chitheo:
How much is it?

LarrySun:
It's N300 on OkadaBooks.

chibestjerry:

Can is send you a whatsapp message about the book, Okada books Stress no be here abeg

LarrySun:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

tuneryblue:
well done job Larrysun .... but I find it hard to comprehend the amount you use in this story .... like N10, N50, to bet. and the N500 she bet with maradona (instead of like 5000 naira) .... or when you said Maria eat N500 worth of food at the expensive restaurant.. well maybe the story was from the 80's

LarrySun:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

BrainEya:
Hmmm hmmm! *clear throat*

You! You! You yes you, don't search around I'm referring to you. Yes you that's reading this.

So you rush in to check for update abi?
Last update was 14th July - we missed 21st, 28th and 4th August; is that not three Week without update?
I personally, I don't know what our Head-master LARRYSUN will come up this time around to defend this happenings..

Or better still; let us know that there will be no update again - left for us to order for the sequence.

Kus me likey how the thing dey go por here..

klashe:
Hi LarrySun. I mailed you about the copyright permissions of Black Maria. Would you mind replying the mail please.. It's the email address on your profile.

chioma8:
Thanks for the update

francium001:
Thanks for the update

Ann2012:
Thanks for the update

Typicool8:
Wow....what a great and captivating story
I must confess this is one of the best stories I've read on nairaland...keep the good work going.

chitheo:
How much is it?

Celsony:


Happy Birthday boss @Larry sorry this is coming late, I have been offline for awhile now. May God grant your heart desires amen

OlufemiWhit:
Bros.....we dhy wait our sunday dose oooo

skyblueking:
Larrysun the great ink controller...
Ayaff ghostread tire....if i no appreciate ur effort, wetin i gain la...
Jahbless your effort bro...

tuneryblue:
well done job Larrysun .... but I find it hard to comprehend the amount you use in this story .... like N10, N50, to bet. and the N500 she bet with maradona (instead of like 5000 naira) .... or when you said Maria eat N500 worth of food at the expensive restaurant.. well maybe the story was from the 80's

Kaycee9242:


if u had followed the d story from Black Maria u would have known dt it has a late 80's/early 90's background. u won't hear him talk about d use of phones and other recent technologies. i really commend Larry alot, such story is not that easy to tell without messing up every now and then like we saw in Game of thrones where Dy forgot bottle water and even a coffee in a supposedly epic movie

Dackrapper:
Larrysun is the best writer i know, his works are nothing short of masterpieces from :brand of cain & paradox of abel to black maria, kanu,let the guns speak and other short stories. I pray one day i'll get to read a published hardcopy of your book

LarrySun:
Thanks for following. It's good to have you around.

LarrySun:
Amen. Thanks a bunch.

LarrySun:
Update 19

The 19th Style

***

The first thing Maria did was get herself some nice clothes with some of the money she had. She further bought some shoes and little makeup kits; however, she managed to be as prudent as she could be in her spending. The money on her was the only thing she had and she had to approach her expenditure with utmost wisdom – and wisdom was exactly what she practised in that respect. She bought a pair of high-heeled shoes to aid her height.

An hour later, she was dressed up and ready for action. With Bantu dressed in his best attire, they both left the house. This was the first time Maria would be leaving the house since the day she was brought in a week earlier.

Solo and Murphy were confused about what was really going on but they stayed in the sideline and watched how things would enfold. Maria had told them to trust her; they decided to give her a chance since they were curious to know what she had up her sleeves. She had said she was going to teach them something new but they never imagined that it would require such form of sartorial flamboyance.

***

Oriental Restaurant was positioned humbly at the side of a major road that connected directly to the Lagos-Ibadan express-road. It seemed like the eatery was hiding itself from public view, for it would take a careful observer to determine that the small building was a restaurant and not a parlour-house as its appearance suggested. The owner of the restaurant, however, was a man in his fifties who lived his life chiefly for selfish purposes. His food was the smallest of all the restaurants around. He cooked his own food himself and always served his customers. He didn’t employ anyone because he didn’t want to have to pay other people. He couldn’t imagine himself giving out the money he could easily have kept for himself. To him, doing that would be akin to running a charity organisation, and Mr Okpara would rather die than give out for charity. He always found a way to cheat his customers as much as he could. He always sprinkled the floor of his restaurant with holy water; the water, of course, was not holy in the literal sense. It was something he had brought from a herbalist from the most rural and distant village of Delta. This had been given to him as a fetish to help boost his business, and he strongly believed this had been working for him.

