Candy and Gentlemen

Crossing Path

Lucas has been away from the United States for eleven years. He is an expatriate in Kenya. Lucas feels it is time to return to his home and he does. His plane touches down at the Los Angeles international Airport at the nineteenth hour.

Lucas would check into a hotel. He has no accommodation of his own yet.

“Cali has changed a lot,” Lucas whispers to himself. The man on the wheel turns his head around briefly and says, “Man, seems you’ve been away for a long time.”

“Oh yes, how did you find this out?” Lucas replies benignly. Obviously, he has no idea how the cabby gets to know.

“I heard you clearly,” the cabby says. “More skyscrapers, better road networks. You know, things get better here.”

“I see,” Lucas says and then gets into a pensive mood. He looks out of the transparent window at his right side. A clown is performing out there getting people amused.

Lucas’ eyes runs around every woman he sees on the road. He wants to check them one after the other to know which of them will fit his taste, but the speed of the car isn’t letting him have a lengthy view of them.

“Go slow dude,” Lucas instructs the cabby. “I wanna have a better view of our landscape.”

The driver shakes his head and then tones down on the accelerator. Lucas smiles. He has seen another lady traipsing by the roadside. She wears her hair in pigtail. She has a pair of glasses on her face. Lucas feels they should give her a lift.

“Can you stop here?” he tells the cabby.

Lucas winds down and calls out.

“You don’t wanna join me, lady?”

“I don’t know you!” the lady yells and pauses. She turns around and walks away.

Lucas produces a packet of cigarette. He pokes one in his mouth and reaches for his lighter. He sets it on fire and puffs at it.

“Care for a stick?” Lucas asks the cabby who readily replies, “I wouldn’t mind.”

Lucas gives him a stick. He steps on the break and lights it.

“Lucas,” says Lucas, introducing himself, pushing forward his hand for a handshake.

“Leonard,” the cabby replies.

For a couple of minutes no one speaks in the car. Lucas watches with interest how people standing or walking beside the road seem to be speeding backward. His thought wanders off. He remembers how he spent his life in Kenya around women. The Negros are sweet souls. He has slept many of them. They had fun in Nairobi National Park, Watamu Beach, Mida Creek and many other Kenyan tourist centers. He had enjoyed the beach more, because there he got to see a bevy of them in bikinis. It turned him on seeing ladies in skimpy outfits.

Lucas’ mind lurches into the past further. He remembers a certain Kenyan woman, Mukondi—a tall, dark and pretty woman in her early twenties. At first sight, he got enamored with her. He had found her twerking so hard in a Nairobi clubhouse on a weekend. She had nose rings puncturing almost the entire skin of her nose. She had bracelets around her neck and waistbands on her too. She wore locally made wristbands on her wrists and the beads thereof made sounds like that of a tambourine when she twisted her body.

Lucas wasted no time approaching her. She did not prove hard to get in any way as he screwed her that night. Lucas was turned on by the fragrance of Mukondi’s smooth skin. He wanted her around him always.

Lucas followed Mukondi to her home. A man was there. Mukondi said he was her uncle. They exchanged pleasantries.

“I live with my uncle,” she said.

Lucas said to the man, “I’m Lucas, what’s your name?”

The man seemed not to understand him. He smiled and looked in Mukondi’s direction. They communicated in their dialect and he widened his face in excitement as he turned to Lucas and said, “Gathii,” revealing his brown teeth.

Lucas was treated like a VIP in Mukondi’s home. He tried the local dishes and fell in love with them.

Lucas somehow fell in love with Mukondi and wanted to have her as a wife. He made his intention known by proposing. Mukondi was shocked to the bone that a white man could ask for her hand in marriage, despite the fact that she was a worker in a clubhouse— a stripper at that. She was emotional.

Mukondi knew there was no more hiding. She had to let the cat out of the bag.

“I am married with four kids Lucas,” she confessed as Lucas knelt at her feet with his engagement ring.

Lucas thought it was a joke at first, but as he probed further, Mukondi remained firm.

“Gathii is my husband,” Mukondi replied shyly.

Silence revolved around the silhouette as the dusk got darker and darker. A violent gust raised Mukondi’s flowing gown to reveal her undies as Lucas looked on. He had not found his voice.

“Okay, okay this is it Lucas; we had four kids together, we could not fend for them, so we took them to Gathii’s parents’ while I have to work and bring money home to cater for their education out there.”

“So, your husband knows about us, that we are dating?”

“Yes Lucas, I’m so sorry,” Mukondi said with remorse.

“No, no, this has to be a lie,” Lucas said with short laughter as he tried to clear his head off the incredible tale.

