LIPSTICKS AND LABELS

Madam Funke stood on her balcony on the first floor of one of the three one story buildings in their compound,

she was armed with the holy water the prophet had given her the day before. she stood patiently waiting for the mammy water (mermaid) that had moved into the apartment below about a month ago. The prophet had warned her that he had had a dream that those jealous people in the village would bring the spiritual battle closer to her, three months after the warning this spirit had moved in. She was certain the girl was from the water, she had all their features, she had flawless light skin and those light brown pussycat eyes, she was also tall and curvy. Surely, no one woman could be that attractive. Madam Funke was sure the girl would come out soon, she always went to work around this time. Just a few drops of the holy water and she would be certain.
She heard  the door of the apartment open, she shifted closer to the railing and uncorked the bottle. She heard the door lock and the sound of high heels against tile, she swung into action.

 "What the hell! oh my!" Nicole exclaimed as she felt something wet land on her hair and face. her hands flew reflexively to her face

"Ah! I'm so sorry o. It was an accident. E ma binu omo mi"madam Funke said from upstairs.

Nicole was still in shock. "What in God's name is that?"she asked. she was running late for work and today was a day she couldn't afford to be late.

"It's just water my dear. sorry abeg eh. it will dry now now. I didn't see you coming" Nicole relaxed. She reached into her bag and brought out a handkerchief and dabbed the water off her face and hair. She hoped her makeup wasn't ruined.
"It's alright" she finally said to her apologetic neighbor. the woman had always been nice to her after all, though it seemed she was always by that balcony waiting for her to go out and come in, she always greeted her with a lot of enthusiasm. She walked over to her car and hurriedly confirmed that her appearance was still in order before she got in and drove off.

Meanwhile madam Funke had made her own confirmation, the girl was surely from the water, the way she had reacted to the holy water. light and dark could never co-exist. She ran into the house to call members of the prayer network.

                                 

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Nicole adjusted her make-up as she waited for the traffic light to go green. She had an interview for promotion today and she was feeling a bit nervous. Her hair stood in a perfect bun atop her head, she was lucky to have inherited her grandma’s full hair. As she reapplied her nude lipstick she could feel someone’s eyes on her. She looked to her right, a young woman was looking at her, she smiled and nodded and continued with her make-up when the woman looked away.

 Kene looked at the lady to her left in the Toyota Avensis, the latest model. She was on her way to drop her children in school. Such a beautiful lady, of-course the lady's husband would buy her such a car so she wouldn’t  be lured by other men. Her skin was so flawless. Kene envied her, that was until she rose up her hand to apply lipstick. Aha! No ring, of-course she wasn’t married, all these wayward runs girls. Kene pitied the woman whose husband had spent  money meant for the family to buy such a car for this home breaker.  The girl looked up at kene and smiled, kene looked away. “God abeg protect my husband from these Jezebels o”  she muttered under her breath as the lights turned green and she drove off to her life, holding on to her opinion of a stranger not knowing nor caring that the car was a gift from Nicole’s father on passing her ICAN exams and becoming a chattered accountant about a year ago.

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Nicole felt pretty good as she thanked the external team of two men and a woman who had conducted the interview. For all she knew,she had done a pretty great job. They all seemed pretty impressed by her, all except the woman. She said a short prayer as she made her way back to her office.

Mrs. Onwuchekwa was not impressed as a matter of fact. She was disgusted. From the moment that lady stepped into the boardroom in that fitted dress and those high, uncomfortable looking shoes she had known she wouldn’t be impressed by her. So what she was twenty five but was already a chartered accountant and had worked with the company for five years( straight from her youth service).  Mrs onwuchekwa knew the type, those opportunist who slept their way to the top. She was certain that was how she got her first class and that was what had gotten her such sterling recommendation. She might have bewitched her weaker counterparts  with her looks( she could hear Mr. Odom and Mr. Adenuga speaking favorably) but Mrs Onwuchekwa would have none of it.

“The silly girl couldn’t even present herself properly” she said out loud.  The men looked at each other in shock, because the lady who had just left had answered all the questions with all the intelligence and confidence that bellied her resume. She had been exceptional.

                         
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Martin was frustrated. They had been dating for all of two months now and all they had done was kiss. He couldn’t understand why a girl with such looks would be taunting him like that. He wasn’t used to such treatment. He was quite the catch if he did say so himself, he could stand over her in any high heels, he was undoubtedly handsome and he was doing very well for himself. He had a dozen girls begging for his attention and this minx was just taunting him. She had met him up at their favorite Chinese restaurant from work, looking like a river goddess. She’d removed the blue blazers she was wearing over her white, so goddamn tight dress revealing the dress was backless. She had moved from coperate chic to super seductive real quick. It was one of the things he liked about her, her dress sense. They’d talked for hours and then  gone to his car and made out for a while, but she had refused to go home with him. He insisted on escorting her home in his car, hoping she would invite him in, but as he sat outside her flat watching her lock the door behind her he came to the only reasonable conclusion, she was a lesbian.

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Nicole lay up in bed thinking about the day. She was worried about that female interviewer. Nicole didn’t kid herself, she knew with the way she looked, it wasn’t always a blessing, she had to do extra credit to prove she wasn’t bird brained. It had always been like that for her. Earlier in her life she had tried to downplay her looks so she wouldn’t offend anyone.  But at some point she had gotten tired of apologizing for the way she looked. She liked to dress up, makeup, look good, she couldn’t keep pretending she didn’t just to make other people more comfortable.She thought about Martin,how much she wanted him. But she had to be strong. She had promised herself after the last time that she would refrain from sex until she was absolutely certain of the person. She blushed as she thought of all the things she wanted to do to and with him. She had to keep it together. She drifted off to sleep mentally setting an alarm clock to wake her up at 3.30a.m so she would do some work and catch up with some reading, she hadn’t gotten this far this quickly by resting on her oars.  

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