EXTRACT FOR
Tribal
(Chuck James)

Tribal.

That was the word that caught his eye.

1st Prize - $500

The next line attracted his attention just as swiftly. Chris Williams studied the notice in the magazine he was skimming in the newsagents.

It was a photography competition, the theme was simply Tribal, he had less than a week remaining to submit a photo set, but most pressing, he was flat broke and five hundred dollars would definitely be a blessing from above.

Beads, he told himself, colourful beads on darker skin. Body paint too, he wasn't sure if it was paint or a dye or even tattoos, he had seen tribal images from the Amazon, or was it New Guinea, he couldn't say, just that their faces and necks were bright red and black and their hair looked like a pudding basin had been placed on their heads and used as a template for trimming.

"Doesn't matter where they're from," he admitted, people like that were not exactly thick underfoot on the streets of his town in the heart of England, "Where ever it is, it's too far for me? I have to find something tribal, locally."

The problem was that Britain hadn't been tribal for a very long time, and he didn't think even then his own people were particularly colourful.

And then it struck him, he may not be able to find a head hunter with a bone through his nose, or a red and black painted Amazonian? but he could find Africans. English he corrected, most of the black people he knew were born and bred in Europe. But they cherish their heritage, so I might find someone with a leopard skin wrap or a head dress or something, I can stage it to look very tribal.

And so Chris asked around, and it didn't take long before he was holding a phone number, the number for an immigrant from Kenya, unbelievably a Masai woman in her early thirties called Rebecca, who just happened to have carried her tribal beads? he decided she had to be a gift from above? it couldn't possibly get any better.

***

Bloody hell, she's not what I was expecting. Chris wasn't sure what to expect but the word Masai had prompted images of a tall and elegant tribeswoman, slim and dark and pretty with firm breasts, tight waist and proportionally wide hips and ass.

I mean this chick isn't exactly ugly, but she's no beauty queen either he decide, and she was quite a bit shorter than imagination had forecast, and she's chubby. Chris swallowed softly and studied her again. Actually I don't think she's chubby, I think she's fat. She has no waist and from what I can see so far she hasn't got any tits either.

But how can I judge her, and what other option do I have, and the competition doesn't state that the tribal model has to be pretty, or slim, or arousing? it just says tribal. So I have to make the best of a bad situation. She might not be a good model? but she's the only model I have.

But the beads look good, especially the contrast with her brown skin. She had appeared at his door wearing a band that wrapped around her forehead, a zig-zag of contrasting beads, blue and white and yellow, red and black and green, and hanging from that band two strings of blue beads that looped down her cheeks, each loop beginning around the temple and terminating above the bridge of her nose. From centre forehead the band featured a pair of short vertical arms, and from the end of each dangled a small silver medallion, Chris had to admit that despite the girl's obvious short comings she definitely set the tribal theme nicely.