1 Reincarnating foolish father

CHAPTER ONE

Love paradise

An exquisite white Rolls Royce Phantom crawled into the faculty complex of the engineering and applied Sciences in an exotic dynasty, drilling and engaging all eyes in a tensed stare. This is Vanessa, the only daughter of the oil Mogul and billionaire, Michael Peterson. A white man hurriedly climbed down from the vehicle and reached out to the owner's seat's door. He opened. The Peacock of Harvard University gets off from her favourite "baby", here comes the cynosure of all eyes in the engineering and applied sciences faculty. Her pair of Brian Atwood heels was fashioned to match her Dior Sun glasses, while her bodycon gown harmonized with her Fendi Sellaria white hand bag. Her friends would always call her " Vanessa her Majesty ".

Her body guard immediately closed the door and waved her a good-bye presented with a gentle bow. Vanessa looks moody, yet, her look surpassed the effervescent smiles on other girls. Her fashion taste is efficacious enough to tell other students on Campus that she isn't of equal class with them. She walked slowly into the lecture hall like a peacock while her heels controlled the movement of her hips. The "big boys" stare in shallow silence, while others murmur her rumours.

She walked to her favourite sit in class, quietly with a strange smile renting her glowing face as her eyes pictured the class genius, Henry, the book-warm rapper, popularly called African Wiz.

"Good morning Henry", she greeted with a frowned smile. This could be the reason she is called the "serious Jewel", which is pompous enough for Henry to reciprocate with disdain.

"Morning, Vanessa, how are you?" African Wiz replied the damsel with a little attention, while his head was bowed in focus on the new iPhone his sponsor sent to him form Nigeria. This could be rude enough for a dignified Vanessa.

Vanessa dropped her Fendi Sallari hand bag on her sit, close enough to press her huge hips against the iron arm attached to the chair. She turned seductively like a Delila seducing Samson.

"Henry, I am so sorry for what happened last week at the shopping mall, I never knew it could get on your nerves. I am ready to amend the damages done, if the incidence actually made you feel bad."

Henry's ego wouldn't let him give a listening ear to her plea. He seems so pompous and too confident, maybe his intellectual prowess has earned him such self esteem. Meanwhile, Henry's non-challant attitude towards Vanessa's plea could be traced back to the unpleasant encounter between the duo a week ago at the Campus shopping mall, Vanessa paid for everyone's bill even before purchase. Back then, Vanessa was so happy and ordered the sales rep at the mall to give everyone back their money, she paid a bill worth seventeen thousand dollars just in a day. Henry had always had bad blood for her, though she is pompous everyone except Henry loved her. At the shopping mall, Henry was telling Fred his friend how he isn't comfortable with Vanessa's rude and pompous attitude. "She is rich and kind". Fred whispered to Henry for her generosity. Unfortunately, his pompous friend misunderstood her completely.

" It's her birthday, and so what? Henry shouted to make her feel bad at the shopping mall for everyone including Venessa to hear , who was trying to make him understand her intentions. "I don't just like that rich bitch, do we all have to lick her foot to show loyalty?" Henry shouted at his friend. A reminiscent of their first encounter wasn't really pleasant. Now in the lecture hall, Vanessa seems to want to get Henry's attention.

"Uuh! I am cool, o.k." Henry finally replied her.

"Uhnnn..no...it's not o.k, come on, you have to show me you are cool with me." She replied

"How? What do you mean?" Henry asked with his eye ball becoming bigger.

"Can we hang out as friends, at least to have a nice time?" Vanessa seems to be unveiling the angel in her, smiles emanating from a glowing face whose beholder cherished a lot by taking enough time to arrange her multi-sectional three thousand Dollars make-up kit before applying on her oval-shaped fair face.

"Hang out? I don't think I understand that? Henry pretended not to have understood her, maybe because Oni-Maro, his mother had warned him to stay away from women until he is ready for marriage, but deep down his stony heart, is an ocean of joy, panting happily to meet with the queen of beauty.

