In a popular strip club which had only opened five months ago, a lady in her mid-twenties walked through to the entrance where a huge bouncer was standing to admit patrons in. The front of the club was busy with a few people who were on a queue, waiting to gain entry into the club, but instead of joining them and waiting her turn, she had simply cut the line despite the protests of those on the queue and had gone to the front to meet the bouncer who was already familiar with her and smiled when he saw her.
“Violet.” He leered as she drew nearer, his eyes moving to gawk at her cleavage. “The over correct babe wey we get for this place.”
Violet rolled her eyes, not in the mood for flattery. She knew that when men started flattering her, they were simply looking for a quick roll in the hay. Violet was a Delta girl, six feet tall, slim and had the perfect ass and body that most girls were jealous of. The only two things she hated about her body was the fading scar that ran from the side of her neck to her back which had step mother had inflicted on her with a screw driver when she was much younger and her forehead which she tried to conceal by making hairstyles which fully or partially covered it, but she made up for both defects with her beauty and physique. Because of her killer physique, she had been called by several agencies for modelling but had turned all the offers down because she didn’t fancy posing before cameras and earning meagre sums. What she rather loved doing, was stripping; it earned her big money each night, not to mention the tips from admirers. She kept moving from onw big city to the other, stripping and once people got too familiar with her there, she would pack up and leave for another state. “Abeg, shift make I pass. I don almost late for my turn.” She said gently.
“How far that parol wey I tell you about na? Make we meet after work make I arrange this your fine body.” The bouncer continued to try and convince her to go to bed with him like he had always done every night.
She gave him a mean look now in a kind of dull manner of hanging her head to the side and the bouncer grew nervous and stepped aside. As she slowly walked past him with her handbag, she suddenly stopped when she felt him smack her ass hard. She stood like that for a moment as if contemplating what to do, then she slowly turned to look at him and discovered that he was leering at her again, obviously proud of what he had done.
“Joe, how many times I don tell you say make you no dey slap my yansh again?” She asked coolly now.
“Wetin sef? Just yansh wey I slap na im your face change like this? Why you dey behave like virgin when you be stripper? Shey na only your yansh I dey touch for this place? The others no dey complain, Violet, in fact, dem dey even happy when I touch their yansh, but you go dey do like say na big deal.” The bouncer rattled on without remorse.
“Okay…” Violet said then turned away again to pretend she was going to go into the club but once the bouncer had let his guy down to attend to the next patron on queue, Violet spun around and kicked him hard on the shin making him give a small cry of pain then she slapped the back of his head and hurried into the club before he could retaliate after calling him an idiot in Hausa language.
As she stepped into the busy club, she took the corner and walked into the strippers’ dressing room which had a bathroom and several chairs and mirrors belonging to each stripper. Violet walked to her mirror and sat down to collect herself for a few minutes before doing anything else.
Some girls who were not on stage were busy chatting, gossiping and laughing and they paused to throw terse looks her way when she placed her hands together and started to pray quietly. She knew that most of girls did not like her and they started to snicker and murmur “Ashawo dey pray.” In fact, they always intentionally said words that would infuriate her but she had always ignored them. Well, she wouldn’t blame them, she had just recently left Lagos in order to protect her identity and had travelled all the way to Kaduna where she had lived now for two years and had learnt to speak a bit of the Hausa language. She had already spent five weeks stripping in this new club and was already the-most-sought-after stripper, not to mention that she also received a lot of tips from the patrons. Being the manager’s and club’s favourite stripper had made the other strippers envious and bitter towards her but Violet didn’t care, after all, she was here to work in order to put food on her table, not to make friends.
She pulled out her makeup kit from her handbag and began to apply her makeup now. The dressing room smelled of different fragrances ranging from perfumes, roll-ons to makeup powder. Through her mirror, she could see several girls passing to and fro behind her and most of them were dressed in skimpy clothes of different designs and colours, mostly bikini. As she applied her makeup, she glanced down her left at a girl called Doris, who was trying out different wigs for tonight’s show. Doris turned her head to look at her now, but turned away without saying anything to continue trying out more wigs. Doris was a very quiet girl and hardly mingled with the other strippers just like Violet, but the two had never spoken to each other. If Violet noticed any significant thing about Doris, it was the fact that the lady always looked depressed.
Violet was still thinking about Doris when someone suddenly bumped her head from behind making her accidentally drag her lips from the corner of her lips to her cheek. Angry now, Violet lifted her eyes to glare up at the big breasted chubby lady standing behind her.
“Babe, abeg, you get mascara, my own don finish…abeg give me, dem go soon announce my name.” The lady said, without bothering to apologize.
“Carol, abeg carry your bress commot from the back of my head.” Violet said in disgust.
“Oh, sorry!” Carol said in realisation then backed away a bit while Violet fished out a spare mascara from her bag and held it up without turning back and Carol took it, thanked her and left. Taking a napkin and wiped off the smear of lipstick, just then she heard someone sobbing and turned her head to see that Vera had placed her head on her arms on the makeup table in front of her mirror and was sobbing.