He was a man in his fifties but still unmarried. The only thing keeping him away was the bride-price; and the idea of raising a family that would depend on him for their financial needs was scary. He wanted to make his own money and spend it himself. No one had to help him enjoy the money he had worked so hard to gather. Even to himself, he was miserly. He bought the cheapest clothes, and the only reason he ate well was because he sold food. He didn’t allow himself any luxury for the fear of overspending. He could have bought a car he needed badly but he couldn’t just make himself put down such a huge amount of money. He had cringed with that idea and had shrugged it away; nothing would make him spend so much money.

He was smiling proudly to himself. Business was booming this afternoon; almost all the tables were occupied by diners. He was attending to customers from one table to the other. His charm was working; some of the diners were requesting for more plates; and he was expertly cheating them without their knowledge.

When the most beautiful girl the diners had ever seen stepped into the restaurant, Okpara was only seeing another customer that would add to his earnings; and he was already calculating ways to cheat her, too. He directed the girl to a corner table.

He was rubbing his palms together as he asked her: “What can I offer you?”

The young lady sat down comfortably and asked, “What do you have?”

“We have both local and international cuisines.”

“I’m new in this neighbourhood. I hope your food is good enough.”

“This is the best restaurant in this part of the state. I promise you that you will always come for more; just give it a try.”

“Okay.” She ordered for the best local cuisine. She intentionally requested for the food she would not be able to finish. While he served, Mr Okpara decided that this customer must have a very large appetite to have requested for such huge size of food, but he shrugged; he didn’t care. As a matter of fact, he was highly glad; this meant that he was going to make a very big gain. In short, he wished the girl would request for more.

The lady ate to her satisfaction. She ate the turkey, chicken, beef and fish with relish. Indeed, the food was tasty, the tastiest she had ever had in quite a long while. She ate with deliberation. Naturally, she would have wolfed down the food hungrily even though she could not finish it, but she wanted to maintain the air of a girl with a rich background; that was the only thing that would make her claim fly. She requested for the most expensive non-alcoholic drinks to step down the good food. She finally rose up after spending more than thirty minutes. Okpara had been watching her as she ate, and as soon as the girl rose up he rushed to meet her for payment. That was his style; he would always request for payment before they make the gestures, not caring if the diners got offended or not. With a smile on his face, he always let them know how much they owed. Perhaps that was why most of the diners never bothered to leave him with tips.

As usual, he came to the fair lady’s table and told her how much she was going to pay – he deliberated increased the payment. The girl looked rich, she wouldn’t budge to pay that amount.

“Your payment is five hundred naira,” he reminded her again.

“That’s not a problem at all,” the girl replied pleasantly, “I’m even going to give you a tip of fifty naira.”

“That would be most kind of you,” he was excited. Slowly, the smile on his face started clearing off as the girl began to search for something.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure,” replied she, worry lines wrinkled her forehead, “I can’t seem to find my purse.”

Okpara was alarmed. He couldn’t believe it. A whooping five hundred naira! He started feeling sickness rising from the pit of his stomach. No, he was not going to allow this to happen to him. He had always heard of situations like this but never experienced it. Now that it was happening, he was not going to fold his hands and accept defeat. This was his money – his rightful money, and he was not going to listen to any excuse.

“And so how do you intend to pay for the food?”

“It’s very simple,” she answered, “I think I left the purse at home. I’m sure I wasn’t robbed. Just let me go home, get the money and pay you.”

Okpara shook his head vigorously. The idea sounded so terrible to him that he began to hate the girl for conceiving such a ridiculous thought.
“That’s impossible,” he said with pressure, “You are only looking for a way to escape without paying me my money.” He voice was getting louder and the other diners were beginning to stare. He could see that the girl was looking embarrassed, and he didn’t care. As a matter of fact, that was what he wanted. If she was shamed enough, she would pay up her money. Okpara suspected that she might be having some money on her but just didn’t want to pay. He only had to embarrass her long enough to make her pay her debt.

“Calm down. You’re raising your voice,” the lady whispered.

Okpara flew off the handle. “Don’t tell me to calm down! And I’m not raising my voice! This is how my voice has always been, young lady! Just pay up your money.”

“But I don’t have any money on me right now.”

“Then I will invite the police to arrest you.”

“Is that a threat?”

“It’s fact.”

