Vivian

Chapter 1: A Lady of Pleasure in Prayer

One late afternoon, an unlikely and unplanned incident transpired. I unwittingly and miraculously bumped into a sex worker and I mean unknowingly. Her name was Vivian and surprisingly, it was vividly impossible to tell that she was a hooker. From my experience, I have always known and thought a prostitute to be a kind of woman who smokes and drinks heavily and openly.

But with Vivian, my knowledge of a tart was completely to change. I found her praying in a church in the evening. There were only the two of us in the chapel. When I finished my prayers, I decided to stick around and wait for her to finish her prayers. After a couple of minutes, she came out beaming with pleasure and beauty. I made a few long strides in haste and offered her company a request she warmly welcomed.

We were exchanging our initial pleasantries when a vividly recognizable lady of pleasure joined our company to my bewilderment. I was startled but before I could say anything, she left our company and proceeded in haste. I tried hard to hide my feeling of confusion but without success. Vivian sensed that I was dying to inquire what was going on. In her politeness, she said to me, "Brother, prostitution is older than religion, in fact it is as old as life itself." For a moment, I thought I saw the heavens open and angels ascending and descending.

I had no idea of what to say, my mind seemed to have run dry of words. Fortunately, I found a few words and asked her if she encouraged prostitution. Her response made me turn around and look around in all directions. Her answer was, "My brother, I have been a comfort woman for half my age." Before I could absorb and digest the implications of her statement, she went on to say, "My brother every seed of victory carries with it the germ of future defeat." I was thrown into confusion by her statements.

I had barely recovered from my confusion when she went on to say, "In life you can't bend the wind rather you bend the sail." For once I thought I knew what it means to be going mad. "Please wait," I said, "What are you saying?" I asked her. "I am quite busy to explain now have my number and call me in a fortnight if you can," she said as she vanished into the crowded Street.

The days that followed were lived in suspense and I thought to myself, "The privilege of living in suspension is impossible to justify but perhaps only difficult to live with." It was the difficulty of living in such suspension that made me feel like the benign and malignant had met, embraced and kissed. A feeling that left me nostalgic and made me yearn and hunger for another encounter with Vivian. My mind was my greatest accomplice urging me to go there while my spirit cautioned me not to.

After a long wait, she agreed to meet me. Her insistence on making the church grounds our rendezvous never ceased to amaze me. True to her words, I found her at the grounds five minutes before our agreed time. Once again I was impressed and surprised at her time management. Her display of leadership skills and qualities won her my respect and admiration.

As I was approaching her, I could sense and feel that she was telepathizing my mind. And as if to confirm my suspicion, she smiled and in a whisper said, "I don't even know why am meeting you." I pretended not to hear what she said instead I stretched out my hand to greet her. Only a few minutes in her vicinity, I could feel and sense her virility despite her being female.

The magnetic field around her was so intense. I was slowly being drawn by her magnetism. But before I could lose myself and find myself in her, my philosophy reminded and cautioned me saying, "There are many nice things you can do with sand; but do not try building a house on it." The reminder was all I needed to get my mind running again. But as if to remind me that she had the ability to read other people's minds and thoughts, she stared and smiled at me and in jest said, "If there are rats in the house, you are more likely to see and find them if you go in silently and suddenly. But the silence and suddenness does not create the rats, it only prevents them from hiding." For a moment, I knew what it meant and felt to be guilty.

After an intense and interesting exchange with Vivian, I decided to take a break so as to reflect and ponder on what she shared with me. 

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