Must Read: The Claw, The Tail, And The Cross. - Season 1 - Episode 5

Episode 7 years ago

Must Read: The Claw, The Tail, And The Cross. - Season 1 - Episode 5

I had watched, or is it read, somewhere that
animals can smell fear. I also remembered
something else about predators not killing to
eat unless they were hungry. Right now I was
hoping this leopard had been well fed because
from the way I was feeling I imagined I would
be giving off a pretty strong smell of fear right
now. I couldn’t really think of any way out of
my predicament; if I tried to run, the leopard
would definitely catch me. If I shouted for help
it might aggravate the animal. What would you
have done in such a situation? So I just
continued to stroke the leopard and pray
someone would come and save me from this
situation. It seemed to enjoy the petting and lay
down on its belly, my hand never leaving it’s
head.
“Wow. That’s impressive. Most Nigerians freak
out when they see Sidney.” I heard a heavily
accented voice say.


I looked up and saw it was one of the foreign
partners from the meeting. Mr Bells, a Lebanese
man, came closer, with his hands in his suit
pockets. He was stockily built and had a stubble
of a beard that begged to be trimmed. His smile
was slightly ferocious but maybe that was
because he had extra large canines. He stopped
approaching and watched us and I was
beginning to think he would leave me with the
beast.
“Help me out here…” I whispered.

He laughed and gave a shrill whistle.

The leopard immediately cocked its ears, stood up
and lumbered up to him and he knelt down and
kissed it on the head, proceeding to pulling its
ears while the leopard made a funny purring
sound and opening its jaws filled with huge
sharp looking teeth and canines that were
much, much larger than Mr Bell’s. I resisted a
second urge to bolt out of there.
“You must be a very special person, Mr
Chukwudi, “ Mr Bells said. “Sidney does not let
most people touch him unless I’m there.”

In my mind I was like, “Guy, no be my intention
to pet live beast o!” but I said, “He’s an
interesting animal. A leopard, yes?”
“Yes indeed!, Mr Bells said, “I got him as a little
cub during one of my visits to South Africa.

A hunter had killed its mother and didn’t know
what to do with the cub so I decided to buy it
from him.” His voice took on a sad note. “I
named him Sidney, after my son that died that
year. It just seemed…right.”

I raised my eyebrows but said nothing.

The others had come around to meet us.

Apparently I had been missed. Some of them,
mostly the Nigerians, stayed back probably
from fear of the animal. A few however came
close. Jenny stunned me by walking right past
the beast as if it wasn’t there and grabbed me
by the hand.
“Come on, let’s get you back to your hotel.”

She said. She cast a hateful glance back at the
leopard and to my shock, it returned the stare.

It narrowed its eyes, bared its teeth and let out
a low growl. I had never seen an animal make a
hateful face like that before. Nobody else
noticed it and I began to wonder if I had
imagined it all. I however followed Jenny back
to the car. The driver apparently had been
waiting a while and he started the car as soon
as he saw us approaching.
“So I take it you don’t like the leopard much.”
I said, stumbling after her as she hurried towards
the car. “I think the feeling might be mutual…”
“Hateful creature!” she interjected, then turned
to me, “You hate it too?”
“Me? No, I…I found it to be quite cute actually
as soon as I got over my fear.”
“You didn’t see the least bit afraid though,” she said smiling, “I think you were very brave.”
I grinned and opened the door for her.
“I suppose you’ll want to get some rest after
your trip,” jenny said as we entered into the
car.
“Yes I would”, I replied. “Will there be any
meetings tomorrow?”
“We’ll go into the field to see some other staff,
but apart fro that, we’ll be free.” She replied,
smiling at me sexily. Her perfume wafted
towards me and I inhaled its freshness and
recognized it. Ocean breeze. Very nice. Her
lovely brown eyes gazed into my very soul and I
found myself blurting
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
She laughed, a gentle but high pitched laugh
that heaved her moderately sized bossoms
delectably.
“Why are you asking?” she said.
“I swear I don’t know,” I stammered, “It just
came out…”
“No I don’t,” she said. “And even if I did, it
wouldn’t matter.” And she smiled that her Sekxy
smile again.
“Well, I have a girlfriend, a fiancée actually, her
nae is Ni – “
“That doesn’t matter either,” she whispered,
drawing close to me. “All that matters is that
you are here and you are spending two weeks.

Alone.”

I gulped and said nothing. Apparently Jenny
wasn’t the subtle type.

We got to the hotel and I came down and
headed towards the hotel lobby. Jenny poked
her head out of the car window.
“Do you plan on going anywhere this evening?”
she asked.
“Not really,” I said, trying to control the words
coming out of my mouth. “I think it would be
best if I spent the rest of the day indoors.”

She smiled yet again and I thought, these
smiles are coming too frequently,not that I
mind but…

“Very well then. See you later.” And she winked
and the car drove off.

I watched the car disappear into the distance
and I turned around and saw the gate-man also
gazing after it. Then he saw me watching him
and chuckled.
“Bros, if you no understand that red light wey
dem give you now, that wan mean say you
need deliverance oh!”