“We can do something,” she emphasized, “We can reach an agreement or something.”

“The only agreement I understand is payment. And if you cannot do that, then get ready to bear the consequence.”

The girl stared at him for a while. Okpara wondered what was going on in her mind but he didn’t care. He didn’t care about what anyone might say about him. He was who he was, and to hell with anyone’s opinion of him.

“I promise that I will return with your money.” She suddenly stopped and a brilliant idea seemed to occur to her. She reached into her dress pocket and came up with a wristwatch. “Look at this wristwatch. It belongs to my grandfather. It’s pure gold and costs a fortune. It’s the most important thing to me because it’s the only thing the old man willed to me before he passed. As you can see, it’s not a woman’s watch. The idea is that I can sell it for a huge sum of money whenever I’m broke. However, no matter how broke I am, I will never sell it. This is the only piece of my grandfather’s memory that I have. I cannot wear it because it’s not for women; and that’s why I’ve always kept it in my pocket, very close to me.”

But Okpara was no longer listening to her. He stopped listening when he heard pure gold and fortune. His mind was racing wildly. He was no longer looking at the girl, he was staring at the object instead. He knew nothing about gold and its genuineness but he was very sure this one was original. It was shiny and new. He wanted to touch it, to feel it, to hold it. The girl noticed his interest in the watch and gave a brief smile.

“This is what we are going to do,” she continued, “I will leave this watch with you, return home for the money I’m owing, then I will come back for the watch. That’s if you don’t mind. This is the best I can offer.”

The smile returned to the man’s lips once again. “Of course, of course, I understand. I can keep it for you pending the time it takes you to bring the money. You can take as long as you like.” He was already picturing the watch around his wrist. He had never worn anything as elegant as that before. And to have the opportunity of flaunting it around even for a few hours was not something he was going to pass.

“Oh, thank you so much, sir,” she said as she placed the object in the man’s palm. “You’re such a kind man. I’ll come in the evening for it.”

Okpara was already strapping the watch to his wrist before the girl stepped out of the restaurant. As he watched her walk down the road, Okpara prayed she never returned. This was a good return for him. He believed the wristwatch was worth at least four plates of the food the girl had eaten. He happily cleared the girl’s table and attended to other new customers, making sure that they had a good glance of his new wristwatch. Occasionally, he would raise his wrist for the view of everyone and declare, “Oh, it’s 3:15, the day is running so fast.” A few minutes later: “It’s 3:20! Phew, what a day!”

He was still proudly displaying the wristwatch to everyone who cared to see when one of the new customers called his attention. The young man was short and had an alert look on his face, but he was dressed well. Okpara suspected that this one, too, was a rich dandy. Even though he ordered a cheap food, Okpara only concluded that he was not a man of large appetite, unlike the lady that had just left.

“Is that not a Rolex?” the young man suddenly asked, there was an utmost expression of surprise carved on his face.

Okpara was lost. Rolex? What’s a Rolex? It was a word he had never heard before. The word sounded to him like a kind of tissue-paper. Maybe the man wanted a napkin or something.

“That’s a Rolex, right?” the guy asked again.

“What are you talking about?” Okpara noticed that the diner was staring at his wrist.

“The watch you’re wearing, it’s a Rolex.”

Okpara wanted to hide his ignorance but he couldn’t. “Is Rolex supposed to be a kind of wristwatch or something?”

“It’s the most expensive brand of wristwatches all over the world,” said the stranger, surprised that Okpara had never heard of the brand before. “Can you release it and let me check out its base?”

Okpara shrugged and said proudly, “Just make sure you don’t spoil it. Handle it very carefully.”

The stranger examined the object and his face suddenly lit up with excitement. “It’s a Rolex! How did you come about a Rolex? This costs a fortune! Will you sell it to me? please sell it to me.”

The first thing Okpara did was collect back the wristwatch from the stranger. Now he was looking at the watch with a lot more importance. “It doesn’t belong to me,” he said almost shamefully, and definitely sadly. He wished the watch could become his. He probably wouldn’t sell it too if he owned a watch as beautiful as this.

“I’m willing to buy that wristwatch for good money,” the stranger insisted, “Please sell it to me.”

“I just told you the wristwatch doesn’t belong to me,” Okpara replied, “It belongs to a customer who misplaced her money. She would be returning for it soon. I’m sorry, it’s not for sale.” He was about to turn away when the stranger said something that stopped him in his track.

