THIS time round, Lazzo partnered with the slant-forehead man who had reverted to batchelorhood following his marital differences in the home.
He confided in Lazzo that the woman of the house had decided to sue him for divorce but meanwhile was away from home leaving everyone behind.
The reason for this was that following his recent retirement, the woman of the house wanted the couple to build a structure just behind his parents-in-law and not elsewhere.
But the slant-forehead man had different ideas as he wanted to build a house on the outskirts of the city.
The issue had been talk of the watering hole as most patrons
highlighted a case of another man who did the same after amassing too much money at his workplace.
When the marital relationship went sour, the man who had invested so much was forced to abandon his home leading a wayward lifestyle.
It was one of those tales that made men seem or sound spineless apart from being unreasonable.
However, in the case of the slant-forehead man the renowned son of the hood had stood his ground.
By coincidence, Lazzo was in similar dire straits and the pair joined hands to celebrate life.
Initially, Lazzo was accustomed to guesthouses that had no furniture but a bed; a view that seemed to encourage more sleeping than anything else.
In later times, Lazzo discovered that middleclass guesthouses or lodges were designed to offer home-like comfort to the client.
When he first booked one in a middleclass locality away from the hood, he noticed that the room contained a television set and some sofa giving a homely scenery; a far cry from the dingy rooms of the hood guest rooms.
Here, one would opt for room service and this observation amused Lazzo as he would order food and drink whilst holed-up in the room without exposing himself at the public bar.
With a more than average figure in the bank, he discovered that he could do a lot more on the social circuit with it.
In fact, he thought he was cruising at breakneck speed on a fast lane highway surrounded by leisure-seeking women who seemed to be in his mode.
This also reminded him of a song he had heard in which a woman admits that society should not get surprised at her lifestyle as she was merely a ‘money-maker!’
This night, Lazzo accompanied by the slant-forehead man booked a room at a guesthouse on the northern fringes of the city.
He hit on a brilliant idea.  He would book a double room which had a pair of single beds instead of splitting the four-some contingent that evening.
The slant-forehead man had got himself a female partner much younger than his age but did not seem to mind as the generation had become permissive…
No one seemed to worry about such matters anymore and giving this any thought was a waste of time, so he thought.
Each pair were seated on their bed and chatting while watching television as the slant-forehead man insisted that Lazzo orders a French wine called JC Leroux to grace the evening for him.
When the bottle was delivered coupled with four bottles of Castle for the women, Lazzo sensed a glamorous evening behind closed doors.
It was past midnight when everyone was feeling the effect of the merry-making indoor escapade and wanted to go to bed.  “Each one for themselves and the room for us all!,” quipped the slant-forehead man as he took a long swig at the long glass of JC Leroux.
At this point Lazzo likened this scenario to spending a night at a woman’s home.
The slant-forehead man had warned him that whenever he found himself with one female in a compromising situation like this one, he had to empty his wallet and stash the banknotes into a woman’s shoes she herself had tucked under the bed.
He should wake up much later in the night and make this transfer
otherwise he would be sorry the following morning.
This was because whenever a long-fingered woman tip-toed towards a pair of trousers hanging on the head board, she would quickly empty his pockets and hide his money in her purse.
No amount of wrangling would make her disclose the hidden money because one trip to the toilet would transfer the money into inner linen and the matter would get delicate!
Lazzo would pretend to go to the bathroom whilst finding an opportune time to stash away the money into the woman’s shoes and then get back to bed.
He was getting restless because the woman did not seem to be in deep sleep and was occasionally tossing and turning also checking on Lazzo and it turned out to be a ping-pong affair!
As the night passed, there was a lull and a few snores could be heard from the slant-forehead man’s bed across the room.
Lazzo was sure the old man was resting after a binge drinking spree in the room.
But he still had a problem to solve and the intended transfer of cash from his pair of trousers was becoming a dragging issue.
He began to think: “Why can I not just wear this pair of trousers as I go to the toilet. Then on my way back I would have transferred the money to my shoes…Later, I can shove the crumpled wad of notes into one of her shoes at long last!…”
Lazzo was further amused at the scheme orchestrated by no other than the slant-forehead man who was by now dreaming in his bed while his mate had kicked off the blanket exposing her chest.
He brushed the incessant thoughts of attraction streaming into his mind and after all, he had a woman beside him. “What a world!,” he muttered to himself as he slid back into bed.
It was difficult to sleep because there were two issues on his mind: Money and the woman beside him.
But both were dicey factors because they were interdependent. As matters stood at that moment, none of them were indispensable…
(To be continued)