STRANGE MAILS, PROLOGUE

Hi There, I just thought of giving you a peek into the prologue of the novel I am working on. STRANGE MAILS is the tentative title of the book. I hope you'll like it.Perhaps I can generate interest for the book here.Happy reading.

The young man whistled sofly as he waited for his turn to be attended to. His hands deep in the side pockets of his blue jeans, he nodded slowly to the Hip-Hop music that was coming out of a speaker near him. He was clean shaven and had a height that could fetch him a contract with the Chicago Bulls. His face was round and smooth, and he was putting on a big black Tee Shirt which had the letter X inscribed on it. A pair of Reebok trainers covered his feet. He was on a long queue of trendily dressed young men and women who were anxious to purchase their tickets and get on with their lives. One of them hissed loudly and threw up his hands.

'' This place is gradually becoming like the other Cafe's out there.Why are things so slow here?.'' he shouted

His disgust inspired an uproar among the customers on the queue. It took some pleading from one of the boys at the ticket issuing area to calm them down. Suddenly, it was Bayo's turn. He stepped forward and handed a crisp Naira note to the cashier. One of the attendants with an afro hairstyle punched some keys on a laptop which was connected to a printer, and handed him his ticket in seconds.

'' You're welcome.'' the attendant said, exposing his tobacco stained teeth.

Bayo took the pink colored ticket and looked at it. He'd been sold seventy minutes to do whatever he wanted on any of the Cafe's two hundred and fifty computer systems. The ticket was valid for two days and printed on it was a password which read DX34728JCB. Bayo moved away from the queue and started his search for a free system. He walked past several customers who were already neck deep in their browsing. Most of them had earphones on and were largely oblivious of what was going on around them. That was the culture at Joe's Cyber Plaza. Don't lay too much on what the other person is doing. Choose a spot for your own fishing. After failing to get a free system on the Plaza's ground floor, Bayo climbed the staircase to the first floor.

It was the same situation there. Rows and rows of partitioned wooden desks with glass eyed youths staring into the monitors.There was no one loitering around. Engraved on plastic discs which were attached to the walls were the words: one person per system. Bayo Williams knew he had to move to the second floor before the Cafe's security personnel accosted him. He had come across one of them with bulging biceps a minute earlier, and didn't find the guard's glare funny.

So up he went and that was where he got what he wanted. A pretty young girl in braids had just finished her session and obviously did not want any more time.

'' Are you through with the system?.'' Bayo asked, trying to look away from her slightly exposed chest region. He looked again.

'' Yes,'' the girl said, rebuke dancing in her pupils. She picked up her jacket and walked out of the enclosure.

Bayo settled down before the blinking Compaq flat screen and started to type. His mind went back to the girl and her cold look. He smiled and signed on to Yahoo! Messenger. Girls. They were such an unpredictable lot. They were like cars which could develop faults without giving prior notice. His mesenger list had about forty names. He moved the cursor to the top of the list and clicked on the name, Brenda Edwards. This was the girl he wanted to chat with and he hoped she would be online. She was online most times, though. At least the United Kingdom had stable electricity.

Writing is not for the faint hearted, you know. I have been on this book since 2005. Are you surprised? Dan Brown spent about 10 years writing ''The Da Vinci Code'', his bestselling Novel. 60.5 million copies sold and published in 44 languages. I believe in Jesus though. And how are you doing?