MHD The Other Hand Plot Notes

Chapter One- Little Bee

The novel opens with narration from Bee. She is discussing why she wants to be
a British pound coin. This extensive metaphor connects closely to the idea of freedom.
Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl. Everyone would
be pleased to see me coming. A pound coin can go wherever it thinks it will be safest.
It can disguise itself as power, or property, and there is nothing more serious when you
are a girl who has neither This is the human triumph. This is globalisation.
Bee is talking about the different experience of the same things that she has
because she is African.
We learn she spent 2 years in an immigration detention centre and learned to
speak the Queens English there. But the pretty ones, and the talkative ones, we are
allowed to stay. In this way your country becomes lively and more beautiful.
Bee tells us about the day she left the detention centre, and in doing so points
out the difference in language, how she would tell the story differently to her sisters and
friends in Nigeria.
We learn Bee was 14 when she came to Britain, but had no papers, so she is
now 16 as she is being released. She talks about making herself undesirable to the men
in the detention centre. She is intimidated by them.
She introduces the subject of being a refugee. Truly, this is the one thing that
people from your country and people from my country agree on. That refugee girl is not
one of us. That girl does not belong. That girl is a halfling, a child of unnatural mating, an
unfamiliar face in the moon.
Bee addresses the reader directly.
We learn that Bee has a bag of things she got from a man named Andrew she
met on the beach.
Sad words are just another beauty. A sad story means, this storyteller is alive.
All the girls stories started the-men-came-and-they-. And all of the stories finished -andthen-they-put-me-in-here.
Bee lines up to call a taxi to leave the detention centre. She eventually manages
to get one to come and pick her and 3 other girls up, because of her command of the
Queens English. She asks to be taken to Andrew ORourkes house.
Bee telephones Andrew, and asks him if she can come and see him. We learn
that the beach they met on was in Nigeria. Andrew is shocked, initially thinking someone
is trying to wind him up. I dont want to hear about it. All that stuff happened a long time
ago and it wasnt my fault.
As Bee is leaving to wait for the taxi she thinks I realised I knew nothing about
men apart from fear.
At the end of the chapter the girls step outside to wait for the taxi- Bee is scared.
I smiled because the whole world was fresh and new and bright.

Chapter Two- Sarah

 She opens with a discussion of her son and how he would only wear a batman
costume and answer to batman the summer that Little Bee came to live with us. We
also learn that this is the summer my husband died (we presume this is Andrew).
That summer- the summer my husband died- we all had identities we were loath
to let go of. My son had his batman costume, I still used my husbands last name, and
Little Bee, though she was relatively safe with us, still clung to the name she had taken
in a time of terror. We were exiles from reality, that summer. We were refugees from
ourselves.
Sarah becomes more blunt, Andrew hung himself, 5 days after receiving the call
from Little Bee. I dont suppose he felt up to seeing her face again.
Little Bee arrives 5 days after Andrews death, in time for his funeral. She walks
to the funeral with Sarah and Batman. I was also worried about being a widow for the
rest of my life.
She wonders about explaining Andrews death to her son. It was depression that
killed Andrew, of course- depression and guilt. She thinks back to the day that they met
Little Bee on a beach in Nigeria in 2005, 2 years earlier. She tells us that her souvenir
from this is a missing middle finger- caused by a machete. I mean what does one call
the type of meeting when one gains an African girl and loses E, C and D? my husband
had been doomed since we met Little Bee I have never been one of those happy
women who insist disaster strikes from a clear blue sky. For me there were countless
foretellings, innumerable small breaks in normalcy.
Sarah talks about the morning Andrew received the call from Little Bee, and his
emotional reaction but also the way he excluded her from this. She recalls the last
morning/moment she saw him, and how she rushed to work from deadline day. My
husband hadnt always been lost for words. The long silences only began on the day we
met Little Bee
She runs through her day in detail, her discussions at work, highlighting how her
thoughts keep returning to Andrew. She is unsettled for some reason. Sarah receives a
call from reception to tell her that two police officers want to speak to her. She takes
them to the board room where they tell her what has happened to Andrew. As they tell
her this in painful detail she receives a text from Andrew which reads Im sorry I
switched the phone, and myself, on to silent mode.
We return to the day of the funeral, Sarah barely registers the proceedings, and
Charlie constantly questions her about where Andrew is. Sarah tries to explain but
ultimately is overcome with grief. Charlie become upset and distressed when he realises
Andrews body is in the coffin. He leaps into the grave to try and get him out. My sons
screaming seemed to go on for a cruelly long time. Little Bee stayed behind with me.
We stood by the side of the grave and we stared at one another. Sarah thanks Little
Bee for helping with Charlie. Little Bee replies I just did what anyone would do...It is
easier when you are from outside.
At the end of the chapter, Sarah says to Little Bee This is never going to end .
Chapter Three- Little Bee

