LAZZO’s new lifestyle was beginning to acclamatise in the new hood and that week he attended a family meeting convened by Maria’s family.
He had come to learn that Maria was married off to another man in the locality – the bush rat trapper and lived as a couple on the fringes of ‘Zambia Compound’.
Lazzo could not hide his dismay at the unfolding melodrama in the remote area and made this very clear to all listening in the hut.
“You have known me as Lazzo since I tied a knot with your daughter and now to discover that you can do this baffles me!” he said with all signs of a man seething with innermost outrage.
He regretted that Maria had used his money to find another husband and swore before his family that nothing prosperous would come out of that cash as long as he sweated for it!
It seemed Lazzo and Maria’s family had crossed the Rubicon and their relationship was not as it started when he was courting his heartbeat.
One of the boys in the newly found social inner circle decided that Lazzo should in fact catch Maria off-guard at her doorstep.
It was a mild summer morning when Lazzo and the boys took a walk in the precincts with the sole mission of seeing where she lived with another man.
The boys slowed down their step deliberately to give Lazzo a chance to proceed as one of the lads beckoned to him by nodding his head in the direction of the hut.
This was just in time to see Maria leave the pit latrine and heading towards the hut and in the process saw Lazzo coming.
The instance crammed many stories like a bulky dossier as everything came rolling back to Maria’s mind.
She had eloped with another man to come and live here and now the man she left in limbo was right there!
She could neither force a smile nor say anything as some force within her seemed to deny her the ability to speak out or even exclaim in surprise.
It was only her heart pounding inside her…
Lazzo could read her face and knew that she had admitted wrongdoing and was struggling with her emotions. She stood motionless between the hut and pit latrine she had left earlier.
The estranged mate eased his quick step and sauntered on like a chameleon…  Maria found her words:” Welcome, how did you find the place?” she asked with forced glamour.
Lazzo was already incensed and his heart equally beat with apprehension at seeing his runaway missus.
“I have been here for the past two weeks and renting a hut in the neighbourhood,” Lazzo said and just then his brother-in-law emerged from the house.
He proceeded to greet Lazzo who was again handed a stool as they braced for a short chat.
“My brother-in-law, I am disappointed with you because you have known me all along to be married to you sister.  Why should you arrange another marriage for your sister?,” complained Lazzo.
His brother-in-law blulshed and tried to put a front in the face of this revelation. “No, Lazzo, some people are liars and I am sure they have told you many false stories about us here!” he said in an exaggerated tone of surprise which Lazzo saw through.
By now, the lads who escorted him had retreated to the social joint where they hang-out but Lazzo knew where to find them later.
Lazzo told his ‘mulamu’ (brother-in-law) that the latter was involved in the infamous ‘sham marriage’ involving the bush-rat trapper .
It was soon after the meeting that Lazzo went back to his hut and  met his younger generation  acquaintances.
They had escorted him to the bus terminus and saw him off as he boarded the routine Nakonde-Lusaka bus.
It had been an eye-opener for Lazzo who had even left a sum of K20 money for his younger mates some of whom seemed to miss him as soon as the bus started off…
A month later whilst in the hood, Lazzo received a phone call from one of his boys that Maria’s new-found hubby had died.
There was nothing he could do at this human calamity that was everyone’s end…
But what was striking was that the K10,000 Maria run away with had evidently gone down the drain.  She could no longer sustain the opaque brew business while the second hand clothing bales had long served their purpose.
She had no option but retreat further inland to her original parents’ village off the Great North Road.
It had been a futile ending to a mission that was meant to make her a thriving businesswoman trying to run away from what she thought was marital bondage.
Meanwhile, Lazzo was settling in with another woman who also got embroiled in another scandal.  Lazzo had organised a small plot away from the hood.
He had paid some money to  a landlord who was surprised to see Lazzo’s wife come to demand a refund because she claimed the matter was not properly discussed with hubby!
But the grapevine had it that Lazzo was just a ‘sissy’ because women took advantage of him and the latest stress on gender-based violence thrust had made it worse for him. He dared not raise a finger at any woman!
This was the conclusion reached at the watering hole as news spread about Lazzo’s outing to the hinterland caused by Maria.
He came round out of his trance as he realised that he had taken a trip in his mind clairvoyant-style but still remained seated by the counter.
It was getting late and time was getting nigh to call it quits at the watering hole.  By now the weather was getting warmer much to Lazzo’s relief as he reclined from his stool.
The size of patronage always indicated that the clock was racing towards chiming late hours and surroundings getting somewhat somber with loud music sounding more of a disturbance than entertainment…
Lazzo sauntered away like a lonewolf in the wilderness to his base as he met a trickle of passerbys going the opposite direction but conscious he had entered a new relationship with Maria’s successor.