But I knew I must have imagined it. My mother had passed away when I was just a teenager, leaving me to fend for myself in a world that seemed determined to move on without her.
A voice. Not the whisper of ancestors or the creak of old magic. A woman’s voice, clear as a bell, saying: “The first mother didn’t weep from exhaustion. She wept because she had to leave one behind.” mother village chapter 1
That was when Koffi noticed the crack.
The chapter concludes with the three mothers arriving at the church, unaware that the others have shared similar harrowing experiences. This "cliffhanger" raises the central question for the rest of the series: will they find solace in their shared truth, or will the secrets they harbor destroy the fragile peace of the village? But I knew I must have imagined it
Koffi had heard this story every Dry Season for fifteen years, always from a different grandmother, always with the same ending: “You are not from Lapazza, child. Lapazza is from you.” Not the whisper of ancestors or the creak of old magic
The Ashen Grove lay before him, gray and still. No birds. No wind. Just trees that grew in spirals and a path that seemed to invite him in.