The story begins with Zikora, a successful lawyer in Washington D.C., in labor at the hospital. She is there with her mother who is visiting from Nigeria. Her mother is not the most sympathetic helping hand, expecting her to stoically and silently bear the pain.
We slowly discover that the father of the baby being brought into the world is Zikora's ex-boyfriend, Kwame. He was everything to her, and although the pregnancy was not planned, she expected him to be thrilled. Instead he left her. Her unanswered texts to Kwame from the hospital were her last hope for them.
Throughout the pain and trials of labor, Zikora thinks through her relationship with her own parents and family in Nigeria.
I was impressed by this short story. I generally prefer longer books, so I can really dig into the characters. I could have easily read an entire book about Zikora, her relationship with her boyfriend, and her family back home. However, this short story is memorable and meaningful as well.
Some favorite quotes below:
"If he was going to have a child, of course he should have a say, but how much of a say, since the body was mine, since in creating a child, Nature demanded so much of the woman and so little of the man."
"Some kindnesses you do not ever forget. You carry them to your grave, held warmly somewhere, brought up and savored from time to time."
"I looked at my mother, standing by the window. How had I never really seen her? It was my father who destroyed, and it was my mother I blamed for the ruins left behind."
"I felt translucent, so fragile that one more rejection would make me come fully undone."
"I believed then that love had to feel like hunger to be true."
"My father told jokes and laughed and charmed everyone, and broke things and walked on the shards without knowing he had broken things."
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