" Come on, don't be a silly boy, you know what I am talking about, chill out, restaurant, lounge, bar or garden" Vanessa seems to be wooing the African Wiz for a date.

"Ooo...k" Henry nodded his head gently in agreement as if he wasn't interested. A million thoughts keep dancing through his mind, this is highly paradoxical, a beautiful rich woman whom Henry said to have hated so much is now taking him out on a lunch date? No woman has offered Henry such a treat, not even Ejiro his Nigerian secondary school crush whom he thought would shower him with love on his birthday, only for Ejiro to ruin his precious day by demanding two thousand Naira for her hair.

"So, when uhmmm...do we meet, I mean hang out?" Henry spoke with distortion in utterance like a drunkard whose wife refused him bed time.

"Anytime is cool with me, but I think what is meant for now shouldn't be given to tomorrow." Vanessa is in a hurry to have her first lunch date with a black dude. She has been affectionately attracted to Henry since the winter session. Henry became her day- dreaming Romeo. Ironically, Henry has never had a Christian mind for the white race.

"No probs, but ...Prof Jason's class, what about that? Israelis don't take shit, you know?" Henry asked anxiously.

"That's no issue, I've got that under my feet, settled, a message to the Almighty Israeli is enough to make him do nothing about our absence from today's lecture." Vanessa authoritatively gives Henry a concrete assurance. "I will do that with a fortiori." She added

" I thought that isn't possible here in the United States." Henry seemed surprised.

"That's just an a priori assumption. Anything is possible anywhere, so far you are the boss." Vanessa exposes Henry to state secrets.

"Hmmm...but wait, how come you are not speaking American English?" Henry tried changing topic.

"I'm American, though I ain't fully American. I'll tell you that when we go on lunch date after the lecture, since you don't believe I could do something about our absence."

"Hello Guys, Prof Jason isn't coming for today's lecture, has gone to see the commissioner, he had rescheduled the lecture for evening time over Skype, so , he asked me to give you this." The class Coordinator shares a leaflet containing assignments to everyone.

Vanessa is full of the joy of a birthday celebrant, she turned backwards towards Henry like the Bar Man's Happy hour. "So, ..."

They both stood up and were ready for the unexpected lunch. The class "biggest dude" approached the duo and intruded their conversation. "Hi, guys" , he greets while his eyes were gazed on Vanessa's big butts. Henry could actually imagine how a White guy could choose to look like a Nigerian " Kirikiri" Prisoner, he chewed gum like a cheap prostitute, better known as "Olosho" in Nigeria, two Wristwatches, a pierced nose, stud in the ear, tattoo on the neck, hand and chest, a host of "zillion" hand bands just for fashion, hair plated while his pair of trousers is below the buttocks. Vanessa's reciprocated gaze seems to approve him for a mental check up at Iselu, in Benin city, Nigeria.

" Vanny sexy, just feel like checking on you, how you doing mam? You don't return my freaking calls, you up to something? He speaks authoritatively with his hands in his pair of Gucci customized jeans. This is Kyle Morrison, another multi Billionaire's son from California.

Henry's unfriendly look suggests a cogent hatred. Kyle noticed this, he decided to stroll out of the lecture hall to avoid causing another trouble after being summoned by the school senate a week ago on the ground of inflicting injuries on two students outside the Campus. He was accompanied by his entourage of Gilbert and Notorious Lee into his Bentley Flying Spur.

A student close to the scene raised high his eyelids in surprise, he knew whom Kyle was and what he could do. He got off his sit and returned back to the dormitory.

"So can we go now?" Vanessa asked in a bossy tone with her head wiggling like a dog's tail. Henry nodded his head gently in agreement. They walked out of the lecture hall like a day old couple. It seems Henry's ego could go extreme and reach for the skies. He is walking side by side with the popular "Her Majesty". Vanessa dragged off Henry's bag and decided to carry it.

