My neighbour came again yesterday. Here is how it went:

Unemployment is not good at all

Is that the title of a song?

A number one bestseller from time immemorial.

What reminded you about the song?

An incident from last Sunday evening. I went for an event at one of those posh centres on the Island but my car chose to act up on my way home. Meaning I had to complete the rest of the journey by public transportation. You know that there’s abundance of small talk on various subjects in many buses that take commuters from place to place across the city. I whipped out my phone and began to secretly record the following conversation of the two ladies who sat in front of me. I knew I shouldn’t have done it; I knew I was invading their privacy but the first details I heard were so off the wall, like they say, I felt I should record some of it. of course. Take a listen to this:

“Go and get a job, my husband. I’m not your job.”

“You know I’ve sent my CVs to many organizations. Some have said they will get back to me; others have not had the decency to reply or acknowledge my applications

“Efforts without results”

“That’s unfair, woman!”

“Are we going to eat fair, my dear husband? Would we give fair to the children’s school as payment for their school fees?”

“You don’t have to rub it in”

“I told you I’m tired”

“That’s what you’ve been saying for days.”

“What if my work took me out of town for weeks?”

“Bring down your voice. You realize you are toying with my feelings here”

“And what have you been doing with mine? Is anything wrong in asking you to get a job, my husband?”

“And is anything wrong in asking for my conjugal rights? Two can play the game, you see.”

“There’s nothing wrong, my husband. But you want it every day.”

“Rights are not things you turn on and off at will…”

That was the point my neighbour stopped the music player on his phone, then began:

Would you believe that it took almost forever before Adam first had conjugal relations with his wife? Go and check the sources. When he first saw her, he knew instantly that she would be his wife but he would not ‘know’ her, like the sources say until after he had lost his job. Imagine!

He was so busy with his assignment that he had little or no time for affairs of ‘the other room’ (apologies, Mr President.) And his wife obviously busied herself with other matters. And didn’t seem to care either.

I don’t know if you see the nexus between unemployment and a ballooning population. Surely, there is one there!

Anyway, our dear Adam found his way to ‘the other room’ after he lost his job and was given quit notice to leave his former quarters. Of course, as soon as he was without job, he noticed some other things. Thereafter he ‘knew’ his wife, and the first fruit from that exercise, their first child, Cain, was born.