Pigeon English

“I swear by God, when Agnes says hello it makes your ears ring like a crazy bell! You love it anyway. When Agnes says hello Mamma cries and laughs at the same time, she’s the only person I know who can do it. Agnes couldn’t come with us because Mamma has to work all the time. Grandma Ama looks after her instead. It’s only until Papa sells all the things from his shop, then he’s going to buy some more tickets and we’ll all be together again. It’s only been two months since we left, you only start to forget them after one year. It won’t even be that long.” 

This particularly emotive passage happens in the early pages of the novel as we are just learning that only part of Harri’s family made the move over to England. He offers an explanation of why they did not move all at once and considers the fact that his mother is working entirely too much to worry single-handedly about a third child who is merely a baby. That they are waiting for Papa to sell more goods indicates that they are not in a financial situation to bed and board a full family in England. Keeping track of the time that has already passed since the family has lived apart (two months), Harri briefly considers the nature of memory and the emotional effect it has between persons. His realization that it would be possible to start to forget someone as close as a dear family member after a year is somber, but he counters this with the assertion that surely his own family, and him, will not get to that point.

“I held my breath and tried to feel my blood going round. I couldn’t even feel it. If I knew my blood was going to run out in five minutes, I’d just fill that five minutes with all my favorite things. I’d eat a hell of Chinese rice and do a cloud piss and make Agnes laugh with my funny face, the one where I make my eyes go crooked and stick my tongue right up my nose. At least if you knew you could be ready. It’s not fair otherwise.” 

Harri considers the nature of death and tries to feel the sensation of it in his own body by holding his breath. In his reflections, he provides a very open, honest, and beautifully simplistic childlike series of desires.