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Go to the Beginning Chapter 20: (Brought to you by kat impatientreader.com) Olanna returns from London just as Mama and Amala are leaving, and immediately realizes that Odenigbo has been unfaithful. Horrified, she brushes aside Odenigbo's sniveling excuses, and retreats to her Nsukka flat. She travels on to Kano where her relatives sympathize with her. She returns to Nsukka and Odenigbo visits her flat to inform her tearfully that poor Amala is pregnant with his child. Olanna passes the next few days in stunned horror. Then she runs across Richard at the market, brings him to her flat, and seduces him. Chapter 21: Richard goes to Lagos to attend a memorial service for Sir Winston Churchill to be held at the British High Commission. He chats with ex-lover Susan who offers to wait for him until he tires of Kainene. He thinks with guilt of his infidelity with Olanna and swears to himself that Kainene must never know. Chapter 22: Ugwu worries as Amala advances in her pregnancy and Olanna keeps to her flat. Ugwu catches Olanna alone and tries to make excuses for Odenigbo (that Mama bewitched him, etc.), which Olanna declares "rubbish." Chapter 23: Olanna visits Richard to caution him to keep their one-time fling secret. But then she visits Odenigbo and angrily brags about it. He is stunned, and she returns to her flat. A day later, she returns to Odenigbo's house and they forgive each other. Guiltily, she phones Kainene in Port Harcourt to determine if her sister knows about her infidelity with Richard; Kainene doesn't know yet, and responds to Olanna with unusual warmth. Olanna and Odenigbo go to visit Amala in the hospital when she has her baby daughter; poor Amala wants nothing to do with the baby and neither does Odenigbo's mother who wanted a grandson. Olanna decides to keep the girl as her own and call her Baby. She and Odenigbo return home and she calls Kainene to tell her the baby news. But Kainene has found out that Olanna seduced Richard and tells Olanna that she will never forgive her. Chapter 24: Richard, in Port Harcourt, thinks about how Kainene figured out his guilty secret. First, his houseboy Harrison let it slip that Odenigbo had come to Richard's Nsukka house to yell at him. Then Kainene's shocked questions pried the complete story out of Richard about his infidelity with Olanna. Kainene listens in stony anger and makes Richard sleep in the guest room. In the morning, she informs him that she has burned the only copy of his precious manuscript. He is horrified, but also gratified that she cared enough to try to hurt him. Part 4 – The Late Sixties Chapter 25: In Umuahia, Olanna adjust to life during wartime: no money, lining up to beg for Red Cross food at the relief center, worrying about Baby's cough, worrying about the Biafran soldiers kidnapping and drafting Ugwu, and worrying about air raids from the Nigerians. Chapter 26: Ugwu and a pretty girl named Eberechi experience a mutual infatuation, but he is heartbroken when she trades sexual favors to a Biafran major for luxuries. Odenibo tries to go back to Abba when he hears that his mother has been killed – even though it is behind Nigerian lines and Olanna begs him not to go. Chapter 27: Richard is relieved when Harrison, who has escaped Nsukka, turns up in Port Harcourt. Madu challenges Richard to travel around, writing about the Biafran war effort, and Richard thrives in his new life as war correspondent. Nigerian planes bomb Port Harcourt and Richard and Kainene, running to their bomb shelter, see one of her servants get decapitated by shrapnel. Port Harcourt falls to the British-backed Nigerians. Richard and Kainene retreat to Orlu where they establish a new refugee camp. Chapter 28: Olanna and family are evicted from their squalid house and have to trade down to an even worse place. Odenigbo has been silent and drunk ever since he failed to get to Abba to bury his mother. Kainene shows up in Umuahia and forgives Olanna; the horrors of war that she has seen has put Olanna's betrayal in perspective. Kainene drives Olanna to Orlu where women and children lie dying at their refugee camp. Chapter 29: Ugwu and Eberechi kiss and make up, but then he gets forcibly drafted by Biafran soldiers into their army. He spends weeks training (and going psychologically numb). He gets involved in some skirmishes. He helps the other soldiers intimidate a civilian couple and steal their car. He participates in a gang-rape of a barmaid. He hears on the radio that Umuahia has fallen to the Nigerians. Then he gets badly wounded. Chapter 30: Richard shows around two obnoxious American journalists. Later he feels relief that Kainene has forgiven him and is happy. |
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