The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir

Wayetu arrives in Monrovia at night. Nearly everyone on her flight sounds like her parents, which comforts her. As she exits the plane, she instantly smells “fresh rubber sap, fried greens, and sweat” (151). Gus has sent a helper to meet Wayetu at the Robertsfield Airport and get her luggage. While everyone outside wears “Ankara and country cloth shirts and dresses” or “light T-shirts and shorts,” she wears “jeans and sandals with a white blouse” and her “weave in a ponytail that [hangs] down [her] back” (151). People stare at her as though she’s an alien. When she sees her parents, they appear unchanged. Mam goes to her first, crying, with her arms extended. Gus pays the helper and starts the drive home and away from the airport.

Wayetu rolls down her window during the drive home. She smells “peanut soup, oil from dry fish, [and] the rising smoke from charcoal pots” (153). That night, Mam makes “cassava leaves over rice with deep-fried fish and pepper sauce”—Wayetu’s favorite dish. Mam notices that Wayetu eats rice with a fork now, while she and Gus eat it with spoons. After dinner, Mam asks if Wayetu still has the dreams.