The smell of the breeze next morning made Lazarus wake up with joy. It was raining the night before. Yesterday had passed and it was a new day. He opened windows of his room and cleaned the dirt. He took a bath and ate his breakfast. The money wasn’t enough for him, they could only get R10,000 each. He hid it under the carpet where there was a broken tile and cover the hide with a tile and carpet.

He dressed into his clothes and took a stick and glasses and walked out.

“Please help me so God can bless you,” he said loudly walking slowly among the crowd. He showed his hand as he passed people. A few threw in coins in his hands and he put it in his pocket when it was many. Lazarus felt good and happy that no one knew he is a thief.

Suddenly a R10 note fell in his hand. He looked up but his smile quickly vanished.

“I knew it! It was you,” a voice said. Lazarus remembered. It was the security guard from the supermarket. Three man had now cornered him; he couldn’t escape.

“What are you talking about?” Lazarus asked, bowing his head pretending to not see them. The guard laughed as he grabbed him by his trousers.

“It’s him who robbed the shop, he’s coming to the police with us!” he said. Lazarus quickly got up and beat them with his stick and fled.

The audience got bigger as he ran as fast as he could.

“What did he do?”

“Isn’t he the blind man?”

“He is a crook!” The security tried to follow him but lost his trail.

Lazarus panted on the door and knocked numerous times. He looked vigilantly on the street and kept knocking.

“Voetsek…. Do you wanna break my door?” Chido called out from inside.

“What is the problem? I will kill this idiot!” he got a surprise as he opened the door. Lazarus pushed the door and went in quickly. He breathed deeply and paced the house up and down. Chido checked outside and closed the door. He looked at Lazarus worried.

“What is it? What happened?” Lazarus looked at him and threw his hands on his head and roared.

“Talk man …. You are wasting my time!” Chido sat on the sofa.

“They saw me,” he spoke slowly.

“Who?” Chido rushed to check on the windows. Lazarus walked toward him.

“The guard knows I was at the robbery,” Lazarus threw his hands on his head.

“He saw you or us?” Chido asked curiously. Lazarus smacked his head and Chido wanted to fight back.

“He saw me not you,” he said, wandering around the house and scratching his head uncontrollably.

“What will we do?” Chido asked anxiously. “Did they see you come here?” he continued. Lazarus shook his head and Chido sighed heavily. Blood boiled in his veins. They thought for a second.

“I will skip town but you have to lay low unless they know I wasn’t alone,” he said sighing.

Chido sat down trembling and Lazarus joined him. They stared at each other. This was the end of them

“We all have to go away and start somewhere new,” Lazarus suggested.

“I can’t, I promised to protect my mother and sister,” he said.

“It’s either that or we are all doomed,” Lazarus spoke as he looked through the window.

“Tell the others and I am going to pack… By tonight we are all leaving,” he ordered and walked out. Chido kicked the wall, hands covering his face. What will my mother and sister think? He thought. But what other choices did he have?

As the four men were hiding under the hoods, they overheard people talking about a certain blind man who was a crook but they kept on walking.

“What has happened to the world?” a gogo cried out.

“Everyone for himself, he is making a living,” another woman said.

“Should we trust the blind or we have to see if they are really blind?”

All the woman selling at the stalls looked at each other as four man walked with their faces on ground. They grabbed a bus to next town at the terminus. Police intercepted their bus before they could reach their destination and apprehended all of them. They’re now behind bars for theft.

Tell us: What are your overall thoughts about the story?