 Little Bee explains the difference between the idea of horror in Nigeria and Britain
Horror in your country is something you take a dose of to remind yourself that you are
not suffering from it. For me and the girls from my village, horror is a disease and we are
sick with it. Little Bee talks about how horror is inescapable when it is real, it is etched in
memory and re-lived. She is clear that horror is inflicted by men. This is the discipline I
learned: whenever I go into a new place, I work out how I would kill myself there. In
case the men come suddenly, I make sure I am ready.
Little Bee talks about the horror she experienced and how it consumes and
almost kills her in the detention centre. I realised I was carrying two cargoes. Yes, one
of them was horror, but the other one was hope. I realised I had killed myself back to
life.
Little Bee is confused by the two different conceptions of freedom. Yevette
explains to her that they arent really free from the detention centre- they are illegal
immigrants. The girl with the bag of documents points out that they havent been given
release papers.
When they are waiting outside for the taxi, Yevette starts to discuss her taste in
men. This makes Little Bee uncomfortable. She describes an unrealistic kind of person
as her ideal man.
The taxi arrives but leaves quickly because Little Bee accidentally insults him.
They decide to walk. They meet a man on a tractor who asks them if they have escaped.
Yevette tries to explain to the other girls, it becomes clearer that she has done some kind
of deal to get them out of the detention centre. The tractor driver points out they are in a
vulnerable situation. This government doesnt care about anyone. Mr Ayres is clearly
unimpressed by the way the government treats immigrants. He tells the women they can
walk/stay on his land. He offers them shelter in his barn/seasonal workers quarters for a
week.
Little Bee remembers the day she left her village with her sister. There was a full
moon that night and if the moon had opened its mouth and started screaming I would not
have been more terrified. Men came, the women and children fled the village. That night
they could hear the men screaming and the next morning they saw a plume of smoke
from their village burning.
The girls settle into the barn and start to think about what to do next. We got
peace but we aint got no in-fo-may-shun. Yevette assures Bee she as pipple in
London and Bee shows her Andrews driving licence and tells her she will go and visit
him. Yevette asks Bee about how she met Andrew and she says I cannot talk about it. It
happened in another lifetime.
Bee thinks about her childhood in Nigeria. We did not have electricity, or fresh
water or sadness either, because none of these things had been connected to our village
yet.
The girl with no name/bag of documents hangs herself in the barn that night. Bee
is very sad about this. Bee thinks about taking her documents/story for herself. A story
is a powerful thing in my country, and God help the girl who takes one that is not her
own.
Bee leaves without waking the other girls. But if you are a refugee, when death
comes you do not stay for one minute in the place it has visited. Truly, there is no flag

