Summary

Safiya’s father does not speak to her for an entire year. She wins an award and prize money which she refuses to share with her father when he asks, to punish him for disparaging her poetry. Ife receives top marks on her exams and a scholarship to complete her last year of high school in the U.S. Lij and Safiya have also been accepted to colleges in the U.S. but did not receive enough scholarship money. Lij cannot wait to leave their father, so he chooses a university in the Caribbean and takes out student loans to afford it.

Safiya continues writing and finds another mentor to help her edit her work, Mr. Walcott. He tells her that her work can make it in the literary world. She receives financial aid from Bennington College and resolves to do whatever it...