It was on a pleasant morning of a distinct Saturday when people were in the mood of buoyancy pursuing their daily business. The loud clangor of shoes and the mumbling voices of the people from here and there were apparent and the writer was swayed by the jovial mood of the morning emanating from the apparent situation and the pleasant warmth of the sun. The confluence from different directions to Arat Kilo was a thing of special spectacle. It was an irresistible place of actual event that took place before every person’s eyes that happened to be at the place at that particular time. The great scene of busy people from every walk of life makes an individual feel engulfed by the flood of human activities around him. Time is precious as each person without paying attention to anything else, rushes to his destination where duty calls. Even acquaintances are not willing to spare time for each other since a wasted minute can, at times, cost them their daily bread and butter. Without allowing anything to destruct their attention they march foreword to the point they decided to reach when they first set out.
It should be noted that all are not of the same make in the pursuit of their interest. Their quality that arouses their concern during the day varies from person to person. Some are positively tuned to perform the duty their employers assign them to undertake. Such ones do not flinch from their responsibility until their success is proven worthy for which they are well commended and awarded publicly. They are trust worthy and will be candidates for promotion waiting ahead of them. As a matter of fact, people categorized in such group, are seldom seen cheated by the luring of financial benefits. They remain committed to their clear conscience in every situation unabatedly and do away with negative tendencies aimed at paralyzing their firm moral standard. They are honest and straight forward in matters of inter personal relationship. Their character and abilities are thus attested by their rapid promotion.
Abreast of this, among the confluence of people at Arat Kilo, there are other individuals with entirely different motives from the former ones: they seek easy ways of making money with little notable efforts whatsoever. With their pretentious behavior, they set out every morning, claiming great merit whereas, in actual sense, they are nothing other than thieves. Their refined speech, that they have developed through years to cheat people, makes them seemingly successful in acquiring properties that they have not labored for; in their daily activities, they are engaged in their activities in full swing to pursue their unlawful duties. Their systems are manifested in various ways: at times they use their power of influence to convince their prey to hand over his or her property without making any resistance. In this situation, usually, people do not use force against such mischievous villains as they appear pious. But in truth, they are depredation in disguise with little sympathy for the owners of the property. In the same manner, there are filibuster who tire their victims by their by making long speech until they relent and give away their personal effects unaware of the actual situation. In other words the rogues are freebooters or pirates on dry land. Their occurrence is sudden and their action is swift; time is so precious for unwanted delay could cause them the loss of the achievement of their wish. They have all the skills to achieve their goals by promptly identifying their prospective target who they assume to own what they are after.
There are also others who employ a system of sudden snatching of valuable treasure and in a staggering high speed run away; if the victim attempts to chase, it will be at his peril since the robbers run to their stronghold where their friends vigilantly await for the arrival of their friend with the loot. The other slyest system is picking pocket in which the victim does not feel anything as his pocket is invaded by the marauder’s hands, even if he realizes that someone has taken his property, it will be too late to take any measure.
The whole issue boils down to the situation in which the writer fell prey to the city vultures in broad day light. It was utterly impossible to figure out what would happen to one when situations in the area appear absolutely calm and serene. People move around peacefully as usual. The snares were efficiently placed all over to trap me at that convenient point in time; the time I least suspected that anything of that sort would happen to me. Yet, the malicious troops of the villains were strategically placed here and there waiting for their victim which was me. As I was coming out of Commercial Bank, Arat Kilo branch, a nice looking and seemingly polite young man stepped to me and greeted me. As a gentle man, I, too, politely responded to his greetings. He appeared so meek and contrite to win my innocent favor. The greetings did not end at the time they should. He embarked on recalling the good olden days when we, according to his story, were had some acquaintance in the neighborhood we were living. He told me that he was very young at that time but now he has physically changed due to the passage of many years since then. He said he would not blame for not recognizing him instantly. He did all he could to accept him as an old acquaintance. To my surprise he pulled down his face mask if I could say who he was. He attributed my old age to my failure to react as he wanted me to. His justification of knowing me did not stop there: he started mentioning the name of my intimate friend which made accept his approach. The longer we stayed together, the more I relented.
Having realized my apparent surrender to his maneuver, he confidently (which was evident on his face) embarked on narrating to me about his refugee life in an Arab county of which name I cannot recall now. He even told me at length about how he made money to invest in the business he is running now in Ethiopia. He said he is now engaged in a very lucrative trade between Addis Ababa and Sidamo: he is engaged in dealing honey, butter and coffee and at times charcoal. For that matter, he proposed to offer me free of charge two kilograms of honey in the car parked in front of Tourist Hotel which he said was his. Further, he said he would bring me any of the items any time I wanted to. Owing to my naivety, I trusted him and gulped everything he said without any trace of suspicion. Such a smart guy he was, he began asking me in detail about my present social and economic status and even about my wife and children, who he said had known them very well. The health of my wife, the current situation of my children and how far they have pursued their education were among the many issues he dwelt on. He even tried to locate the exact place where I was living; that more than enough to raise my hands in defeat.
The time was exactly midday. At this point he suggested we have coffee somewhere. Having realized it was lunch time, he changed the offer to lunch even though I strongly resisted with the excuse that it was not yet lunch time. He almost dragged me to an inn behind Ethiopian Press Agency. All this was punctuated by the frequent phone calls he made or received. As we sat down, he called the waitress to take our orders. Here to he proceeded with his phone call upon which he said he had out of balance for which I rushed for his rescue. Gratefully, he took my smart mobile phone and started talking to the subscriber at the same time he was inching his way to the gate. I sat there immobile thinking that he would come back with my property, but never showed up. My readers should know that the perpetrator did not rob me but I willingly gave him my property. I am not sure whether he has thanked me for my forced benefaction.
The Ethiopian Herald August 2/2020
BY JOSEPH SOBOKA
