The Torch Chapter 7-Old Man Hambira

"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all." Eclesiastes 9 verse 11.

Tanaka had looked at the old man with a sceptical gaze, bewildered by the fact that his eyes were skewed squint. The senior citizen had just finished the eggs, which were scrambled and immersed in a very palatable soup, with savoury smells that Tanaka embraced, having not smelt anything enticing in a while. The old man began to fondle the gas stove, searching for the stove's k.n.o.bs, as if it was a peculiar body search demonstration. The old man then got a hold of the valve and turned off the flames of the stove. The greasy bubbling of the soup continued long after the gas was turned off, maintaining the right heat suitable for a delectable meal. The old man went on to tilt his body a bit, fondling the back of the gas stove to turn off the valve of the gas tank. The process was quite twitchy and strained, which gave away the old man's physical disposition. He was the same height as Tanaka, wearing a denim golden b.u.t.toned thick s.h.i.+rt which had breast pockets and aged material. His body was worn down, veiny, wrinkled, but still had some visible fat that emasculated the old man's pot belly. He had a box shaped face, which complemented his semi bald hair and squint eyes. His grey trousers, which were accompanied with a pair of loafers, really gave this old timer a lax appeal. Tanaka began to wonder if he was even blind considering he could operate the stove. This was the first ridiculous thing Tanaka had encountered in the infinite darkness. The old man went on to move slowly to where the cupboards where, fondling the k.n.o.bs and then opening to take out two black and white ceramic plates. The process was very uneasy as if he was balancing weights with his hands. Tanaka also wondered whether he was going to drop the plates with the way the old man's fragile aged hands shaked. This very scene accentuated what old age did to youth, making what seemed like a simple task into a gruelling drudgery for the elderly.

The old man placed the plates on the under counter's ledge and began to prepare the supper. The boy watched the twitchy movements as the old man put the rice in his plate. The old man then uttered with an aged 1970s British accent, "I usually prefer sadza and mazondo over this typical white meals, but my granddaughter always shunned me for that." He broke into a brief laughter that ended with a violent cough similar to that of smokers with a phlegm problem. Tanaka couldn't help but cringe over the old man's mortality, which also drove him to wonder how he had survived the carnage outside. The old man finished the preparation of the supper, opened a drawer, and rummaged through it to get a hold of two forks and one knife. Tanaka then a.s.sumed that the old man was the fork and knife kind of guy, something that he never got to master due to preferring the use of his hands when devouring meals. The old man placed one of the forks inside the rice on the plate. The dish was greased in a savoury concoction of delectable eggs and other spices. The old man paused for a bit upon finis.h.i.+ng the cutlery decorations on the table. Tanaka had noticed this and wondered what was going on. The old man then uttered, "You don't talk that much?" Tanaka was dumbfounded by this and then quickly articulated his thoughts to respond to the old man. "Um... I do talk sir." he said, not sure whether he had answered appropriately. "Feel free to speak, you don't have to be quiet and stiff." he said, slowly sliding his hand underneath one of the plates and raising it up. Tanaka saw the man's hand shaking due to the weight and realised that soon enough the plate would drop to the ground. The old man held out the plate and said, "Here, take it, it's yours." Tanaka moved swiftly and took hold of the plate with his right hand, having put the torch in his left. The closer he was to the old man the more the strong shadows were cast onto his body. The close up and intense concentration of the torch light made the dark shadows interspersed with bounced back light, which was reflected back on the old man. Tanaka took hold of the plate and the old man asked, "You are most probably wondering how a man like me with eyes like mine can operate something as dangerous as a gas stove?" Tanaka's curiosity had been met by this question and he simply replied, "Yes." "Um a blind retired medical pract.i.tioner who had a nasty falling out with a disgruntled patient. The misunderstanding cost me my eyes, but revealed to me things I could have never had seen in my able days." he said, taking hold of his plate and now moving towards the dining room. Tanaka gave way to this old man who shuffled his feet as he walked, having just spoken words that were truly mystifying. The falling out with a disgruntled patient? This had given him a bit of unease, but what was really giving him a headache was how the old man was still alive and at the same time ignorant of the carnage beyond the walls of his apartment. As he watched the old man sit on his sofa, placing his food on his lap, he began to consider a number of possibilities: either he was senile and blind to the point where he was clueless or he was just lucky. Tanaka wanted to immediately jump into hysteria over the horrific nature of the current world but was baffled by the fact that this old man might not be aware of it. He couldn't hear any demons outside so far, but if this blind old man was still oblivious to what was going on then things were going to get complicated. Tanaka followed suit, actually flas.h.i.+ng his torch at him. As how it was outside, the light from his torch still acted as a piercing ray of light in the ample darkness. Tanaka sat on the couch opposite to that of the old man's and began to dig in, but the way he ate his food was that of an agitated boy with no time to waste.

