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61 " عندما يشب حريق في منزل يتعين على من فيه الركض بعيداً قبل أن ينهار السقف على رأس من فيه. "
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie , Purple Hibiscus
62 " The afternoon played across my mind as I got out of the car in front of the flat. I had smiled, run, laughed. My chest was filled with something like bath foam. Light. The lightness was so sweet I tasted it on my tongue, the sweetness of an overripe bright yellow cashew fruit. "
63 " إن هناك أناساً يعتقدون أننا لسنا قادرين على حكم أنفسنا لأننا في بعض الأوقات القليلة حاولنا وفشلنا، وكأن الآخرين الذين يحكمون أنفسهم قد نجحوا منذ محاولتهم الأولى.. "
64 " So, do you plan to go to Aokpe?” Father Amadi asked.“I was not really planning to. But I suppose we will have to go now, I will find out the next apparition date.”“People are making this whole apparition thing up. Didn’t they say Our Lady was appearing at Bishop Shanahan Hospital the other time? And then that she was appearing in Transekulu?” Obiora asked. “Aokpe is different. It has all the signs of Lourdes,” Amaka said. “Besides, it’s about time Our Lady came to Africa. Don’t you wonder how come she always appears in Europe? She was from the Middle East, after all.”“What is she now, the Political Virgin?” Obiora asked, and I looked at him again. He was a bold, male version of what I could never have been at fourteen, what I still was not. Father Amadi laughed. “But she’s appeared in Egypt, Amaka. At least people flocked there, like they are flocking to Aokpe now. O bugodi, like migrating locusts.”“You don’t sound like you believe, Father.” Amaka was watching him.“I don’t believe we have to go to Aokpe or anywhere else to find her. She is here, she is within us, leading us to her Son.” He spoke so effortlessly, as if his mouth were a musical instrument that just let sound out when touched, when opened. "
65 " the thought that she might be gone for a long time. Amaka and I said we would go with her. But Jaja said he would not go, then was stonily silent as if he dared anyone to ask him why. Obiora said he would stay back, too, with Chima. Aunty Ifeoma did not seem to mind. She smiled and said that since we didn’t have a male, she would ask Father Amadi if he wanted to accompany us. “I will turn into a bat if Father Amadi says yes,” Amaka said. But he did say yes. When Aunty Ifeoma hung up the phone after talking to him and said he would be coming with us, Amaka said, “It’s because of Kambili. He would never have come if not for Kambili.” Aunty Ifeoma drove us to the dusty village about two hours away. I sat in the back with Father Amadi, separated from him by the space in the middle. He and Amaka "
66 " Papa looked around the room quickly, as if searching for proof that something had fallen from the high ceiling, something he had never thought would fall. He picked up the missal and flung it across the room, toward Jaja. It missed Jaja completely, but it hit the glass étagerè, which Mama polished often. It cracked the top shelf, swept the beige, finger-size ceramic figurines of ballet dancers in various contorted postures to the hard floor and then landed after them. Or rather it landed on their many pieces. It lay there, a huge leatherbound missal that contained the readings for all three cycles of the church year. "
67 " of this flat in two weeks. I know they are waiting to "
68 " من المفيد في بعض الأحيان أن يكون المرء جريئاً .. فالجرأة مثل الماريجوانا التي لا ضرر منها إذا استعملت على نحو صحيح. "
69 " Eres como una mosca, que sigue el cadáver hasta la tumba "