PART 5 - ANOTHER TIME

 Each pounding of my heart, rhythmically, followed, the growing, thin film of sweat, washing the dried mud from my face, one grain at a time. My wobbly fist, clenched the torn and muddy clothing, which was only a fiber away from becoming a pattern of loose threads, covering my mud crusted abdomen. A competition with a snail, would be the appropriate, fashion in which, I managed to get the entrance of the restaurant, with my heart and stomach struggling to maintain their structure, as fear, swallowed their normalcy, intoxicating every ability to think. The suns rays, comforted, the freezing, anxiety, that stabbed me like a hunter's blade, cutting through meat, but still stung the struggle that fatigue, punched, into my injuries and lack of sleep. Despite it, being day-time, I became a ghost from the ancestors, wading through, the crowd of the citizens of the country, like I didn't appear, covering my face. I couldn't believe myself. Another trip to the counter, only with the images of my family, in my memory. "It's only the morning" Dinanu said. The sound waves, of his voice, passed by like blowing winds during the rainy season. Dinanu, calmly, continued to swipe and wipe the shot glasses, and arranged the alcohol bottles on the shelves. "Din..." I stuttered.

"What is it, Makindo?" Dinanu asked. The struggle of emotion was held, in my throat, that I swallowed with the little saliva that I have. I pointed, my index finger, into the air, and laid my head on the ground, sliding side to side, like a loose tire on an vehicle with poor wheel balancing. A grazing of the shot glass across the chipped polish counter, arose me, like dancers in a tribal ceremony with music. Alcohol, had never been much sweeter, even in the face of probable unconsciousness and sting that prickled the throat. "Are you going to pay?" Dinanu asked. I quickly touched, the torn pockets, pouring with crumbles of damp mud, and the dropping of coins, cracked the silence, that dispersed into the air, like scents of perfume and cigarettes on a good night. "No! No! Not again" Dinanu exclaimed. The alcohol had sunk it's effects into the depths of my nerves, and I crawled on the ground, like an ant heading back to it's hill. Dinanu was quick to jump over the counter and grab me by the torn shirt I wore. My arm, became a rubberband, reaching out to his leg, clawing his laces and letting them free, before, he lifted me of the ground.

"Din...Dinanu" I said. Thoughts of my family rushed into the images of my memory, before Dinanu could rise again, and I jumped to floor him attempting strangle him. " Maa...kkiinnd..." Dinanu stammered.