Getting to the vehicle at the park, Henry's ego dropped drastically." Come-on, this is highly exotic! " He unconsciously spoke out his thought. The P-guard opened the door, the seats were arranged like honourable Akpoveta's sitting room. He hopped into the vehicle like a nervous squirrel. Henry flashed back to that very day he was handed the scholarship letter one-on-one with the Ughelli town's most respected politician, in his house. Henry was lost in thoughts when Vanessa gazed at him and was smiling for no reason.

"Play me the disc that makes me African." Vanessa ordered her bodyguard not the driver. Henry's consciousness of the present came upon him when he heard the song booming out of the vehicle's MP4 player. Henry's soul was highly lifted in a nostalgic joy when the MP4 speaker booms out the voice of a Nigerian Music legend "2baba" singing "African Queen".

Henry could lip-synch the song from the beginning to the end. He got marvelled when Vanessa's sonorous voice rented the atmosphere in the vehicle.

" How do you do that? You know this song too? Henry asked with his forehead 's skin wrinkled like Nelson Mandela's.

" Who doesn't know Nigerian musicians in the United States, many Americans know 2face, Fela, Asa and Wizkid. She smiles seductively with her teeth sparkling white like the fall of a new winter snow.

" I fell in love with that song and the Artiste when I was a little girl, albeit , I was small, I was music freaked. Moreover, I think I have a Nigerian blood in my vein as my uncle had always said. Do you know that I can actually speak a language in your country? "

Henry looked with surprise, "hmmm...you must be kidding, right? O.k let's give it a try"

"Ki lo de? Ki lounko e? Mo feran Jo" she finally spoke a distorted Yoruba language of the western part of Nigeria. Henry laughed out his lungs, it was really a comedy moment with "I go die" of Nigeria.

A sudden silence attacked the discussion in the vehicle, maybe it's an answered prayer for both the Driver and the P-gaurd. Henry was just stirring at the streets that seems moving away with it's gigantic skyscrapers.

"Ben, turn left, towards my favourite Restaurant." Vanessa orders the man in charge of the wheels.

The vehicle finally halted at a very exotic restaurant's parking space, lights shinning bright like the colours of the rainbow. Henry stretches out his arm to open the door, he got the surprise of the year, as the door of the vehicle opened itself, maybe the white bodyguard had rushed to press an open button. Henry's head just wouldn't stay stationed. Though Henry could have behaved himself in the public, but the objects of focus to his eyes lenses got him highly marvelled.

" I don't think Dangote's son could have been here before. " Silly Henry soliloquized loudly enough for Vanessa to laugh at him. Henry's childish talk likened him to an arrogant hyena eating a dead Lion's bone, forgetting that the Lion always fed on hyena's flesh even before death. Henry had forgotten that most African rich men sends their wards to the western countries to enjoy life even at better places than a mere restaurant.

Approaching the entrance of the restaurant, Henry forced himself to serve as a second bodyguard for Vanessa, maybe he wants to guard the bodyguard.

"You are welcome to Crème de LA crème, your seat is on the left, table 6" A lady's voice booms out of the electronic speakers close to the entrance. They walked slowly towards table 6. This is a five star restaurant.

"You are welcome, please, I'm here for your order, you may have your seat." A beautiful waitress whose modelling structure got Henry a bit confused, spoke to Vanessa in a very fluent and blunt expression that gave Henry a nut to crack while her blue-coloured Iris got focused on Henry.

Table 6 was computerised. The food and the drink menu is displaying on it, all you just need to do is to click on the screen, but Henry wouldn't click on the screen buttons, he was just starring at the table. The Waitress passed across a leaflet to Henry to save him stress.

"Please get me a toasted Russian coconut bread with pâté and a very hot coffee, add sugar, please." Vanessa speaks bossily in a polite manner as she press the menu displaying on the table. "I think my friend here would need something else." Vanessa teased.

