Summary

In Chapter 9, Tambu thinks about the hyena and chastises herself for being an “ill-made person” (101). The hyena comes and visits Tambu. Slowly, Tambu realizes that she is in a hospital. The nurse, who looks like a “pink oval” (104), is asking her for her name and the date. Tambu struggles to answer. Tambu learns that she is being taken out of the isolation rooms. A doctor asks Tambu where she attended school and Tambu struggles to communicate her life story. Tambu shifts the conversation from her successful cousin Nyasha to the war and to the various injuries and damages that the war left. The doctor presses Tambu to explain the source of her fear and shame. Tambu tells the doctor that she doesn’t “have the things that make me better. I want to be better. I want the things that make me” (108). The doctor...