They were young and in love, but how long before the tinsel faded? I felt like the wicked fairy godmother, arrived to cast gloom. An usher approached with a clipboard.
“Bride side or groom side?” she asked.
“Neither. I’m a guest at the hotel.”
“Please, ma, this is a private event.”
I ignored Adrian’s calls. I preferred to be alone. Rose phoned to ask about the meeting. I did not want to admit what a failure it had been. I had come to Bamana despite her misgivings, and now she was proved right.
“It went well,” I said.
“It did? I was worried he didn’t want to meet you after he postponed. Did you tell him about me?”
“Didn’t get the chance.”
“What did you talk about?”
“He talked about himself mostly. He’s old.”
There was no need to tell her who Kofi really was. I would never be a part of his life and he would never be part of mine. Once I returned to England the incident would be forgotten.
“Did you get a picture at least?” she asked.
“Not even that.”
“That sucks. I’ll be glad to have you back, though. Should I book another meeting with Anna?”
I was beginning to understand that the divorce was more for Rose’s closure than mine. Her single-mindedness verged on mania. At first, I interpreted her refusal to speak to Robert as her taking my side, but it was only her way of punishing him. She was like an ex-believer. She might turn on her old faith, but she was in no search of a replacement.
“Thanks,” I said. “But not yet.”
On my last afternoon in Segu I left the hotel for a walk. Kofi was not the only thing to see in Bamana. The Palace Hotel was on a road lined with glass buildings. If you kept your eye above street level, you could be in any financial capital in the world.
“Obroni!”
It was a coconut seller, late in the day, and his wagon was full. I bought a coconut for two cowries and he split it open with one knife blow. The water was cool, a balance of sweet and salt. I bought a second and a third.
I took a left turn and declined the wares of a mango seller. I remembered the empty streets in Kofi’s neighborhood—no hawkers, no market stalls. That whole area had been cleared as thoroughly as his garden. I did not fit into the story of his life and he did not fit into mine.
As I moved farther away from my hotel, businesses grew more modest and glass was used more sparingly, for windows, not walls. There was no pavement and the other pedestrians walked close. They brushed against me. Their skin touched mine.
I walked until I reached a church. There was no cross, no dome, but a billboard advertised its name: TABERNACLE OF LIGHT. Like the shops, it had a logo, a flaming torch in a green circle. Music reached the street through the open windows, a soprano on a microphone, cymbals.
“Jesus is Lord, my sister,” said a stranger, trying to enter the building.
“Pardon me,” I said. “I’m in your way.”
“You’re not going inside? We have a prayer meeting.” His gripped his Bible by the spine, holding it like a clutch bag.
“Sorry. I have other plans.”
“There is no plan more important than salvation.”
I turned from the evangelist and walked back to the hotel. The lobby was full of suits. Adrian was distinct in that crowd, the only one whose elbows were visible. His limbs were tanned. His neck and face were closer to their Edinburgh hue.
“Anna! You’ve ignored my phone calls.” It was the tone perhaps he used with erring students, confronting them with their wrongdoing.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“I hope you don’t feel the whole trip was wasted.”
“No. Of course not.” I didn’t need one last lecture.
“Excuse me, Ms. Graham.” It was the receptionist. Her face was familiar.
“Claire?”
“Christina. Please, there is a man here to see you. He said I should tell you that he’s from your father and the message is urgent.”
“Let him come.”
The man was looking in our direction, but he made a show of waiting for Christina to walk back to him.
“How does he know where I’m staying?” I asked Adrian.
“He has the resources. He might ask us to sign something. A nondisclosure contract saying we won’t repeat the contents of the diary, for example,” he said.
“And if we won’t sign?”
“We’re in his country.”
Christina returned with the stranger, who was wearing an expensive suit. In another set of clothes, he would have been found out as being fat. His silk tie was cut large. It glistened like a cow’s tongue. He bowed to Adrian and then me.