Muffled Outburst

In that instance, numbness seized the left side of my face. My left ear had blown out and had become resistant to sound. I didn't know exactly what happened, I just knew I was at the receiving end of something not nice.

It took me a while to realize I had been slapped. I didn't even hear the sound, but passersby did. I know they did because in the days following I didn't stop attracting sympathizers.

Back to the present. You might be wondering what brought about the slap, well it was simply a case of me wanting to play spectator to 'two fighting'.

I thought I was at a safe distance from the ensuing fiasco but the popular mad man on the street where the action was taking place, thought otherwise. He had other ideas. I believe he wanted me to share conditional similarity with the guy being pummeled in the showdown I was beholding. To make matters worse, retaliation was a non-element in the set of thoughts that ran through my mind. I could only watch the mad man walk down the street soberly and innocently like someone not remotely capable of a violent use of his hands. I just pressed my hand hard against the left side of my face to keep it from disintegrating as I looked on.

Besides the hollowness in my left medulla membrane and the tears gliding recklessly down my face, I had lost my balance. More wisdom upon that person that propounded the theory that says the ear is used for hearing and balancing. I didn't know it was true until that moment.

Instinctively, I turned in the direction of my house. I wasn't sure if I was going homewards or if I had just left my house prior to the 'resetting' slam. I was momentarily bereft of reasoning.

As I tried to walk away from the little crowd that was enjoying the free unscripted entertainment on display, I noticed I was staggering. In order to maintain my balance I decided to channel all the hearing resource in my right ear to take up the function of balancing only. My primary concern at that point was to try to make it to my house unaided, so I concluded that balance was my most vital need as there was nothing else left for me to hear till I got home.

I was not long gone from the scene when I suddenly felt some heat coming from behind me, the next thing was a stinging pain grabbing at my right cheek which was gradually extending to my ear and jaw. And just like that my right ear had relinquished its privilege to sound too. I saw myself spin. Whether it was in my mind or was happening for real wasn't initially clear. Instantly my head seemed tripled in size and I felt like a cheap commodity being displayed on jumia.

The last thing I saw before blackness engulfed me was a military man with mean eyes. He was obviously the slap transmitter. He was yelling something to me but of course, I couldn't hear him. Now the whole hearing resource in my left and right ears, including the resource for balancing had been converted to extra resource for my optic sensory. And so before the blackness momentarily whisked me out of circulation, the image capture resource in my optics had been enhanced enough to enable me read the lips of the military man. "I zey kwall you and you are walkering away, why you wear kwamouflage?" were his words, the very last words I saw, not heard.