The lumberjack and the beautiful Suzie

"Oh my Gosh, what a beautiful mermaid I see over there!" exclaimed Babida, his axe in hand, taking a minute break from timber cutting. The cause of his interruption: a thin and black-skinned eighteen-year-old maiden with curly hair, holding in her right hand a basket of mushrooms. Her name was Suzie.

She was sent to the woods by her grandmother, big momma - like she tenderly called her - to fetch mushrooms for the dinner soup.

She had her back turned when Babida noticed her. She was worry-free searching for the white Button species and sorting them out. She was throwing away those that cause sickness and putting the ones she was bringing at home into her rubber-made basket.

She bent graciously to pick the mushrooms up and while doing so, her pink silk mini-dress moved upward, exposing, even more, the charms of her hairless legs. The skirt featured cords at the waist fastened on the front side in the form of a butterfly knot.

Babida was subjugated and the minute pause he had taken mutated into an eternal moment of infatuation. The steel axe he had held in the palms of his Herculean hands for the past two hours ended its course on the ground covered by green herbs.

"Hi, there!" He suddenly shouted from the top of his lungs.

Struck, Suzie looked behind her, her eyes wide open and her left hand on her chest, then deeply sighed, and took two steps back.

In front of her, a giant bodybuilt black man in his thirties, shirtless, sweating, with pecs as massive as mount Everest, and nurtured biceps displaying intersecting roads of veins.

"Who are you?" Suzie cried out in panic.

"What are you doing here?" She added.

"Sorry Miss, I didn't mean to frighten you. Pardon my manners!" Babida replied to her.

Not sure how to react to the stranger's assurance of coming in peace, Suzie chose to walk away.

"Anyway, I am leaving now." She said to him.

"A moment, please! May I know your name?" Babida responded while flashing a bright smile.

"What for? I said I am on my way. Did you not hear me?" Suzie retorted then started moving, her basket full of mushrooms in her hand.

Babida extended his right arm in an attempt to stop her but it was too late. Suzie had run away as fast as she could.

Disappointed, he sprung, fists closed, then screamed.

Back in the center of Ekule, one of the most incredible villages of the Batang empire in Africa, Suzie released her breath. She had escaped from the unknown.

She continued her walk home where her grandmother had long been waiting for her to prepare the mushroom soup.

"Hi, big momma!" Suzie said as she was getting inside the house.

"I am back home." She pursued while heading to the kitchen. She laid the basket of mushrooms in the sink.

"Where have you been, you little blighter?" Suzie's grandmother asked her upset.

"Big momma, I am sorry!" Suzie mumbled while rushing to hug the old lady in an attempt to calm her down.

"Today there were so many mushrooms across the forest. I had to make sure I took home as many as possible. I also had to be very selective so I could bring the healthiest ones for your preferred soup." She explained.

"Hmmm, now you are flattering me. You know every time how to appease me, especially when you bring at home my favorite chow." Grandma answered back in a mild tone of voice.

Suzie returned to the kitchen. She removed the mushrooms from the basket and placed them in a pot. She opened the tap to get some water, then tidied the white Buttons up.