The Door of No Return

On Papa’s day off, Kofi is allowed to go with him to the market. Kofi, Papa, and Nana Mosi visit the carvers who make tables and other wares. They teach Kofi how to shoot a bow and arrow, but only as self-defense or for hunting, not waging war. They get him a mahogany board to ride in the river. In the river, Kofi can’t get the hang of the wooden board surfing on the rapids.

Kofi feels Papa’s eyes on him swimming, so he isn’t as fast. Papa gives him advice to swim with a better technique, then asks when he’ll race his cousin. Kofi tries to avoid the topic, but he admits it. Papa and Mosi teach him the value of family, saying that even if he wins the race, he will lose.

Kofi asks about Kwasi, who is still silent and depressed. Papa says his heart is heavy with grief, and he’ll have to be stronger than ever to overcome the struggle. Kofi asks for the stories of their history, such as why they can’t go in the river at night. As usual, Papa says he isn’t old enough to know their history, but Mosi convinces him it’s time to share.

Papa explains their ancestral history. Along the Offin River, their people harvested and traded gold. The “wonderfuls” came to their land with new ideas and new items, such as guns, tobacco, and alcohol. The “wonderfuls” (white men) built castles and craved their gold. Then they wanted their native people’s blood and bone. Kofi is confused on what he means, but Papa stops there. Mosi agrees Kofi can learn the rest of the history when they’re older.

They return home, where Maame has made Kofi’s favorite red stew out of red palm oil, plantains, and spices. Normally, Kwasi eats multiple helpings like Kofi, but he’s still absent. Kwasi spends silent days in his room without eating.

Kofi hears from Ebo that his cousin has begun to go to the river at sunrise to practice his swimming abilities every morning before school. He’s getting faster.

The news of his cousin’s practice and strengthening skill worries Kofi, who thinks maybe he shouldn’t race his cousin after all; maybe he should forfeit the contest.

When Kofi sees Ama, he awes in her beauty and pushes his fear aside. He must challenge his cousin.

Kofi is a fish in his dream, sidewinding like a cobra through the water. He’s faster than ever.

Usually, people swim with their heads up, feet kicking, but today, Kofi puts his head further down and kicks side to side, as in his dream. He tells Ebo he had a dream he was a snakefish and wants to try this way.

Ebo times Kofi as he tries his new swimming technique. Normally, his count to the rock and back is 110 or 120 seconds, but with the fish kick, it is 89. Kofi and Ebo are joyful.

Maame visits Kofi in his room as he reads. She reminds him to pick a praise song and a gift for his initiation for his born day, or birthday, coming up. He says he wants boiled plantains for his feast, but no more yams, which makes them laugh.

Kofi goes to a part of the river he thinks only he and Ebo use. He practices his fish kick more. Ama approaches him.

Ama came to wash clothes, and she offers Kofi a sweet coconut to share. He accepts it, and they chat about his race. When she asks, he explains again that he’s tired of losing to his cousin. Ama thinks Kofi is already smarter and nicer than Kofi Katari anyway. She suggests he swims underwater to go even faster, like a real fish. They remember when they used to swim together as kids.

Kofi asks what Ama would like to be when she grows up. She’d like to maybe win enough gold as a wrestler to take care of orphaned children. She’d also like to be a teacher, but not one like Mr. Phillip who uses the foreign English language and hits students. Kofi agrees he wants to be the same kind of teacher.

When Kofi offers to help her with her clothes, Ama declines. She walks away, captivating Kofi, and she says he can walk with her.

Kofi is smitten with Ama as she washes clothes. He collects shells and twine to make her a gift, though he says it’s for his mother. When they walk side by side, he wishes to hold her hand.

Kwasi emerges from his solitude for the first time since the accident. He eats a huge dinner, then plays Oware with Kofi.

The brothers talk as they play. Kofi expresses how they’re all worried about Kwasi, but Kwasi tells him to stop his anxiety and play. Kwasi teases him about Ama, how if Kofi wants to marry her, he’ll need to present his family with a dowry of goats, a cow, whiskey, sandals, jewelry, etc. Kofi denies the marriage idea since he’s too young for these thoughts. Kwasi tells him he must also go to the river and battle two-headed beasts; he must bring the heads of the slain beasts to Ama’s family to earn her hand. Kofi thinks this is a lie, just a fable.

As they play more Oware, Kwasi admits he wants to leave. He wishes for a change and plans to be a kente weaver in the city of Bonwire. Kofi discusses how no one leaves and he shouldn’t flee his past because it was an accident. Kwasi yells at him to play his turn.

Nana Mosi says half-moons mean one is supposed to let go of grudges, to forgive others and oneself.

Kofi asks Kwasi about the initiation to manhood. Kwasi tells him that men he doesn’t know will take him; he’ll be tired, hungry, and subjected to harsh challenges and want to give up, but he won’t, since then he’ll be a man. He asks if their parents know he wants to leave, but Kwasi doesn’t answer. Instead, he chastises Kofi to make his move in Oware.

The brothers tie in Oware for the first time. Kwasi says he’s good, but taunts if Kofi’s good enough to chase him to the river.

In the near dark, they race by memory through the woods to the river.

Kwasi stops running and shows Kofi a trap. The long rope is tied to a tree, too big to hunt animals. Kwasi wonders who the trap was meant for, and who made it. Kofi thinks they should go home, feeling afraid. His brother taunts him not to be a chicken and hurries to the river.

Kwasi times Kofi to show off his swimming skills. He turns the hourglass over and yells at him to go.

Kofi swims laps in the river over and over to try to get a better time.

Kofi gets to near the coast, hearing the waters flowing so loudly, they sound like screaming.

Out of the water, Kofi doesn’t see Kwasi. He figures he’s hiding in the trees or somewhere nearby, trying to scare him.

Kofi searches beneath the sand, but Kwasi didn’t bury himself to try to scare him.

Kwasi also isn’t hiding behind trees.

Kofi can’t find Kwasi anywhere. Dread rises up in Kofi.

Kofi wishes he was back swimming with Ebo and Ama as kids, when they didn’t have any worries.

A loud noise like thunder shatters the quiet jungle.

Kofi hears three more intense blasts. He realizes they are the bullets of a gun and runs toward home as fast as he can.

Kofi rushes through the jungle trees and vegetation in the pitch-dark. He hopes and prays he’ll be safe, wishing this was all a dream and the terror inside him isn’t real.

The moment isn’t a dream though, as much as Kofi imagines it should be. The reality is that he’s racing from gunshots, running and then not—because suddenly he’s falling upward.

Kofi is caught in the rope trap Kwasi spotted earlier. He’s hanging upside down, knowing he’s in big trouble.