The liquid jewel sailed smoothly towards the cemented Lagosian seashore, approximately three hours away from the Mainland Bridge, where old ships have half-sunk. After it just parked for a few half-minutes, Robin’s hairy feet, which were covered by genuine leather slippers, were on the shore. Robin’s hands grabbed the rope and pulled the boat into safety from some minor tidal waves.

Robin’s eyes looked proudly at the lemon yellow liquid jewel. One tidal wave sprinkled some water on Robin’s lemon yellow light shorts. But Robin did not mind at all.

A lady that just entered youth hood and a man about Robin’s age approached Robin.

“Robin, Robin!!” the man greeted and patted Robin’s ebony-and-ivory beard.

“A fine morning to you, Sule,” he greeted back to him in a deep baritone.

Sule turned to the lady. “This is Beth, my niece,” he introduced.

Robin took the lady’s smooth hand in his. “I’m pleased to meet you, Suleman’s niece,” he said with a broad grin.

“You and me both, Mr. Robin,” she said in a slightly Nigerianised American English. Beth’s eyes danced a little involuntarily after a short glance at Robin’s hairy hand.

After, Robin returned his hand back to his side. “Call me Robin,” he said. “Call me Beth,” she said and smiled. She then walked up to his liquid jewel. The two men glanced at her for a second, and then were at each other.

“What happened to law school?” Sule asked.

“I was a dropout, and Higgins saw to that,” Robin replied.

“Na wa for dat your teacher sef,” Sule said.

Robin laughed in thought. “Robin commits three fallacies and he is disqualified. One: Since the skin is a coat, every human being should go about naked. Two: God is love, love is blind. So therefore, God is blind. I can’t remember the third fallacy.” He laughed again. “Well, Higgins should be in the sepulchre by now.”

“Rotted,” said Sule. Robin turned his head in time to see Beth walk around the liquid jewel, her pink fingernails caressing the lemon yellow boat, her walk actually a provocative catwalk. Another tidal wave sprinkled water on her curvaceous long black Jeans and lemon yellow light blouse, and she laughed.

Robin sighed slightly and turned back to Sule. Sule patted him playfully on the shoulder.

“Remember the times when we owned the road?” he said with enthusiasm.

“Yes! We must walk on smooth bitumen after the alehouse at moonless nights,” said Robin and laughed. “God, it was exhilarating.”

“There was no obstruction whatsoever,” laughed Sule.

“And if there was going to be, we simply told them to detour,” said Robin. He made a “U” in the air and both men laughed.

Their laughter caught Beth’s attention. Her eyes took in every physical detail of Robin: his irresistibly broad shoulders, his light white T-shirt, his lemon yellow shorts, his hairy, not-too-muscular legs and feet, his brown-bronze skin, and his ebony beard decorated with ivory hairs. She folded her arms for a while and said under her breath, “Typical Nigerian manhood!”

“There were four of us, right?” said Robin. “What happened to the remaining two?”

“They were owned by women, just like me,” Sule answered. Robin formed an ‘O’ with his mouth and scratched his small, grey-black hair.

Sule pointed at him and said, “You are the only one amongst us who isn’t.”

Robin shrugged his shoulders. “And so? Nemesis caught up with me. I couldn’t help it,” he said nonchalantly.

Sule laughed. “You are a character, Robin,” he said. “Do you want to become the oldest bachelor besides M. J.? You mean say you still get those Casanova stunts?”

Again Robin shrugged. “Shebi Michael Jackson later on married?” He flexed the muscles on his hairy arms. “And besides, I am still young at 50.”

Sule eyed him and said, “I can still see that in you.”

“I did not want commitment. I did not want involvement. That is why there are no children,” said Robin sternly. “I want utter peace.”

“Well, I do not know what you will say to this request I am about to make.” Sule cleared his throat.

“Go ahead. Shoot!” prompted Robin.