Henry glanced through the ten pages of the leaflets that resembles the invitation card a family friend gave to Oni-Maro in Sapele which she had to call Henry to help her out with the content of the card.

"I need water." Henry finally ordered, albeit doing this out of phobia, hatred for the western countries delicacies and the absence of familiar foods like fried rice and Jollof rice got African Wiz confused. The word "crème de LA crème" keeps strolling across the walls in a colourful plastic box. " please add crème brulée to his order. " Vanessa finally advocated for his guest.

" What was that, crème bru...what?" Henry asked in curiosity.

"It's a sweet cold desert." Vanessa replied.

"Cold you said?" Henry's eye lids are now raised high up against his host in cri de coeur.

"That's not cool for this whether?" Henry agitated.

" But you ordered for water which I'm sure it's not hot, and here you are with a meal made of cream and burnt sugar." Vanessa replied.

"O.k I'm...I..em...think a cup of hot coffee or tea should be added or you want to freeze me to death? None of my family relatives have died of Pneumonia, please spare my lineage this dilemma." Henry retorted. Vanessa laughs amazingly with interest. She never knew who she had ran into, " a wafi boy" indeed.

"So you could be this funny?" Vanessa confessed to Henry as she adjusted her human hair. The Waitress approached them with what they ordered for.

"Please do you have a boiling tea or coffee? Please my good friend needs that." Vanessa teased. The Waitress left for her order while Henry kept imagining a suicidal friend he had ran into.

" Please add ice to the boiling tea." Comic Henry screams lightly after the Waitress to reciprocate Vanessa's tease, only for him to turn his head to see chewing mouths and eyes starring and gazing at him. He bowed his head in shame while Vanessa kept making fun of him. "Whaoo!!! Africans, scream anywhere, ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!. Vanessa laughed loud to make Henry feel bad and to mock him but got the attention of all eyes in the restaurant and got bowed in shame too. Henry busted into a simple laughter that tells the maturity in a black man with his right hand covering his mouth.

" what's funny? Vanessa yelled at Henry.

"You! I don't know you could be this funny, a superb comedy clip, that's what you are. He continued laughing while Vanessa turned to the onlookers and felt they should mind their own business. She then took a bite of her bread and sip the coffee from the coffee cup savoured with milk and sugar. Henry starred at her eye brow, eyes, nose, chin and mouth as she eats and nurse her drink.

" What other desert is good here? Henry asked after starring at her in silence for a while, the Waitress brought his order. "Crème Caramel. It's sweet dish made from milk, eggs and sugar." Vanessa elucidated.

"Whaoo!! I think this is a sugar country. No wonder they complain that whites get fat anyhow and are not strong in bed, why yawa no go gas, when na so so sugar dem dey pack pack full belle. I think the whole world should should eat African and Indian delicacies if we really want to live long." Henry emancipated as he took a bite of the sweet cold desert. Smiles of enjoying a delicious meal rented his face.

"Do you know why I called you here?" Vanessa asked.

" No, maybe to make an African friend, especially a funny one from Nigeria." Henry replied naughtily with ego.

Vanessa smiled, she stretched her hands across the table and winked at Henry to hold them. It was a surprise though, Henry felt honoured to grasp the glimmery hands of such a damsel. Henry could act stupid even when he isn't expected to do so. Thoughts ran through his shallow mind like a jungli whose tutor died a day to his first alcohol tutorial class. Henry was so careful to grasp the hands gently with a great care a farmer applies to a crate of egg while on the pedestrians' walk way. Henry's optics are performing a chemistry with the hormones, the medulla oblongata and the cerebellum.

" Henry, do you know you've got someone's heart kicking speedily? Ahmm....mmm...mmm" she stutters. It seems she wants to woo. What an African taboo!

" o.k let's cut the crab thing, I ...ahmm(shaking head gently as her eyes were closing and opening rapidly) I actually like you." She finally wooed African Wiz.

