Stay With Me

In 2008, Yejide’s guesthouse balcony overlooks Akin’s father’s compound. She watches the wake, wondering why Akin has invited her. She imagines the oratory skill that Akin will use to tell his father’s stories and listens to the chanters sing her father-in-law’s oriki, or lineage song. She does not plan to attend the funeral. Instead, she watches until the body is removed and the line of cars leaves for the burial.

In 1992, though Akin arranged for Dotun to visit and impregnate Yejide, he is filled with rage when he catches them having sex. He recalls the first time he asked Dotun to impregnate Yejide and how, instead of going to the club as he had planned, he had waited and listened to them, feeling full of self-loathing and shame.

All along, he has believed that Dotun has only visited her three times to impregnate her. He has even told him that the deal is now off since the chances of having another child with sickle cell disease are too high. Enraged, Akin beats Dotun with the bedside lamp until he is bloody and unconscious.