The immigration officer finished and held my passport towards me. I took the dark green booklet and sneaked him some Euro notes. Hopefully, the tip was heavy enough to ensure that my face was stamped in his memory for eternity, just in case I needed his help someday.

On my way to baggage collection, I dialled Camille.

'Kings, Kings! You're back! I really missed you!'

Camille and I had spent several more nights together since our first meeting. I would ring when I needed her, we would meet at the hotel, and she would leave the following morning. The girl had special ways of helping me forget my sorrows. Come to think of it, I did not even know her surname. But what was the point getting to know everything about a girl, only for her to dump you in the end? With Camille, I was free - free to extract as much pleasure as I wanted from our relationship whenever I wanted. That was the most important thing.

'Can you meet me later tonight?' I asked.

'Sure. What time?'

'I'm still at the airport. I'll ring you when I get to Aba and let you know.'

'I'm really looking forward to seeing you, Kings. I hope you brought back something from Amsterdam for me.'

Even her voice had something mesmerising about it. Was there a certain school where these types of girls went to master their art or was it an inborn talent? No wonder she charged so much. I rammed into someone who had been walking too slowly. He turned. I was about to apologise.

'Kingsley Ibe!' he exclaimed.

'Andrew Onyeije!'

We shook hands.

Andrew and I had competed in a science quiz back in form five. After a tough battle, I had won. Fresh complexion, robust cheeks . . . he looked very well.

'So what are you up to these days?' he asked.

'I'm based in Aba.'

'Oh, really? Where do you work?'

'I'm sort of doing my own thing. I'm into business. Importing and exporting.'

He laughed.

'What happened? Didn't you always say you wanted to read Engineering?'

'Actually, I read Chemical Engineering.'

He laughed again.

'And now you're importing and exporting. What was the point of going into sciences if you weren't intending to use it in the end?'

I tried to smile, but I was not doing it very well.

'And you?' I asked. 'What do you do?' Perhaps he had developed a contraceptive pill for men.

'I'm into IT,' he replied contentedly. 'I'm based in the States.'

That explained his fresh complexion. The wicked Nigerian sun had not smiled on him for a long time.

'You know IBM, don't you?' he continued. 'I'm with the head office in New York. I just flew in for my sister's wedding. I'll be in Nigeria for just about a week. Then I've gotta be back in the States for an important meeting.'

No wonder he could afford to open his mouth and make all sorts of stupid comments. He was so busy munching frankfurters in America, he had probably not yet seen any of the engineers and lawyers and medical doctors who were wearing hunger from head to sole.

'I'm soooo glad to be back home,' he went on. 'The last time I was in Nigeria was ages ago. There's nothing like being back in your own country, amongst your own brothers and sisters. It's such a wonderful feeling.'

Together, we stood by the sluggish conveyor belt and waited. Some lackeys promptly arrived beside us with trolleys.

'I've missed Nigeria so much,' Andrew said.

I pointed out my first suitcase. The lackey rushed to grab it.

'What and what did you do your Masters in?' he asked.

'I haven't yet done a Masters.'

He gasped.

'Kingsley Ibe! You don't have a Masters? I don't believe it! These days, you can't move forward in this world without one. I have a Masters in Cyber Informatics from Rutgers, a Masters in Tetrachoric Correlations from Cornell, a Masters in Data Transmogrification from Yale, and next fall, I'll be starting my PhD with Harvard.'

'That's wonderful,' I said, still struggling to smile.

'Wonderful?' He laughed. 'You're really cracking me up. My brother at Princeton has seven postgraduate degrees. My cousin at Brown is starting her third PhD soon. Honestly, there are so many great minds in this country. Yet once you mention you're from Nigeria, all they think about in the States is 419. It's sad.'

His voice had turned burgundy with nationalistic fervour. I felt like tipping him over a cliff. Were the minds of the 419ers any less great than the minds of the Masters degree and PhD holders? It would have been interesting to see what would have become of his great IBM mind if he had remained here in Nigeria.

Andrew reached for his suitcase. The lackey leapt forward and did the rest.

'I love Nigeria soooooo much,' he belched on. 'Whatever happens, I'm gonna come back here and settle someday. With my family.'

I pointed out my second suitcase. Held hostage by his effusion of nationalism, I could not immediately take my leave. His second suitcase arrived. The hot air merchant was still talking. He talked and talked and talked and talked. With each new word, my dislike for him increased. My guardian angel flapped a wing and caused my cellular to ring. It was Camille.

'Kings, I'm sorry but something urgent just came up. I won't be able to see you tonight.'

No way. I really needed her tonight.

'OK, how about tomorrow? How early can you come over?'

'I'm sorry, I'm not available tomorrow. I'm not going to be available for the rest of the week.'

I was about to ask where she was going.

'But I can send you someone else,' she said.

What? I felt as if I was being rudely awakened from a long and pleasant dream.

'Kings, would you like me to send someone else?'

Gradually, I came out of my swoon. I hung up. The smoke screen cleared from my mind. Unlike my cellular phone, which belonged to me and me alone, Camille was like a public telephone - available for use as far as it was free. Andrew's third suitcase arrived along with his fourth. He gestured to let me know that those were the last. Together, we headed out of the airport with the lackeys pushing along behind us.

