Petty Trader

Selina crouched in the ditch listening to the night sounds and any signs that the porters were near. She and her mother Ann, had gone shopping for clothes, shoes and handbags at the border town of Loitokitok. The same goods were available in many markets inside Kenya, but cost more. It was said that the Tanzanian government did not tax imported goods as highly as the Kenyan. Traders preferred to take the long journey to Loitokitok, to buying at the exorbitant prices inside Kenya.

The newly-elected president had declared war on these traders, declaring them illegal; their activities were labeled 'makendo'. Fearing arrest, they avoided using the official border crossings, using porters to bring the loads through bush tracks away from police eyes.

Bus drivers made handsome money by working with the 'illegal' traders. For them the new president was a good one. After checking through the customs at the border they would stop at some lonely spot to wait for the loads to arrive by porter. The traders will have bought seats on the bus. Once the porters had done all they could to avoid detection they met up with the trader whose load they bore, at an arranged rendezvous.

Selina was waiting for the arrival of the porters so that she could join her mother on the bus, with their load soon to be safely in the luggage compartment. The first sign she picked up was heavy breathing and the faint crackle of a twig. Since they were trying to be as quiet as possible she could safely assume it was not the police but someone with a heavy burden.

"Kalonzo!" she called quietly in the darkness.

"Niko hapa, (here I am)" came the laboured reply. Now she could make out the two shapes resembling men carrying each a sack on his shoulder.

They followed her up the slight incline to where they could see the dark shape of the bus silhouetted against the dim sky. Quickly the loads were stowed into the luggage compartment, the porters paid and dismissed. They vanished into the darkness with alarming swiftness.

The driver received his payment even before the journey started. Ann was in the window seat courtesy of having got to the bus early. In the middle seat was a tall-looking man in a light kaunda suit. On his wrist was a gold watch and on his feet an expensive pair of brown shoes. Selina thought he was better suited to driving his own SUV than riding in a bus. Absurdly she felt her nipples tighten for no reason she could think of.

"Do you want to sit next to your mum," he asked politely. Apparently her mother had been talking to him as they waited for Selina and the loads.

"Could you do that for us," she asked, looking at him doubtfully.

He simply stood up to let her squeeze into the middle seat, before seating himself in the aisle one. It would take two hours along a dust road for the bus to gain the main highway into the city. Within minutes of starting, the dust billowed into the interior of the bus, provoking some coughing and sneezing among the passengers. In the quiet darkness of a moonless night, the battered bus rattled down that desolate, dusty country road, its headlights cutting through the void like a solitary beacon of hope. He kept up a conversation with mother and daughter for quite a distance, during which time they discovered that his name was Chuhi and that he was a businessman between Loitokitok, Mombasa and Nairobi. Meanwhile it seemed as if the humans had evolved to suit their dusty environment. Soon some snoring could even be heard, including Selina's. Her head swiveled to lie softly on his shoulder. Adjusting his position to better accommodate her brought her breasts in contact with his upper arm. He looked across to Ann to see if she had noticed this, but she continued the conversation in normal tones.

Chuhi could not help feeling the softness of the young woman's tits against his arm as the movements of the bus jostled them. An itch just below his shoulder caused him want to scratch himself but this brought his fingers in contact with her tits. He felt her nipples erect so he hesitated to bring his hand away letting the nipples strum his middle and ring finger as if they were guitar strings. Both of them were getting excited and she let out a soft moan in the darkness. Again he looked over at the mother but she seemed blissfully unaware of her daughter's tits brushing the backs of his hand.

Selina was woken rudely by a loud crashing noise, with the bus lurching violently to one side, throwing some passengers from their seats. Panic surged through the dimly lit cabin as the bus skidded to a halt. Someone screamed, to be answered by another. In the sudden darkness, people were scrambling towards the door. Selina was pushed against the side of a seat hurting her hip but eventually everybody was outside.