for us floating people. We are millions, but we are not a nation. We cannot stay
together. Death came and I left in fear.
Bee arrives in London the next morning after walking all night. She struggles to
negotiate traffic and is very tired. She is overwhelmed by the business and expanse of
London as she walks around all day. If I was telling this story to the girls from back
home, I would have to explain how it is possible to be drowning in a river of people and
also to feel so very, very alone.
Chapter Four- Sarah
Sarah thinks back to the morning of Andrews funeral. these bloody suburbs are
purgatory. How did we all wash up here? She struggles to pinpoint how she feels. It
was exhausting, prospecting for grief like this, unsure if grief was even there to be
found. But life is not inclined to let any of us escape.
Sarah remembers Little Bee arriving. I dont know what to say. I thought you
must be dead. Sarah phones her friend (and we discover lover) Lawrence. Because
this is the thing, with being lovers. It isnt like being married. To remain in the game, one
has to be considerate. She says to him. I cant cry for Andrew. I keep thinking about
that day in Africa. On the beach. I thought we agreed it was best that you forget all
that.
How calm my eyes were, since that day on the beach in Africa. When there had
been a loss so fundamental, I suppose that to lose one more thing- a finger, perhaps, or
a husband- is of absolutely no consequence at all.
Ordinary things were going to be the hardest I realised. This was something
undeniable, now that Andrew was gone: there was nobody left with a strong opinion
about living in a civilised country. There was no quick grief for Andrew because he had
been so slowly lost. First from my heart, then from my mind, and only finally from my
life. Still shaking and in the pew, I realised, it isnt the dead we cry for. We cry for
ourselves, and I didnt deserve my pity.
After the funeral, Little Bee plays with Charlie in the garden. Sarah marvels at
how quickly they have bonded but is unsure how she feels about this.
Sarah attempts to mentally confront what happened in Nigeria. She remembers
her out of character acceptance of an advertising suggestion/free trip from her
magazine. She remembers the oil conflict that the British government would now deny.
Little Bee had fled south-east on bleeding feet from what had once been her village and
was shortly to become an oilfield. She fled from the men who would kill her because they
were paid to, and the children who would kill her because they were told to.
Sarah sits down with Little Bee and asks her how she survived. LB explains that
she walked for six days and reached the beach. Her sister follows her and they hide in
the jungle on the edge of the beach where they first see Sarah and Andrew. Sarah and
Andrew are walking outside the hotel compound. They see a guard approach, he begs
them to come back to the compound, dogs can be heard in the jungle. They refuse, offer
him money. He insists, and fires three bullets into the air. LB and her sister can hear
machetes breaking through the bush, the walk onto the beach and ask S and A to take
them back to the hotel. They are disbelieving at first. They eventually follow the hotel

guard towards the hotel, the girls follow and the guard tells them to stop. Dogs appear
out of the jungle, followed by men, the guard threatens to shoot but they are unafraid.
Andrew tells the men they will give them anything they want. They hand over money but
the men want the girls. Sarah refuses and the leader cuts the throat of their guard and
they watch him bleed out on the sand. Andrew tries to get Sarah to stop intervening to
save the girls, and she thinks back to the closing line of his column that week We are a
self interested society. How will our children learn to put others before themselves, if we
do not? Sarah offers to do anything if they allow them to take the girls. The men as for
Andrew to cut off his middle finger. Andrew says he cant, he doesnt believe they will let
the girls go. in the moment we were all the same, just creatures in nature hanging
without any great effort on the vast warm wind of events that were greater than us. As
Andrew turns away, Sarah reaches for the machete and cuts off her middle finger.
Andrew is shocked but the men see what has happened. They say that Sarah has paid
for LBs life, but not her sisters.
Sarah realises LB has fallen asleep and she is now just remembering the story.
She phones Lawrence. Sarah asks whether she expected too much from Andrew. The
conversation points out, the unrealness of their relationship. Sarah hangs up when she
hears Linda (Lawrences wife) in the background.
Lawrence phones back, and Sarah tells him that LB has arrived. He is as
surprised as she was to find out LB is alive. We learn that Sarah watched the men drag
the girls away after she severed her finger. Lawrence becomes frustrated that Sarah
refuses to phone the police, he thinks LB is not to be trusted.
Sarah remembers first meeting Andrew- O-Rourke is a sharp name and I
imagined my happiness would soften it. But as Sarah ORourke I lost the habit of
happiness. Taking Andrew ORourkes name was the second real decision of my life,
and it was wrong. I suppose Little Bee would understand me. As soon as we let go of our
real names, she and I, we were lost.
Sarah thinks back to the day on the beach. I remember on the flight home to
London I was vaguely surprised, just as I had been at the end of my childhood, that such
a big story could simply continue without me. But that is the way it is with killers, I
suppose. What is the end of all innocence for you, is just another Tuesday morning for
them, and they walk off back to their planet of death giving no more thought to the world
of the living than we would give to any other tourist destination: a place to be visited
briefly and returned from with souvenirs and a haunting sensation that we could have
paid less for them.
Sarah finishes the chapter, realising she needs to know what happened after she
and Andrew returned to the hotel.
Chapter Five- Little Bee
LB wakes up and thinks about her situation. This is the real reason no one tells
us Africans anything. It is not because anyone wants to keep my continent in ignorance.
It is because nobody has time to sit down and explain the First World from first
principles. Or maybe you would like to, but you cant. Your culture has become so

