A Short Story; The Christmas MadMan

I have never seen an onset of a mental disorder. I have always seen crazy people but not their first deranged episode. Sitting under the big sale-umbrella commonly referred to as "mtn umbrella" in the local market in my town, I attended to many customers, mostly women, and sparsely men, a few to be precise. I sold food grains ranging from freshly harvested cabbage, Daucus carota, string beans "green beans", spring onion, vegetables and food mixable tins which I annually sold during the eve of Christmas and then that of new year because firstly it was a great means of income and another it was an avenue to meet and see women of my community who in the future I know I'll be needing. As the morning twiddled into midday, I sat down recounting my sales after the hush that follows after a gather up customer attendance. Peering up I saw a young man, mid forty, walking to and fro in a bizarre way, I stared puzzled, he aggressively scratched his body , head, toe between his thigh, bent under two legs and scratched even more aggressively then again began walking to and fro again. The more he did it, the more attention he drew but nobody offered to help, who could? I asked, even I wasn't ready to create a scene with a mad man. He walked again back and froth, this time removing the first shirt he was putting on, and then I heard a piercing voice in the crowd, a woman's voice screaming "make una help me help my husband, my husband ooo, ( please help my husband)" and trying to help him settle down panting after him as he walked. I tried talking to my neighbor selling tomatoes but she just wasn't interested in the conversation or the scene, she just barked "mind your business", she was that mean. I stood now not minding my neighbor rudeness rather focusing my confusion towards the going-on show and still wondering why people weren't helping the man and what could have led to his mental breakdown, "poor woman" I heaved under my breath repeatedly. Now a crowd gathered, just staring at a frustrated wife and the deranged husband. 

The man suddenly started throwing some kind of short solid substance which I first thought was stone but it was soap, flinging it at different directions and people started rushing to pick. He immediately stopped and started advertising the medicinal soap, listing a variety of skin related infections it could cure " cure your ringworm, itch pubic hair (sweetie), vaginitis, rash and goin rash"  he shouted, soon getting hold of a man willfully and using his face to show how the soap works..... before the experiment was over, alot of people in the crowd bought so much than expected from a man thought to be insane and one of those people was me, not because I had any issue with my skin, even with the disdain I had for unauthorized medicinal product sold on street but I bought because of the man absorbing and emotional trilled advert that I needed to accolade in some way and no better way than buying the product of the show. 

Happy holidays ☃️, Merry Christmas 🎄 and Happy New year in advance 🎉