***

Smooth skin the color of melted chocolate.

Eyes that could be defined as mysterious. They darkened with desire, glinted with mischief yet dilated with pleasure.

Fine facial hair stringed together in such a way that sometimes made Liz wonder about how sculpted it looked on his well built jaw.

Liz turned around again for the umpteenth time letting her legs tangle in the sheets as they twisted and uncoiled in sexual frustration.  She missed being intimate with him, she missed his touch and how much fire they ignited.  She finally decided to face time Pamela and waited for the call to connect.

The cold sheets was doing nothing to tamper the raging lust in her body right now. Even after meeting Lily everything still wasnt  back to normal. She needed some good magic or good loving right now.

Three unanswered calls later. She shot up from the bed towards the huge walk in closet.

The closet was full of clothes neatly arranged by color, fabric type, season and occasion. Liz had obsessive compulsive disorder(OCD) to some extent seeing things in disarray couldn't make her function to he fullest. Everything had to be spick, span and orderly. Although OCD wasnt just about being clean and orderly sometimes it had to do with a way of life, or thought that can't be changed.

None of the clothes appealed to her right now, even when she wore Jason's favourite outfits even the ones with "easy access" as he termed it, he still didn't come on to her.

Her phone which she left forgotten on the bed was calling for her attention with a loud ring and she rushed towards it.

"Hey baby!"Pamela called out immediately the call connected. She was in dark blue hospital scrubs and her hair was covered with a surgical cap indicating she just came out from surgery or was prepped for one.  Her  face mask which was pulled to rest under her chin gave her the illusion of a beard.

"Hey Pam."  Liz sighed loudly.

"Why the long face?" Pamela asked followed by a loud yawn that indicated hunger and tiredness in great depths, before she added; "I'm thinking of asking Chris to relocate abroad permanently."

Like someone jolted by bolts of electricity Liz jumped off the bed with so much excitement. "Are you for real? Don't play yourself Pamela." She added the last part cause she knew how much Pamela loved to play. So she better not be playing herself in a bit to prank Liz.

"I am actually serious. You won't believe what happened to me today?"

"What happened?" Liz stared into the iPhone screen her brows bunching up with worry as she wondered what was big enough to make Pamela change her mind about Nigeria.

"First of just so you know I married a witch" Pamela began dramatically and Liz rolled her eyes with a small smile. At least whatever it was didn't kill her friends spirit.

"Since last week I convinced Chris I didn't need a body guard/driver/baby sitter. I was about to leave to work this morning when he asked if he could drop me off but I insisted to go on my own. After much argument I finally left the house and he took the kids to school . I was driving correctly on all my right lanes in the approved speed limits in fact this is Lagos the traffic will make your car crawl. Then I was stopped on the road by supposed men of the law that had guns and asked for the papers to my vehicle which I gave them." A sharp knock on her office door cut her off.

"Hold on one minute Babe." She returned and shouted "come in" to whoever was on the other side of the door.

Liz couldn't see what was going on but she could hear a little of the exchange between her and the other person. After few seconds Pamela picked back her phone with a wrapped basket of food in front of her.

Liz couldn't help but smile at the goofy smile on Pamela's face.  Without being told she knew who the food was from, one thing Pamela's husband; Chris was good at was spoiling his woman silly.

"Awww" she cooed and Pamela laughed gently.

"Should we talk later, so that you could tell him thanks?" Liz suggested with raised brows.

"No I'm mad at him" Pamela shrugged and a scowl replaced the previous smile. "And before you ask me what I did, no he was at fault this time."

"I wasnt going to do that, what's wrong?" Liz asked and smiled.

"So when he came to Jail to see me, Instead of him to direct his anger towards the crazy police men he was shouting at me, " she deepened her voice after this in an attempt to mirror that of her husband, "talking about you see why you need a bodyguard, why didn't you call me immediately,why didn't you just give them the money they wanted?"

Liz would have laughed at the way Pamela tried to mirror her husband expression and in the deep nasal tone she used but when she heard Jail she stopped finding everything funny, "wait what?" She yelled pushing her face closer to the screen.

"Are you okay? Where you hurt? How did you get to that police station in the first place" As she finished her questions Pamela smiled knowing mother hen Liz was awake.

"I'm fine okay. Nothing happened immediately they flagged me down and stopped me I put my camera on live and switched on my cars GPS, my location is also always on. So I didn't stay long before the husband came barreling in. "

"Okay good, good." Liz said twice and nodded seeing that all was indeed well then asked, "what happened in the first place?"

"I took the Mercedes today not even the Bentley. I live on the Island but work in Mainland Lagos so its usually a journey to and fro back. So on my way I was stopped by these police men in unidentified uniform asking me for my papers which I gave them. But you see Elizabeth lots of people are mad and roaming the streets and the stupid government of Nigeria keeps giving these men that need proper psych evaluation to determine the state of their mental health guns " she fired hotly.

"Can you imagine one of them who was definitely intoxicated and yes I could smell the alcohol reeking from his breath. He asked me where I got the money to buy this kind of car. I was about to tell him it was a gift from my husband when the deranged idiot asked me which of my sugar daddy gave it to me after all I was fine enough to get it from a man and if someday he could have a taste too. It was at this point I switched on my camera quietly, I've been hearing of these forms of misconduct and extortion but I saw if myself today"

Liz opened her mouth wide at the outrageous things Pamela was saying. "Wait how is that even possible? Did you get his name from his officer uniform I hope you are going to file a complaint and why didn't the rest officers with him tell him what he was doing was harassment"

Pamela couldn't help but burst into laughter at this part at how naive Liz sounded. Yes, Police brutality existed in America but the kind of brutality in Nigeria will make even their worst statistics seem like child's play.

