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Chapter 31: (Brought to you by kat impatientreader.com) Olanna hears that Ugwu has been killed in action; she mourns him and focuses all her resentment on Odenigbo who is still drinking too much and probably cheating on her with another refugee named Alice. Everyone evacuates Umuahia and it falls to the Nigerians. Olanna and family move in with Richard and Kainene in Orlu. Odenigbo continues to drink, but the sisters support each other emotionally. Chapter 32: Ugwu gets found and rescued from a field hospital by Richard. Back in Orlu, he writes down his war experiences and tries to recover. Kainene kicks out two Catholic priests from the refugee camp when one gets a girl pregnant. Chapter 33: Richard feels helpless when Kainene's crops fail, and she decides to travel behind Nigerian lines to buy food on the black market. Days pass and she doesn't return. He starts to fall apart. Olanna bullies him into pulling himself together; desperate to believe her sister will return, she becomes the pillar of strength for the family. Chapter 34: Olanna searches for Kainene in field hospitals and morgues. They hear over the radio that the war is over: Biafra has surrendered to the Nigerians. Olanna takes her family back to Nsukka (with a detour to Abba to visit Mama's grave. On the road, they are harassed by Nigerian soldiers who order them to move a pile of wood. One soldier stares at Olanna and she asserts herself to his officer who is surprised and impressed. Olanna and family continue on to Nsukka, unharmed. Chapter 35: Ugwu helps clean up their house in Nsukka. He visits his family in his old village and learns that his mother got sick and died, and his sister was gang-raped by Nigerian soldiers. He returns to Nsukka where Nigerian soldiers burst into their house and harass Odenigbo and Richard and eat their food before leaving. Later, Richard reads Ugwu's war memoir and praises it. Richard admits that he is no longer writing about the war because it was never his story to begin with, and Ugwu realizes this is true. Richard promises that while he is in Umuahia looking for Kainene, he will also look for pretty Eberechi. Chapter 36: Richard visits Kainene's house in Port Harcourt, but a strange woman has taken over it and won't even give him Kainene's old photographs; she threatens to set her dogs on him. He finds out that Eberiche died in Umuahia, and decides he won't tell Ugwu. He visits Kainene's parents who are living back in their Lagos mansion with Colonel Madu. Richard has always wondered if Madu was Kainene's lover. He punches Madu in the face, and Madu knocks him down. Chapter 37: Olanna consults a shaman and does a ritual to bring Kainene back, but her sister never reappears. She accepts her sister's death and hopes that they will reincarnate as sisters in their next life. Ugwu finishes his memoir with the title he has appropriated from Richard's unfinished work: The World was Silent When We Died. He dedicates it to "Master, my good man." This is significant because Odenigbo always addressed Ugwu somewhat condescendingly as "my good man." Now Ugwu has evolved beyond Odenigbo. |