Tanaka's sense of alertness had taken over his body, making him do things with a belief that any time things could go to s.h.i.+t. The old man soon enough interrupted his feasting by asking, "Do you not pray before you eat?" Tanaka looked puzzled by this insistence of formality and replied, "Um sorry." Tanaka then quickly made a concise prayer and dag in again as soon as the old man said 'Amen' to acknowledge the prayer. Tanaka was eating and eating, trying to alleviate his hunger, but somehow the grotesque imagery of past horrific events began to flood his mind. He felt off, feeling as if his demeanour was too lax for someone who had just survived the death trap of the pit. The world had gone to s.h.i.+t and he was just munching as if it was just an ordinary day. Overcome by conflicting emotions he suddenly stopped eating and darted at the old man who was eating slowly like a graceful gentle man. Tanaka was still in guerrilla mode and felt mild pain from his previous tumble in the pit. He thus took a long pause and then asked the old man, "Sekuru [2], are you okay? Did you hear anything or experience anything bad?" "What do you mean young child?" he asked after also pausing for a bit. Tanaka then remembered the locked door from before and began think that the old man had been confined in his room for a long time. However, a lot of things didn't add up. Tanaka had been out in the infinite darkness for 2 or 3 days, which seemed probably longer to him due to the horrors he had to endure. Did these monsters somehow miss the old man? This was surely a miracle, but Tanaka was still curious, wanting to understand how this old man had survived a very pernicious event. "I mean..." he said, uncertain of what to say next, "Nothing has happened to you right? You're safe and haven't been hurt right?" "You're a strange aren't you, already asking for my care when you entered uninvited," he said breaking into laughter that made the situation even more awkward for Tanaka, "I hope you're not one of the boys my granddaughter talks about." "Granddaughter?" he asked, not expecting such a response, "one of the boys?" "Yes. The room you slept in was my granddaughter's. She would have gone into hysterics if she had found you in it." The old man broke into a chuckle, which made Tanaka look at him with grave astonishment. Was this old man serious? He was oblivious of the h.e.l.l outside and at the same time cooked for a stranger who had broken into his pleasant but austere apartment. His complacency with what was going on in Tanaka's world left much to be desired. No Zimbabwean would allow a total stranger in their house let alone cook them a meal! When he used to live in heavily populated areas, he heard of trespa.s.sers being beaten to a pulp as a part of common neighbourhood folklore, however the same would not necessarily apply to this old man who from what he had seen on the mounted picture frames was a plump doctor. His ancient British accent similar to that of old James Bond films, specifically acted by Sean Connery, registered to him a possibility that this man was of a unique upbringing. This drove Tanaka to believe that he was in a serious dilemma. The old man was senile to the point that he couldn't tell what grief lied beyond the walls of his apartment and at the same time would probably laugh off Tanaka for talking about monsters in the dark.

