THE day was unfolding past its prime rapidly as Lazzo engaged in some phase of introspection trying to fathom the pros and cons of what the slant fore headed man was raising.
The watering hole was gradually filling to capacity as Maria who was the subject of debate was not present.
Lazzo’s mentor had become a drifter in the hood as he vacillated between two women in the hood and Lazzo was amused at the way some of his compatriots lived.
His mentor seemed to have equally sidestepped into the ‘fast lane’ of the city lifestyle which made him a real pawn of some women who by virtue of having ‘wrecked their homes’ or were victims of some involuntary circumstance that granted a chance to live on their own.
The narration which was intoned with a bit of laughter singled out this gigolo who had been corrupted to a level where he became a runaway parent from the other side of the hood.
He was living off this woman who had in effect ‘possessed’ him like a toy as a township carpenter of little means!
The carpenter-turned gigolo was up to his neck in an extramarital affair whose fame was spreading far and wide but in his own thinking was a secret!
“Men of the city have strange ways of life and some of them really go against traditional norms of behaviour.  Take this man who abandoned his wife and stuck to some spinster in the hood,” the man with a peculiar head said.
According to him, there was nothing wrong with this cohabitation in the absence of divorce proceedings as now the relationship seemed to be a product of being corrupted by the female gender!
Still the picture suited Lazzo’s mentor who had once assumed a similar lifestyle and was drifting from one female headed house to another.
As he persisted in his ways, little did he realise that he had truly become a gigolo!
The perils of this condition included strict checks on his social outings and his life turned out to be like one being followed by some Sherlock Holmes!
Someone interjected the speaker: “The danger of staying at a woman’s house is that one loses the manly respect and they become a dependant,” said the man whose eyes appeared to protrude from their sunken sockets.
One would tell by his looks that he had seen better days and was relating to his experience…
“Sometimes, when the going gets rough and love flies out through the window, a woman can chase you from her house even at midnight!,” the trumpet blower continued with conviction.
“Yes, it happened to my friend once and he was bundled out of a woman’s house very late at night.  He had to come to my house where he spent a night on a sofa!,” echoed the fast guzzler with a penchant for gulping down bottles more rapidly than the normal rate!
An imbiber in the hood once disclosed that the man was endowed with an inflated gullet which seemed to be like an alley-way rather than a narrow inlet down to the stomach that it should be!
Reverting to his gigolo lifestyle, a typical rift in the house once found him quarrelling with his missus because now he had become ‘sour’ grapes as he could not keep pace with the complementing bankrolling act!
He was falling far short of fulfilling his financial obligations to a point where he noticed that someone had filled the void. Yes, he had heard this before in a local ballad in which a man in his position was helped by another!
Once, the gigolo was told that his missus had gone out of town and would be back the following day.
When hubby came home, he was told by other dependants that his missus would be back the following day but the grapevine blew the lid off the outing and it turned out to be a ‘a local derby!’.
Spending time at the watering hole had helped matters because brooding over a woman usually depressed one to a point of a stroke.
Lazzo had seen men who spent too much time worrying about women who in effect should have been inconsequential to them.
Half their time some men seemed to be preoccupied naturally with issues of money and women but he was however no exception!
The two factors appeared synonymous because one would create astounding bliss using money despite being labelled ‘a root of all evil while flaunting a face that would move no woman!’
Lazzo deeply reasoned when he took a searching look at the man next to him and he felt like laughing because he looked comical!  Were not most men equally comical but lived by the probability espoused by the old adage, ‘Every dog has his day!’
Despite those looks,, he apparently  made most of his days at the watering hole and seemed content with  what his wallet  provided. In his own right, the gigolo was no different from the vagrant who scouted for places to be at funerals so he could settle down to some dinner.Each in their own style displayed their being shrewd at their game and got what they wanted out of life!
Indeed, the gigolo saga had affected many and it was evidently a chosen way of life for those who accrued benefits that the lifestyle entailed.
The watering hole had provided one of its cardinal objectives: Exposure of miscellaneous behaviour in the hood.
But Lazzo observed that the platform had only succeeded in being a podium of censure rather than image building.
Each day that passed, there were patrons whose ego was bruised while others were silent learners of secrets that patronage provided.
As for the gigolo, it was time to take leave and tend the stepchildren!