Ezinma fumbles the keys against the lock and doesn't see what came behind her: Her father as a boy when he was still tender, vying for his mother's affection.
-- Narration ("The Future Looks Good")

Importance: This is the opening sentence of the collection, and also introduces a refrain that will be repeated throughout this particular story, that Ezinma "doesn't see what came behind her." This refrain has a double-meaning. On the literal level, it means that Ezinma does not literally see the character Godwin, who is physically coming up behind her, to shoot her in the back. Metaphorically, the phrase also indicates that Ezinma is the only character in the story to have a naturally optimistic attitude, in contrast to the emotionally wrenching histories of her family members (which "came behind her").

My mother's raised brow asked, Well? and Mrs. Okechukwu frowned at me until my nuanced defense deteriorated into 'I wanted to see her bra...
-- Unnamed first-person narrator ("War Stories")