This is my post on #freewriters3120 #dailyprompt not value for value hosted by 
Ubong slapped a crisp one thousand naira note on the counter of Mama Blessing Bukka and slid onto the wooden bench beside his friend Paul.
"This place better be worth it," Paul muttered, eyeing the hand-painted price board on the wall.
Twenty minutes later, the waiter arrived with two plates. Ubong stared at his. A thin smear of egusi soup barely covered the bottom of the bowl. Three lonely pieces of stockfish floated like debris after a flood. The eba — if it could be called that — was the size of a tennis ball.
"Is this a joke?" Paul whispered, poking his portion with a spoon.
Ubong waved the waiter back. "Brother, we paid a thousand naira each. In this Uyo afternoon sun, after walking from IBB Way to here?"
The waiter shrugged. "Na the price, sir. Everything cost money now."
Paul pushed his plate forward. "I've eaten more at a naming ceremony where I wasn't even invited."
They paid anyway — too hungry and too tired to argue — and stepped back into the Uyo heat, stomachs barely touched, wallets lighter, and spirits deflated.
Walking past the busy stalls on Abak Road, Ubong spotted a roadside woman selling plates of afang with generous chunks of assorted meat for six hundred naira.
He grabbed Paul's arm. "Next time," he said firmly, "we eat where the food respects the money."
Paul laughed and followed without another word.
