If I'd known how easy it was going to be I would have started a lot earlier but my father had always warned me ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper to leave white women alone because they just weren't worth the trouble. How wrong he was.
My family was originally from Nigeria but I was born and raised here and I grew up learning how racist this country is. My parents and their generation experienced first hand that racism meant being chased down the streets by gangs and being spat on when you were on the bus. It meant getting into a fight just because you'd asked a white girl for a dance. Things have changed though and now it is more "underground" and more discreet and subtle and you don't notice it unless you look for it. Oh sure the white people I meet are very nice and polite to my face but I can tell that they didn't take me seriously. Wherever I go I am the only African in the room and people always look at me as an exotic curiosity and make me feel like a child and are always astonished at how good my English is and that I have a university degree and a good job that allows me to have the same standard of living that they enjoy.
Then one day I met Ochi at a revival meeting at our church. He was wasn't a member of our church, or of any other church for that matter, and he'd only come that day to accompany his sick mother. Anyway I was introduced to him and we talked briefly. A few weeks after our first meeting I bumped into him again quite by chance and we went and had a couple of drinks. We talked about this and that and it turned out we had a lot in common. For one thing our families came from the same province in Nigeria and for another we agreed that this country was racist. We talked and compared notes in all the ways that white people in this country belittled black people.
'Even when they talk about "fighting racism" and "equality" and "justice" they make it sound like they are doing us a favour man,' Ochi said. He even went so far as to say it was wrong that I was a Christian because being a Christian was just one more way the white man had enslaved Africans and he thought that being educated by the white man merely taught the black man to accept his fate.
But then he surprised me by saying, 'mind you man...racism isn't always a bad thing.'
I asked what he meant.
He gave a wicked laugh, 'you never played the "race card" my man?'
I didn't quite follow his drift. So he explained. It was a great way of getting white women into bed.
According to him there are plenty of dumb white bitches (as he called them) willing to go to bed with you just to prove that they
weren't
racist.
'You should try it man,' he said.
I reminded him that I was married with two boys.
He merely shrugged his shoulders. 'You don't know what you're missing,' he said 'those dumb white bitches can't get enough of a big black cock.'
I had my doubts. I didn't buy into this urban myth of the black man being some sort of sexual predator. That sounded a bit racist to me. We are human beings after all in the image of God and not wild animals foaming at the mouth with lust.
'I'm telling you the truth man. They are all whores. They have no virtue or honour. They are
so
easy.'
But I wasn't convinced. I was a happily married man and besides I hadn't forgotten my father's advice.
But on the other hand once Ochi had planted the seed in my head it did sprout and start to grow. I just couldn't help it. Was it really as easy as Ochi said it was? Did all I have to do was snap my fingers and they would fall at my feet? Was it true that white women fantasized about having sex with black men like he said they did? Did they really all get a secret erotic thrill by daring to taste the forbidden fruit? Would I really have to do no more than show her that I was hung like a horse for a white woman to collapse into a sexual frenzy? That sounded like another urban myth.
Imagine you were an a desert Island with a beautiful woman and you could force yourself on her knowing there was nothing she could do about it. Would you give in to your evil lustful impulses? Not at first maybe. But one day you would but I wouldn't. That was not the kind of man I was. We are not animals that live by our primeval impulses. We are not savages and I know the difference between right and wrong. All the same I couldn't get the idea of it out of my head and I even began to wonder what white women I knew that I would like to be alone with on this desert island.
There was "Sophia Loren" for one. Her real name was Harriet but in the office we all called her "Sophia Loren" because she was the spitting image of the famous Italian actress. She had the same big eyes, wide mouth and straight nose and the same lovely short curly black hair and a lovely dark complexion, coffee coloured or olive which ever you prefer. You couldn't take your eyes off her. And her voice just added to her magnetism; it was a deep throaty purr just like a cats. The way she moved with effortless grace and elegance was utterly mesmerising. Some of the blokes in the office thought her mouth a bit too wide or that her nose was a bit too long but that is just nitpicking in my opinion. Put them all together and the result was amazing.
The only problem with her though was that she was not easy to get along with because for one thing she didn't seem to have a sense of humour and she took herself very seriously and didn't suffer fools gladly. All the blokes in the office had tried it on with her and all of them had got absolutely nowhere. Some took the rejection better than others but they all wondered what she must be like in bed. I wondered too but thought she would be too hard a nut to crack and so I would never know the answer to that question.