This kind of senility was something he had seen a lot when he would travel to the village to see his grandparents, always having to accommodate their sometimes absent minded glances and elderly handicaps, which made socialising with them unbearable. The old man was going to be a burden or at least he thought it was going to be difficult to convince him that there were man eating demons outside and a world covered in infinite darkness. Tanaka realised his current predicament and began to probe the old man with a few questions to alleviate his own mental tension. "Old man..." he said before being interjected. "Call me Richard. Richard Hambira is my name son." said the old man. "Sekuru Hambira how is it you can cook since you said you're blind?" asked Tanaka. "Hmm, that question never ceases to get old. I was inflicted with blindness at the age of 40, after a falling out with a patient," he said, slowly as if trying to get a hold of his lungs, "I spent 10years as a blind man which affected my medical career to the point I was just limited to mundane work such as medical consultancy of younger interns and psychiatry. However, I memorized the layout of this apartment and made sure that no one would misplace things." "Why did your patient attack you?" he asked, a bit annoyed by the fact that Mr. Hambira hadn't immediately ill.u.s.trated how he was able to cook as a blind person. What even annoyed him more was the long pause that came from the old man who seemed to be contemplating a plausible answer. Tanaka began to think that his question had put the old man in some form of mental strain, a trend in the aged that required the young to tolerate. The old man soon enough answered slowly with a monotone voice, "I had insisted on treatment that would aid them, but they were more concerned with their upcoming music concert than their health. Such is the vanity of gallivanting with your life." "Sorry about that." he said with a commiserate tone. "Well don't worry about that, she soon got deported after a.s.saulting me." he said after a heavy cough filled with phlegm. The old man then snorted and then took his table cloth and spat in it. The whole process was gross and made Tanaka quiver in discomfort. The old man then excused himself and then went on to answer Tanaka's previously asked question. "Well about my blindness, well, it was a gruelling long process for me to get to be able to move freely. I now see how dreadful it is when your patient ends up with retinitis pigmentosa." "Retini what?" asked Tanaka who was overwhelmed by the tongue twister. "Oh my, I did it again," chuckled the old man, "retinitis pigmentosa is a form of gradual blindness." "Oh." he said, not really satisfied by his answer. "Well I have been in this house for years and I have managed well, memorizing everything and also insisting that my granddaughter doesn't move things from their original place." he said, coughing again but this time with a less strained effort. "Must be a handful being blind." said Tanaka who was beginning to think that the old man had a miserable existence. "Not even son, the days of not having my sight have been the best years of my life." said the old man with much zest. Tanaka gave the old man the look, thinking that he was overcome with senility to the point of uttering nonsense. All this was just flippant to him. The horrors outside were still engulfing his mind and yet this blind old man had the audacity to utter rubbish.

Tanaka began to worry about the old man and became even more self conscious as he entertained this senior citizen who had given him food and shown him uncommon hospitality. His thoughts were soon interrupted when the old man said, "Well my condition shouldn't be up for discussion. Let's talk about something more interesting." "Interesting." he sighed, wondering what the old man had to say. Tanaka's nerves were slowly coming back to him, growing circ.u.mspect as he got annoyed by the old man's complacency, but somehow he didn't give in to his need to scream. The desire to cry out his anguish, fears and concern for another survivor like him did not burst out like he so desired. Something made him heedful towards the old man, something he couldn't quite explain. That very unclear reason kept him at bay as he listened to what the old timer had to say. "Yes, interesting," he said, putting his plate on the arm base of his couch, "but first of all, how was the food son?" "The food? Oh it's amazing, you're a better cook than me, I always cook a disastrous sadza at home." he said, shocked to have rejected the food earlier on and now feasting on it as if he was being scrutinized by the old man. Tanaka knew that his behaviour was all too awkward but the old man was blind and he was being silly, a peculiar situation indeed. "Why thank you, it's one of the few dishes I can make in my condition," he said, coughing a bit and then spitting into his table cloth again, "so what's your name young man?" "My name is Tanaka Manyika." he said, glancing at the old man with a tense look. "Tanaka hmm," he said, relaxing his back onto his couch, "I knew a Manyika in Domboshava and Gokwe, involved in farming. He was quite an odd fellow." "Oh." he said, not so sure of what to say about the random anecdote. "So how are your parents?" asked the old man with a pa.s.sive air to his discourse. Tanaka didn't answer. The question really cemented his belief that the old man was oblivious of what was going on in the world but at the same time began to churn his mind's memories into a dreadful whirlpool of terror. The dead body of his sister and short glimpse of his father lying inanimate on the ground sent a very sickening feeling to his inner being. It was like a very nerve wrecking past event that any retrospective person cringed upon taking a slight pensive stance. The memories went on to merge with his prior psychotic break and emotional molestation that had been caused by the creatures of the darkness. His itchy and sore wound on his left arm also reminded him of what he had gone through. Caught in-between his own internal standoff, his desire to scream out how screwed up the world was versus how he wanted to accommodate the clueless senile old man, erupted. He acknowledged that telling the old man what was really happening would just be pointless. What he still couldn't put his finger on was how he had survived. The old man, from what he could see, had resumed life with his usual routine as a blind man, gifted in doing things normally thought as impossible to do for people in his condition. Even in his arrogance, he realised that a total stranger like Tanaka had committed an unsolicitated entry into his apartment, but instead he got a cooked meal like he was regular guest. Something was really off with this old man. Tanaka began to wonder whether it was senility or maybe his background, which made the old man peculiar.

