Solo

Blade flies to Ghana while listening to the CD that Storm made for him that includes bands like Metallica—not Blade’s usual choice of music, but he gets caught up in their energy. When Blade falls asleep, he dreams again of his mother silently cutting a cookie, this time with slight variations: Chapel is in the dream, wearing a shirt with SB on it and laughing or crying. Rutherford starts the word game then disappears. Chapel guesses the meaning behind SB, then also disappears. A big red spider charges at Blade, his mom whispers “run” so he runs toward a ledge to his mother, but before jumps, he hears someone asking him to change the music. He looks beside him and sees Sunny. Confused, Blade asks her if she is real. She asks Blade where he is going and what he is looking for. She tells him that he needs to help Rutherford and asks whether he has figured out who the spider is. Blade replies that it’s Chapel, but Sunny rejects his answer and tells him to stop running, confusing Blade further. She is always telling him to “run,” so she explains: “Run toward, not away […] Wake up Blade. Face the spider” (216). Blade wakes up as the plane lands in Ghana with a feeling of hope.

Drenched in sweat from the overpowering heat, Blade takes a taxi to Lucy’s village, Konko. He marvels at the traffic, throngs of people, and vendors. Blade’s taxi driver calls America “Trump country” and jokingly asks “Is America great again” (221). Blade gets texts from Storm asking how he is. She tells him she is recording a new song with Rutherford and that Chapel caught Van making out with the girl who kissed him at Storm’s party. Blade excitedly tells Storm about Africa and wishes her luck with her new song. Blade’s taxi driver stops and points up a dirt road and tells Blade that Konko is up the road, a five-kilometer walk. Blade is shocked, because he never has to walk anywhere, but he gets out and starts up the dirt road. After walking for two hours, Blade meets a girl getting water from a well. He asks where Konko is, and the girl replies that he has arrived. She speaks English with a slightly British accent and introduces herself as Joy. Blade offers to help Joy carry the water, but she says she can handle it. Joy points Blade to a shop where he can buy bottled water, explaining that the water she is carrying is not safe to drink. Joy assumes that Blade is another American missionary, determined to “save” them, so she is intrigued when Blade explains that he is looking for his birth mother, Lucy. Joy knows Lucy and refers to her as Auntie and says that she can take Blade to someone who knows where Lucy is.

Blade is mesmerized by Joy’s walk as she carries a pail of water in each hand and balances another large bucket on her head. Joy turns down Blade’s offer to help but she appreciates his attempt at speaking Ghanaian. Joy explains that Lucy is helping people in a remote settlement, 25 kilometers away from Konko’s center, only accessible with a guide once a week. Since there is no cell reception at the settlement, Blade cannot even call Lucy. While he waits for a solution, Blade watches the bustling village life, noting the jovial energy. People who pass him wave hello, welcoming him. They share their dinner with him, and Joy offers Blade a bed in the village school for the night. Joy tells Blade that her family lives far away in Volta region, and that she is in Konko to take care of her elderly uncle.

The school is small and also serves as the village church, community center, and library. Joy tells Blade that there are a lot of orphans in the village whose parents have left to find work or have died from malaria. She warns him that the mosquitos are “treacherous” and that 20,000 children die every year in Ghana from malaria. Blade is entranced by Joy: “Her smile / makes me forget / that I am / seven thousand miles / away from / the spider / that bit / and poisoned me” (247).