The other strippers sitting close to her in a group seemed to notice and one of them was like: “Shioor! This one don start cry again. Na so she go dey cry anyhow as if person force am come here.”
“No mine am!” Said another in disdain. “If ashawo work don tire you, pack your kaya dey go house! Ba dole bane (No be by force!)”
“No tell am… Na suwebe she be! Person wey dey do like mumu for stage. Manager go still sack am!” Said a third one.
As the strippers said mean things, Doris only sobbed the more and Violet got up and approached Doris now. She pulled the nearest chair she could find and sat down then she leaned forward and said softly: “Hi.” When Doris said nothing but continued to sob, Violet tried again: Hey, Doris…are you okay?” This was awkward for her because she was used to just minding her business. She just couldn’t explain why she was drawn to this gold-dye-haired girl.
Doris slowly lifted her head up now to reveal puffy eyes and tears-streaked face and Violet pulled out a tissue paper and handed it to her. After cleaning her tears, Doris said sadly. “I’m pregnant.”
“Pregnant?” Violet whispered in surprise, making sure the other strippers didn’t hear. “For who?” She asked.
Doris was about to reply when a man strode into the room and said: “Doris, it’s your turn!”
Swallowing hard, Doris finally wore a black bob wig, got up, glanced down at Violet before walking away. Violet got up now and returned to her mirror to finish her makeup because she was going to be up in ten minutes and as she donned her purple lipstick on her lips, she began to plan and imagine all the seductive dance moves she had practised earlier that day. She knew that if she wanted to earn more tips, she would have to abstain from the stereotypes and do something the other strippers couldn’t do which she had learnt from years of experience of stripping. After corking her lipstick and setting it aside, she fetched her sweet-smelling body spray that made her smell like candy then she sprayed some specific parts of her body.
★★★
Just then, Stephen stepped into the club. He waited near the entrance for a moment as he observed the club as if skeptical about being there. He had never gone to a place such as this before and the atmosphere felt so strange to him. Deciding that he would rather just sit, observe and have some fun instead of going back to his lonely apartment in the barracks, he made his way through the dim-lit club towards the bar.
As he maneuvered his way through the crowdy club, he noticed that there were a lot of naked girls all over the place like it was a nudist orgy. Most were clad in skimpy bikinis while the others were completely naked and were either all over a man or were giving them personal seductive lap dances. When he finally reached the bar, he sat down on the stool and ordered for a bottle of beer. He was served without delay and he turned his back to the bar so that he could observe everything that was happening around him.
As he watched, his eyes shifted to the round stages containing a pole each. He noticed that several men sat close to the pole stages so that they could get a closer look as they watched the strippers dance around the poles and strip too. Several notes of money had been folded and tucked into the strings of the strippers’ panties, mostly in the denomination of five hundred naira.
Taking his bottle of beer, Stephen got up after paying the bartender and went to deposit himself in a couch facing the centre stage so that he could also closely observe each stripper on the three available pole stages. The first pole was occupied by a chubby stripper in golden bikini and he watched her slowly undo the straps of her bra to unleash her heavy breasts much to the excitement of the impressed patrons watching her. Some notes of money was tossed at her and the girl continued to pole-dance seductively, rubbing one of her massive boobs up and down the pole till her nipple hardened.
Stephen turned his attention to the centre stage before him now and realised that a girl in bob-wig who had just finished pole dancing and strip-teasing and had also probably exhausted her time, quickly started to collect her tips off the floor. From her facial expression, Stephen could tell that she was not happy and as she turned and clumsily began to walk away towards the backstage, she almost tripped on her heels as she left the stage empty for the next strip dancer to come occupy it.
He turned his attention towards the third and last pole stage now and saw a skinny girl, slowly sliding her back up against the pole as she widened her legs and placed her hand against her crotch with a sensual look in her eyes. He didn’t quite find her that attractive because she was just too skinny and her makeup was whack. When she lifted her arms to hold the pole above her head behind her, he could almost count her ribs. Her hip bones were too obvious and so were her bulgy eyes which were however the one of thw few attractive things about her. He figured that, although this skinny stripper was pretty, she wasn’t exactly what he was looking for and worse, her tits were too small and almost invisible in her bra and her she had a bloated navel.
Just when boredom and regret was about overwhelming Stephen, he saw a man walk towards the stage and announced the name of the next stripper in a loud voice- “Give it up for…Violet!”
Just then, Violet appeared from back stage and as she slowly emerged into the light in grade steps, Stephen’s jaw slowly dropped open when he beheld her. Unlike the other strippers, this one had on a black mask with black feathers sticking out at the sides. She was dressed in a black bra and a black flair skirt that was so short that it revealed the under cheeks of her nicely-shaped buttocks. Her shoes were so high that they brought out the nice slim curves of her gorgeous long legs in a black panty hose, and from the faint patterns of abs he saw on her stomach, he could tell that she was working out.