Andrew screamed.

'What is it?' I asked.

He was feverishly shoving his hands in and out of his trouser pockets like someone having a convulsion.

'My passport! My US passport! I'm certain it was in this pocket!'

'When last did you see it?'

'I had it stamped right there at immigration, then I put it back in my pocket. I remember vividly. It was right here with my boarding pass.'

He convulsed through his pockets again. Still, no passport.

'It's gone!' he announced three times. 'I had it in this pocket,' he cried two times. 'I'm quite certain of that.'

'You'd better go and report it immediately,' I advised. If not, a desperate immigrant could be out of the country with that passport on the next flight to the US.

Suddenly, his patriotism changed colour.

'This country is unbelievable! I haven't even come in yet and they've already stolen my passport!'

His American accent had also vamoosed.

'Someone probably saw you putting it back in your pocket,' I said.

'I just don't believe this! I've been looking forward to coming back home after all these years. I haven't even been here up to an hour already, and now this!'

How could I abscond when he was in such dire straits? Besides, the petty enmities that exist between one man and another suddenly disintegrate when they are linked with the bond of affliction. Now that Andrew had been initiated into the brotherhood of motherland mishaps, I found myself hating him less. I accompanied him to the security office to make a preliminary report.

'Ha!' a potbellied security officer laughed. 'How could you have done such a thing?'

'Done what?'

'Are you stupid? How can you put your passport inside your pocket? American passport for that matter. Why didn't you put it inside your trousers? Don't you wear underwear?'

'Fuck you!' Andrew exploded.

'Hey!' A more gaunt security man threatened him with a raised baton. 'Do you know who you're talking to?'

'Andrew, cool down, cool down,' I said, hiding my Schadenfreude away.

'I know my rights! He can't do anything to me.'

I almost laughed.

Quickly, I stepped in and apologised on his behalf. He was from America; he did not understand. Twenty minutes later, the security officer kindly agreed to forgive.

'Talk to them politely so that you can get it sorted out soon,' I said to Andrew. 'You'll need a report from them to take to the police.'

Despite all his Masters degrees and PhDs, Andrew took my advice and explained his predicament in meeker tones. The potbellied man assigned a female officer to attend to him. She brought out a form, which Andrew was supposed to fill in.

'Oga, what did you bring for us from America?' the female officer tweeted, her fingers still super-glued to the form.

Andrew turned to me with bulging eyeballs and soaring eyebrows. My father never gave bribes, no matter for how long the police detained us at their checkpoints, but what did my father know about survival?

'Just give her a small tip so that they can treat your matter as urgent,' I whispered.

'I can't believe this . . . I just can't. Man, this country is seriously fucked up.'

No, this country was not fucked up. It was also not a place for idealising and Auld Lang Syne. Once you faced the harsh facts and learnt to adapt, Nigeria became the most beautiful place in the world.

Thirty-three

If there was a world record for brevity of time spent on grooming, I had just broken it. I sped a comb through my hair while racing downstairs. I was panting when I reached my BMW. Before jumping into the car, I paused and inspected my appearance in the window. I straightened my jacket and adjusted my shirt collar, but all that did not matter. Any outfit that cost an arm and two legs could speak for itself, whether neatened or not.

My cellular phone rang while I was reversing out of the gate. It was Charity.

'Charity, I'm on my way. I'm on my way. I'm just leaving the house.'

She was relieved.

My sister had rung several times the previous day. She wanted to make sure I would be there early. She wanted to remind me to bring my camcorder along. She wanted me to know where we should all meet up afterwards, just in case we did not get to see her before she went into the school auditorium for the matriculation ceremony. This morning, her phone call had woken me from sleep.

'Kings, you're still sleeping!'

'No . . . I'm awake.'

'Kings, please wake up and start getting ready. By the time you get here, the ceremony would have already gone halfway.'

She obviously did not know the abilities of my latest BMW 5 Series. Anyhow, my sister had a right to be anxious on this special day of her life. I had felt the same way on my graduation day.

I remembered everything about that great event as if it had happened just yesterday.

My mother spent the evening before supervising the slaughtering and plucking of three grown chickens, putting the finishing touches to four adult male shirts and plaiting her thirteen-year-old daughter's hair. Yet by the time the rest of us woke up on my graduation day morning, she was already in the kitchen and the whole house was consumed with the smell of good things. While washing the odour of kerosene fumes off her body, my mother sang the first two stanzas of 'There Shall Be Showers of Blessing' at top volume.

Ordinarily, I would have expected that my mother would be the one to cry. But from what she said, as soon as I rose to collect my certificate, her only response was to stand and clap. My father, on the other hand, sat in his seat and wiped his eyes. I was the very first of the second generation of university graduates from the whole Ibe extended family.

After the ceremony, I left the auditorium and went to meet them at a prearranged location, under the mango tree by the university health centre. Aunty Dimma was waiting with them. She had insisted on coming to the school as well, instead of just turning up at the house later in the day like our other invited guests. As soon as they saw me approaching, all of them rushed towards me.