"Oh dear, if only you knew the depth of what is going on here you'll be shocked. Report who? The man who wasnt putting on uniform and even if he was , I'll report him to who? The same man at the top sometimes waiting to collect his share of the money generated by extortion from the streets? The extra judicial killing, the rape, the assault, battery, harassment, extortion, gross misuse of power, the Nigeria Police force isn't even playing  when it came to that. Making the good eggs among them seem like just a few. " This time Pamela opened her food package and wisps of smoke from the food packed in a light blue cooler emerged and Liz could see faintly.

Pamela hissed lightly then continued, "At this point even after his statement I tried to tell them it was a gift. Then they asked me to give them their share too. I would have given them the money at this point cause I was running late but then another one made a crude joke about how they where expecting nothing less than 50k since I could afford such a car. You see that lots of mad people are roaming the street right?" She took a pause here and forked some spaghetti into her mouth.

"They weren't just begging they actually thought my money was their right. So I refused and it turned into a argument before you know one of them opened the door snatched my keys out and told me I had to go the station. They wouldn't stop until they took me to the station. I had asked for my lawyer and one of them had the guts to slap me. Can you actually imagine that?  A woman for that matter talking about_ its women like me that dont make men stay at home with their wives. I like changing into scrubs when I get to work so I had on a corporate dress. They denied me access to a phone or lawyer till my husband came barging in flanked with five details of his security men. They kept denying they brought anyone like me to the station even when my car was still parked in front of the station. My husband called his dad, who in turn called the Inspector general of Police in Abuja and they called their division."

Pamela who suddenly lost appetite for the flask of food in front of her lowered her voice then whispered, "one of them there in the station touched my buttocks. I swear I'm going to make all of them pay. Do you even know how many people they do this too on a daily? Do you?" Liz couldn't help bit feel her eyes water with tears nothing made her sadder than injustice plus being someone that knows how it feels to be violated.

"Even when I get back to work here, sometimes police trucks  drop gunshot wounds in front of our gate and dead bodies. No reports, nothing. They just drop bodies and shot victims on the floor like slaughter animals and zoom off. I just spent three hours in surgery with one of such victims who later died. We can't even identify him? He must be someone's son, someone's husband, someone's brother, someone's friend. " Pamela covered her eyes with her left hand so Liz couldn't see how red rimmed they were.

" What if my husband wasn't rich and influential only God knows what will be of me." She finished with a loud sigh again.

Liz was crying now. "That's not fair. It really isn't! Oh my sweet girl I hope you're fine. So much is happening with you people over there and its just not fair at all."

"Tody I kept wondering what if my husband wasnt rich, what would have happened to me? What will happen to the families of those they left behind, and even though wanting to move out of Nigeria isn't the answer right now I'm just fed up. Will I relocate all my family and extended members, my friends? Or will I just leave them in here?" Pamela asked.

"Enough of me say, something else to cheer me up!" Trying to pull off a happy smiley face to reassure Liz.

"I'm always here for you if you ever want to talk okay. I know how heavy the weights of our emotions can be and giving yourself room to express it and not stifle it is why people always say its good to talk to someone okay! I'll always listen to you my love."

"Will do that, I  love you too" Pamela waved her hand in the air dramatically to sweep the issue under the proverbial carpet. "Now tell me what's up with you. You look like you wanted to tell me something when you called."

"Erhm!" Liz stammered out, now wasnt the time to tell her friend about how sexually frustrated she was.

Pamela shot Liz her famous, 'dont be stupid look'. It was one with her eyebrows raised and her lips twisted to one side that Liz couldn't but talk. "I think my husband is no longer attracted to me!"

Pamela stared at Liz in confusion at first then burst out laughing. She laughed for a whole full minute, her laugh was rich bouncing up the air till she started coughing loudly.

"Are. You. Stupid!" Pamela exclaimed stressing out each word till the vein beside her eyes popped out.

"Excuse me?" Liz returned shocked by her answer.

*****

This chapter was too long had to split into two.

This wasnt my original draft for this chapter. I had to rewrite it! This note is for those unkind, insensitive people that want to invalidate all we have been through. That want to blame celebrity this or that or make it feel like people didn't die or be insensitive because it didn't affect them and if you're one of the people that chant black lives matter but all these ones around you dont matter to you just come and tell me the color of your problem because I need to know how to conduct your deliverance whether with belt or slaps😩🙅😂 *kidding or not kidding😂*

Police brutality is real, northern insecurity is real, Congo holocaust is real, Cameroon killings is real. The lekki toll gate massacre did happen, please and please dont go making fun of peoples pain. I have friends who are still trying to survive from the PTSD of all these has brought. This story is actually mild compare to what people go through.

Also dont allow anyone sow seed in your for cultural hatred. The westerners are not trying to take over the north by shouting endsars they just want to live and frankly this is one of the most ridiculous things I have seen. These are sensitive times please be kind both to yourselves and others. I've been blocking people on all my pages and I'm still blocking! If you leave a hateful insensitive comment just know I'll delete it.

While you are praying for Nigeria and healing our souls together please and please be the tiny change you want to see start from changing that mindset!

Also hit me up with your mail if you want to get encouraging newsletters to spread a little hope and positivity.

Love and Light
Orex💕💕