Have you ever been lonely in life? Have you at any time experienced so much loneliness that you wish for company of the opposite sex, any opposite sex, even ones you have never met? Then you’re not alone. Loneliness has become an integral part of the modern individual’s private life; even married individuals sometimes have this natural visitation.

It has nothing to do with age, time, belief, location, religion or generation. This visitation has been part of humanity since the concept of marriage was contrived.

Of course advocates of pretentious morality founded on religious philosophy would be quick to deny and condemn this human experience, but true feelings can never be wished away.

Johnson was continuously beset by this natural visitation. A victim of what is presently known in matrimonial parlance as ‘separation’, the wife had walked out of the marriage taking along his only son. He lived alone. Increasingly feeling the need for company, he had persistently resisted the temptation of going out for a fling or casual amorous relationship for about eight months. He gave into the desire one Friday evening.

Johnson strolled out in search of love after work that evening. His occupation often constituted a barrier between him and his desires. A lecturer in a neighborhood institution, he was very mindful of being seen as trying to corrupt his female students and usually avoided such encounters outside the campus.

Arlit where Johnson lived is a very small town and almost everyone knew him. He tried to interact with a few women he knew as he strolled along that evening, but they paid little or no attention to him. Johnson roamed till midnight without finding love that evening. Tired and disappointed, he made his way back home. He was two blocks away from his residence when he saw the lady. A strange lady. She sat on the kerb on the opposite side of the road weeping. Curious, he had hesitated struggling with an inner battle between impulses of his desire and fear of the impression his meeting with her would have on his neighbors. He eventually crossed over to meet her. She told him plainly that she was stranded and needed where to sleep. Johnson gladly hosted her. Before she went to bed in the guest room that Johnson had prepared, she told him a story that touched Johnson’s heart and made him resolve to find a solution to her problem before long. He however kept this resolution to himself.

Every unknown harbors a surprise; it was in the following morning that Johnson’s problem manifested. Johnson had prepared serving breakfast; it was when he went to the guest room to call his guest that he got the surprise. She was not on the bed, instead a large Alligator lay across the bed wagging its long tail. The Alligator had the white bed sheets wrapped spirally round its middle. Johnson had screamed attracting the attention of his neighbors. On their sighting the creature, the neighbors launched an attack using spears and rods killing the creature even before Johnson could stop them. Johnson could not explain how the Alligator got into his apartment in the middle of the Saharan District of Arlit in Niger Republic. Neither could Johnson speak or hear again from the moment the Alligator was killed in that guest room. Now deaf and dumb, Johnson has already lost his job and is roaming destitute on the streets of Arlit. Perhaps you, dear reader may know what the lady told Johnson that has led to his present predicament. Let us know so that a remedy could be found for Johnson.