Diamond Boy

Patson wakes up to Grace pulling his eyelids open. He hugs her and then realizes Boubacar and Regis are at the foot of the bed. They explain that Grace rescued herself: she approached the conductor and told him everything, and Determine didn’t come looking for her. She got off with the conductor and ran straight into Boubacar’s arms. Patson laughs with relief. Everyone shares their story of how they got here, laughing. Grace and Patson hold hands the entire time. Patson tells Grace she’s grown up so much, and he promises that they won’t go back to the sheds. She says he sounds like their father.

When Patson left Bulawayo four months ago, he hoped his life would improve. But now, his father is gone. Patson stays in the hospital for two weeks, and during that time, he and Grace talk about him regularly. Once Patson leaves the hospital, he, Grace, and Boubacar go to Table Mountain to welcome their father’s spirit. Boubacar points toward Zimbabwe, 1,500 kilometers away. Grace serves a meal, and Patson privately considers how Grace has changed in the last few weeks. She’s lost her innocence on her own journey south and isn’t as bright and bubbly as she used to be.

Patson puts a packet of tobacco next to the food and pours beer over it. This is how the Shona welcome the deceased’s spirit back into the family. He joins hands with Grace and Boubacar, and then he and Grace ask their father to come back and protect them. Once the ceremony is over, Boubacar points out landmarks and they discuss what living here might be like. Then, Boubacar asks what Patson wants to do with the girazis. Patson asks him to call the Baron.

In a letter to his mother and father, dated December 5, Patson explains how he’s decided to interpret the dream he had on the last night in the diamond mine: the Y-shaped stick symbolized Patson himself, and the vines were his father. It seemed like his parents were both watching over him and his future. That’s why he ultimately decided that the girazis were gifts from his mother. She told him to “look to Grace,” and had Patson not come to Cape Town to find her, Dr. Morris wouldn’t have found the diamonds. He plans to live his life to the fullest and not lose control of it.

Patson describes how the Baron purchased the stones. He now has two prostheses, Boubacar works at a bank, and he, Boubacar, and Grace live in an oceanside flat. Grace and Patson are in school. Patson isn’t sure if he’ll return to Zimbabwe, though he’s sometimes homesick. Eventually, Patson called Sheena and told her everything. They’ve made up, and Sheena’s family might visit over the holidays. Now, Patson tells his father, he’s reached the end of his story. But when he got to this page in his diary, he found a message Arves scribbled. Arves writes that he knows Patson is going to make it and be okay, because the “Geez are in the Knees.” He calls Patson his best friend.