“So how did your leave go? I hope you’re now fully regenerated both mentally and physically.”
Now the nice and well-meaning guy you are the boisterous reaction you expect would be like, “You can say that again. I never thought it would be so enjoyable. I can tell was in a completely different world like the ones you read in the fairy tales.” That would have been so nice that you’d be pardoned to start craving for your leave which is still at least ten months down the road! But, the guy was anything but a happy soul who for a full month enjoyed all the pleasantries life offers.
Of course had you paid closer attention to his features there would have been a couple of signs telling you all was not well. His were features no one who enjoyed a month of bliss and laughter
would wear. A little worried (we said you were a nice guy!) you ask, “Is anything wrong? You don’t look very happy.”
What the fellow would probably do is try to deflect your snooping questions with shrugs and the like. It wouldn’t take long before stories that the guy has been drinking for twenty-five or so days and the only reason he stopped before hitting a full month was because the funds run dry. Not only that; his wallet having run dry only a week into his ‘vacation’ (I’m using that word!) he in fact has taken a couple of unsuspecting friends and the following few months would be tougher on him. Look, I chose this example because there are more than a couple of stories I know of where the people involved suffered a lot and some wished they never took their leaves. Doesn’t it bug you that whenever leave time comes the pictures that feel our metal screens are bars and all the commotion? “I heard that they’ve opened a wonderful bar full of young ladies down the road….”
A couple of weeks back a guy I know takes a long-awaited annual leave. “I’m going to enjoy very day of my leave!” he said, even boasted. His wallet being quite beefy money wouldn’t be an issue. He said he’d do some travelling but he still is in town and shows no sign of going anywhere.
“Didn’t you say you’d be traveling?”
“Oh, maybe next time.”
“Why I don’t feel like it. And you know…” So if he has abandoned his plans of hitting the road he must be working the bars and watering halls in town. Yes, he started doing so but something; something he says he himself couldn’t describe prompted him to spend his evenings at home. A very nice decision indeed! Given the economically trying times we’re in the horrendous cost of even the ‘cheapest’ drinks wisdom is knowing when for once crossing that bridge wouldn’t get you the standing ovations. But this guy’s genes didn’t warn him about costs of drinks. All of a sudden he just stopped. He spends his days walking around various parts of town. It was when we discussed such things he told us an interesting story.
It happens that four ‘friends’ took their leaves at the same time so that they would enjoy together. Their plans were to flee Addis altogether and travel to various corners of the country. He says at first they weren’t bragging and they meant it to the last comma and period. In fact they have been setting aside some funds for this purpose. On the first weekend of their leave they decide to go out on the town. After all there are various ways of saying “Goodbye” to your city, wouldn’t you say? While they are at it they’d also tell the world about their plans of travelling.
It was a Saturday and they started ‘living it up’ quite early in the evening. Midway through their drinking spree and after visiting quite a few watering halls they come to this bar where it appears the crowd just leaned the world was about to end in few hours and were dancing and ‘reveling’ like they never did. This group of four sit at a far corner table and continue ‘having a good time.’ No grim faces, no contorted foreheads, no disturbing headaches yet! They’re on leave!
The guy tells us any observer cold narrates the story up to this point without much effort. The next scene was the bottles and glasses on their table cashing all over the floor, chairs being violently pushed back with all four on their feet and fists slashing through the heavy air. No one, so the guy tells us could tell who actually was fighting who let alone how the whole thing started among the friends. Half of the bar many already intoxicated rushes to pull them apart. After some more mini-Armageddon things cool down. All the four, after stitches and bandages in nearby open clinic go home. By the way, the bar being their regular hangout the owner himself drove them to their houses.
Now as we were told no one knew why supposedly well-behaving close friends ended up going for each other’s throats. Even after a couple of days none of them, sadly not on speaking terms, gives any hint. But then speculations were a dozen a dime, and there were a lot of them. Still one speculation stood out. Politics! This guy tells us those who claim to know them say it must have been politics! It is said when it comes to political discussions two of them get emotional over the slightest opposition to their ideas. They were known for this and people never raised such issues with them. The other two though they chose to stay on the other side of the political river had an issue which goes years back about one of them snatching the other’s girlfriend, an issue never resolved. The general consensus was that given such ‘thorny’ issues the four should never have been drinking foursome.
All said it is not only wrong plans but wrong teams could practically kill anyone’s leave time. Look, to say ours is a tolerant society when it comes to exchange of ideas would not exactly be naïve but more of wishful thinking. When you think you have the last word in everything, a state of mind ‘afflicting’ many of us, there could be no room for any exchange of ideas. And doing it with the veins overflowing with alcohol! Not wise; not wise at all!”
So, maybe when thinking of going on vacation maybe some motto like ‘Live it up, or leave it!’ would go some way in keeping the bottles glasses on the table and the palms never curled into fists! .
The Ethiopian Herald 25 June 2023