“Okay then. I would like you to baby-sit Beth for me for just three days. The reason is that I already have a full house,” was Sule’s request.

Robin was silent for some time. He then turned and looked at Beth. Sule fished out a bundle of fifty naira notes from his pocket. “I could pay you for your services,” he said.

“You are my good friend, are you not?” asked Robin.

“Y-Yes,” answered Sule slightly tentatively.

“Then keep your money. Use it for better things,” Robin said without looking at him.

Sule looked at his friend suspiciously. “I am used to spending money, not saving it.”

“Well, it’s about time you learn to,” said Robin, then turned to him.

“Let me go and bring her luggage,” Sule said and left.

Robin then walked up to Beth. “You have such a lovely boat, Robin,” she said as he got to her, caressing the sign LIQUID JEWEL painted in black block letters.

“You have to be wealthy to get lovely things,” Robin murmured.

“Is that so?” Beth folded her arms and turned to him.

“That is the way I see it,” said Robin, then smiled. Beth deliberately ran her tongue on her pink-painted lips.

“Well, this hopes to be a promising trip,” she said as she resisted the urge to touch a strand of hair that stuck out of his T-shirt with a fingernail.

“You see, I intend to have breakfast on land,” Robin said as Sule came with two big travelling bags. “Then, I will sail in the afternoon. I have a few friends I’d like to meet.”

“I wonder who,” muttered Sule. Beth walked away from them and went towards the entrance to the liquid jewel. She leaned slightly against it, and was lost in thought.

“Just two pen pals. A black British couple,” Robin answered, unable to take his eyes off her. “They were friends I made recently. Their coming to Nigeria was grand, due to my write-ups.”

“Well, I’ll be damned!” laughed Suleman, and shook his head in feigned sadness. “Poor black lost sheep!!” Then, he laughed again. “This is like ‘Ngozi marry Ngozi’. Britons!”

Robin successfully turned his eyes away from Beth the minute her eyes caught his. She blushed visibly. Her light brown-yellow complexion could not hide the blush.

“You don’t have to show me your hatred for them,” said Robin.

“The sort of friends you make these days really beats me,” Sule spoke with light astonishment. “You are the only human being that has refused to take money from me. Why is that so?”

Robin laughed. An improper laugh. “Answer that yourself, Suleman,” he said.

Sule shrugged his shoulders. “Well, I’ll be going,” he said and turned to go. After a thought, he turned back. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he said sternly.

Robin picked up the luggage. ‘I hope my liquid jewel does not turn into a love boat,” he mused aloud in all seriousness. “I extend my salutations to your family.”

Suleman left, then Robin and Beth boarded the boat. There were four small but roomy, dainty, portable cabins, a pair facing each other. Robin pointed to the first cabin on his left. “That is my room,” he said. He entered the cabin opposite his. “And this will be your room for just three days,” he announced. Beth entered and looked around the room. The small round window faced the one-person bed and was at right angles with the door leading to the bathroom/toilet. There was also a table and chair adjacent to the entrance/exit door. It was a petit room and Beth was impressed by what she saw.

“It is a lovely room,” she breathed.

“Thank God you like it,” Robin sighed. “The other two empty rooms are in some sort of a mess.”

“You live here – all by yourself?” Beth asked, a twinkle coming to her eyes as she looked at him.

“Liquid jewel is my home,” Robin said. “I am resting on my dream achieved. I have lived alone here for a long time.”

“That sounds pretty lonely, don’t you think?”

Robin looked around the room himself.

“I’m used to it,” he said and left the room. At the door, he said, “Would you like to come with me to visit my pen pals, then after that, breakfast?”

“I’ll have to change though.”

“Why?”

“I can’t go out in this little nothing.”

Amused, Robin shook his head and left.

*

There was a five-storey terraced building, corrugated, tall, among the outstanding. All the rooms in all the floors were out for rent. Only the enormous ground floor became restaurant several months ago. Even six big round tables and three chairs to one each under umbrellas were on the big pavement of the medieval building.

