CHAPTER 28

Nnaji stretched his hands to the right, just where the tubes of the sun's rays pierced the leaves of the forest and bashed down towards the earth in a cascade of intricate glow. He frowned as he perused his own shadow which had left the distance ahead and was coming behind him now, following the direction of the sun.

Telling time using shadows was something his father had taught him long before he was old enough to wear his first pelt. It was a custom in Umudike which every good parent imbibes in their children at a ripe age. Even though he had mastered the skill and could tell the exact time of the day with his shadow, Nnaji still finds it hard to distinguish how much time has passed between two events. Differentiating the morning from afternoon and evening was easy, but between those times, it was difficult to tell the exact hour in which an event had happened.

Nnaji returned his hands to his side. He never liked shadow time. It has so many flaws and errors in it compared to the ti