Excerpt:
An idea suddenly occurred to Nhamo. "Aunt Chipo! She was possessed by Gore's spirit."

"Oh yes. Chipo," Grandmother said bitterly. "Listen, Little Pumpkin. What I'm about to say will be upsetting, but you need to understand. Your aunt has hated you from the moment you were born. She hated your mother, too. Runako was the one everyone said was pretty. She was the one who did well in school, and the very worst thing Runako did was have a beautiful child one month before Masvita was born. It took all the attention away from Chipo."

Beautiful. They thought I was beautiful, Nhamo said to herself.

"She's always wanted to get rid of you, and her chance came when we visited the muvuki."

"You mean she was lying?"

"It's been known to happen."

Nhamo's world turned upside down. First Ambuya had accused the doctor of making things up, and now she said Aunt Chipo had pretended to be possessed. What could anyone believe when things like that happened?

"You can't wait any longer," Grandmother said softly.

"Now? I don't want to go!"

"You have to. If I could come along…" Ambuya sighed. "Well, I can't, and that's the that. I know all about Zororo. Believe me, you wouldn't last a year before he either beat you to death or one of his wives poisoned you. Your only hope of survival is to go. I gave Runako her chance long ago. Now I'm giving you yours. I only wish you were older."

"I'm frightened," sobbed Nhamo, clinging to Grandmother.

"I know." Ambuya smoothed her hair, and Nhamo felt a tear drop onto her head. "The journey will be the hardest thing you'll ever do, but it will be worth it. Just think of finding your father. I don't even expect the trip will take more than two days - we're very close to the border the river divides in two, but it doesn't matter which branch you take. They both go to Zimbabwe.