Mukondi seemed to be full of remorse. She shook her head as she told the story further.

“We are poor, so poor that we could not afford to feed twice in a day. Gathii has no job and isn’t ready to do any petty job. He never went to school, I did. Gathii advised me to work in a clubhouse and possibly do hookups and bring money home for the family.”

Lucas got angry. He didn’t buy the story. How can a man be so irresponsible to push his wife out there to do hookups while he sits his own asses in the house doing nothing?

Lucas assured Mukondi that he would teach Gathii a bitter lesson. She was of contrary opinion

“I love Gathii,” she said. “Let him be, for the peace of everybody.”

Mukondi had been bethrothed to Gathii when she was born. It was agreed upon by the advice of a traditional priest who declared that the lifespan of Mukondi depended on Gathii having her as a wife.

Gathii waited until Mukondi was sixteen before they consummated the relationship. Mukondi grew into loving Gathii, even though he did not show sufficient love for her in reciprocation. She worked hard to keep the family going, but everything she did was not enough from the perspective of her husband. She had to accept the advice of her husband to be a s*x worker, even though it was against her wish.

Lucas located Gathii when he was so sure Mukondi was away. He jerked him up. The man seemed to be far lighter than he looked. It was an easy ride for Lucas who beat him up without any restraint. He yelled at the man and tied him up in his room.

Lucas left him there and went to the bar to have some bottles of liquor. He was so pissed off thinking that Mukondi would not accept his proposal, just because she was trapped in a sham of a marriage.

Lucas was in the bar, drinking bottles upon bottles of liquor when Mukondi showed up. She had not stressed herself to locate him, because it was a familiar rendezvous for them. Despite the fact that the weather was cool that evening, Mukondi had sweats all over. Her eyes were also pouring out tears.

Lucas did not see her, because he placed his head was bowed

“Why did you do that?” Mukondi screamed at him. “What has my husband have to do in all these?” She spoke with one of her palms on her left cheek.

Lucas raised his head slowly and said, “He deserves to rot in hell! How on earth can a man trample on the right of a girl child this way? I won’t take this.”

“But you have me pushed out Lucas?” Mukondi said. “And I am not a girl child. I am a woman Lucas. I can fight for myself.”

“That jerk has you since you were a child Mukondi. He does not deserve you. Fine, he doesn’t want you anymore. Let him be.”

Mukondi wept and then said, “But I love him. I can’t leave him. For crying out loud he is the father of my children.”

Lucas could not comprehend how a woman could be so much in love with a man who has nothing to offer. Despite the fact that she was the one who untied Gathii when she returned home and found him tied up and gagged, the man still slapped her hard and pushed her out of the house. He tried to convince Mukondi never to return to Gathii, but she said it was not possible. However, Mukondi agreed to spend the night in Lucas’ abode that day. They had unprotected s*x for the first time.

Mukondi woke up at dawn. Lucas lay still, probably having a hangover. He snored effortlessly. Mukondi dressed up and left him still asleep. It was the last time Lucas set his eyes on him before making his trip back to the western world.

Lucas did not embark on the flight until he was convinced that Mukondi had not returned to Gathii. He went to Gathii’s home twice and did not find Mukondi there. He made sure he asked around and everyone he spoke with attested to the fact that Mukondi did not return. As a matter of fact, when Mukondi left Lucas that day, she went back to Gathii to plead with him for the last time that he should take him back. Gathii was adamant. Then Mukondi went to the ghetto where her four children were, to see them. She had sworn not to keep being a s*x worker.

Lucas alights the cab in front of a hotel. He sat at the reception and asks to be served rum and waffle. He gets his order and helps himself to a treat. A lady seems to be wagging herself close to him. He knows what she needs. She is partially dressed.

“I want two, not one,” Lucas says. “Three can tango I think,” he says in a smile.

“Okay,” the lady said as she walks away with short steps, throwing her hands in a sissy demeanor. Seems her gait is deliberate—done to catch Lucas’ attention and make him drool in utmost desire of her body. Lucas seems charmed. His eyes gets fixated at the backside of the lady as she traipses gracefully until she gets out of sight.

Shortly after, she returns with another lady putting on red. They both gallivant around him like they are in a kind of beauty contest. Lucas’ could not take his eyes off them. They take their positions on both sides, leaving him at the center. They press their bodies against his and he seems to have been aroused. He asks to go into one of the guest rooms immediately.

When Lucas is done having a feel of the two s*x workers, he gets dressed and prepares to leave the hotel. As he steps out of the elevator, he meets an old schoolmate. She has someone with her though, both of them trying to gain access into the same elevator.

“Lucas! Is this really you?” Candy calls out in excitement.