"Hello Sam, I need ten chickens from the farm. Tell your poultry hand to get them ready and bring it to me." Innocent the professional driver of Chief Titus said. "I would pay cash once it gets here." He concluded. The last part got Samuel's attention.
Samuel, the poultry owner, only heard, "ten chickens" and "pay cash." He knows that the monthly salary of Innocent could not cover the cost of ten chickens. But hearing the confidence in his voice, he figured the chicken might soon be gracing the pots of Mrs Titus, his boss's wife.
Source
In Innocent's world, it takes Christmas for him and some families like him to have a taste of chicken. Though ordinarily, many families find it reasonable to buy beef, snail, periwinkle, smoked fish, frozen fish (ice fish) for their different dishes but when it comes to chicken, they often see it as something that is exclusively reserved for either thanksgiving in the church or solely for Christmas.
It was on this Christmas that Chief Titus sent his driver to buy ten chickens for his family. Chief Titus is a government worker and stays in a different city from his wife. Though the distance is just like 3 hours drive down to where the wife lives and as such most of the errands at home is done by the driver. The driver also chauffeurs the wife, mostly when Chief Titus is not around. When Chief Titus comes home during the weekends, he takes over the driving duty and makes the driver his errand "boy". The driver is old enough to be his father.
On the eve of Christmas, the driver was detailed to pick up ten chicken from a little far off poultry. The driver instead of making it directly to the poultry farm remembered that he could just give a call to a poultry attendant, Ken, as they were childhood friends that grew up in the same locality, to bring the chickens down to the point where he could quickly pick them, which was nearer the town. Ken told him that it would be better if he drives down to the poultry to get the chicks whenever he was ready to go home because of the high temperatures that could suffocate the birds if they had to stay too long in the trunk of his car.Innocent maintained that he would be there by 6 pm in Ken’s house which is nearer the town than poultry which is situated a bit far off from the neighbourhood. When Ken closed by 6 pm, he transported the birds in a perforated carton to allow them to breathe. He brought it down to his house and called Innocent to come and pick it up. Innocent arrived around 9 pm. The delay was as a result of traffic that caught up with Innocent because he wanted to make extra cash by using his boss's vehicle as a taxi. He often does this to raise additional money for beer when he gets broke.
Innocent has a good taste for beer and is an ardent beer lover. Buy him two bottles of beer and watch him dance after each gulp in the open bar. But this time around he needed the cash to get chicken for his family and the only means available now is to do a quick cab run around. He plied for like 2 hours in the city and made some cash for himself.
So when he got down to pick the chickens, he noticed that five out of the ten chickens were dead; they have suffocated in the carton where it was kept.
What is he going to tell the boss that happened to the five that died? Now, he has the option of buying extra five chickens from his money with help from the cash he made from his illegal taxi business or tell the man that he lost five. But he did not like any of above alternatives.
He called Ken’s attention and told him to bear the loss as the chicken died in his possession. Ken was angry because he made sure he brought the birds alive at the stipulated time. He even used air conditioning during the few minutes of transportation from the farm to the house.
He also maintained proper ventilation in the boot of the car by leaving it open while he packed to wait for him. It was the hot weather that killed the ones that died.
They were still arguing who should bear the loss when Chief Titus called. It now dawned on the driver that he must think fast to know what to tell the boss concerning the status of the chickens. He ignored the first ring as he racked his brain as to what to present. The phone rang, and he summoned enough courage to pick the call.
A new instruction now from the boss is that he should process two and bring back eight alive. The driver now smiled to himself because now he has a third alternative. He will now process the two out of the five dead chicken, and nobody will be the wiser. Innocent used the money he made from the taxi business to buy three live chicken for the boss and processed the other three dead ones for his wife.
Innocent was an unhappy man as the amount he made in the illegal taxi service all went into paying for the three chickens. No more beer for him for all his troubles. The only consolation is that Chief Titus may just pay him his Christmas bonus since he managed not to crash his vehicle this month. But we all know how delighted the wife would be when he arrives home with three chickens.