The old fas.h.i.+oned afro-centric British accent of Mr. Hambira made Tanaka insinuate that he was from the diaspora, a term commonly used by Zimbabweans to describe natives who were living overseas. The obvious choice would have been the UK since most Zimbabweans engulfed that region when it came to travelling abroad. Mr. Hambira's socialisation in England could have made him a.s.similate nonconventional and bizarre things like taking in strangers into his home. However, Tanaka was at least pleased that he didn't have to get into a scuffle with the old man; the alternative scenario would have just been a disaster. As he wired his mind in pensive thought, the old man soon realised that the long silence from Tanaka was a reticence of an ominous reason. The old man then asked the same question again but this time he got a response in the form of, "I don't know." Tanaka's inability to share had changed the atmosphere of the apartment into a very tense one. With only the differed light showing on the old man's body as Tanaka twirled his torch, the rest of the encompa.s.sing darkness made them look like they were in a debate cubicle, surrounded by the panorama of infinite oblivion. "Hmm, you aren't the sharing type then, well I guess I will tell you my life story." he said, coughing a bit. "You cough a lot, are you really okay old man?" he asked trying to shrug off a potential life history anecdote and at the same time concerned about the intermittent coughs that seemed to be causing more harm than the old man was letting on. "It's just nothing. Just a sh.e.l.l of what used to be tuberculosis son, no need to worry, this old man isn't dying today." "Sorry about that," he said, mustering the strength to say, "there is something you need to know." "Something? Don't be so disrespectful boy, I am the one who's supposed to telltale first," he said chuckling, "and my granddaughter insists that she is the future of this country. The young are so pretentious." "No old man it's nothing like that at all, um trying to tell you that you're not safe," he said, with a tang of fury in the tone of his voice, "you might not have been attacked yet, and um pretty sure you think everything is just normal, but it's not! The world has gone to s.h.i.+t old man!" "Child where are your manners? This is no way for a young person to speak when I have given them my food and hospitality. I could have just beaten you with my cane you ungrateful brat." replied the old man who also raised his voice to match Tanaka's own pitch. "You might think you're safe, but there are monsters out there," he said, getting emotional as he continued on with his dialogue, "there are people out there dying, and I just want you to know the ugly reality of the world Sekuru. It's scary!" "Oh shut up!" he said, picking up his plate with his twitchy right hand and throwing it at Tanaka who somehow managed to dodge the flying saucer of wrath. The food in the plate crashed and burned alongside the ceramic form of the plate. Tanaka was astonished that the blind man could accurately target him even without any field of vision. In his mind, he thought it was the so called heightened hearing that blind people had: a commiseration of the creator for having allowed them to be given impaired vision. The effort to throw the plate from what Tanaka could observe was really something that had taken a lot of energy out of the old man. His pa.s.sive smile had turned into a rather ugly grimace, the kind a.s.sociated with severe constipation and a kick to the b.a.l.l.s. Tanaka glared at the man, confused with what to do and just simply cooled down as he a.s.sessed the situation. Mr. Hambira slowly rose from his seat and then barked at Tanaka, telling him to leave if he wasn't happy with his treatment. Tanaka in this peculiar moment didn't know what to do. The peaceful meal that Tanaka had been experiencing unfortunately morphed into a violent venting out of a senior citizen. Tanaka could have left to oblige the old man, but as far as he was concerned, everything in the infinite darkness had no chance of survival. Leaving with the only light source in the house was a preposterous proposition that his mind could not conform to. Despite the violent yelling of this old timer, Tanaka didn't bloat out his concerns for him, something that was really vibrant in this distraught youth. It had been luck that Mr. Hambira was alive, but luck was something that eventually runs out, turning those who aren't p.r.o.ne to adapting to the situation into hapless victims who cling on to a belief that has no feasible application in a horrific world. This old man was senile, blind, and oblivious to the h.e.l.l outside, but Tanaka couldn't leave him behind. No matter what, he wouldn't let this old man go through the same horror he had experienced in the past two days. "I can't go." said Tanaka, calmly saying it as if trying to mitigate the argumentative tone of Mr. Hambira. "You won't go? You are fed by me and treated well, and you think you can blabber nonsense like that at me?" shouted the old man as he tried to understand the defiance of the young child. "Nothing has happened to you Sekuru Hambira and um glad, but I can't leave you. You won't survive those things. You might think um crazy, but you will die if I leave you here." said Tanaka with a stern voice. "Boy just shut up. You're ill and uttering nonsense... " he said before being interjected by Tanaka who seemed to be the only voice of reason between the two. "Old man you don't get it. Everyone is dead! The world is over! There are only ugly things in the dark, no everyday life, just death, lots of dying and death! If we are the only survivors in this nightmare then so be it. I gotta keep you alive!" he said almost as if he was having a nervous breakdown.

