Episode 1
“Where are you nau?!” called out the fat
woman again from inside the changing
cubicle.
“I will be there in a moment ma!” followed
my reply, as I pulled shut the glass sliding
front door to my elder brother’s lingerie
shop! It was already past 9pm and from
what I could see around, virtually all shops
on the road had closed down for the day
despite the festivities.
Unfortunately, I had
to delay a bit hoping this seemingly last
customer, will quickly purchase a wear and
leave; but she hadn’t and was still
endlessly needing my attention.
“And please bring me a larger mirror o, this
one can’t let me see a thing!” she suddenly
yelled again from the cubicle! Her English
was just too good for how she looked.
A common trait with the average Lagos
resident – you can never tell the learned
from how they appeared.
“Okay ma.” was my own reply as I finally
shut the door, leaving both of us locked in.
We were going to leave from the service
door behind anyways. After picking up the
larger mirror from where it was hung on a
high shelf, I began walking down the hall to
go meet the customer.
My brother, Chime’s shop was that big. It
was actually six shops collapsed into one!
The largest in the vicinity. He was so lucky
to have been told of the availability of all
six of them, and as soon as he got the
information, he quickly bought them up at
once! Talk of the average Ibo man’s
business acumen. And it paid off
handsomely! He became an instant rival to
all the lingerie shop owners along that road
and more like chased them out of business.
He soon became the only dealer of
brassieres, p@nties, undies and anything
female lingerie! And many customers came
from far and wide. His success was
unprecedented and soon he began doing
wonders back home at Onitsha, our
hometown.
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