"scent" prompt story

Sometime ago, I went to see a friend at a place near the popular Ariaria market. Since he was not around at the moment, I decided to wait for him. Being idle waiting at his corridor, I heard the voice of a mobile salesman with a portable public address system.

I really was not interested in what the man was selling but, he kept speaking of his goods. I was forced to listen to him because of the way he was boasting of the omnipotence of his wares - a rat poison. The exaggerated claims the man was making was something else.

He said that when he stopped at the motor park, the king of rats in town saw him and immediately ran to go and call an emergency meeting of all the rats.

"Quickly go and announce that everyone should report to the palace right now," he instructed his town crier.

According to the salesman, the town crier went round the town, informing all the rats, "Whoever that's not found in the King's palace should not blame anybody but him or herself if any calamity falls."

When they all came, the king started to address them, "As I was picking some pieces of leftover food at the main motor park, I saw Mr Death." (Mr Death, meaning the salesman).

"The type of rat poison he came to town with is a mass killer. No one will survive it."

The king paused to allow his message to sink into the subconscious of his subjects, and continued, "The smell of the poison alone will cause any of our pregnant wives to have a miscarriage."

At this, some noises came from the crowd as many rats expressed shock at such a mass killer.

One middle aged rat raised his hand to ask a question but the older rats hushed him down saying the matter was too serious for young ones to talk now. However, the king overruled the older rats, and gave permission to the young rat to ask his question.

"How can an ordinary scent be enough to caused miscarriage? What would then happen if it enters anyone's mouth?" He asked.

Some noises came up again among the rats. Some murmured, saying the question was irrelevant while others thought otherwise.

The king called for attention. When calm returned, he started. "That's a good question. It's as bad as that. Why I called everyone here is to advise you all to leave this cursed town because of the arrival of Mr Death. As soon as I finish with you now, my family and I are leaving this town because staying here any longer means death."

Back to where I was. From that corridor I saw myself already standing so as to have a better view of the salesman framing such a humorous story.

He was a short, fair skinned man. Looking at him, I was forced to be laughing, mostly because he appeared very serious in what he was saying. He was neither smiling nor laughing yet, everyone around was laughing and smiling.

He told the people that what he was saying was not a joking matter. He said it was dangerous to take the rats' menace lightly.

He narrated a story where a woman cooked a jollof rice with plenty fish. She brought down the pot of rice from the cooker and went into the bathroom to take bath before eating. By the time she came back, some old rats had eaten almost all the rice. The woman was forced to pour away the remaining rice because the rats had spit their saliva on it.

The salesman then advised people who were having a running battle with rats to bring such an embarrassing battles to a halt by buying his rat poison.

Further, he said some rats were as wise as Socrates, and would detect and avoid ordinary poisons from afar. Some other rats he said, are as old as Methuselah, and have developed long beards. Such rats are immune to ordinary poisons which can only cause them some stomach pain without killing them. Only his own poison, he said was the solution for every type of rat, both local and foreign.

The bottom line of the salesman's story was that people should buy his poison to kill rats in the homes.