These words really stare up Henry's pride, he had never experienced such since his inception. No African woman would have thought of that, not to talk of saying it out to a man. His ego rose high above the firmaments. He smiled without saying a word, leaving Vanessa in a depressed state. Vanessa put up a shameful smile and rose to her feet while her eyes are finding it difficult to look at humans but the marble ground.

" Can we go now?" Vanessa turns her wide hips in attempt for an exit.

"Yeah sure, but..."

"What?"

"My crème brulée is left over" Henry opened up.

" Don't worry we can take some along. Waitress please we are taking an extra plate of crème brulée away.Just keep the amount left. (She drops two hundred dollars on the table.) Her bodyguard opened the exit door and waited for a while to help carry the crème brulée to the vehicle. Henry hastily reached out for the crème brulée and took the packaged items from the Waitress. He tried adjusting his inherited jacket's sleeves with his left hand while they walked out of crème de LA crème. His eyes are focused on the customized car outside, though Vanessa thought he would be gazing at her big buttocks right behind her. What a typical man from Africa.

They drove around the town. On their way to the campus, Vanessa checked her schedule note pad and got reminded of her weekly visit to the orphanage home. While in the vehicle, Henry gazed at Vanessa through the small inner mirror at the centre, close to the driver's stirring. His imagination of her personality keeps confusing him. He had always thought she is a Mafian whose silence had been misunderstood for an Autist.

A black Bentley had been trailing them for more than an hour. The P- guard alerted everyone in the vehicle. Henry had a feeling that the P-guard is trying to overawe to feel worthy of being on-call. Henry refuted his scary claim. Suddenly, a shot hit the rear window of the exotic Rolls-Royce. Henry's claim now seems to be quashed. It's a gun shot from Kyle Morrison's gang targeted at Henry. The Driver drove speedily for the first time, out of morass. Vanessa couldn't order a safe drive, all she just wanted was to get out of the scene.

The chase is getting so intense, leaving the driver an quandary. Henry screamed a zigzag drive. The driver is left with no choice but to make his boss dance like when you are on a local road with pot holes in some parts of Nigerian roads. The P-Guard returned the shot, in order to scare off the attackers, not knowing that a relapsing situation is unfolding. A swerve towards the road leading to Las Vegas was the only option for a chance to mislead the "gunz" whose chase was to intense for Vanny's men on board to conquer. The boom-ghen-ghe-ghen-kru-kah-kah of the guns shooting at their vehicles is enough to tell that somebody is ready to kill somebody just because of the hatred and jealousy in which nature deposited in a man.

A loud noise emanated from the rear side of the vehicle, screaming tremendously, "leave that big chick, you motherfucking black shit of a Negro ass." It seems Henry is in a big trouble. The echo faded away so fast, the chasers retreated at a ceasefire ordered by Kyle, who knew the vehicle was a bullet proof car. That's Kyle, a spoilt child, whose father had made him have wrong impression about the use of guns. Kyle and his brothers had always played with real guns since childhood while their mates played with toy guns. Sir Morrison's house is a house of gun games. Mr Morrison is a grand Patron to the Vikings cult group in Alabama, he was so infamous for his rascality in Alabama before making his wealth through dubious and criminal means. He had been a drug Baron who would kill to get what he wants. Kyle's father became a good friend to Vanessa's faher after their first meeting at the Alabama CEO's conference. The Chauffeur reached out for the beacon and halted the vehicle, knowing fully that Kyle and his gang had retreated.

"Take me to Dr Cason's office immediately after Henry alights at the next junction." Vanessa ordered her Chauffeur grotesquely. At this juncture, Vanessa's beast was unveiling. Henry could feel the smoke of hatred and anger radiating around her. He held her left arm.