sophisticated, like a computer, or a drug that you take for a headache. You can use it,
but you cant explain how it works.
LB talks about tea, and how she came to Britain on a tea ship, and what tea
reminds her of.
Sarah and LB have tea in the kitchen, and Sarah asks if LB will tell her what
happened when the men took her away. LB says Sarah...you do not need to know what
happened. It was not your fault. Sarah insists and this makes LB angry, she decides
she wont spare Sarah the details. She tells Sarah they walked down the beach for an
hour. They push LB under a discarded boat, then they rape her sister. She listens. Sarah
is horrified by the story. LB explains We cannot choose where to stop and start. Our
stories are the tellers of us. She doesnt want to hurt Sarah but she has to finish the
story now. She tells Sarah how she heard her sister die, the men went to the jungle to
sleep but their leader swims out into the ocean and doesnt come back. LB flees back
down the beach toward the hotel compound, she picks up Andrews wallet and removes
his drivers licence and business card. She hides in the jungle. Later she decides not to
go to the hotel compound but walks back the way she came. Eventually she comes to a
port. She climbs into the hold of the one with the British flag.
Sarah hugs LB at this point. Then Charlie wakes up. He questions Sarah about
why she has been crying. LB goes outside and Sarah takes Charlie to preschool. Then
she returns.
Sarah asks LB to stay. LB explains she is illegal, but Sarah doesnt seem to
understand the reality of this. She tries to think of ways they can appeal, that she can
help. You have seen trouble too Sarah. You are making a mistake if you think it is
unusual. I am telling you, trouble is like the ocean. It covers the two thirds of the world.
Sarah says I feel so bloody guilty and LB replies This is not your fault, Sarah. I
have lost my parents and my sister. You have lost your husband. Both of us have lost.
The nursery rings to ask Sarah to collect Charlie because he is misbehaving.
She automatically calls Andrew. She asks LB to delete Andrew from her phone. They go
to pick up Charlie who is upset because he had to take off his batman costume. He cries
for Andrew. LB calms Charlie by relating to him, telling him about her dad being dead.
They all go home together.
Sarah and LB talk about grieving. LB says to be well in your mind you have first
to be free I saw how it could be. I saw how we could make a life again. LB tells Sarah
if she stays, she will love her and Charlie like a mother and a brother. Sarah is
somewhat shocked by the suddenness of the experience.
Later when they are drinking tea, Sarah tells LB that she has thought about what
LB said about staying. I think youre right. Maybe its time to be serious. Maybe these
are serious times.

Chapter Six- Sarah

Sarah thinks back to when Charlie was two serious times began. She thinks
about her attitude when she first started journalism how well it had suited me, that

