Lusaka in December was its own kind of beautiful chaos.
The rains had come early that year, turning the red dust of Cairo Road into a slick steaming mess , that smilled like a wet earth and exhaust fumes. Street vendors were over each other and near the roundabout. Mini buses hooted without a clear reason or with rhythm.And somewhere in the middle of it all, Alice was late.
She was always early that was the thing about her, the thing that made her business partner Chanda tease her endlessly. Alice was the kind of woman who arrived 15 minutes early to every occasion and meeting, she would have already printed copies of the agenda of a meeting that nobody asked for. But today, her car had refused to start , the Uber had cancelled twice and she had made a desperate decision to walk the last three blocks to her 2 pm meeting at a local cafe in city market.
She walked fast, her laptop bag slunged over one shoulder, her phone pressed to her ear, her chitenge dress already dotted with rain she hadn't planned for.
" Chanda! just tell them that am a little 2 minutes away" She said, weaving through the crowd outside the Mall.
" You said that five minutes ago Alice,"
Chanda replied flatly.
" Then you may tell them I'm one minute away".
"Alice..."
She didn't hear the rest because that was the very moment she turned the corner and walked face straight into a wall.
Except the wall was somehow, warm. And it exhaled
She stumbled a few step backwards, her laptop bag swinging, her flying from her hand and skidding across the wet pavement. She tried to grab the air and found nothing and thus, she braced herself for the ground.
It never came
A hand caught her arm just in time, a arm that was firm, quick, certain and pulled her back to standing, before she could process what was going on.She looked up, breathing hard and she found a man looking down at her with an expression caught somewhere between concern and amusement.
He was tall. That was the first thing. Tall in a way that made you recalibrate the space around you. He wore a shiny charcoal grey suit that the rain had begun to spot at the shoulders, a loose tie and the kind face that looked to be deliberately arranged, sharp jaw, steady dark eyes, a mouth that seemed to be deciding whether or not to smile.
" Are you alright miss?" he asked. His voice was low and even. A lawyers voice, Alice would of course later think.The kind trained to soundcalm while saying difficult things.
" I am fine ", she said quickly, pulling her arm back and looking immediately for her phone. " I am sorry, I was not looking"
" Neither was I " he said, he crouched down to pick her phone up and handed it to her, the screen on the corner was cracke. He looked at it , then at her, with something that might have been guilt." I will replace that".
"It's fine ," she said again, checking if Chande was still on the line of course. And of course once more , she wasn't.
" Please don't worry about it"
" I walked into you".
" We walked into each other." She was already moving, glancing at her watch.
" I really have to go"
" You're bleeding"
She stopped.
She looked down at her knee, visible below the hem of her dress. A thin line of red. She must have caught the edge of the pavement in the stumble. She hadn't even felt it.
Then she looked up at him. He was reaching into his jacket pocket, pulling out a small folded handkerchief, the kind of thing men her father's age Carried. Except this man was not her father's age. Not even close.
"Here," he said , holding it out.
Alice stared at it for a moment.Then at him. There was nothing performative about the gesture.