Bode

Bode was a market boy at Ojoo market in Ibadan. Every morning he carried crates of tomatoes, plantain, and pepper for ₦500 a day. He knew every shortcut, every mama that gave free chin-chin, every driver that tried to cheat you.

One morning, a white man came to the market. Suit too clean for Ojoo. He was asking around for “asparagus.” Nobody knew the word. They thought he was saying “aspergin” and offered him paracetamol.

Bode heard him and laughed. “Oga, that thing no dey here. Na oyinbo vegetable. E dey grow for cold place like Jos.”

The man looked disappointed. He was a chef opening a new restaurant in Bodija. He needed asparagus for his menu opening next week. He offered ₦50,000 to anyone who could bring him 5kg in 3 days.

₦50,000. That was 3 months’ work for Bode.

He didn’t sleep that night. He remembered his uncle in Mambilla, Taraba, who grew vegetables in the highlands. He called him. Uncle said, “Asparagus? I get small. But transport go cost you.”

Bode used his savings, borrowed from his mama, and took the 12-hour bus to Mambilla. The road was rough, but he came back with a sack of fresh asparagus, green and crisp.

He delivered it to the chef in Bodija at 6am on day 3. The chef weighed it, smiled, and paid him ₦60,000. “You saved my menu.”

Bode used the money to pay his mama’s hospital bill and buy a small freezer for her to start selling frozen fish. He didn’t touch asparagus again. But every time he passed Bodija, he smelled grilled meat and thought, “That one na my hustle.”

*If not for you.*

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you want me to keep this one going with what happened next to Bode?