Her artificial hair was long and curly and the end skimmed the lower back of her slender waist just above her ass. She held the pole in both hands now and started to walk around it before slowly lowering herself in an organized spin to finally a squat on her heels, with her ass curved nicely and her intense eyes never leaving her audience which had suddenly multiplied to the detriment of the other strippers who had been neglected on their own stages. Stephen noticed that no one dared go close enough to slip the tips into her costume, instead they all deposited their money into a fancy light ceramic bowl which a waitress had placed there and this showed that this particular stripper did not tolerate body contact with the patrons.
When Violet smiled, Stephen couldn’t help but notice her pearly white teeth and how her white eyes gave a deep contrast with her pretty black mask which made her rather unique. This girl was so skillful and good at what she did that Stephen was so transfixed by how she twisted and curved her body with the pole as if she was one with the metal. He ordered for two more bottles of beer and began to gulp them down carelessly as he watched. He noticed that her eyes had moved to focus on him too and as she danced seductively, claiming the stage like the professional that she was.
It was as if she was dedicating her moves all to him and he felt her eyes bore into dazed ones. She was so flexible that she performed several stunts with the pole before she finally wrapped her legs around the upper side of the pole then threw her upper body downwards to stare at him upside down in a suspended manner, and Stephen swallowed hard and adjusted in his seat as he felt a wave of heat travel down his lower abdomen to his pelvic. He felt the heat in her eyes as she spiralled down the pole till she touched the stage floor, alighting like a feather. Then like a cat, she began to crawl to the end of the stage with her eyes never leaving his as she drew nearer to the edge of the stage.
Much to the amazement of everyone, Violet did what she had never done before. She slowly got down the stage and approached Stephen in a seductive catwalk, placed a hand on his shoulder and slowly walked around the couch then stopped behind him, bent down to whisper against his ear in Hausa:
“Me sunan ka? (What’s your name?)” She asked.
Stephen was already engulfed with the smell of her body spray and he felt like grabbing her in his arms, burying his face into her cleavage and exhaling deeply. “Stephen.” He replied softly, unable to think clearly since the smell of her was so alluring.
“Well Stephen, I can see that you already like me. Ya nuna a idon ka. (It’s obvious in your eyes.)” She said sultrily.
“Nawa kudin ki? (What’s your price?)” Stephen asked, reveling in the attention that she was giving him since he was now the object of admiration by the other patrons who wished they were in his shoes since Violet had never had any personal contact with any of the customers before now.
“I’m not a prostitute.” Violet whispered against his ear, licked his earlobe and returned to the stage and all this time, one of the patrons’ eyes who had been lusting after her for weeks, followed her now. By the time Violet was done dancing, her audience erupted in sharp whistles, cat calls and cheers but her smiling eyes remained fixed on Stephen and when they slowly moved towards his groin, he realised that she was lustfully staring at the erection that had begun to grow into a tent in his pants which he had not even noticed. In embarrassment, he quickly pulled his knees together and leaned forward to place his elbows on his knees in a bid to conceal it from the others around him and he didn’t miss the way she smirked and bit a corner of her lower lip in a seductive way.
In fact, that one look was enough to let Stephen know that she was already into him, or so he thought, and he suddenly felt like getting laid. He had not had sex for the past five weeks now and just the fragrance of this stripper’s body spray had effortlessly awakened all his dormant sexual she which had suddenly gone numb after Susan had ditched him. But there was a catch; a sinister plan was already hatching in Stephen’s mind against the innocent stripper. For some reasons, Stephen suddenly felt like hurting Violet. He felt that since she was a stripper and was used to teasing men, then she was just the perfect sexual object to unleash all the built-up frustration and anger on which his heartbreak by Susan had caused. And since it was obvious that cruel men were what bad girls like Susan and Violet preferred, then he was going to be mean tonight by doing something he had never done- violating Violet.
His broken relationship with Susan had thought him two things- that men who were too soft, easily got taken for granted and kicked to the curb after being used, and the realisation that most women love and respect men who treated them like crap, so he concluded that this beautiful stripper here, who had succeeded in seducing and working him all up would be his very first victim for tonight. She was going to be his first specimen to experiment on because he was now ready to embark on a spree of breaking so many hearts and treating women like the heartless bitches they truly were. Women thought that they weilded power over men with their bodies, well, he was about to show one who really was the boss.
With the eyes of a predator locked on his unsuspecting prey, he watched Violet gather her tips from the ceramic bowl. Without bothering to straighten out the crumpled notes, he saw her push the money into a purse which she had left at a corner of the stage and started to walk away from the stage. He got up after downing three bottles of beer, and in his partial-tipsy state, he followed her back to the bar where she was obviously going to order for a drink in order to sooth her thirst while a new stripper occupied the stage that she had just vacated.
But unknown to both of them, the patron’s lustful eyes were still fixed on her and he summoned a waitress who was passing by, pushed several rolled-up notes of one thousand naira into her bra and began to harvest the information he needed about Violet from the compliant waitress with his eyes never leaving his quarry.
To be continued…
© Angela Okoduwa
Wow! Let’s go girl…