Tanaka wasn't good at convincing people; his con man skills were as meagre as that of a master at inefficiency, a never ending struggle he had failed to manage, as he was unable to get people on his side. However, no matter what would happen in this apartment, he would save this old man from his blindness to the present despicable world. "How do you suppose you can help me?" asked the old man, with fervent mockery, emphasised with a demeaning smug on his face, "if there is this death you speak of, then you surely are no better than me when it comes to safety." "I know this is going to sound crazy, but the reason I know you will be safe with me is because these things are afraid of my flash light." he said doubtful that his explanation would have any impact. "That is wh.o.r.e s.h.i.+t child! You actually think um a fool? I am a retired medical pract.i.tioner not a b.l.o.o.d.y monkey. You best take your leave before I get my cane. I will clobber you if you stay." he said, enraged and on the verge of harming the youth. Tanaka was not abated at all by these threats and remained stern, but something unexpected suddenly changed the hostile atmosphere in the apartment. The unintelligent voices and disturbing sounds had returned, resonating extreme heinous and iniquitous intent. Their vile nature came like a wind, rattling the windows of the apartment with every intention of drawing out fright. Tanaka instantly ignored the old man who was still urging him to leave, behaving as if he had not heard the ominous sounds. The fact that he still spoke regardless of hearing the terrors of the dark made Tanaka wonder how senile the old man was. Tanaka in the heat of the moment quickly shushed the old man who had been uttering like a proverbial rattle snake. The old man didn't cease his venomous threats, acting like a total idiot in the dire situation. Tanaka who was a child brought up in the belief that the elderly were sacred was now going to disregard that belief. He ran and grabbed the old man, covering his mouth with his right hand. In the view of an onlooker, it would have seemed as if Tanaka had the old man on a choke hold, but the very action was of a benevolent nature. The ominous sounds were causing a very unusual and revolting ruckus, the kind expected from a poltergeist. Tanaka struggled to keep the old man quiet, wrestling with him as he got elbowed in the gut by the unwilling partic.i.p.ant. The sounds from outside were gloomy; reverberating the blood l.u.s.t of the fiends and sending a chill down Tanaka's spine as they rattled the entire building. The moment felt as if a swarm of insects had just pa.s.sed through, but the real trouble was getting the old man tamed. Tanaka told the old man to stop, feeling the pain of each elbow jab as he tried to keep this old man quiet. In between a submission move and one trying to break free from it, Tanaka slowly lost his hold on the man's mouth. "You little t.w.a.t, let go of me this instant!" said Mr. Hambira whose mouth had gotten free from the boy's hand hold. "Keep quiet old man, um trying to help you. Your shouting will only attract them here." said Tanaka who shushed the old man sternly. "I said get off me!" he said struggling again as Tanaka's hand masked the old man's jaw. "Why are you fighting me, can't your hear them. The sick sounds on the walls?" questioned Tanaka who was astonished that the old man was still being difficult even when the voices' audibility was as clear as day. Something was wrong indeed. The old man surely was not deaf, but his attention to Tanaka over the depraved noises was defying logic. Tanaka eventually went on to ask, "You can hear them right? You can hear the scary sounds like me old man, I know that these sounds are making you sick just like me so why are you still fighting?" "Cause I won't die you idiot." "If you continue making noise you will attract their attention." replied Tanaka who shushed the old man once again. "You are not listening you stubborn boy, I said I won't die." said the old man who was struggling with the hand that Tanaka was using to silence him. "What makes you so sure?" he said as he hissed into the ear of the old man. "Because he told me!" screamed out the old man. This happened just as he broke free from Tanaka's hold. Tanaka fell to the ground, dropping his torch due to the sheer force of the back prodding. He was momentarily dishevelled and fumbling like an electric eel as he crawled to reach his torch. The area that was out of reach to the light rays of his torch became pitch black. Tanaka couldn't see the old man anymore, all he could only see was his torch, which he crawled towards with manic pursuit. The elbow jabs to his gut were painful, but weren't strong enough to completely disorientate him. He was lucky that the old man was aged, if he had been in his prime years, Tanaka would have most probably have coughed up blood from the very first strike. Tanaka got a hold of his torch and pointed upwards, ma.s.saging his abdomen as he rose from the ground. The old man was still standing erect, but looked strained as if he had gotten a back rub from a boulder. He was now hyper ventilating, possibly stressed by what Tanaka had done. Tanaka glanced at him and asked, "You said because he told me, what does that mean?" The old man ignored Tanaka and ended up retiring on his couch, breathing heavily as if he had just finished a marathon. This didn't help the situation at all due to Tanaka probing the old man with the question he asked before again and again. The old man was just seated there, breathing in and out and coughing.