"Chunga simba!" someone yelled, meaning 'beware of lions'. People tried to huddle as close to the bus as they could. The driver, his conductor and some of the men passengers were inspecting the underside of the bus, trying to find the problem. Apparently the bus had hit its underside against a boulder, indistinguishable from the greyish dust of the road surface, damaging the differential. The bus was crippled and would not be able to move before morning when someone could come to their rescue. This, however, depended on their distress being communicated to Emali, the town at the junction of this horrible road and the highway. If no other vehicle passed this way they could be here for days. Frustratingly they could see the lights of Emali in the far distance. For some it might be possible to walk there, but only if they could escape the claws of the wild animals. But for Ann and Selina with their huge loads, even this remote hope was out of the question. What was more, they had spent all their money in buying the goods; not even their mobile money wallets had enough to take them from this wilderness to the city. Stranded and disoriented, they clung to each other, uncertain of their next move.

Chuhi, the man who had been sitting next to them, told them that he had a satellite phone with which he could reach his company's offices for help. Ann, Selina's mother, was concerned whether the car would take both she and her daughter as well as the loads.

"Of course," he answered. "It would be an SUV with plenty of space in the back for your loads."

They heard him talking to somebody on the satellite phone, directing them to their location on the Loitokitok road just beyond Emali. Since nothing more could be done, everyone returned to the bus and sporadic conversation resumed. He was sitting nearest to Selina, and as they talked, he took advantage of the proximity to gently touch her from time to time. After a while, some passengers started dozing off, including Selina, who again leaned towards his shoulder. She was only dimly aware that his arm had gone around her shoulders, holding her tenderly. As Ann and he continued to talk softly, so as not to disturb the other passengers, about an hour and a half passed, and then they saw the headlights of a car approaching from the direction of Emali.

Chuhi commented, "That must be him," as the silver car broke through the dust, pulling up just ahead of the bus. Dust that had been trailing the vehicle now billowed all about it, almost enveloping it, until a door opened, and a figure shot out through the headlights. Chuhi disembarked from the bus, briefly conversing with the car's driver. He then returned to the bus, summoning the two women who now requested the conductor to unload their sacks and with the help of the driver, place them in the silver SUV. They discovered, as he had assured them, that there was ample room for additional cargo.

Their journey continued towards their destination, the city. Rejoining the highway to Nairobi, the trip dragged on due to the sluggish pace of heavy trucks on the road. The road itself was far from pristine, and frequent encounters with slow-moving trucks made overtaking a challenge amid oncoming traffic. If not for these hindrances, the trip could have been completed in just one hour and 20 minutes.

Eventually, more than two hours after they started, they reached the outskirts of Nairobi, arriving in a part of the city where Chuhi resided. He extended an invitation to the women to rest in his house, allowing them to wash away the road's dust before continuing their journey the following day.

The driver turned into an estate, turning right and then left and right again leaving the women bewildered. How would they get themselves out of this place alone, they separately wondered. Finally the car stopped at a white gate. A uniformed guard opened it to let them through. Between the guard and the driver the loads were offloaded and brought into the house. Ann wondered aloud if they would not spread their dust all over the pristine house.

"It can easily be washed, if such a thing happened, but I don't see any dirt at all," Chuhi sought to set her mind at ease.

They were very thankful that they were able to wash off the dirt and sweat of the previous two days, had a meal served by Chuhi's cook, and shown to a nice clean room to sleep in, the first one in many days since they had set off of on their journey. Ann thought she caught him looking at Selina in a strange way, but could not be sure. "Surely he should see that my mature body is far superior to one as young as Selina," she thought to herself.

After each took a shower the two women changed into something more comfortable for sleeping in, and Selina fell into a deep sleep almost immediately. Ann stayed awake imagining all manner of horrors that would have overtaken them if things had not gone as they did after the breakdown. But she was glad that Chuhi had sat next to them and had brought them to his house. Gratitude welled up in her soul, but immediately his smart good looks caused her to remember that she had not felt the touch of a man on her body for many long months. She wanted to hold him and receive his touch. But would he?