I burst out laughing and strolled into the hotel.

I entered my room to find that it had been
cleaned out and fresh toiletries placed in the
bathroom. A note had been placed by the
bedside with a menu for dinner. I looked at the
time, it was heading towards 6pm and I
decided to do some reading first. I picked up a
novel I had seen in one of the drawers, the
forest of a thousand daemons, it was an old
classic from my school days and I settled down
for a good read before dinner. I didn’t know
when I dozed off.

I woke up to a knock on the door by 9pm. I had
passed out on the bed with the book lying on
the rugged floor. The air conditioner was on full
blast and I would have gone back to sleep if the
person hadn’t knocked again.
“One moment!” I yelled groggily and got up
from the bed. Outside was dark and I went to
pull the blinds shut. Another knock on the door
and I went to open it.

There, standing in the doorway, was Jenny.

If you have been following my description of
jenny, you might have gotten the hint that she
was a Sekxy, beautiful lady. That was nothing
compared to the vision that stood before me
right now. She was putting on a tight body
hugging red dress that accentuated all those
curves I mentioned earlier. A plunging neckline
led down to a mesmerizing view of her heaving
bossom. The dress itself ended abruptly just
above her knees. In that red outfit she had
managed to weave Sekxy and classy into a single
entity. I found myself gazing in wonder and
took a step back.
“Whoa, welcome, em…what…”
“Can I come in?” she asked in a quiet voice.

I stepped back and allowed her to enter.

She strolled in and it is like lust sidled in
alongside her. Immediately my room was filled
with the red-orange flame I had come to
understand to be lust. Only that this time I had
to search for the source of the flames only to
realize that it was coming from me. From her
too, but mostly from me. I went to the fridge
and grabbed a bottle of cold water.

Even as I did so my hands were shaking. There was something not right about this, someone I
ought to be thinking about at a time like this,
but try as I might, I couldn’t remember who
that person was. I turned around and saw her
watching me as if I was something that
enthralled her.
“You were asking me something?” she said in
that quiet seductive voice.

I drank the water and offered her some without
saying anything. She took it from me and our
fingers touched. The electricity was very
intense.

She looked at me with her piercing
eyes and I found myself drawing closer to her.

Something still didn’t feel normal about all of
this, but i couldn’t quite figure it out.

I decided to avert my gaze from hers and closed my eyes for a moment and tried to think.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Well,” she said and went back to the door that
I had left open and shut it, locking the door
with the key. “I went to drop off some files at an
office nearby and decided to come and check
on you, to see if they were treating you alright.”
“You went for an errand in that dress?” I asked
incredulously.
“it’s a warm night,” she replied. “I wanted
something loose that would make me feel
cofortable.

That dress looked anything but loose. I thought
to myself.


She walked back up to me and was so close I
could feel her warm sweet breath on my
mouth.Her chest pressed against mine and I
could feel the racing of her heart. My skin
started tingling and i was once again drawn
towards her.”
“So,” she whispered, “Are they treating you
alright?”
We kissed. It was inevitable. I am a person of
admirable self control, learnt it from my father
and also from the experiences or should I say,
manifestations that I had had. I had one other
girlfriend before I met Nina and I was faithful to
her until we broke up. And I hadn’t even
thought of cheating on Nina in the eight
months of our relationship. So I was at a total
loss as to why I was falling for jenny so easily.


The kiss was so sweet and intense that for a
moment I lost sense of where I was and didn’t
care about anything anymore.


Then I opened my eyes and was taken
completely by surprise.


I was kissing a fish. Well, not really. I was still
kissing Jenny but two fishes were nibbling
busily around my lips. Picture that. I jumped
back so fast I fell over the bed. I heard jenny
scream in alarm and I hurried to my feet.


Jenny was still as beautiful as ever, that red
dress was still sparklingly Sekxy but jenny’s legs
were no longer there. In its place was a huge
tail, like that of a large fish, complete with
scales and ending in huge fins. She stood there,
seemingly suspended in mid air, her tail
swaying gently from side to side just above the
floor. My jaw dropped open and remained like
that for a while. She looked at me puzzled.
“What?” she asked, looking alarmed. “Why are
you looking at me like that?”

I must have really worn a shocked look on my
face because she became more frightened as I
didn’t answer. Tears streamed down her lovely
face and her tail swished about aggressively.

I closed my eyes and opened them and the
manifestation was gone.
“I’m sorry jenny,” I said. “I’m really feeling very
tired.”

She looked at me stunned. And then she
relaxed.
“You must really love your fiancée then,”
“Well, yes I do.” I said . “I’m sorry if I led you
on. You are very beautiful…” I trailed off.

I didn’t
know what else to say.

Jenny smiled. “It’s alright, I understand. I’ll let you rest.” And she walked to the door and
opened it. She paused for a moment then said
“I am attracted to power, Chuks, and you are
powerful. I can feel it. I want you, Chuks and I
usually get what I want. I still have some more
days with you. I’m not giving up.

And then she left.