Chapter I

 

She stood along a narrow winding path on the school main lawns watching her colleagues rush to different lecture rooms at the Kalulushi Catholic University. It was a bright Tuesday morning and the young beauty was not in the mood of sitting behind a desk to listen to some disgruntled lecturer at a private university in one of the giant mining towns on the Copperbelt. After all, she did not choose to attend the university but rather her single mother went against her will in spite of the several times she had denied the boring university life.

Her friends called her a glamour girl and every one at campus was aware of her stunning beauty to an extent that she saw herself on international podiums representing the barely known Zambia. She yearned to help fly the national flag higher even as she ascended the echelon of power at the global scene. Her desire to find an alternative gateway to fame was stronger and the symptoms were already visible at a tender age. The young student was impatient but worked hard privately to have access to the world cake of beauty and happiness.

‘Morning Subi, you are looking great my dear,’ a classmate greeted from behind carrying a hardcover book in her hands with an empty bag dangling from her shoulder.

The young beauty only managed to smile back and remained mute because her friend had already disappeared through an eastern male dormitory. Her name was Subi Mwanza with a permanent residence in Chingola. She was twenty years old from a family whose father and mother was her lonely mum. Her mother had fought tooth and nail to enlist her at the Catholic University though against her wishes.

She started walking slowly and hesitantly towards her friend’s room wishing not to find her so that she could justify herself for missing the morning lecture. How she wished her friends and family could see her resentment for the academic life. She loathed school life with a passion. It bored her to the very core of the definition of the word. No matter how she tried to explain to her mother that she could do better without school, she was never heard.

She decided to frustrate the efforts of her sponsor until she hoped to end up being excluded from school. She eventually dated one of the degenerated callboys of Kitwe two months ago. She knew the act was not going to settle well with her widowed mother and would eventually withdraw her from school. The boy though a callboy, was handsome and the dreadlocks fitted him well rendering the young beauty powerless in his charming presence. He introduced himself as Solo with nothing much to do apart from the well-known occupation of the busiest town of the Copperbelt.

Finally, she made up her mind, she was missing class, she needed to go to Kitwe for the hairdo. Her main interests were her looks, her happiness and nothing else. She knew the potential and benefits of looking beautiful in her days and era. There was no time to waste. Not even on education. She had watched many uneducated people in the world excelling and getting richer than the educated ones. Education was not the ladder to success, at least not in Zambia. She believed in body power and maximum investment in the most powerful magnet of the hot dollars. Mostly education was for men because they were the ones who needed to attract the beauties of the world. All she needed was to look hot and offer great sex.

On the other hand, she thanked her mother for her dazzling looks and tantalizing beauty. She was the Zambian Jezebel, at twenty with firm and medium sized boobs. She was slim, a bottle shaped with slightly raised shoulders and an outstretched chest. Her boobs danced rhythmically at each step she took leaving most guys salivating for her, no wonder she never wore any bra. Her skin color, tone and texture was her source of pride and fame. Subi knew she was destined for greatness.

The sun was rising, the day was getting busier and the October heat spared no one. Her summer wear left nothing behind as it accentuated her sexy butt and the nice brown to orange upper thighs that caused men to suffer discomfort. Nothing of such was by accident to the young beauty, but was brilliantly calculated. The reactions amused her and propelled her to doing more and more. Instead of satisfying the onlookers, it fulfilled her glorious ambitions and assured her that she was still alive in the game of seduction. She knew that most men longed for her share in bed, but they never came closer to her heart. She needed more than money and instead yearned for fame that presently was way beyond her reach.

Her man was a callboy – a useless boy on the streets. The act that did not settle well among her peers who kept asking what drove her to such an impecunious boy who could not afford even a beer for her. Subi never bothered to explain herself to anyone regarding her newfound love; no one could understand what was deep within her. She looked at the other side that probably no one had ever considered. The callboy was a tool and she was a mechanic in the garage of prominence.

 

***

 

Thirty minutes later, Subi was dropping from a taxi at KMB main station and quickly searched for Solo among the callboys who were selling secondhand shoes in the streets. Seeing the boy was not anywhere within sight she crossed Langeshe Street and headed towards the city center leaving Sirodo Hydraulics on her left. The urge of meeting her boyfriend was strong and she could not proceed to the hair salon without his company. Tirelessly she looked everywhere and asked his friends where the boy could be until she was told he was nabbed for curfew by the Police officers the previous night.

In no time, the young beauty was standing at the police station signing for her boyfriend’s police bond. She knew very well that the boy had no relatives within town that could help him in times of such trouble. From the onset of their relationship, Subi knew what she signed up for dating such a cantankerous street boy. Such would be the norm of life and she braced herself for it. Not because she was too kind but for the better future.

After doing all the necessary paperwork, the two walked out of the police station like any other couple in love.

‘What are you doing here?’ Solo asked while walking out of the police reception area. ‘Are you not supposed to be in class?’

‘I came for you; don’t you appreciate that I came just at the right time? Imagine if I did not come, who could have signed for you?’ she asked reaching for his hand.

‘Who told you that I needed you? Who called you?’ Solo asked jokingly.

‘I don’t need to be called or told by anyone when it comes to you. Instincts are enough when it comes to my boyfriend. No wonder I wasn’t even in the mood for attending lectures today. It was all pointing to this you know.’ Subi said grabbing the few shoes and a number of belts that her boyfriend was caught selling in the night. ‘How come your cellmates didn’t cut your dreadlocks? I hear they cut it when they lock someone in the cells right?’ Solo shrugged and continued walking towards the town center.

After walking a few meters, Subi pointed at the restaurant within Chisokone market suggesting for him to have something to bite. She was sure, the guy was starving having been locked up the entire night. When the two sat down, Solo again asked why the lady was in town when she was supposed to be in class.

‘Just thank me for coming right on time Solo, to save your ass from rotting in police cells. You were going to be there until only God knows when.’

‘Can we have a meet pie and a drink please,’ she ordered. ‘How about you, won’t you eat some?’ Solo asked. ‘I’m from my room, I ate before coming here.’ ‘Okay…….am having a date this Friday sweetheart,’ she said changing the story.

‘Tell me about it; is it that same old man from the bureau?’ Solo asked chewing the tasty pie. ‘You think I can be stuck with one man for two weeks, he did his part and there is no business anymore between us.’

‘You have dumped him?’ he asked in disbelief. ‘The chap became careless to his wife at home. His baby mama came screaming at me the time she saw us together at Mukuba Mall. Imagine how embarrassing being screamed at because of a broke nigga like him.’ ‘Broke because of us right?’ Solo interjected jokingly.

‘That’s not a factor, a guy like him just needed to prove his financial muscles’.

‘It’s time to hunt for fresh fish in this vast lake of the Copperbelt now, and the bream has already been found.’ ‘Don’t tell me, I can’t wait for my business to grow.’

‘You are just not serious Solo, by now you should have stopped selling little items in town. The money you part away with is a lot.’

‘But remember, we agreed that its better am disguised here for our operations to be covered, not so?’

‘Oh yeah,’ she sighed remembering the deal. ‘But try to look clean though.’

‘You don’t understand sweetheart, I should continue being a street thug and look like a street thug all the time. That’s the secret of our success. Remember the white miner we handled two weeks ago, he never doubted any of our movements and everything went smoothly.’

‘I get you my love, thanks for understanding my short comings. But this Friday we are in the game again.’