Summary

First-person narration describes an encounter between Gbessa and a snake, the language metaphorically suggesting that the snake was part of the forest that was trying to keep Gbessa from leaving. The narration reveals that “the confrontation occurred several moonfalls after that searing hot day when she was banished from Lai for good,” adding that “Safua was in the other direction, hand in hand with her rejection, and also those deaths” (9). As Gbessa confronts the snake, the first-person narrator then comments that they were “there that day, drawn to her, just as I was drawn to those gifted others who were present the day the ships came” (9). The narrator describes whispering in Gbessa’s ear for her to be careful, and then comments that Gbessa “glanced over her shoulder, as if she had heard me” (9). The snake bites, and Gbessa tries to massage the poison...