A Grain of Wheat

by Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o

  ‘All right. Maybe I shall come,’ she said and took her leave. She walked away with determined steps, sad but almost sure. He watched her until she disappeared at the door. Then he sank back to bed. He thought about the wedding gift, a stool carved from Muiri wood. ‘I’ll change the woman’s figure. I shall carve a woman big – big with child.’