Unfaithful Tailors

Hello everyone. Hope you all had a beautiful and productive Monday. Its a pleasure to write to you once again. Most of my faithful subscribers and readers must have already know by now that i am more of a storyteller than a writer. Lol. I have a knack of writing stories about my own experiences and that of people around me with a peculiar strategem . Honestly, I never knew that I had this faculty in me until I joined readcash. I also want to thank you all my loyal readers, sponsors and subscribers for your unwavering support by bringing out one my best parts. You all gave me the inspiration and the "ginger" to keep pushing and getting better each day. 💗💗💗

So, today I want to talk about my unpleasant experiences with naija tailors. Lol. It is a known fact that majority of our tailors can be unpredictable just like our NEPA. Your tailor might be loyal and devoted to you for more than five years. But he must surely "f**k up"one day and it is usually on a most important occasion or hour that they default.

The first bitter experience I had was when I was in my first year at the university. There is this special celebration that comes around in our village every five years. This particular year, and elder brother of mine was among the celebrants, so I couldn't afford to miss it. I have already planned to travel a week before the event. The festival lasts for five days and and there are special attires to be wore on each of the five days.

Since I was away from home, I wasn't able to take my cloths to my mother's tailor who had been very consistent and never disappoints. I asked around for a tailor. I was directed to a guy whose shop was not very far from the school. I was also told that he was superb at his craft and always delivered on time, so i rushed to his shop immediately.

He told me that my clothes will be ready in three days, possibly before then. I was so impressed that I paid him in full ( the usual practice to give half of the payment. Then when the clothes have been sewn, you complete the payment). My measurements were taken and I left his place with a confident smile on my face.

Three days passed quickly, and it was exactly a week to the big event. To my amazement, I met the tailor's shop locked. A woman from the next shop volunteered in providing his number. After dialling three times, he eventually answered. He said a cousin of his died and he had to travel to a nearby town for the burial. He apologized profusely for the inconvenience and promised to return the same day and complete my clothes. He claimed he had already started working on it and was about to finish. I also sent my condolences to him for the loss of his cousin.

Two days later, I returned to his shop. As soon as he saw me alighting from the bike, he immediately brought out my clothes and pretended to be working on it. He again apologized to me , giving another excuse that his wife had been sick and he was just returning from the hospital.

By this time, I had become quite apprehensive and fearful. The ceremony was in less than a week from now and this man hadn't even finished sewing even one of the two dresses I had given him!

He promised that he would sew all the materials today and they would all be ready at ten pm. I could choose to come get it at that time or wait till the next day, he said. I never knew that as soon as I had left, this man had abandoned my materials and left the shop.

I couldn't go back that night since it was already late and would be quite unsafe for a lady. But I was so anxious to get my dresses. So, I sent a friend of mine ( a guy) to help me get the delivery. He returned around half past ten and told me that he met the shop locked. I tried the tailor's number several times but it remained switched off. I had problems with sleep that night.

As soon as we were done with the first morning lecture the following day, I rushed to the tailor's shop. I was so angry you would think i was about to go kill someone. When I finally arrived at his place, I met the shop opened but nobody was there. I sat down on a bench by the door and decided to wait for him. Maybe he had gone to ease himself I thought.

After waiting for more than an hour, I resolved to go into the shop and searched for my dresses, damning the consequences. I hadn't searched for up to a minute when I saw the materials for the dresses. It was dumped carelessly in an old sack. It wasn't even cut yet, it was just as exactly as I had brought it.

All the anger in me suddenly dissipated and was replaced by a sick feeling of regret and hopelessness that moved me to tears. My own brother's occasion was in three days time and I was supposed to travel to our village that night. I wished I had took the initiative and sent the clothes to my mother's tailor.

As I step out of the shop with my clothes in hand, the woman from the next shop saw the depression written all over my face and she came outside to console me. I later learned that moses( tailor's name) was a gambler and a drunk who had been in the habit of disappointing his customers and hardly any customers visit his shop nowadays. He was also fond of exchanging a customer clothes with another customer's when "high" on marijuana.

There was a time he spent a week in the cell when he was arrested by a bride' family whose dress he failed to sew until the day of the wedding. The woman said she was sure that he was in local bar at the moment and already drunk.

Consequently,I missed three days out of the five days of the festival. By the time I arrived at the village,I told mum about what I passed through in the hands of moses the tailor. I saw all the beautiful photos my siblings, cousins, parents took in my absence with their glowing and identical attires and I became so sad

This experience and two other painful encounters with unfaithful tailors made me almost vow to settle for english wears only. But that would be almost impossible since we had to be in our traditional wears for most weddings and ceremonies .

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Thank you so much for reading

Yours lovely,

Bilqees.