The Mother Who Stole Dried Fish
Oluchi Akam@oluchiakam
7 months ago
‘I wan grind egusi, you go put amm crayfish’ Chinebem said to the local street stall owner, a middle aged woman just like her. Make I put okpenyi? Inquired the stall owner, ‘Mba, No. Grind amm like that.” suddenly, Nebem’s eyes catches a basket of good dried fish, ‘Your fish na how much,’ ‘Dat one nah hundred naira’ the stall owner responded. ‘The fish is fine’ Chinebem commended whilst staring at the basket. She wanted one but wasn't sure if the money keeping space in her wrapper said she could have it. She had planned to make a simple egusi meal as always without fish but who said it was crime to have what your purse couldn’t afford you or was it crime to have a hundred naira fish in a simple egusi meal. With these thoughts running through her mind, she devised a means to take the fish, ‘if she just goes in I will take it’ she thought to herself. ‘You neva grind finish?’ ‘I don finish ooo, your money nah 160’ ‘ oya gimme change’ requested Nebem with her mind and hands ready to execute her plan. The stall owner goes in to get change, Nebem executes her plan. ‘Nah 240 you give me too,’ ‘you collect fish nah,’ ‘me, fish kwa, you give me fish, I no collect fish ooo! Nenu akpam ewe azu di ebeahu?’ ‘See this woman no be for your wrapper you put ammm’ fired back the stall owner ‘muwa bu nne nwannyi,steal fish’ Nebem was still talking when the stall owner dragged her wrapper open and the acclained fish fell out. Nebem became dumbfounded if only she could separate herself from the fallen fish, waiting for a soothsayer to whisper what she should do would mean she cared less of her dignity as a woman. Nebem walked out shamefully from the stall and wondered what she was thinking. It was now proven that adding fish to a simple meal had a price tag which must be paid for. It wasn't a crime, it was just exchange.
Chinebem was a mother of one but no husband. She used to be a surviving business woman who now worked at a kernel breaking stall where she was paid in peanuts, peanuts that can't buy fish for a simple egusi meal. Times had become hard and she had become the mother who stole dried fish.
picture credit: simpson33
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