On one of those tables, bread and ham and butter and bacon and decaffeinated milked coffee was served to Robin, while white rice with vegetabled stew and two large chunks of goat meat was served to Beth. After the two uniformed waiters left them some moments after serving, Beth laughed, “You certainly have funny friends, Robin.”

“You mean Mr. and Mrs. Vance?” Robin said and began his breakfast.

“They did not even bother to look my way,” she said as she began hers.

“You were treated like the stranger that you are,” Robin said with serious nonchalance, and took his first bite off his self-made sandwich.

Beth nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders and took in her first spoon of food. She was exquisitely dressed in a light blue sleeveless body-hugging gown with a huge white belt and white heelless easy shoes. Her tiny braids were tied to a ponytail. Robin was getting used to her natural blush.

She ate in a slow and quick pace. Watching her eat made Robin eat slower than her. After a few minutes, she stopped in the middle of her food and got up. As Robin also got up simultaneously, he noticed a group of three young male adults.

They were university kids from their dress modes. One of them in particular, in black-and-white-and-black-and-white, zeroed almost all his attention on Beth.

“Nature’s calling,” she whispered and left. The table of the three university kids was sixty degrees away from Robin and Beth’s table, and by the time Beth left, that boy shot up and went after her.

Robin slowly sat down and watched as the boy held one of her arms. She turned sharply and jerked her arm free in surprise. The boy, after successfully stopping her from entering the restaurant, began to talk. Robin knew just from the male’s body movements what the conversation was all about. He saw Beth’s look of utter disdain for him. She even halted his speech, shooed him away and entered the restaurant. The boy bashfully returned to his table, rubbing his temple in defeat.

Robin almost laughed at this. “Well, something even worse than this happened during my time,” he mused and continued eating. After a few minutes, Beth came back. “Where are we heading to after breakfast?” she asked after taking in a few spoons of her food.

“To Badagry,” was the answer. Beth said nothing and they finished their breakfast in silence. At the corner of Robin’s eye, he saw the humiliated boy stealing a few glances at Beth while eating his food. Robin stifled a laugh.

*

The liquid jewel was on the sea again. Robin was slightly drenched as he steered the boat. Some moments later, Beth came out of her cabin into the open in a white micro-skirt, a white bikini bra and a white blouse with no buttons. Robin silently mouthed ‘Wow!’ when he saw her.

The sun was intense. Robin looked up at it and said, “We are following that sun. Where it is going to set is our place to be.”

“We are getting to Badagry in the evening?” Beth asked. Robin nodded in reply after a moment. He then looked at Beth, who now looked up to the sun. He must say that she was beautifully attractive and attractively beautiful. Within himself, he laughed. “Or could it be beautifully beautiful and attractively attractive?” he mused silently. The clothing she wore exposed her pulchritude. That young male toaster should not be blamed for his actions.

Beth ran her fingers through her braids in a graceful move. She inhaled a lungful of air and walked to the tip of the dock. Her eyes ran through the mighty ocean. It was a breathtaking spectacle. She stayed there for a while just looking at the stagnant waters. Then, she went to Robin on the other end of the boat where he was steering. Robin watched great feminine features approach him.

Beth folded her arms. “So you live on water?” she asked, but it sounded more like a statement.

“Yes,” was the quiet, baritonic reply.

“But the water is polluted,” she said.

Robin nodded slowly. “That’s right. Land is polluted. Air is polluted. Water is polluted. And we live on all of them.” He laughed a little. “What can we do?”

“The only one thing,” answered Beth. “Die!”

Robin laughed aloud this time. “You don’t want to die, Beth. I know that.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Who cares anyway?” He pressed his lips together, shook his head and remained silent. After a while, Beth returned inside. Robin could do nothing but steer that boat and watch her.