absolute licence to march up to evildoers and demand who, what, where, when and
why?
Sarah recalls arguing with Andrew about his negative attitude about the state of
the world- he makes fun of her magazine and her content. Sarah argues for optimism.
Andrew had a gift for deepening the incisions he began.l
To prove a point, Sarah goes to the Home Office to interview Lawrence who
works there, for a piece for her magazine. This is their first meeting. Lawrence is just the
in-between press guy, Sarah is disappointed that she is really there to interview other
people. Instant attraction. While Sarah is there, the Home Secretary resigns and
everything descends into chaos. There are moments of sexual tension as Sarah helps
Lawrence to write a farewell letter to the Home Secretary who has resigned (for
apparently fast-tracking a visa for his nanny). As he is writing he asks Sarah Is it your
husband who makes you unhappy? They kiss etc. After the fact, Andrew rings while
Sarah is still in the office, gushing about the resignation/the story he will write. She
hangs up on him. our was an office hours affair. A long lunches in short skirts affair.
Handing out in-flight meals in a plane crash. That was what our affair was meant to be.
Lawrence and I escaped from our own tragedies and into one another
Sarah recalls falling in love with Lawrence and being swept up in her affair. Until
the moment she met Andrew at a party she was at with Lawrence. Its all very awkward.
Later Sarah and Andrew argue about their marriage. He says Happiness isnt
something you can pick up off the shelf, its something one has to work at. Andrew goes
away, during this time Lawrence invites himself to Sarahs house, she is conflicted about
how to respond. She says no. There are circumstances in which we allow men to enter
our bodies but not our homes.
Later she rings Andrew, they argue and cry. She suggests a holiday to begin to
mend things, this is when they decide to go to Nigeria.
Serious times. Once they have rolled in, they hang over you like low cumulus.
You travel here, and you travel there, trying to get out from under the cloud, and nothing
works, and one day you realise youve been carrying the weather around with you.
We come back to the afternoon when Sarah and Bee have picked up Charlie
from nursery. Sarah tells Bee she wants to help her to stay in England. weve got to get
a grip, both of us. We cant let ourselves be the people things happen to.
Lawrence shows up, Sarah is affronted, he questions her allowing Bee to stay,
and is angered by the implications it could have for his job. This makes him look like a bit
of an ass. Eventually Sarah decides to let him in. She puts Charlie to bed and cooks
dinner for LB and Lawrence. He basically ignores her, they eat in silence and LB goes to
bed. Sarah reprimands Lawrence for his rudeness. He argues with her about LB What
Im saying is that youre going to have to choose between your life and her life. Sarah
argues back. I cut off my finger for that girl. Will you tell me when is the logical point to
stop something that started like that.
They have sex. But Sarah is distracted, she blames Andrew, but really she is
worried about LB and what she can do for her. At the end of the chapter Lawrence
aquiesces somewhat.
Chapter Seven- Little Bee

 We are all trying to be free in this world. Freedom for me is a day when I am not
afraid of the men coming to kill me. Freedom for Sarah is when she can live a long life of
her choice. I do not think she is weak or foolish for living the life she was born in. A dog
must be a dog and a wolf must be a wolf. Freedom for a girl like me is getting to the
end of each day alive.
Bee thinks about the future, and how she would have to explain this to the girls at
home. She thinks about Britain. You are not bad people. You are blind to the present
and we are blind to the future.
LB thinks back to her childhood, and all the things they did not have in the village
she grew up in (e.g. tv). She wakes up with Charlie and they put the t.v. on.
Lawrence emerges and asks LB if she wants breakfast. He confronts Bee, telling
her she should turn herself into the police, that it isnt fair on Sarah. LB says She is not
harbouring me. I am not a boat. Lawrence says he doesnt think Bee is good for Sarah
and she asks him whether he thinks he is good for Sarah right now. She challenges his
intentions. I am one of those women who has seen men do things that are not funny.
They continue talking about why Lawrence is so worried about LB, he eventually admits
he is worried he wont be part of Sarahs new life. That LB will replace him to some
extent. In my world, death will come chasing. In your world, death will start whispering in
your ear to destroy yourself. I know this, because it started whispering to me in the
detention centre. Death is death, we are all afraid of it. Lawrence considers reporting
Bee, Bee challenges him, telling him what will happen to her in Nigeria. It isnt my
problem, I cant be responsible for all the trouble in the world. LB threatens Lawrence,
by saying that reporting her will ruin both his lives. He acquiesces somewhat, LB isnt
what he expected.
LB becomes angry, when Lawrence starts to feel pity for himself and this
situation. She tells him she is capable of being selfish and announces I left Sarahs
husband hanging in the air. Then immediately tries to change the subject. Lawrence
persists. LB tells him she got to Sarahs house in two days. She hid in the garden and
watched how Andrew treated Sarah and Charlie. I wanted to punish Andrew for letting
my sister be killed. She tells him how Andrew saw her in the garden one day and
thought it was a hallucination. Eventually, he sees her again, he shouts, she comes
inside the house, they talk, touch. Andrew is angered and confused, he still thinks she is
a ghost. She retreats to the garden but comes back and finds Andrew standing on a
chair, electrical cord around his neck. He threatens to hang himself if she comes closer.
She tries to talk him down, and he asks what happened to her sister, she lies but he
doesnt believe her so he steps of the chair. She tries to help but she cant and he dies.
At first I thought, of course I must save him, whatever it costs me, because he is a
human being. And then I thought, of course I must save myself, because I am a human
being too.
LB tells Lawrence that Sarah doesnt know this. if I can not make up for this I
dont know what I will do. I cannot run away again. There is no where to go. I have
discovered the person I am and I do not like her. I am the same as Andrew. I am the
same as you. I tried to save myself. Tell me, please, where is the refuge from that?

