The meeting

He said his illness and what he had gone through as a result were so terrible that his prayer to God was that not even his worse enemy would go through such humiliation.

I glanced at him and the other man who had now taken a broom and was sweeping the dusty yard converted into a mini parking lot, refuse dump and an open washroom …all in one.

Such a humble plea, I thought. That God should save one’s enemy from the pain one is going through because it is unbearable.

“Here!” I said, handing the leper his fee.

By now I was done combing out the dust that had caked my hair, and began applying some perfume, angry at no one for having travelled the dusty, untarred road.

Every now and then I checked my phone. So far no notification that she was here. And in my mind, I was calculating the time from when last we spoke till now. She must be midway. Or perhaps almost here.

The leper and the sweeper were now discussing an unpleasant incident at a hospital. The nurses were very rude and biased towards individuals like the leper and his friend who seemed to have nothing to offer except diseases for machines to read till they’re sick.

On and on they complained, giving lots and lots of details of their experiences.

The hospital happened to be one of the social interventions of my church. I was mute. I hadn’t witnessed any of the things they were describing. Perhaps things have changed. It’s been long I went there.

From a distance, I thought the leper was a criminal who was hurt during an operation or cursed by a bitter victim. He spoke French, twi and a mix of languages that made it hard for me to pin his origin. He spoke all languages so well.

But after hearing how kind he sounded, I concluded that perhaps he used to be very successful in life, and a set of unfortunate incidents led to his present state.

The stench of the yard hit me once more. Hadn’t been counting, but it was obvious that it was time to leave. And if the mounting stench was the sign, my visitor rang. She was here.

I imagined how she’d look. My major worry however was that I wouldn’t spend too much on our outing.

As I hurried to meet her, it was now dawning on me that both dating and  being single comes with costs. Sometimes I wonder which is more expensive.

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