*

Robin stood by one of the windows in his medium-size beach house in Badagry, idly looking at the liquid jewel being parked some several metres away from the beach itself.

Beth came and stood beside him. Right on time, she heard him mutter, “O liquid jewel!!” She was now dressed in a white see-through-clearly blouse and a long black pleated skirt.

“What is the matter with your boat?” she asked innocuously.

Robin slowly smiled. “Gosh! The things I went through to get it!! You wouldn’t want to know. It’s a long story. Hardly can any rational male Nigerian do what I did. It is sheer stupidity.”

Beth shrugged her shoulders. “I think getting a boat in this country is quite unique,” she said. “It is rare these days.”

Just then, a well-dressed houseboy came out of the kitchen with two glass bowls of food in a tray. He placed it on the dining table and announced, “Dinner is ready, sir.” His tone and voice were of an impeccable English and his muscles and profile were very much pronounced beneath his dressing. He ogled at Beth. Even a houseboy knows his worth.

“Em, thank you, Okon,” Robin said and left the window. Then, he noticed Beth’s dressing and held his breath momentarily. She had no bra on. Robin noticed firm, jutting, inviting breasts. They went to the dining table, and began eating. “Why decide to build this beach house, Robin?” she asked looking all around her.

“It was Suleman’s idea,” Robin replied. “We were four good friends, but since the other two were lacking interest, as well as Suleman, I took ownership of this place.”

Just then, Okon came in with a sauce containing one avocado fruit and one kiwi fruit. He placed it near Beth. “Be careful,” cautioned Robin lightly. “The two different fruits are liquidy.”

Beth finished her food. “This food was delicious!” she exclaimed after drinking a glass of chilled spring water. Okon left the dining with a tearing smile.

Robin finished his own food, cleaned his lips and laughed, to Beth’s slight surprise.

“I just had a thought,” he said as Okon returned to clear away the empty dishes. “Of recent, I heard on Blue Danube Radio of an old notorious prophet who foretold his own demise on the first of October 1960, exactly the date of the birth of this nation.” He paused to laugh a little. “Now, that prophecy came to pass. Then, before he joined his ancestors, he made another prophecy: that worldwide peace shall come in the year nineteen hundred and ninety-eight.” Robin laughed again. “Now that the year has come, I see more and more obits staining the walls and polls of all streets.” He shook his head.

Beth looked at him and also shook her head. “It looks as if people of the sea get more information on the happenings of the land than people living there,” she said sarcastically.

Robin ignored the sarcastic tone, and slowly nodded. “Yes, you could say so,” he answered. “At every hidden edge of this particular earth reside persons who can turn nigeria into Nigeria. But…” He allowed his voice trail off for a while. “You spent most of your life over the seas,” he came up accusingly.

“And you spent all your life on the seas,” she counter-accused.

Robin and Beth stared challengingly at each other, and tension was created. Beth broke that tension after a while by grabbing the fruits, leaving the dining, leaving the beach house and heading toward the beach itself. Robin followed her with his eyes. Wow! he thought. She is most beautiful when she is most irate.

*

Robin had just finished his ball chain lifting and went to keep his liquid jewel in order when rain came in torrents. By the time he finished with his lemon yellow boat, the rain was at its heaviest. It was quite some distance from the boat to the beach house. He was utterly soaked to the skin when he got to the beach house. He removed his slippers and entered.

Beth was sleeping soundly on the settee, with only a white unbuttoned shirt on. Okon was just about to caress one of her exposed legs. He neither saw nor heard his master come in. Robin watched as Okon’s forefingers voyaged lightly through the leg. He gave her an idolising look as he touched her. After a few moments, Beth stirred and moaned simultaneously. She must have felt the touch, the caress. She somnolently but quickly ran her tongue through her lips and moaned again. Okon’s fingers almost reached her groin when he turned his head saw Robin.

