The Bite of the Mango

When Mariatu wakes, she remembers “I have no hands” (42). She struggles upright and staggers in circles. On the brink of losing consciousness again, she thinks of her family and hears a voice in her head tell her, “You will live” (43).

With difficulty, Mariatu drapes a piece of discarded washing around her arms before staggering into the forest. She follows a path to an abandoned farmhouse and lies down on a bench repeating, “I’m alive. I will stay alive” (45). When she opens her eyes, she sees a large black cobra reaching for her but when she backs away from it, the snake withdraws.

Fleeing outside, Mariatu encounters another black cobra stretched across the path and recalls her grandmother teaching her that the spirits of dead relatives sometimes watch over people, often appearing “in the guise of an animal, a bird or a reptile” (45). The surprising presence of two black cobras is enough to convince her that something like this is taking place.

When the snake will not move, Mariatu is forced to take a different route through the forest. Here, she encounters two dogs. One of them, a “jet-black” creature, is “barking like I had never heard a dog bark before” (46).