100-Word Fiction: ‘The Market Value’

Traffic is terrible in the market square. Marie Claire goes there to buy vegetables in bulk. There are no fake tomatoes, she says, but so much fake all around. She goes out of town to get her quality cheap goods. Out of town, out of country, out of continent. She eats KFC and flies to London, fills a freezer bag with 50kg of steak, buys Apple electronics, Zara clothes. She stuffs underwear and vest tops in her hand luggage, wears a duffle coat, its deep pockets brimming, struggles to carry a microwave oven, through security, back to Lagos, to sell.