The chapter opens with the narrator declaring that she feels no remorse for her brother’s death and will instead recount the circumstances that led to it. She explains that she was thirteen in 1968 when her brother Nhamo (called Mukoma) died after failing to return from the mission school. Nhamo had been sent to the mission run by their uncle Babamukuru (their father’s brother) in 1965 and excelled academically, which the family hoped would lift them out of squalor. Nhamo disliked the long bus ride home and the two‑mile walk from the bus terminus, preferring to stay at the mission. The community’s landscape changed: the government built District Council Houses near the river Nyamarira, a bus terminus/magrosa market sprang up, and entrepreneurial villagers opened tuck‑shops selling groceries, soft drinks and a gramophone. Authorities later added a blue‑painted beer‑hall, turning the former bathing spot into a thoroughfare.

The narrator describes the route home in vivid detail—fields, shaded acacia, a shallow ravine, and the river where children once swam. She recounts her mother’s vegetable garden, the daily chores of maize planting, weeding and harvesting, and the rare times Nhamo helped only when Babamukuru visited, at which point he would work alongside the family before returning home.

Family dynamics are laid out: the father idolizes Babamukuru, the mother works hard alone, and the narrator’s sisters Netsai and the toddler Rambanai play games (nhodo) while waiting for Nhamo. Nhamo’s habit of leaving his luggage at the bus terminus and sending Netsai to fetch it is described, as is his occasional whipping of Netsai with a peach branch. The narrator recalls feeling relief that she would not have to kill a cock for the evening meal, but she still prepares sadza and vegetables for her mother.

As evening falls on the day Nhamo is expected, the narrator fills the enamel basin (dara) with water, notes its termite damage, and reflects on her resentment toward Nhamo, her father, and her mother. She questions why she feels such hatred toward her brother, recognizing the family’s poverty and the unfair expectations placed on her. The chapter ends with her preparing the meal, observing her sisters’ concern, and pondering the injustice of her situation.