He was taken aback. He moved slightly away from the settee and rubbed his hands culpably. Robin smiled, and halted him when he was about to open his mouth to speak.

“I understand,” he whispered. Then, on his way to his room, he said, “Don’t even bother to stop.”

Some moments after Robin left, Okon took one look at her, shrugged his shoulders and retired to his own room.

*

As Okon stepped out of the beach house with Beth’s luggage heading towards the liquid jewel, the morning sparkled. Beth came out afterwards, following him at a short distance. She was back in her curvaceous long black Jeans and lemon yellow light blouse, carrying a multicoloured strapless handbag. As she was getting on board the liquid jewel, Okon was departing it. They brushed past each other, touching slightly chest-to-chest.

Beth met Robin sitting on a chair on the dock, corrosively perusing a newspaper with a small stock of them beside him on the floor. She held her breath slightly momentarily at the sight of his hairy self beneath the red Hollandis designer knickers and red Hollandis designer top to match without sleeves. The hairs round Robin’s body were extreme. What a monkey, Beth thought.

She picked up her luggage and entered inside. Robin watched her at a corner of his eye with a smile. Then, he got up and went to the control panel of his boat.

*

The liquid jewel set sail again. Just when the sun was beginning to be intense, Beth came out to the dock, surprised not to see Robin there. She brought a mat with her, and went to the pinnacle of the dock. She spread the mat, took off her robe of nylon to reveal a black skimpy bikini and stretched her voluptuous lissom body on the mat.

After basking under the sun for some minutes, she went back inside. She found Robin’s cabin door open and peered through. He was still reading newspapers on his bed wearing a pair of white, very short knickers only, and a pair of medicated specs. Beth rapped lightly on the door.

Robin looked up. “Come in,” he invited, closing his newspaper. And she did.

“When will we reach the place where Suleman left me?” she asked.

“You mean Mile Two? Yes! Perhaps you might meet your uncle tomorrow morning because we will arrive there very late in the evening,” was the reply.

He returned to his newspaper, then, after a thought, looked back at Beth, remembering the kind of tone she used to ask the question he answered. Quite arid, less lambent, nonchalant. She didn’t sound happy to have him as an uncle. That is very odd though, he thought. He shrugged to brush off the thought and returned to his newspaper.

After a while, Beth quietly returned to her cabin. Robin watched her at the corner of his eye, and grinned.

“You are not steering the boat?” she called out. It was actually meant to be a statement.

“It is on automatic,” he called back.

Then, silence, except for Vanessa Williams’s Comfort Zone, which filled the whole boat.

*

The atmosphere darkened tremendously just a few hours after sunset, and quietly the moon crept out, guiding, and perhaps guarding, the smooth domestic voyage of the liquid jewel.

The gentle, caressing melodies of Shanice’s Loving You now occupied the boat as Beth came out of her cabin in a flimsy black lingerie. Robin’s cabin door was still open. He was still on his bed with an open newspaper on his laps and his specs on. But this time, he slept off with his head straight. A noiseless giggle escaped from Beth’s lips when she entered his cabin.

“The lonely chap sleeps,” she intoned silently. After a moment, she fingered the top of her lingerie, which totally exposed her cleavage and hid half of her breasts, and gently bit her lower lip. She quietly approached him. His chest movements were regular and she was slightly baffled that he did not snore at all. After flexing her knuckles a bit, after a nervous glance at his profile, she quietly took the newspaper away from him and dropped it on the floor with the rest. Then, in the same manner, she took off his glasses and kept them on the bedside.

After that, she waited for a moment. Then, slowly, very slowly, she placed herself on his laps and, in that same pace, her lips met his.

He woke up and his eyes slightly widened in surprise when he knew who was kissing him. And just when he was responding little by little to the kiss, she withdrew and just looked at him. Equally, his eyes burned into hers.

“What do you want?” she whispered.

“What do you do?”

“Everything. Absolutely everything.” She removed the straps of her lingerie off her shoulders.

