Affairs don't always start with flirting or direct seduction-Benjamin Zulu

Affairs don’t always start with flirting or direct seduction. Sometimes they start like relationships of assistance where you’re helping that person legitimately, yet you also know you’re likely to step over and get involved with them sexually, because of the way they’re ‘available’ or ‘open’ to you.

And although you feel the chemistry developing, you justify and deny it, in order to enjoy the thrill and the adventure.

And slowly you slide into the abyss.

A story is told of a headteacher who was posted to a primary school in a village that had been previously obscure and undeveloped. But within a few years the charismatic man had turned both the school and the area around. He rallied parents and local administration to upgrade the classrooms and the facilities in all the three primary schools in the area. He got a secondary school set up for the community and regular fund raisers where politicians attended and got the school growing rapidly.

He led tree planting and agricultural campaigns. They drilled boreholes and put tapped water at every junction. The economy of the area shot up. Decent houses started to come up and many homes now had gates and solar lighting.

The number of students graduating from colleges and universities every year shot from less than ten to sixty.

The person who told me the story was a product of this teacher’s efforts to get every child to higher learning.

Then one day rumors began to swirl that a new lady teacher who had migrated into the village was having ‘something’ with the beloved leader. His car was frequently spotted picking the woman’s children from school, and he was no longer on his usual schedule of leaving the village on Saturdays afternoon to be with his family at the city, as his custom was.

More worrying though, were reports that this woman had been widowed and noboy knew the cause of the husband’s death, although he was said to have been a military man.

One year later their fears were confirmed. The man was suddenly hospitalised with some mental condition and he was absent from school for the better part of that term. When he finally came back it was to hand over the school to his deputy. He had sought transfer for ‘health reasons’ but the truth was all too apparent.

This woman was sly and promiscuous, and she had infected her husband with STI’s and, unable to cope with the betrayal, he died of depression related complications. Apparently, he too had been an influential and beloved member of his community, so fearing reprisal from the people she had fled to this area.

The teacher had lost weight and his skin was darker and pale. He seemed disturbed and aloof. It was a shock and a trauma for the people, who shook their heads in disbelief as the caravan left the village carrying their hero’s belongings.

He is still alive today, but he’s only a shadow of who he used to be.

The students whose lives he turned around frequently seek him out to show gratitude but they leave with broken hearts at the grace-to-grass tale of their one time champion.

What happened there? This man allowed his good heart to get the better of him. When he saw the neediness of this woman for various kinds of ‘manly assistance’ after the demise of her husband, he should have advised himself against getting any close. He was infected with incurable STI’s but it’s the shock of the blunder that broke him.

Once more, it’s the blow you never see coming that hits you the worst. Obey that still small voice before you get swallowed.