porto novo/orange revolver/orange revolver

the two guns found no takers on our day at the market and I had started to pack up when a boy called me to a nearby stall, saying someone wanted to see the orange revolver. the potential buyer was an older gentleman who wasn´t well on his feet.
I unwrapped the piece for him and he inquired about the price. it´s 1000 franc, I said, to which he responded that if he had 1000 franc he would spend a nice day in cotonou, the nearby metropolis. he demanded the weapon as a gift and his head started to shake. I began to worry about him and offered it for 500.
the man drove a hard bargain, but it turned out that he was quite wealthy. I was being a businessman, he would say a few days later, when we called at his house.
during the photo shoot he nearly dozed off, with his extended family assembled around him in the courtyard. the man´s brother watched from a tiny window above and we later climbed the winding stairs to his room. there I saw the only newspaper during a whole month spent in benin. I had wanted to pick up a copy from time to time, hoping for engaging headlines like the "killer camel castrated" story I had enjoyed reading in the ahmedabad times the year before.
but in benin, I was told, only the police reads the paper