Bra Boy

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.