And then there was Veronica and she would have been my first choice. I got to know her when she and her husband Kevin moved next door to us a little while ago. She is a vision, believe me she really is. A classic blonde with the face of an angel and the body of a Greek goddess and an amazing Colgate smile. There is something special about blondes (real blondes I mean) they do seem to have a sexual charisma and an erotic aura about them that other women don't seem to have. Not only that but Veronica seemed to be quite unaware of the devastating impact she had on every man who saw her. On top of that she was very sweet and very kind she was very genuine with no airs or graces about her at all.
Kevin is a nice guy and I like him but there was nothing outstanding about him I could see that would make a woman like Veronica fall for him. She is way out of his league and I just didn't understand what she saw in him and even though I tried not to I couldn't stop thinking to myself; "this is a woman I want. I
must
have this woman!" I was convinced that given half I chance I would be able to show her that I was the better man. Yet I had to admit that they seemed very much in love and when I saw them together they only had eyes for each other.
Then one day the African Gods led by Eshu "the great trickster" came to my aid. One Sunday afternoon I was attending a small social gathering organised by our church and Kevin and Veronica had been invited. When they arrived it was clear they weren't talking to each other. I don't know what had happened but it was obvious they'd had an argument about something or other. After a couple of hours or so and completely out of the blue Veronica asked me if I wouldn't mind taking her home. This surprised me as she could easily have asked somebody else but at the time I assumed it was because everybody else had been hitting the booze except me as I'm teetotal.
So I drove her home and every now and again I'd look at her through the rear view mirror and saw her staring angrily out of the window her arms firmly clamped across her chest. The silence was starting to get a bit uncomfortable and so to try and warm up the atmosphere a little I asked,
'Trouble in paradise?'
'Oh!...men?'
'What have we done now?'
'You are so stupid.'
'Not all of us surely?'
'He's such a thoughtless ass?'
'Who?..Kevin?'
'Who else?'
'Well, whatever he's done I'm sure he'll realise his mistake soon enough and apologise.'
'Not him! Oh no...not
him
!'
Silence again. She sounded really angry.
'I bet you don't treat your wife like he treats me.'
I shrugged my shoulders and held my piece.
'I don't know why I married him?' she then said bitterly as she stared out of the window. I didn't reply to that either. I had no idea what to say and anyway I didn't think she was talking to me.
We reached her house and she suddenly asked me if I would like to come in for a bit because, she said, she needed the company. She led me into the living room and invited me to help myself to a drink and make myself comfortable while she went upstairs and got changed. While I sat on the settee nursing my drink the words of Ochi rattled around my head. When she came down she was wearing what I can only describe as a sheer see through negligee full length and frilly around the edges and sleeveless. But it left very little to the imagination! I stared at her like a damn fool with my mouth open and Veronica obviously noticed because she suddenly smiled and asked me if I liked it. I tried to say something but the words didn't come out.
Then she said rather sadly, 'Kevin doesn't. He disapproves. He says its too revealing.'
She made herself a drink took a sip and put it down on the coffee table and said she was feeling a bit peckish and was going to make herself a snack and did I want anything?
She sauntered off into the kitchen leaving me with a churning stomach and a heart rate that was tearing me apart and an erection that was threatening to tear through my trousers. Because it was clear to me that she was making a play for me. What else could all these hints and winks and nudges mean? Why else had she asked me to drive her home? She could have asked Emma or Susan for instance? Why had she invited me into her house? Why had she told me how angry and unhappy she was with Kevin? Clearly he was not the man she thought she had married and why had she changed into such a sexily provocative attire which was practically an invitation for a man to rip it off her back. A woman is never disappointed in a man unless he is bad in bed. A man can be a real dog but if he satisfies his woman sexually she will put up with it. Obviously Kevin was failing her as a man and Veronica was now telling me that she was looking for someone better and that she was available because she thought I was that someone. I picked up the drink she had left on the coffee table and followed her into the kitchen.
She had her back to me. I came up behind her put my arms around her waist and kissed the nape of her neck. Veronica gave a little shriek and jumped but I hung on to her.
'What...what?'
'What am I doing?...what does it look like.'
'Please stop.'
'But I thought we were friends?'
'We are. But...it's just. Well, I can't.'