Transcendent Kingdom

Gifty buys some Ensure, the substance she gives her mice, from a nearby shop to try as an experiment for both her and Han. The experience is underwhelming but causes Gifty to think about her brother. She reveals to Han that he became addicted to opioids and died of an overdose. She looks back to the first time she saw Nana high. He looked like he was “dreaming the sweetest of dreams” (211). Six months into his addiction, and two and a half years before his death, Gifty musters the resolve to ask him what being high feels like. He responds by saying that it feels like all the thoughts and anxiety have been removed from one’s head.

The Sunday night after Nana’s accident, Gifty asks to be taken to church when her mother is heading out for her night shift. After a dull sermon, Pastor John asks, as he usually does, whether anyone will come down to the altar to “give their life to Christ” (214). At that moment Gifty has what is often referred to as a “religious experience.” As she says, “something came over me, filled me and took hold” (215).