critic was rudely interrupted when he tried to speak sense.”Okay, we have heard, but let the other man speak,” he said in a tone of indifference.
While Lazzo was cut short, everyone gathered realised that there was no difference between what Lazzo had proposed and what the ‘man of the people’ said.
In fact, some of them said the ‘elitist man’ had merely repeated Lazzo’s words but it was possible that many figured out the reason for this development.
“Yes, I know that man who came in from the hood, in fact he was my neighbour before I moved near this watering hole,” the contributor said drawing attention to himself.
Inevitably, a few head turned and seemed to be an indication for eagerness to hear more from the man of the moment.
“I also know that he was not very learned but could speak some English but somehow, he worked!,” the man resigned his statement to fate.
A woman in her late thirties cut in:”I have also known of a woman who had gone out to the world of the whites where she sat in an office but could not function because of difficulties in the Queen’s language!”
“What happened then to her?,” quickly asked another listener who was evidently amused at this rare example.
“Well, she was removed and replaced by someone who could speak the white man’s language but all the same, you people with your good English are here languishing with us at the watering hole!,” she laughed mockingly at the preceding speaker who also reacted by a broad smile.
Lazzo began to understand the’ watering hole philosophy’ much better and that if it were a newspaper office, it would be the most glamorous of offices!
Here patrons spoke their minds about all sorts of subjects including ‘runaway lovers’ driven from their homes by ‘nagging women.’
The latter were now given more propensity tomanoeuvre unlike yesteryear when many of them cooked like their mothers but now imbibed like hubby!
Looking back to the days when he walked into a pub and fished out any concubine of his liking, Lazzo thought there was too much water gone down the bridge …
Destiny perhaps had made him tread the path he did not like but was not sure whether his former schoolmates had trudged this stormy road.
He was sure at the bottom of his heart that half the people that poured scorn him were not ‘angels’ but mortals.
Why then did they seem to prosper while he teetered on by the fringes of stardom that was also proving to be a mirage?
Many ascribed his marginalisation to his frequenting the watering hole oblivious of the fact that the enclave had its rewards for him.
These were gifts they could not fathom by the human eye even if they looked the gift horse in the mouth!
Something still told him that by now, he should have been a globe trotting millionaire but providence seemed to skip him when it came placements.
Yes, unlikely prospects often had the last laugh and sometimes added to a litany of chiding him to a point of exaggeration.  But what has happened to Lazzo could happen to any man.