  &quot;Doc, you were lucky to have a woman like Aunty Helen and I am sure....&quot; He stopped when he noticed the doctor shaking his head. They have had this conversation countless numbers of times. The doctor, just like his grandmother, never tires of telling him to get married, but he had always argued the fact that ladies like aunty Helen do not exist anymore. His mother was an example.
  And so, love and marriage, he had already erased from his book.
  &quot;Boy,&quot; The older man called, standing up, &quot;Old age can be lonely but when you have made some wonderful memories, they keep you company forever.&quot;
  &quot;Alright, doc.&quot; Michael knew it was pointless arguing with him. I will see you off.&quot; He said, also standing up.
  The doctor waved him to sit. I will see myself off, just get yourself a wife and make your grandmother and me happy before we also leave.&quo

  She felt relaxed.
  Her secretary had since closed for the day and she was almost certain she would likely be the only one left in the building by now. She had cultivated the habit of staying long at work because her house felt too big and lonely whenever she was in it. Unconsciously, it became a habit. Leaving work late, sometimes as late as eight or nine. She remembered how many times Daniel had complained about her late-night work at the office but that hadn t stopped her, rather she would take her work home and work into the late night.
   She became so cocooned in her work, she forgot all about her loneliness.
  But for the first time in many years, Mitchell felt lonely.
  It was as if her soul yearns for something, but what it was yearning for, was what she didn t know nor have an idea of.
  She worked back to her seat and perfunctorily packed her bag. She was to have dinner with

  Michael had run away from home that day to seek solace alone somewhere quiet and he had found it at the doctor s home under a big tree at the back of his cottage. He was there till late in the night. After crying his eye s out, he slept off, for how long he didn t know but it must have been very long because when the doctor found him it was dark, and it was he who took him home to his already frantic and worried grandmother. The doctor left after promising to be back to see him the next day.
  Somehow, Michael took to him and confided in him, it was the doctor who had advised him to channel his bitterness into something better and productive. He told him to make a man of himself and become a man no woman would ever reject or leave for another man.
  At fifteen, he left for the big city after completing high school. He left with the promise to his grandmother to go and further his educa

&quot;Doc, you were lucky to have a woman like Aunty Helen and I am sure....&quot; He stopped when he noticed the doctor shaking his head. They have had this conversation countless numbers of times. The doctor, just like his grandmother, never tires of telling him to get married, but he had always argued the fact that ladies like aunty Helen do not exist anymore. His mother was an example.
  And so, love and marriage, he had already erased from his book.
  &quot;Boy,&quot; The older man called, standing up, &quot;Old age can be lonely but when you have made some wonderful memories, they keep you company forever.&quot;
  &quot;Alright, doc.&quot; Michael knew it was pointless arguing with him. I will see you off.&quot; He said, also standing up.
  The doctor waved him to sit. I will see myself off, just get yourself a wife and make your grandmother and me happy before we also leave.&quot; he said making his way to the door.
  Michael s eyes were still on the door long after the doc

Chapter 25