We Cast a Shadow

In late spring, the narrator picks Nigel up from school to prepare for Penny’s birthday. As they walk across the lawn, playing a game of charades, they are interrupted by Araminta Ahosi, the same girl who once mocked Nigel for bleaching his skin. To the narrator’s annoyance, she and Nigel recently became friends. She asks to ride along with them, and the trio heads to the Mall of the Seven Myrtles, a luxurious shopping center whose pavilion boasts a statue of Jean-Jacques LePieu, the state’s first governor, accepting an infant from a Native American. On the way to the bakery to pick up Penny’s cake, they run into Zora Suhla Smits, the current leader of BEG. Nigel and Araminta split off, and Zora admits to the narrator that BEG is in a slump. She asks him to come on board as the organization’s official spokesman. Thinking of how impressed Eckstein and Octavia will be, he accepts. As Zora hands him a pamphlet for his first speaking engagement, an explosion rocks the mall. The narrator takes off in search of Nigel and Araminta. Outside, he finds the statue of LePieu reduced to a burning pile of rubble.