THE sudden visitor walked towards the bedroom and Lazzo looked searchingly in the arrival’s face.
He was anticipating a skirmish that never was because the man ignored Lazzo and proceeded to talk to Lizzie almost as if he never existed.
On the other hand, Lazzo thought the man had thrown the gauntlet at him daring him to take up the sword.
Inside him, he did not see the need to fight over Lizzie because in a flash of a moment, he realised that fights over women did not make sense.
One reason was that  he recalled his mentor’s wisdom who once asserted that ‘never regard a woman as yours and yours alone when she is out of your bed!’.
He had gone on to state that even beating her would not stop the promiscuity in her let alone her lover although some males often went to extremes by eliminating their rivals in cold blood…
Lazzo lay on the bed resting his head on the pillow and pretended he was not hearing what the man was saying to Lizzie.
There were more revelations in the conversation as the two discussed events last time they met!
His mentor’s words came rushing down to him like a torrent of dew on the grass at dawn.
The secret was to stay calm and let matters roll themselves out like the man’s brief stay became.
He said his goodbyes and soon Lazzo heard his car door bang outside and in one revve of the engine was off the premises.
Now, Lazzo was left to his own devices as he had a field day with Maria in her welcoming room devoid of any disturbance.
He was in fact playing truant because he had overshot his lunch hour stay by thirty minutes.  Lazzo had to get  back to the factory.
Lazzo had a particular workmate with whom he planned daily escapades after work hours.
It was soon knock off time and now he and his mentor had to get to where it was all happening in the precincts of the city centre.
Still there, Lazzo had a rare treat as he found another woman who brazenly kissed him.  She caught him unawares as if passing where he was seated. “l see that you are looking at me as if you want to kiss me,” and then she proceeded with her pecking intimacy.
Lazzo thought that now he had come to a reincarnation of ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ where a man did not waste time whispering ‘sweet-nothings’ to a woman as a prelude to love making!
It was exactly the opposite of the norm that Lazzo was being treated to and this was the stuff that made his new whereabouts exciting.
It was racing towards midnight as the dance floor was replete with somewhat drunk revellers who never seemed tired of dancing to the loud tunes.
Meanwhile, Maria was waiting for Lazzo’s arrival and in the meantime,  Lazzo and his mentor were making  preparations  for an overnight stop-over at a lodge on the outskirts of the city.
Lazzo would lodge with the newly-found woman as his mentor promised to pick him up the following morning for onward transmission to their workplace.
As usual at the factory, Lazzo was preparing to settle down when his mentor alerted him that he had a visitor waiting for him in the ‘workers affairs office’.
In no time, Lazzo raced down the two-storey building with his heart pounding with anticipation.
He timidly knocked at the door and a feeble ‘come-in’ filtered through edges of the door.
He opened the door cautiously like one who did want to let the birds fly off from the cage to freedom.
There was Maria seated in front of the Manager and Lazzo sensed she had explained much more than he ever knew.
She  had opened the Pandora Box of his escapades with the likes of Lizzie.
The Manager had a sharp look that men who had known too much  exhorted  to someone  guilty.  He did not like the feeling he had.
He felt like he was in a court room and crouching at the windows were eager listeners to his long tale of deceit.
If there was a way, he could have cut short this lengthy trial but it was too late because Maria had spilled the beans.
Mariahad explained everything to EVERYONE at his workplace because this office was the ultimate of the work environment.
She was even shedding tears for some reason and Lazzo thought he was shattered to have all and sundry hear about his exploits in the city at his workplace.
The Works Affairs Manager had to give out some money to Maria following her complaints that Lazzo had abandoned her and that she was stuck with his daughter while he flirted round the city.
Everyone seemed to believe her and their seemed to be no thread of doubt about the scenario as news had spread like bush fire.
At this moment, he recalled a moment when after a couple of days absence,  Maria had nearly throttled him by pulling his shirt up to his neck as if to pump some sense in him which she thought had vanished ever since he left the hood.
Shortly after leaving the lodge for this rented room in the new area of the city, Lazzo had never felt so shattered as he guided Maria from the Manager’s office.
Lazzo was ashamed of this as he grumbled to Maria his disappoint.  She should have waited for him to return home instead of rushing to discredit him.
This also reminded Lazzo of one man in the hood whose wife was so incensed after a beating that she went to the factory with empty tins of paint he had allegedly stolen from there and the managers believed her!
There he was again. Lazzo’s woes were multiplying by the day and all caused by this wretched Maria who was supposed to be nursing him like her own child…