 Lawrence is angered by this, he realises he cannot go to the police or tell Sarah

because this will be even more distressing to her. Eventually he decides he wont tell
anyone and makes LB promise not to tell anyone else what happened or about him and
Sarah.
Sarah comes downstairs. She promises to find a solicitor for LB.
Chapter Eight- Sarah
I remember the exact day England became me, its contours cleaved to the
curves of my own body, when its inclinations became my own. Sarah remembers a
moment in nature in childhood.
The morning of the previous chapter Sarah asks LB if she is homesick. LB
replies I do not think I have left my country. I think it has travelled with me.
Sarah makes tea and I realised I was losing the habit of being Andrews wife.
Sarah goes back to work. She is late, and discovers her second in command has
made herself quite at home at her desk etc. Sarah expresses her desire to be left to get
back to work. My husband died, Clarissa. I am still alive. Sarah and Clarrisa are about
to argue about the real life piece for the magazine. Sarah argues we can be deluded.
We can be mistaken in our beliefs.
Clarissa thinks it is creepy that Lawrence came to Sarahs house so soon after
Andrews death. They go back to work talk, Clarissa tries to talk Sarah out of the article
on refugees. Sarah accuses her of wanting her job, they talk about how Sarah cant see
the point of it anymore. what happened to wanting, Sarah, was getting a few of the
things we wanted. Sarah promises to take a day off and think about the article; she
goes home.
At home Sarah talks to Lawrence about her feeling of hopelessness. Do you
remember back when you felt like you could actually do something to make the world
better? They talk about LB and Sarah says Little Bee has changed me, Lawrence. I
cant look at her without thinking how shallow my life is. He continues to argue about the
purpose in saving LB. Sarah tells Lawrence she misses Andrew, he is a bit affronted.
They talk about the idea of badness in the world and how you begin to see it in
yourself as you grow up, and then begin to think about whether that badness is so bad at
all.
Chapter Nine- Little Bee
Little Bee starts the day with Sarah telling them all they are going on an
adventure. LB thinks about what this means. What is an adventure? That depends
where you are starting from. You live in a world of machines and you dream of beating
hearts. We dream of machines, because we see where beating hearts have left us.
LB remembers a peaceful time in her village, going out with her sister at night
into the jungle, she becomes scared but her sister tells her she is safe. She falls asleep.
When she wakes up she finds a jeep in the undergrowth with a skeleton in it. At the time
she doesnt realise this is a result of a war in her country nearly 30 years earlier. She
wakes up her sister and they leave, she doesnt show her the jeep.

 Sarah, Charlie, Lawrence and LB go to Richmond Park. There LB sees mixed

race families. there is no them in this place. These happy people, these mixed-up
people, who are one thing and also another thing, these people are you.
LB asks Charlie if he wants to take off his costume. Charlie says no, he thinks
that his father died because he wasnt there to kill the baddies. LB explains it wasnt his
fault, that Andrews baddies were inside him. She tells Charlie sometimes she wants to
take a day off from being LB. She tells Charlie LB is her superhero name, that she has a
real name. She tells him that she will share it with him if he takes off his costume. He
replies Actually, I have to keep mine batman costume on forever. Lawrence interrupts
and asks LB to talk to Sarah.
Sarah tells LB that she was in Andrews study and discovered his extensive
research on Nigeria, and Nigerians seeking asylum in the UK. She asks LB to tell her
what it was like in the detention centre. She tells her about filling out the application for
asylum- writing down your story. They only gave you enough space to write down the
very saddest things that had happened to you. That was the worst part. That is why
people dont like us refugees. It is because they only know the tragic parts of our lives,
so they think we are tragic people. Sarah tells LB she wants to carry on Andrews
research, maybe write a book. This has angered Lawrence.
LB asks Sarah is she really wants to be with Lawrence. Sarah tells her she
doesnt want to argue about it. Sarah goes to make a phone call. LB goes to see
Lawrence and Charlie, she talks to Lawrence about not telling Sarah not to write the
book.
Sarah returns and realises Charlie has disappeared. She freaks out. LB crawls
into the rhododendron jungle. While Sarah screamed for her son, I widened my eyes
into the blackness of those tunnels and I stared into them. I looked for a long time. I saw
that the nightmares of all our worlds had somehow mingled together, so that there was
no telling where one ended and the other began- whether the jungle grew out of the jeep
or the jeep grew out of the jungle.
Chapter Ten- Sarah
Sarah goes to make her phone call- she calls the publisher of her magazine and
resigns from her job, then she calls Clarissa and tells her. Clarissa tries to convince her
to stay again, but Sarah is fairly adamant she wants to be a real journalist, and change
the world etc.
Sarah returns to LB and Lawrence- as she is walking she thinks For a whole
week I thought I was a better person, someone who could make a difference. It
completely slipped my mind that I was a quiet, practical, bereaved woman who focused
very hard on her job. I unaccountably forgot that nobody is a hero, that everyone is so
bloody tainted.
She realises Charlie is gone and freaks out, runs around the park trying to find
him. She feels distressed and ashamed and responsible for this terrible mishap. He
disappeared as he had lived, while I was looking the other way. Towards all my own
selfish futures. I looked at the empty days before me and there was no end to them.