She remembered the look he had bestowed on her daughter and decided he would be easy prey for her purposes. Quietly so as not to wake her sleeping daughter next to her she slipped out of the bed and made her way down the corridor to his bedroom door, knocking softly, almost timidly.

"Come in!" He seemed to be expecting someone as he sat on his large bed wiping between his toes. He must have just come from his bath as he was in a bathrobe.

"May I speak to you please," she said from the door.

"Please come in," he said invitingly.

As she walked towards him she noticed her ripe breasts moving gently and tantalisingly under the light flannel nightshirt she wore.

"Nice tits must run in the family," he thought, before patting the bed next to him. "Sit down," he offered.

She took hold of his hand as she sat, looking into his face with deep gratitude.

Before she uttered the first word, he was aware that she felt she owed him. "Thank you so much for taking care of my daughter, our dirty sacks and myself," she began.

He threw one arm over her shoulders and replied that it was no trouble at all for him. She buried her face in the side of his neck and he felt warm tears on his skin.

He pulled her closer to him and kissed her forehead. Her skin tingled with fresh feelings she may have thought she had forgotten. Her hand went around his neck, but this only had the effect of bringing their mouths closer which she took advantage of to kiss him back, on his mouth. With hardly any hesitation on either of their parts they kissed each other hungrily.

His hands were soon palpitating her arms. One thumb brushed against the side of her breast, whose warmth provoked him to visit the warm softness with his whole palm causing her to moan lustily. He brushed the tit, cupped it in his palm before bringing thumb and forefinger to the nipple and squeezing gently. She let out a soft scream, which he muffled by kissing her more forcefully.

He felt her hand take hold of his cock through the parting of the bathrobe, pulling along the stem and back down again. He could not remember a handjob to match this one.

Impatiently he released her tit, stood up releasing his cock from her hand. He threw off the robe with some violence and bent down to pull her nightshirt off her body. As naked as jays they rolled onto the bed continued in their kissing and handjob. They were so high that this could not last. She rolled onto her back and opened her legs invitingly, which he had no power to resist. In a smooth movement he placed himself over her and guided his rampant cock between her lips. She was so wet that it took no more than a gentle push to embed himself snugly in her greedy cunt. They held it there for a long moment before they both felt the need to move against each other.

Her insides felt so warm and welcoming to his cock, while she exulted in the firm hardness invading her. Long strokes brought the head of his cock to her cervical entrance. Once. Twice. The third time unraveled her and she flew into many fragments of pure joy as she came harder than she could remember. Her pulsations threw him over the edge into the abyss of delirious sweetness as he pumped hot seed right at the door of her cervix. If only there was an egg nearby, it would have been head-butted by a sperm within minutes. But the last one had been weeks before and had departed in despair during her period only days earlier.

He continued gentle motions inside her sending her crashing into a series of mini-orgasms before he deflated beyond where he could provide any more stimulation. But he had one last trick up his sleeve. His shrinking cock was still good enough to rub wetly on her lips and clit, giving her further shocks; one could call them another run of orgasms. His head dropped to her chest, and slurped her nipple into his mouth sending her into new delights. He kept up this simultaneous play on her clit and nipple until she was completely out of breath.

"Oh, darling, I can't take any more," she panted weakly. At last he relented and slipped off her body to lie feebly on his pillow.

In scant seconds only their contented snores could be heard.

In the morning he escorted them to Kenyatta Market where they plied their trade. They exchanged numbers, promising to stay in touch.

Over the days that followed, the accident remained a haunting memory, but it was also the crucible in which their love had been forged. His practicality and kindness began to earn their trust as they shared stories and laughter. Chuhi was a wellspring of wisdom, his life experiences offering guidance to both. Ann, Selina, and Chuhi became a unique family, bound by their unlikely circumstances and the deep connection that had grown between them.

Chuhi continued to be a part of their lives, his wisdom guiding them through the challenges of their trading business and the complexities of life.