He ogled at her. “There isn’t enough time for everything, only for something.”

 “Yes.”

He brought her face near his and crushed his lips on hers. After some moments, their clothing were off them and their inflammable bodies became one.

*

Beth gently tiptoed out of Robin’s cabin during Robin’s snore. The minute she returned to her room, the snoring gradually ceased to be, and a grin appeared on his countenance before a smile. He got out of bed and stretched his body.

“Nna men, e be like say I go roll dis boat, o!” he exclaimed and wore his knickers and slippers. He went to the dock and took control of the boat. Right on time, the skies were about to wake.

He realised that he was approximately seven metres away from his destination. “Hahoo!” he exclaimed excitedly. From there, he could also see a human figure standing right at the spot where Robin first parked his boat. As the liquid jewel was arriving to shore, the human figure gradually revealed itself. Robin dexterously parked his liquid jewel, came down, took the rope and tied the boat firmly to shore, as he did earlier.

“Ah ha! I don time una correct correct!!” came Suleman’s proud voice. He brought a full bottle of an unknown liquid. “I put my family on a plane to Honolulu, economical flight of course.” He paused and laughed a little. “I strongly advised them not to attempt going to that Bermuda Triangle.” He laughed heartily this time.

Robin turned and confronted him menacingly. “You bloody bastard!!” he bellowed angrily and punched him hard on the face. The blow sent Sule down on his knees and made him bleed from his two lips.

Some moments later, Beth came out of the boat with her luggage, dressed in a Hawaiian blouse and cardinal Jeans shorts with white tennis shoes and dark goggles. She let her braids flow down. She tossed a shirt at Robin and cat walked briskly past them. Suleman was on his feet by then. Their eyes followed her. “See you later, Robin,” she intoned.

“You see? How else do you want me to lie about her? Why do you think I gave you that cash?” said Sule.

Robin sighed and shook his head with his arms akimbo. He wore the shirt and left it unbuttoned.

“You sent your family to Honolulu,” he said sarcastically. “And she is going to enjoy another man. I wonder when you will leave this life.” He sighed again.

“What a bitch!” he exclaimed with disgust as he turned and watched her from a distance boarding a taxi. “After all de money wey I spend on am!! Anyway, na only God go catch am for me. And na guilty conscience go prick am. Motherfucker!!!” He turned back to Robin. “How was she?”

Robin stared at his friend with total, visible, vivid incredulity, too baffled to reply him.

“No be de normal question I dey ask?” Sule fretted and poked him a little with the drink. “My friend, make you no look me like dat, o!”

Robin laughed hilariously. “Suleman,” he said afterwards. “You have no right to ask me how I did my babysitting for your so-called niece.” He paused. “And, eh, no be you tell me say you like to dey spend your money, no be to save am? Abi na lie I talk?”

Sule glanced guiltily at his drink and scratched his head a little. “You nko?” he challenged.

“What about me?” Robin countered. “I know I have already made myself perfectly clear to you. This is nothing. It is you that is married. And now, it is…” He stopped and laughed for some time. Slowly, anger, humiliation, frustration, disdain, all crept into Sule and sort of swelled him up. “Please, abeg, let me pay a visit to my pen pals,” finished Robin.

Robin was walking away when Suleman took a careless swing of his drink and threw the bottle at the liquid jewel. Robin turned and bellowed, “Hey! Do not throw things at my yacht again! You go fit wash am?”

Suleman stared hard at the bad alcohol stain on the lemon yellow boat and grumbled, “Robin, I don waste my money on dat girl, o! Na im wey dey vex me.”

Robin watched him, amused. “You are a sad man, Sule. You have everything, but you are still a sad man. I have noticed it when you were the only one very drunk from that alehouse.”

“How was she?” Sule asked again. “I believe only I will know that,” Robin replied, and continued walking away, buttoning up his shirt.

THE END

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