 Lawrence talks about a need to be systematic, he suggests calling the police,

there is a moment where they all realise what this may mean for LB but she calls them
anyway.
Charlie emerges from the Rhododendrons, tells Sarah he was hiding. She is
obviously relieved to have him back.
Chapter Eleven- Little Bee
The policemen arrive and LB is scared. When they arrive she thinks Much of my
life in that country was lived in such confusion. When you are a refugee you learn to
pay attention to doors. When they are open; when they are closed; the particular sound
they make; the side of them you are on. They ask for her details and she becomes
resistant. Eventually they put her in the back of a police car, she tells them her name and
take her away
LB is detained that night, Sarah and Lawrence come to see her and try to argue
for her to be released but they refuse to release her. After they leave LB writes Sarah a
letter (p343) to say goodbye.
An officer says to LB Youre a drain on resources. The point is you don't belong
here. What does it mean to belong here.
3 days later LB is taken to Heathrow Airport to be deported. The man
accompanying her is nice, they talk. He tells her he doesnt like his job, he disagrees
with deportation but he has few options in life.
On the plane, Sarah and Charlie show up, they accompany LB to Nigeria. When
they arrive in Abuja, Sarah and Charlie refuse to leave LB. They think this will keep her
safe. Eventually they are taken to a hotel where they stay for 2 weeks.
Here, Sarah tells LB she wants to collect stories about refugees/people who have
been harmed by the oil conflict. LB says you know it is not a good idea to collect
stories. Sarah replies I dont agree. I think it is the only way well make you safe...Our
problem is that you only have your own story. One story makes you weak. But as soon
as we have one hundred stories you will be strong...We need to make it undeniable.
Eventually LB agrees to help Sarah. I want to be part of my countrys story.
Sarah pays off the military police to let them out to get stories, it seems to go well
for some days.
LB decides she wants to go to the sea, to say goodbye to her sister properly.
Sarah pays the military police extra money so that they can stay away from the hotel
overnight. They go to the beach. While they are there Sarah asks if LB will come back to
England They dont want people like me.
LB falls asleep and dreams of the stories they have found, and dreams of a
future life for her and Sarah and Charlie together. There were many beautiful stories
that I found. There was horror, yes, but there was joy in them too. The dreams of my
country are no different from yours- they are as big as the human heart.
LB awakes slowly but Sarah is distressed, she can see soldiers coming along the
beach. She tells LB to go away from them, that they are recognisable. LB goes down the
beach further and hangs around with some other African women. She sees the soldiers
approach Sarah, they shout at her, then they raise their rifles.

 At this point, Charlie runs away towards LB, the soldiers raise their rifles and
shoot towards Charlie. LB runs toward him so she can protect them. They come together
and LB talks to Charlie. She tells him her real name, Udo. Charlie takes off his Batman
costume and runs into the sea to play with the other children. I understood that he
would be free now even if I would not. In this way the life that was in me would find its
home in him now. It was not a sad feeling. She says to Charlie Peace is a time when
people can tell each other their real names.
As Charlie runs into the ocean, the soldiers reach LB and grab her arm. She
watches Charlie and laughs at the beauty of the moment.
The End.