Tanaka was beginning to think that he was having a heart attack. In that moment, he felt really stupid for having jumped on the old man. The ominous sounds had moved on, leaving an echo of their depraved rhythm behind, the background music to a child experiencing a possible nervous breakdown. Tanaka felt as if the main danger was over, but he began to have down casted feelings of regret as he watched the old man twitching like a headless chicken. The blind old man was hyper ventilating and now grabbing his chest tightly. Tanaka stopped probing him and just stared at him with utter confusion. He began to scratch his head as he squinted his eyes, trying to look contrite as he watched this horrific spectacle. He began to knee jerk, getting the same sensation that people who held back their pee for several hours felt. He was completely useless in this situation and the thought of any first aid techniques seemed irrelevant and far from his mind. The old man was going to have a heart attack and die! The old man realised his predicament and mustered the strength to call out for Tanaka. Tanaka went hurriedly to the old man and murmured stuff like, "I don't know how I can help you but how can I help you?" In a very tearful stricken voice. Tanaka who had wanted to help the old man felt like an idiot for having made him get this sick. The old man began to hiss, "Boy, boy, get a big cylinder plastic container in the kitchen from the first left cabinet. The bottom shelf should have my anti anxiety tablets. Also, bring me a gla.s.s of water. Please hurry with the medication." Tanaka heard the man loud and clear and immediately headed towards the kitchen. Tanaka opened the cabinet and rummaged through its contents and found the cylinder container which had the anti anxiety tablets. Tanaka then took a random cup from the cupboard and tried pouring water in it from the tap. The pipes began to crank and make weird noises when he opened the faucet, but what came out was reddish black thick blood, flowing from the faucet's nozzle. This grotesque scenery just made things worse as Tanaka tried to race against time. Tanaka turned the faucet shut, and dropped the cup, which seemed to have been filled with red pathogens as a result of having held it out. Tanaka had the pills but he didn't have the water. He was scratching his head and twirling his torch at various directions, trying to think of a solution to his current predicament. Tanaka then noticed the refrigerator and then opened it. The stench of stale meat was strong in this storage unit, but fortunately for him, he found a 2litre bottle of Mazoe orange crush containing water. It wasn't frozen but was good enough to drink. Tanaka quickly shut the refrigerator and ran towards Mr. Hambira. The boy gave the old blind man his tablets, and watched him ingest 4 capsules. Tanaka then gave him the bottle of water and watched the old man drink half of the bottle's contents in one go. All he could do was just watch, leaning on the hope that this drastic effort would actually amount to something. Tanaka could see the old man's throat undulate as he imbibed the liquid, adding more suspense to his already pervading drama. The old man dropped the bottle, which ended up wetting the carpet below. Tanaka was somehow disturbed by this, thinking that Mr. Hambira had lost his strength hence why he dropped the bottle, but his pessimism didn't reflect the truth. Mr. Hambira who had been hyper ventilating before was now gradually retaining his normal breathing rate, a spectacle that had the young boy in tears. After 7minutes, the old man was back to normal, but sounded as if he was connected to a respirator. His breathing became slow and relaxed, rea.s.suring him that all was well. Tanaka just stood there and watched the old man breath into stability. After a while, the fatigue of standing kicked in and he ended up sitting on the couch opposite the old man. An hour pa.s.sed as Tanaka waited for the old timer, wondering whether he was actually asleep or just faking it. It was hard to tell whether a blind man was conscious or not, a poker face that Tanaka was surely not adept to. As he thought about what occurred, he began to wonder what the old man meant by, 'Because he told me.'

