It was a cold morning with some showers, confirming that it was indeed June. I sat on the veranda looking straight to the main road where employed and business people were busy going to their respective places of equal importance. As I was trying to call my dog, Jackie, I noticed that I interrupted someone’s business who was passing by the road behind our house. This boy liked jogging. Every morning despite how cold the morning was, he would go jogging. He stared at me, smiled and waved, then he disappeared into the morning fog.

When the sun was trying to light up the world, I was already at the market to buy some food for the family since the schools were closed due to the pandemic. This gave us, students, ample time to do what some of us missed at school, like trying to experiment in sexual relationships. It is in this context that Salome my classmate and neighbour, found herself in a relationship with Mphatso, a worker at one of the civil society organisations of our area, the guy who liked jogging in the mornings.

Confirming the saying that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop, Salome and Mphatso would spend all their free time doing what I considered immoral, maybe because I was single all this time. They would hold hands while walking in the streets, they would party and Salome would go for a sleepover at Mphatso’s residence and in the mornings she would boast on how Mphatso caressed her tender body majestically.

It wasn’t a miracle to see those two lovebirds engaged just two weeks after the genesis of their relationship. They had a formal engagement ceremony which attracted my attention and I wished I could wed soon too. The schools were closed and I had nothing to do at home. I couldn’t afford to attend online classes which were only attended by silly policy makers’ children since they were costly.

As time was progressing with no hope for the reopening of schools, everyone in the society could do what she or he knew best. Boys and girls could flirt with one another and flood our hospitals maternity wings until some would deliver on the verandas, while politicians were getting fat with exorbitant allowances from the pandemic relief vote. Of course I started to convince myself too, that marriage was the best thing for me since schools failed me, as officials cared less for us students, but conducting big rallies. Trying business wasn’t an option at all since capital was just gold to me. I needed a partner of course, but my heart was not ready to love or be loved because of this pandemic.

Although I had some reasons to run away from marriage, I could understand all those who were marrying being catalysed by the pandemic, Salome and Mphatso included. One thing I liked about Mphatso was that he was working and he received a fat salary which helped him arrange and settle all the wedding bills. A beautiful veil was bought, shiny Brazilian hair for the bride, bright glittered artificial nails for her with a Chinese three-piece suit for the bridegroom. They really prepared.

On the wedding day, all was rosy despite defying authorities’ directives on the number of people to attend the function. A long convoy was arranged to the church where the priest was to tie the knot on earth for the divine to do the same in heaven. As the priest tried to seek whether there were any restrictions for the two not to marry, a fine lady in her early 20s protruded so furious and charged directly from the main door to the pulpit and shouted loudly, “Yes! I have a baby from the bridegroom.”

Confusion erupted in the church and no one knew what to do next, then the bride fainted. As the first aid team called for the emergency response team, the lady came close to the bridegroom only to realise that she missed her target.

To everyone’s amazement, the bridegroom didn’t seem to care about the bride, he just leaned behind the pulpit, restless. Mphatso’s brain was reminded that he impregnated a certain teen girl while at secondary school and denied the responsibility over it. He violently left the hall, running away with his necktie waving, thinking that the lady with her kid might resurface to do the same. The ushers tried to run after him, but no one could speed like him. There was no other way to catch him since he took a small path towards a river which separated a thick bush.

Upon getting back to her senses, Salome learnt what happened, including the news that Mphatso was nowhere to be seen. It was a painful situation and a lesson to me and some of my friends in our society.

After being discharged, Salome took the same path where Mphatso went, although it was after some days. They were all gone and they never came back. What was clear was that Salome, the bride, was on the run in her veil, after Mphatso the bridegroom.

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