Summary

As "Ayana" begins, the narrator admits that he never thought he would tell this story. He says that his late wife, Ruth, warned him no one would believe it. He also notes that the miracle worker of the story, Ayana, is gone.

The narrator says that his father Don “Doc” Gentry had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and sent home to die. He points out that his father actually died four years later when he choked on a piece of steak. The narrator remembers the days keeping vigil in his father’s back bedroom as he drew closer and closer to death.

One day the narrator looked up to see a black woman and a small black girl wearing dark glasses standing in the doorway to his father’s room. The girl looked as sick as Doc. Trudy, Ralph’s wife, told the...