Once Bitten, Twice Shy

_{Photo by Maxime Gilbert}

My dad has always warned us to stay far away whenever we see two people fighting. "Don't go to separate them, just leave" he would say to us and at first I thought that advise was kind of not a good one until he accompanied his advise with a story. He had told us about a story of a man he knew who had gone to separate a fight between his two friends not knowing that they had both pretended to want to fight just so that they could get him to come separate them.

As soon as the man got in between them, he got struck on the head by one of his friends and started to plead profusely. My dad had told us that story where we were kids and that was all I needed to hear for me to obey his instructions.

But now that I'm older, I can see how made up that story was but the lesson I got from that story when I was a kid still hasn't left me, so I always make sure never to separate when I see two people fighting, I just stay far away to avoid getting struck either on purpose or accidentally.

And after what happened early this morning, I'm sure staying away from fights is the right thing to do.

Saturdays are for sanitation. Everyone in the hostel comes out of their room to keep the environment and the hostel clean and today had been no exception, the only difference though was that two ladies decided to top it up with a little bit of martial art.

I don't know what they said their beef was (and I honestly don't care), all I know was that they both started the fight from inside the hostel all the way outside where I sat with a couple of other people. Our hostel caretaker (a lady) had decided to jump in between both ladies in a bid to break up the fight but if she had known what was going to happen next, she probably would have sat down like the rest of us and enjoyed the show.

Well, she ended up becoming a punching bag and the rest of the guys watching with me probably wouldn't have stood up to go break up the fight if it wasn't for the fact that the caretaker was taking most of the punches.

By the time they broke up the fight, she was already on the floor gasping for breath. We had no doubt she had taken more punches than the two ladies who were fighting. When I looked at her, all that came to my mind was my dad's story.

I have no doubt she would never do something like that anymore because like they say, once bitten twice shy.