" let's try out a dance house, maybe a liquor house or club. I think that will reduce this temper and anxiety." Henry's suggestion could have been a profitable solution but his conscience wouldn't let him be. "I think you need to visit the cinema?" Henry kept giving too many suggestions. The bodyguard to Vanessa isn't really cool with Henry. His anger seems to be racially driven. He felt how should a black boy from Africa cause a bad blood between two White groups, "miss vanny, I think we should visit your doctor first before any other thing, moreover. Your dad wouldn't be happy with such situation.

The Driver drove down to California where Henry alighted and bid them farewell. Vanny's smile towards Henry is pregnant with an intoxication of love. Henry walked slowly with his heart in his boot. His head keeps turning right and left just to be very sure all is well. He entered his little 'mansion' where his friend Razak would take enough time to clean up every morning. Henry squats with Razak who would never give Henry a breathing space. Razak is friendly and has been staying in the States for five years with the aid of his uncle, Danladi, a gold business magul. Every one around Henry are wealthy but a church rat seems to find him as a competition. Henry pressed the alarm button at the entrance door. Razak would take so much time to answer. It's some hour past sunset, Razak should be having his usual evening prayers. He is left stranded at the door. " what If some hoodlums are after my life, chasing me with bullets?'' Henry's thoughts are allusions of his past. Razak wouldn't give a listening hears.

It's Henry second week in the united States of America. The neighbours around are used to his roaming around every six and seven o'clock in the evening. This time, Henry thought differently, he wants to sit at the veranda and watch people roaming around the street. He dropped his bag and brought out Nelson Mandela's "long walk to freedom" and began to read as usual. He would read through the lines one after the other slowly, so as to get enough of the content of his history.

Moments after, he got to the climax of novel, where some heroes who were fighting for south African freedom died and Nelson's trial by the Whites. A flashback to what Kyle shouted behind their vehicle got him sick in the soul. He felt the hatred and racism is just too much for a poor black boy to bear. Suddenly, Henry heard dogs barking furiously around the neighborhood. The barks doesn't sound familiar. He knew virtually the different barks of the dogs in the neighborhood. He knows Attorney Churchill's pitbull barking, he knows the fat woman across the road German Shepherd's bark, " I am sure these dogs are for the cops." Henry presumes.

In the nick of time, Henry's curiosity was caught in a red letter day, the cops are here for him. He could see them coming close, he had no option but to take to his heels. His offense isn't what he could phantom, he has no option left but to run for his dear life. " this was how uncle Joe got deported five years ago." Henry screams as he ran as fast as he could. He had forgotten that the legs are no match with the wheels of a car.

He had just gotten a breathing space from Kyle's gang, now it's the cops? Henry kept running, he knew the consequence of being caught. Do a man run for an offense he knew nothing about? After half an hour chase, Henry got trapped in a dilapidated building. He couldn't have thrown in the sponge, he kept believing his smartness could work for him. Henry threw out his bag towards an opposite direction outside the building, so that he could escape through the rare window. He had forgotten that the American cops aren't dummies.

A voice from the megaphone got Henry's heart in his boots, he had to ask God for help. He ran so fast towards the rare window, unfortunately, a giant black man in cops uniform was waiting for him already. Henry had to run back inside the building. He had no option but to run towards the giant black man. He ran aggressively towards him, Henry dived in between his legs as fast as he could. The cops tried a grasp but Henry kick at his two balls which gave Henry an escape route.

Other cops came around, but it was too late to catch the African Wiz. Henry ran into the bush, marking his journey into a miserable life. The police's dogs were coming after Henry. The chase became more intense. What a jump from the frying pan into the fire. Henry seems tired, but the dogs are not. Henry's distance from the dogs was enough for him to give up. He became lucky when he bruised his heels, he fell to the ground and crawled towards the iron cave close to him. He entered the big cave and placed a cover metal at the entrance against the dogs. Henry kept crawling in the cave, until a gun shot was fired at the cave. The policemen crawled into the iron cave slowly, they searched everywhere in the cave but to no avail. No one could tell his whereabout, be becomes a vagabond in the ancient underground cave.