A Night Market Misadventure.

I arrived at the popular Sango market around 8pm due to traffic after writing my final GCE papers, and it was my first time seeing that much activity at a night market, probably because you can barely find me outside at that time of day.

Everywhere was buzzing with chatter and different music from different stalls. Different food aromas filled the air, and the atmosphere pulsed with energy and excitement.

For a moment, I just stood there admiring the seller's different display patterns. There were attractive lights to get people's attention and it was beautiful. Some sold their goods on the walkway; they didn't have shops and had to hustle for spaces at night.

"I didn't know night market used to be like this," I said to Lekan, another student I met at the examination center. We always move together from the first day we met and our relationship had deepened.

"It used to be like this at different markets when it's night time. People who are coming back from work can always shop easily," Lekan replied, he doesn't look surprised at the sight of the buzzing market.

"Oh, that's true. It's really a good one," I replied still looking around while we waited for the bus going to our route.

I noticed a woman turning freshly cooked rice from a big pot into a cooler, it looked like she had just finished preparing it and I started wondering who was going to buy so much food at that time of the day.

"Don't be surprised, she will sell all that food within an hour," Lekan said to me immediately he saw me staring at the woman.

"That's fantastic," I replied, and decided to walk around since there was no bus yet. Lekan agreed to take the tour with me and we just went around asking for the price of things even though we wouldn't buy.

After about 15 minutes of going around, I noticed a man hawking clothes. He had so many of them on his shoulders and was shouting at the top of his voice advertising.

I had no intention of patronizing him but the moment we walked past him, a particular shirt caught my attention.

"They are second-hand clothes, right?" I asked the seller.

"Yes, my customer. They are all neatly used and it's first grade," He replied and started showing the clothes he was holding.

"I want just this one," I pointed to the cloth sitting among the heap of clothes stacked on his shoulder.

"Let me put the clothes down over there, it's my brother's shop," He replied, pointing to a shop a few blocks away. So we went there and Lekan was already checking if he could find a shirt for himself.

He removed the specific cloth I wanted and the different colors of light at the shop added so much life to the shirt. It looks beautiful and I immediately stretched it on my body to see if it was my size.

"It is your size, and the clothes even fit you very well. You should buy more," He said to me after confirming it was my size so I checked for another one.

Lekan had also picked up a few shirts and we asked for the prices.

"It's 800 naira for each, but pay 700 naira since you guys bought five," The seller said to us, and he started folding the clothes into a plastic bag.

"I can't pay more than 500 for each," Lekan replied, and the man paused with the packing.

"These are good qualities ooo," He stretched the clothes for us to see again, but we insisted on our price, and he didn't argue.

He packed the clothes separately and we paid him. Immediately we finished buying, the man returned to his where we met him initially and we went out ways too.

We boarded a bus and didn't stop talking about how cheap the clothes are.

"Do you know if he hasn't sold anything today and just sold the clothes to us cheap?" Lekan stuttered, and I felt bad for the man. It's like we took advantage of him but returning the clothes wasn't an option.

I arrived at my bus stop first and alighted. I waved to Lekan in the bus, as he continued his journey, and I was very happy about my purchase.

"My mummy and siblings won't believe how much I got these clothes if I told them," I thought as I trekked home from the bus stop.

Upon arriving home, I was beaming with so much joy, not just because of the completion of the examination, but because of the clothes.

"Guess what?" I told my mummy immediately after settling down at home.

"Just tell me," She replied, and I knew she wasn't in the mood for a chat, so I just kept the surprise for the next morning.

I kept the clothes very well that night and immediately I woke up, I retrieved them from my box.

I went to mummy's room, greeted her as usual and stretched the plastic bag toward her. She had no clue what was inside and just opened it. She brought out the clothes and was surprised.

"Do you like them? I got it on my way home last night," I said, smiling like a kid who had been handed a candy.

"What's this?" She asked, looking irritated, and I was confused.

I moved closer to look at the cloth she was holding and it didn't look like what I bought last night. The clothes had faded and there were tiny holes in them.

I was completely dumbfounded and kept wondering if the guy swapped it. I was sure he didn't, so what happened?

"Damola, I said where did you get the clothes?" Her voice called my attention back to the room.

"Last night, at Sango market. The clothes were alright when I bought them," I stuttered, still processing the whole transaction in my head.

My mummy burst into laughter and I wasn't happy seeing her joke at what was hurting me.

I narrated how the purchase went, and she stopped me immediately when I mentioned that the seller took us to a beautiful shop with fancy colored lights.

"The lights, they prevented you from seeing the problem. The seller played a fast one on you and your friend," She said to me and it was then I realized what he did.

"I thought he wanted to make us comfortable that was why he took us there," I replied, feeling sad.

I took the clothes from her and went to throw them away immediately because I couldn't wear them, not even indoors. My siblings joined us in the room, and they laughed about my experience as mummy narrated it to them.

"Be careful with night purchases because many of those sellers dump bad items they couldn't sell during the day.
Those lights and packaging are mere distractions, not all that glitters is gold," She warned me and I just had to move on.

I contacted Lekan later and he told me the condition he met the clothes. We were both disappointed, but our conversation ended in a galore of laughter when we realized how silly we were to have thought we were smart buying the clothes for 500 naira each instead of the 800 naira, the man mentioned initially.

_{Image is mine.}