THE CIGAR SMOKER

He makes a point of ringing the bell, before he slots the key to open the door, as to warn whoever is in the house of his entry, and perhaps finish any mischief before he enters. He then straddles in, with a newspaper and a black plastic bad, places the newspaper on the table and removes a coca cola bottle from the bag and places it on the table as well. All this time he doesn’t say a word to anyone, not even a hello. It’s fine. After all everybody is fine, except street kids and no one bothers to ask them how they are doing anyway.

The rest of the contents, he goes to the kitchen counter and drops them like one would do to trash. With this done he heads to his bedroom, changes into a shuka, then back to the kitchen where he fetches his ash tray. He proceeds and sits on his usual place, a designated chair where no one dares to put their bum, not for the fear but for the reverence he seems to have bestowed on the chair. He reaches out for the remote and switches to Citizen TV that is if someone switched to other channels, a rare occurrence.

He lights his cigar and smokes casually, without a hurry in the world, oblivious of the warning on the packet, SMOKING KILLS. He reads the newspaper in the process as thin wands of smoke find their way into the air, choking fresh air into submission.

Once he stops and gives me a lecture on how it’s important to talk to people. He says its important to talk to people because we learn from interacting with others.

“Don’t stare at your computer all the time. You could be hiding valuable information people would use,” he says. “You see, with me, the computer knowledge I have is archaic.” I nod. Truth is, I don’t find anything worth sharing about the computer. I am not a wizard. Most times I am just typing away my thoughts or indulging Pablo Neruda’s poetry.

I thought he was trying to show care. He even rose and gave me bananas and a bun, which I didn’t need but I remember staring at them and wishing they’d to be eaten. He was suddenly being too nice, an unusual thing for him.

But when the doorbell rang and a fine lass entered the room, I understood the message he had been trying to send to me. She would be the second girl in a span of week, but less pretty than the first. He orders her to make tea, and she boldly says hi to me. From the dressing, black tights, a brown flowered dress that flattered her and a stocking on her head, I deduced that she wasn’t a sophisticated girl; she could pass either a basic whore or a mboch.

She made tea, drunk and they went to the bedroom. When the dawn broke, she was nowhere to be seen. She might have slithered into the darkness to wherever gave her the most discomfort.