The sun was sitting on the horizon just behind the Harare Kopje bidding its last farewells to the Harare CBD. The only left evidence of its existence was a dim reddish light visible only on walls of top skyscrapers. The streets were busy, so busy that it could take half an hour to cross one. That was Seke road just after flyover. I looked down at my wrist watch, 5.44 pm, still undecided going home or.... For a moment I thought of visiting my girlfriend to say a sorry. "After what happened I will never forgive you", she had said."There are so many married guys out there who are cheating on their spouses but they are forgiven yet in our case we are not even married, " I have reasoned.

A familiar navy blue Mazda Rustler pulled by in front of the gate. A tall figure emerged from the car, I thought I've seen him before and I was right. I could sense trouble. For a minute he made a face search until his red eyes fell on me. I didn't know for sure what was going to happen and my only shield was words. I had to choose words wisely or else an exchange of blows.

"So you think you're clever?" He boomed, no greetings. "So this is how you steal people's money, huh?" His lips were shivering as if connected to a 24 volt throtobolt battery, his rageous eyes reflecting the hot flames of his Samsonic anger. I let him talk because interjecting was like adding petrol to a burning wood, after all I didn't know the problem yet. I could sense myself loosing temper occasionally but had to surpress my mind.

"Sir I'm very sorry for any inconveniences we may have caused to you, and I'm ready to play my part in solving it." I said sensing that he had said enough.

"Problems, problems what? Solving what? You sell problems and volunteer to solve them. Let me tell you friend, I'm not your victim and I'm smarter than you." He escorted me to the car. Surely there was a serious problem, as he revved the engine the entire car got itself covered with black smoke. Not only that, the left head light was not functioning, the speedometer, the ceiling led, indicators, suspension plus the entire tool set missing and he blamed all of it on me. I was tempted to defend myself but managed to hold it in. I sincerely apologized and added, "... and I'm also glad that you've shown us our mistakes and weaknesses and despite all this it shows that you've been taking great care of the car. I've never thought you would think of putting those meg wheels." I was inspecting the front left wheel. "You might have bought these in South Africa, right?"

As if by magic he laughed, "no, they were my uncle's, you know, he used to live in South Africa before he was transferred to work in Kenya. So he sent them for me."

My wrist watch read 6.01, he was still talking. He described his uncle and went even further to give me his phone number. He told me how he had helped the car out of a flood with two donkeys. We laughed. Fifteen more minutes down, still talking. He talked about his wife and her negative comments about the car. "You know women are not very different from animals, she always insist that I should have bought a family car yet the car itself makes us big money." He recalled how he had made a thousand dollars in one day when he sold more than one thousand bottles of mineral water at an event by PHD Ministries in Chitungwiza.

"So where do you take the car for service?"

"Service? What for? This is not a Mercedes man, "we laughed.

"But you should consider servicing it regularly, those you claim to be problems are not problems but opportunities to prove how you care for your car." I said making sure not to hurt his pride. For a moment he looked at me thoughtfully, although it was getting dark I could see his wet eyes.

"You're right, " he finally said. "I owe him a lot." He gazed at the car. "I'm sorry Wilson." he said after a long pause. I couldn't believe he had just said my name, I wasn't sure he could still remember it. "I'm ashamed of what I've said, it was..."

"Nothing to regret sir, If I were you I could have done the same."

He reached for his pocket, pulled out a wallet, unzipped it and produced out a hundred US dollar note.

"No, no, no sir don't trouble yourself..."

"No Wilson I can never feel relieved unless you take it." Deep down I wanted it badly. I carefully folded it in half and shoved it into my back pocket.

Waking up the engine, turning on the right headlight, he waved me a good bye and I did the same with a big smile. Under the bridge the car disappeared into Julius Nyerere.

Problem Solved.