The old man wasn't telling the whole truth and even his arrogance towards the ominous sounds was extremely questionable. He was hiding something, something grave, but the reasons behind such an omission of important information did not make sense to the young Tanaka. The world was already screwed; there were no benefits in being clandestine at all. All these speculations, which had consumed his mind, were soon interrupted when the old man began to twitch. His worries soon departed when the old man woke up, breathing slowly to the rhythm of the insidious night. The old man's voice was now low and hoa.r.s.e when he woke up, hissing words, which had half the power of his normal voice. Tanaka took heed of this old man's mechanical and atrophied sounds and asked him a question, a.s.suming that he was wide awake. "You okay Sekuru?" he asked, stricken with contrition. "You d.a.m.ned boy… you are still here?" asked the old man who seemed to have been overcome with great exhaustion. "Um a stubborn kid." "Hmm, if I had my sight, I would be really happy to see the face of this stubborn boy." he said with light laughter that broke into a cough. The coughs were now just a frightening thing for Tanaka who thought that things were going completely wrong within the old man. However the intermittent glitches were nowhere near life threatening and his cause for concern was just tied to his guilt for having caused the old man to have an anxiety attack. "Old man, don't overdo it, its okay you can get some rest." he said, worried about the old man. "Well it's too late for that now. I actually have something to say." he said, hissing and slowly evoking his words into conceivable speech. "You have something?" "Yes, I do," he said, coughing a bit, "I have been a licensed physician since I was 27, brought up in a Rhodesia which I was soon liberated from by our great liberation fighters and political leaders." "Wow 27years that must have been a great accomplishment." "Hardly boy, graduation is only part of the journey, living off your acquired knowledge is where the excitement actually starts." he said, rubbing his chest slowly as if searching for where his chest hurt the most. "I guess." "Well let me tell you something interesting about my life." he said, taking a deep breath. Tanaka just watched, as the old man gave an account of his adverse life experiences. "As a fully sighted man, I lived to see everything, all the ugliness of work, death, and miscalculations in the hospitals. As the years pa.s.sed by, Parinyenatwa hospital improved and interns from UZ and plenty of foreign schools changed the way things were done, health and stability became common. People didn't have this rubbish of having to go abroad to acquire treatment like nowadays, but I can't entirely discredit the ministry of health in this country. Things have changed since then, but where credit is due I give it." "My cousin sister had to get her kidney stone removed in South Africa when hospitals here could not do a specific operation for her. I always thought it was ridiculous, it kinda makes getting the glorious 15points seem like nonsense." "You're wrong again, that 15points and 7 years of med school are worth it. You seem like one who would venture into the commercial and artistic side as a career path judging from your disdain for the sciences." "You got all that from just that?" he asked, entertaining the old man even though he didn't really care about what he had to say. "Well from the way you talk, I figured out just as much that you're not an idiot, though you behave like one." "Um sorry for that, I was just trying... " he said, now feeling guilty for having dishevelled the old man. "Its okay, I should have been honest from the beginning. I know what's happening Tanaka. I know very well that my granddaughter and all my loved ones are not alive as we speak." he said, interjecting Tanaka who was now overcome with shock by what Mr. Hambira had said. The defining moment had come, changing the very tone of the conversation. Tanaka who had thought the old man was just senile ended up asking, "So you know what's going on? Why did you pretend like you didn't?" "Because I wanted to end my final days on this planet on a peaceful note. My life has been a turbulent pile of s.h.i.+t, getting divorced, my children hating me and being accused for being too engrossed in my work. To add the icing to the cake my ignorant patient thought it was best to vent out her disapproval for her treatment plan by making me blind. Yes, I said nothing because I wanted a peaceful end." "Peaceful...? First of all, how are you still alive? Nothing has attacked you. Do you have some secret to how you're survived so far?" asked Tanaka who completely ignored the old man's sob story. "No secret, I was just given a free pa.s.s." "A free pa.s.s?" asked Tanaka who was completely perplexed by what the old man was talking about. "Yes. A free pa.s.s from a stranger who came into my home 2 days ago." "Huh?" said Tanaka who was now lost. Tanaka already had a hard time telling the time in the infinite darkness, but this blind old man could tell whether 2 days had pa.s.sed or not. Everything sounded stupendous in that moment, but what he would later come to hear would end up inclining him to more fear than he had already taken in, the fear of the true nature of the infinite darkness.