The Woman Who Stayed
Adaeze arrived an hour before the event began.
The room was already set up — chairs arranged in the particular configuration of an intimate gathering rather than a formal one, not rows facing a stage but a loose oval that allowed the people in it to see each other as well as the speaker. There was a table at the front with a microphone and a copy of the book and a glass of water, but the table was positioned not above the chairs but at the same level, part of the oval rather than elevated from it.
Someone had understood, in the arrangement of the room, exactly what kind of event this was supposed to be.