Rufus passed in front of the mirror in his bedroom, whistling. The corner of his eyes caught something very unusual. Terror gripped him as he slowly and shakily took two steps backwards. He stood in front of the mirror. A shock like a thunderbolt went through him. He broke out in goose pimples. He could not see his reflection in the mirror. His shakily stretched out a hand to touch the mirror, but he couldn't feel it!

"Is this some sort of joke?" he thought as he frantically tried feeling his body. His hands went through him as if he was without a body.

"Am I a ghost? Where is my body?" There was confusion written all over him.

He began to think. He recalled the events of the evening. He had given a very beautiful girl a lift on his way home from work.

She was tall and curvy, with skin smooth like glass. Her voice was captivating and her eyes disarming. They had talked about everything. It was like they had known each other for ages. One thing led to another and everything happened so quickly.

He remembered driving off the road through a bush path and parking behind a rock. Their lust was raw. Their hearts pounded so fast and they had a go at each other. They kissed; it was the best kiss he had ever had. Clothes flew off their bodies like giant confetti and before he knew it, she was on him. "Whoa," he thought, it had been some time since he had a lady who boldly took charge in bed.

She licked, teased, and sucked him until he was shaking like a leaf. He reciprocated, putting his tongue to good use, causing her to tremble. All these he did, while caressing her velvety skin. She threw her head back and hissed like a snake. Words lost their use, the connection through their eyes and movements was all the communication required. She inserted him deep into her, sucked in her full lips, maintaining eye contact. Those eyes sparked a familiarity in him but he quickly banished the distracting thought. They both moaned in rhyme as she rode him until they were spent.

That was all he could remember. He quickly decided to go to the spot where it all happened. In just a few seconds, he got there. His naked body was lying lifeless in the car. His eyes were still open, gazing into nothingness, and his mouth was parted slightly like a door left ajar. There was a trickle of dry semen close to his shrunken manly appendage. His clothes lay scattered in the car. His car key was in the ignition.

He tried to shake his body, but he could not even touch it. He wanted to get back into his body but there was no way. He lay down on the body but couldn't get into it.

He slowly walked back to the roadside and sat down. He began to cry as it finally dawned on him that he was dead. He didn't see it coming and, of course, not in the manner it had happened. He wished he could turn back the hands of time. He thought about his life and how he got himself into such a mess.

Rufus was tall, huge, and roguishly handsome, with a shiny dark complexion and white teeth. He had shifty eyes whose white parts were somehow reddish. He had an eye for fine things and beautiful women were not an exception. He loved life and could party all night long, provided his wife was not there. He was not into alcohol that much but was a very popular dude in town.

He clearly remembered where he had met her. He had picked her out from a distance on the roadside where she stood. The colour combination of her attire was the first attraction, then her figure. She wore a bright-yellow blouse with cream-coloured polka dots on dark blue, slim-fitting ripped jeans. Yellow sneakers adorned her feet.

Rufus stopped in front of her and asked, "Which way are you going?"

"Dutse," she said in a sing-song voice.

"Hop in!" he told her. She opened the door, tilted her left buttock and gracefully sat in the well air-conditioned car.

Her sweet perfume hit his nostrils and he felt a stir of pleasurable sensation around his loins. He adjusted himself on his seat to shield the slowly rising bulge from her view.

"What is your name?" he asked in a voice that

sounded like a croak.

"Matilda," she said smiling.

"My name is Rufus," he had told her.

"I am delighted to make your acquaintance Rufus," she said, beaming.

"The pleasure is mine," said Rufus.

"I am sure you have been told a countless number of times that you have the beauty of a goddess; permit me to reiterate it to you this evening that you possess a blossoming smile, the elegant and classy looks of a royal!"

Matilda giggled, "Thank you for your sweet compliments."

"So, what is a beautiful girl like you up to this evening?" He asked. She replied that she had just closed from work and was on her way home.

"Same here. I like you and can't pretend about it. You remind me of someone I used to know, but your beauty is out of this world," he said.

"You don't look bad yourself," she replied, eyeing him seductively. Their eyes met and they held their gaze for a few seconds. He had to force himself to concentrate on the road. There was something about her eyes, looking at them did things to him. His breathing was uneven; he exhaled through his mouth.

*********

The ghost snapped back to reality and the challenge at hand. "I need to find a way to get back into my body," he thought. He began going to everyone who knew him trying to get help. Maybe if his body was rushed to the hospital, he could go back in. But no one could see or hear him. After so much effort without success, he finally accepted that he was indeed dead and that nothing could be done about it.

Rufus materialized where his family was. He watched in tears as his wife dialled his phone number repeatedly. Her brows were furrowed as she wrung her hands at intervals. She prayed silently for her husband to pick up. The ghost watched his children playing and thought, "so I have ceased to be part of my children's life? These boys will grow up without me and perhaps forget me completely."

He sighed, there were so many things he had left undone and now getting them done was iffy because he had run out of time. He sat by his wife's side and desperately tried to talk to her but she could not see or hear him. She hugged her knees and rocked herself as she stared into space.

It had been three days since Rufus disappeared into thin air. In his office, no one had seen him or knew his whereabouts. His family, friends, colleagues, neighbours, debtors, girlfriends and associates were all worried! The ghost of Rufus was also worried. His phone had been ringing nonstop as lots of people were trying to reach him, but he couldn't pick up.

Each time his phone rang, he would check who the caller was, and would then appear in the person's presence, all in a bid to see if anyone could see or hear him, but it was to no avail. He would shout and wave in front of them and try to touch them with no success. He kept trying. Finally, his phone battery ran down. His hope was deflated like a pin-punctured balloon.