When we danced to Fifi’s bells

Have you ever found yourself in trouble for overspending? I mean, here you are with ten thousand francs in your pockets and you are having a real binge. You are in a really good mood that you find yourself offering more rounds of booze for your friends and in-laws. By the time the barmaid brings the bill, the outstanding amount stands at thirty six thousand francs. Then you try to bargain with the barmaid so that she allows you a two day credit facility. In most cases, the barmaid would not be comfortable with such an idea and thus calls in the manager to sort out the issue. That is the kind of scenario which visited Kibonge and me about 15 years ago. It was at the famous Fifi’s joint in Kicukiro where we were tanking booze for fun. It was approaching 3 am and place was still jam-packed. We were seated at the counter merrymaking. The beautiful barmaid behind the counter extended her magical wink towards our direction. Whenever she winked in such a fashion, she would be signaling something to the effect that she had found some new chicks for us. Those chicks would usually be owners of very thirsty throats. That is why we would find ourselves throwing serious rounds of booze to our new chicks. Since the barmaid was also a human being who also suffered from effects of thirst, we had to kwibgiriza ourselves and do the needful. As we guzzled beers after beers, these new chicks of ours were sipping a cocktail of spirits, liquors, wines and rum. Now I could understand why these ladies were proud owners of thirsty throats. I mean how would you expect to have a cool throat when you are constantly burning it with that hot stuff? To make matters worse, our chicks were also puffing on strong cigarettes and cigars. The music was booming within Fifi’s joint and we never cared whether it was approaching morning or not. We were really having a ball. Our new girls treated us to rock and roll tunes as well as zouk muchana love. Every swallow we took in prompted us to shout out towards the direction of Fifi. We would look at her as if she was an enemy of progress. “Hey, are you the one who pays us a monthly salary? Are you the one who created us? Why the hell are our bottles empty? Have we come over to be photographed like statues or zombies?” At this point, Fifi would stumble all over the place in a bid to re-fill our glasses. The moment of truth appeared when Fifi presented the bill to us. It was around 6.30 am and people were heading for work in their respective work places. When we looked at the bills, our hitherto red eyes automatically changed color. They changed from red to snow white as we sobered up. Our eyes were sobering up because they could not believe their own eyes. The bill was three times more than what we had budgeted for. The tough looking Fifi already smelled a rat. That is why she called in her bouncers to investigate the matter. In a flash, the verdict was tabled. We were petty thieves and we had to end up being thrown into the store until we solicited for the cash from friends and colleagues.