The Death of Vivek Oji

The omniscient narrator continues: At first, Osita refuses to come into town to present the photographs of Vivek to Kavita. However, Somto calls Osita and angrily urges him to attend, asking him, “Is this not your own aunty that we’re going to see?” (237). Osita reluctantly agrees.

At Kavita’s house, before presenting her with the photographs, Juju maintains that they withheld from Kavita the truth about Vivek in order to protect him. Elizabeth and Olunne agree, and Somto adds that Vivek told them not to tell his parents about what he had been up to. Osita remains silent.

Upon seeing the photos of Vivek wearing dresses and make-up, Kavita angrily blames the girls, insisting that Vivek was “sick” and that the girls took advantage of him. Elizabeth counters that he did not need help and that dressing up made him happy. Juju steps in and clarifies that wearing dresses was part of who Vivek was: “I wish you could’ve seen him,” Juju says, “he was happier than he’d ever been […]” (245).

Kavita insists that the Vivek in the photos was not her son. Somto growls that Vivek did not belong to Kavita and that, because he didn’t trust her, he could not be honest with her about his life.

Juju tells Kavita that on the day of Vivek’s death, Vivek had left her house in a dress to go to the market and never came back after the riots broke out. Kavita believes that someone at the market—maybe a crowd of rioters—must have “caught him” and murdered him. She tells Kavita that Vivek had been going by the girl’s name of Nnemdi, which was the name Kavita and Chika would have named Vivek if he had been born a girl. Vivek took this name in honor of Ahunna because they had the same scar on their feet.

After Vivek’s friends leave, Kavita realizes that she and Chika failed Vivek by denying who he truly was. When Chika and Kavita visit Vivek’s grave, Kavita attacks Vivek’s headstone, striking it with a hoe and cracking it; she is furious that the headstone reads only “Vivek” and not also “Nnemdi.” Kavita implores of Chika, “We failed, don’t you see? We didn’t see him and we failed” (254). At Kavita’s request, Chika calls the contractor and orders a new headstone with a new inscription. Kavita takes all the photos of Vivek in dresses and puts them into a photo album that she keeps hidden under her side of the mattress.

On Vivek’s birthday, Osita visits Vivek’s grave at dawn. He has a plastic bag with him, which he opens with difficulty. Inside are a bloodied dress and a Ganesh charm. The day of the market riot, Osita went looking for Vivek. Now narrating, he remembers:

When Osita finds Vivek, Vivek refuses to be called anything but his Igbo name, Nnemdi. Osita urges Nnemdi to return to Juju’s with him, but she refuses and accuses Osita of being ashamed of her and their relationship. The two quarrel, and Nnemdi accidentally gets her heel caught on a stone, trips, and hits her head. Blood pours out. Osita tries to take her to the hospital, but she dies in his arms before they arrive. Osita remembers that Vivek had never wanted his family to know about Nnemdi, so Osita strips her of her bloodied dress and puts it in a bag he procures from a market vendor. He removes the silver Ganesh charm from Nnemdi’s neck and drops her at her parents’ doorstep. Osita walks away vowing to go to a place where he can wear Nnemdi’s charm everyday so that “maybe then it would feel like he hadn’t left me after all” (273).

The last chapter is narrated by Nnemdi, who wonders if she died in the best possible way, in the arms of someone who loved her and “wearing a skin that was true” (274). She wants to tell Osita that he shouldn’t blame himself for her death, that she knew every time she walked outside in a dress that she was risking her life.

Kavita changes Vivek’s headstone to include Nnemdi’s name alongside Vivek’s.

Nnemdi claims that time has stopped meaning what it used to, that she understands its cyclicality. Acknowledging her place in the cycle of reincarnation, she says, “Somewhere, you see, in the river of time, I am already alive” (275).