Me: So…
Him: So! So! That’s all you’ve to say?”
Me: You didn’t even wait until I finished the sentence! What has got into you?
Him: You see! That’s what I’m saying.
Me: Look, there’s no need to get worked up. Can I finish what I was trying to say when you interrupted me?
Him: Please…
Me: So, how have you been this past week?
Him: What do you think?
Me: What do I think about what?
Him: What do you think about how I have been doing the past few days?
Me: How the hell could I know that! I’m
not some prophet or sorcerer or whatever you call them!
Him: I’ll tell you how I’ve been doing; or a better way, do I look alright when you see me?
Me: I couldn’t tell that!
Him: You people! I couldn’t understand you people at all.
Me: I couldn’t understand you now, this minute!
Him: The past few weeks I’ve been meeting quite a number of people around town.
Me: Aha; So you see now all the Armageddon talk of some sections of the…
Him: Look, I don’t want to get into that now. That wasn’t what I was thinking about.
Me: Sorry;
Him: I’ll tell you what I’ve found out. You guys are developing hatred against us.
Me: What! I can’t believe I just heard you saying that!
Him: I said it, and I’m going to say it over and over again.
Me: Ok; I just hope you have good reason for saying that.
Him: You know what almost everyone I meet is asking me! They’re asking me why I haven’t already left so far. Do you believe that! What’s wrong with you guys?
Me: There’s nothing with us. Look…
Him: Then can you tell me why the very people I thought I knew well are taking things so personally?
Me: No, they are not! Calm down ok; you think the barrage of fake news against us the country is easy on us! No, it isn’t! Diplomats here and there have been calling for their citizens to leave this city because it is about to fall; because their almost fatally biased minds painted it as the modern version Nero’s Rome; which of course they too know was creativity at its worst. So whatever signs you thought you saw on your Ethiopian finds wasn’t about you.
Him: You think you’ll make me change my mind with that?
Me: I’m not trying to change your mind; only you can do that. I’m trying to tell you what I believe transpired between you and your friends.
Him: Oh Jesus! This isn’t happening! Can we talk about this some other time?
Me: I’d love to.
Him: Bye, take care;
Me: You, too.
The Ethiopian Herald December 5/2021