As it was then more of a tradition, I boarded a minibus from town
to my respective area of residence. A few more seats were vacant, and that
meant staying on the ‘depot’ longer in anticipation of filling passengers. That
was no strange thing; almost every transporter of the kind was doing it, and
passengers allover knew and chose to understand the practice pretty well.
Both sellers and people who, since time immemorial, have pretended
to be sellers of sundry small items were all around the minibus, with their
items in their hands.
Of special interest to this narration was a certain guy who came,
claiming to be a seller of shoes. Unlike other sellers, one of his items—shoes—was
in a black plastic bag. As for why the guy chose so, I never questioned: for, I
had never favored conducting any business with mobile sellers and, to say the
least, the money in my pocket permitted me to transact nothing well further
than offering the conductor his due fare. These two, I must say, played a role
so fundamental in saving my face.