“I’m willing to pay ten thousand naira for that watch.”

He slowly turned around, “What did you just say?” His ears were pricked and his eyes shone like fire. He thought the man said ten thousand naira. He must have been hearing things. No watch in the world was worth that amount, or was it?

“I said I can pay ten thousand naira for that watch.”

“This watch is worth ten thousand naira?”

“You don’t know what you are wearing,” the man declared, “It’s worth more than twenty thousand naira in the market. That thing you are wearing is a classic. The finest watch.”

“But the watch isn’t mine.”

“I understand. You can convince the owner to sell. I will return by 5pm with the money. I hope to meet the owner and do business with her.” He stood up, paid for his meal and left.

Okpara’s mind began to do some calculations. This was an opportunity to make a lot of money. He had initially thought the watch was worth two thousand naira, which was still a very huge sum of money. He would have to work round the clock for a year before he could come up with two thousand naira. Now a mere watch was worth ten times that, and there was someone willing to buy it for ten thousand naira. An idea suddenly struck him. He would manage to convince the woman to sell to him when she returned, then he would sell it to the stranger at a better price. He could make a huge sum of money in an instant. The idea excited him.

Half an hour later, the owner of the watch stepped in. she gave him five hundred and fifty naira and collected her wristwatch. When she was about to leave, Okpara held her back. “I have a proposition for you?” he said nervously. He wondered how he was going to convince the lady to sell to him. He might faint if she refused his offer. This was an easy way to make good money, he might finally decide to buy that car he had always wanted.

“What proposition are you talking about?” She seemed uninterested in what he had to say, and she carried the impression that she was in a hurry.

“I want to buy the wristwatch.”

She stared at him as if he had just jumped into a gutter and attempted to swim in it. “I told you it’s not for sale. Quite frankly, I feel insulted that you can offer to buy the only thing I told you my late grandfather left me.”

“I’m willing to pay five thousand naira for it.” He blurted out and held his breath.

She was silent for a while. He expected her to glare at him and tell him to go to hell, but her face remained passive as she stared at him.

“You have five thousand naira with you?”

His heart suddenly warmed up; he had finally nailed her. “I can get the money.”

“Give me eight thousand naira and it’s yours.”

He whistled. Eight thousand naira. That’s steep, he thought shockingly.

“But that’s too much,” he said, “I can only come up with five thousand naira. That’s everything I have in my savings.”

“Eight thousand naira or forget it.”

“Please take five thousand naira. That’s all I have.”

“Your pleas mean nothing to me,” she shot back, “you didn’t listen to me when I was begging you, too. It’s either you pay me eight thousand naira or you just forget it.”

The fire in his mind was beginning to dim. He had thought he was going to make five thousand naira gain after buying it for five thousand naira and selling to the stranger at ten thousand naira. But unfortunately, the lady was selling it for nothing less than eight thousand naira. The gain he had thought he was going to make had reduced tremendously, but it was still a gain. Two thousand naira was still a large sum of money. If he could negotiate very well with the man, he could get him to pay twelve thousand naira since the original market price of the watch was twenty thousand naira. Four thousand naira gain was not very bad after all.

“Okay,” he said, “wait for me.” He rushed into an inner room and broke open his safe. He knew how much he had in it. He counted eight thousand naira out of the ten thousand he had, locked the safe and returned to the girl.

“Wait, before I collect the money,” she said, “you have to do something for me first.”

“What is it again?”

“I need three plates of take-away food. Can you arrange that?”

“Your payment will be –”

“I’m paying nothing.”

They stared at each other. She was matching him eye-to-eye. He felt like he was being treated like trash and he didn’t like it. His mind told him to call everything off, that his dignity was more than the gain he was looking forward to. He quickly dismissed such idea. He returned to the kitchen and returned with three packaged food. The girl collected it graciously, collected the money too, and then gave the watch to the man. She left immediately.

As the girl left the restaurant, Okpara anxiously waited for the stranger who would never come.

***

Maria and Bantu returned home with money and food. Solo and Murphy could not believe what they were seeing. They could not imagine how the girl came up with such a huge sum of money.

Bantu stared at Maria for a moment, then she turned to the other guys and said, “This girl is a genius! She just sold that fake watch for eight thousand naira! Can you believe that? It’s unbelievable!”

For the first time since Maria started living with them, the three men looked up to her. They knew they had a lot to learn from the beautiful, innocent-looking girl.