The Death of Vivek Oji

Chapter 2 begins with an unidentified narrator offering an alternative framing to the story, suggesting that if it were to be arranged as a series of old photographs, the first of the series would be of Vivek Oji’s handsome father, Chika, at 20 years old, riding a bus to visit his mother’s village. The second photograph, the narrator continues, would be of Chika’s mother, Ahunna, sitting on the veranda waiting with her son, a bandage around her foot. Ahunna informs Chika that she stepped on a branch and that Chika’s fraternal sister-in-law, Mary, took her to the hospital. Chika looks down at Mary as she waters her garden below; he thinks that she “looked like home” (17) as he sensually observes her body.

The narrator remarks that when Ahunna’s wounded foot healed, there remained a scar on the instep of her foot. The scar was shaped like a starfish.

The next hypothetical photos are of Chika visiting Mary and Ekene (her husband and Chika’s brother) in their new home in the town of Owerri. Chika’s feelings for Mary build until one day he kisses the back of her neck as she cooks. Mary responds by beating Chika with a wooden spoon and asking him why he ruins everything. Chika stays away from Owerri for several months and gets a job as an accountant at a glass factory in a village called Ngwa. There, Chika meets Kavita, niece of the company doctor, Dr. Khatri. When Chika meets Kavita, he notes that her orange cotton dress makes her looks like “a burning sunset” (20).

Dr. Khatri invites Chika to his house when Chika and Kavita’s courtship becomes more serious. Dr. Khatri explains that family problems ensued in the past due to Kavita’s father’s caste. Three months later, Chika proposes to Kavita, and Kavita accepts.

The narrative continues with the structure of photographs. The next “picture” is of Chika and Kavita in their bedroom as newlyweds, trying on the jewelry that Kavita’s mother gifted to her as her dowry. The narrative introduces another boy into this picture: Osita, Mary and Ekene’s son. Osita watches Vivek draped in Kavita’s jewels, years later. While the sight of Vivek clad in jewelry makes Osita “hard with desire” (26), Osita responds aggressively to Vivek’s game of dress-up and snaps at him to take the jewels off. Years later, Osita will regret this anger and wish to see Vivek happy, “alive and covered with wealth” (25-26).

The narrative shifts and recounts how Kavita found Vivek dead with his skull crushed in on her doorstep: She notes the scar on Vivek’s foot, which had since birth and is identical to his grandmother Ahunna’s. The narrator explains that when Vivek was born, Chika noted this familiar scar but shook off any superstition around its meaning—until Ahunna was found dead in her compound when Vivek was still a newborn. Both characters’ scars were in the same place (foot) and in the same shape (“starfish”). Chika’s superstition, the reader will learn, relates to reincarnation.

Chapter 3 is narrated by Vivek’s cousin, Osita, son of Ekene and Mary. Osita recalls feeling angry when Vivek chipped Osita’s tooth in childhood, but after Vivek died, the chipped tooth made him sad. Osita shares his memory:

Vivek’s parents enroll him in boarding school, so Osita only sees Vivek during holidays. Osita recalls a gathering that he and Vivek attended among foreign mothers who married Nigerian men. At the time, Osita was besotted with Elizabeth, an elegant girl who can outrun all the boys. Osita teases Vivek for liking Juju, a multiracial girl who avoids social gathering and who the other girls gossip about because, Osita assumes, they were jealous that she attended a school that didn’t require multiracial girls to cut their hair.

Osita makes reference to “Vivek’s thing,” which the reader later finds out are momentary black outs. The adults register these episodes as “quiet spells.” Osita wonders whether if he had told Vivek’s parents about these blackout spells it would have saved Vivek’s life.

Osita asks Elizabeth to be his girlfriend, and she agrees. He visits her in Ngwa because he knows he could never bring her to Owerri; his religious mother has threatened him if he ever had a girlfriend. While Osita doesn’t like to be home because of his strict, religious mother, Elizabeth doesn’t like to be at her own home because her father overdrinks. Osita and Elizabeth begin meeting at Vivek’s house.

Osita tells Vivek that he has had sex with Elizabeth, and Vivek asks to secretly watch. Osita agrees. However, Vivek has a black-out episode while watching Elizabeth and Osita have sex from the doorway, his mouth open. Elizabeth sees Vivek, gets upset, and goes home in tears. Osita grows angry with Vivek.

Chapter 4 is a brief half-page narrated from beyond the grave by Vivek, in which he maintains that he is not who people think he is. He asks, “If nobody sees you, are you still there?” (55)

An unnamed narrator relays the fifth chapter, telling how, after Vivek died, Osita flees to Port Harcourt, where he engages in drinking and random sex. One day while Osita is at a pool, a stranger remarks that Osita is crying. Osita replies that it is raining. When the stranger disagrees, Osita shoots back, “It’s raining inside me” (56).

Vivek’s grieving mother, Kavita, comes to collect Osita from Port Harcourt. She reflects on her broken relationship with Osita’s mother, Mary, and feels jealous of Osita’s ability to leave and have a breakdown in the wake of Vivek’s death.

While driving home with Kavita, Osita has a foggy, unpleasant memory surface from a party where he’d been very drunk. He tries to piece together the circumstances of a sexual assault at the party, at the hands of a Lebanese man he didn’t know. When the man forced himself on Osita, Osita beat him back, injuring his right hand.

Osita also thinks about why he has only had sex with women after Vivek died. He realized that sexual engagement with women felt safer, “as if he wasn’t giving any important parts of himself away; not his soul or heart, just his body, which didn’t matter anyway” (62). Osita thinks that maybe no man will touch him again after Vivek dies.

When they get back home, Kavita urges Osita to help her find Vivek’s silver Ganesh charm, which Vivek had worn since childhood. Osita guiltily searches for it, even though he knows she will not find it (he secretly has it). They look in one of Vivek’s books, The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah. When the charm is nowhere to be found, Vivek’s father, Chika, listens to Kavita sob from down the hallways, but does not stir.