This Motherless Land

Kate goes for a run at The Ring. She thinks of her plans to go to Bristol and study medicine, excited that it will be more “multicultural” and give her a chance to stop relying on Grandpa’s money. However, as she looks down at The Ring, she thinks of how it has truly become her home.

Kate and Liv spend the afternoon by the pool. Liv talks about the modeling agent, while praising Kate’s hard work and success in school—unlike her and Dominic’s academic performance.

The following Friday, Kate’s final scores from school arrive. She is excited that she got all A’s, but her celebration with Grandma is interrupted by a phone call. Grandpa has died of a heart attack. Grandma and Kate leave for London immediately.

Kate and Liv are dismissed by Margot, who insists that it is her and Dominic’s responsibility to deal with Grandpa’s body, so they go to the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Dulwich is where Kate’s parents first met each other, while Mum worked there. Kate looks at all the photos, walking the corridors and trying to see anything that reminds her of her parents; however, she feels nothing. She starts to cry, confessing to Liv how much she misses her mother and how she had wished to be reminded of her, at least a little.

Liv decides that they need to go to Horniman Museum and wander around the gardens. There, Kate is reminded of her mother, feeling comforted by the trees and flowers. They then go to Peckham High Street, where Kate sees Black people everywhere. As she hears women speaking in Yoruba, she “yearned for home. Her other home” (100) for the first time in years.

Back at Liv’s home, Margot calls and insists that they need to go home the next morning. While Kate agrees, Liv is adamant that she needs to do the photo shoot. Kate tries to convince her to reschedule so she does not have to go alone, but Liv refuses, promising to come home the day after.

Liv goes to the photo shoot and is relieved when she sees photos of other models on the walls and a professional-looking studio. Clinton and his makeup artist, Mary, get her ready for the shoot. Liv talks the entire time, telling them about Grandpa’s death.

Clinton pays her for four hours—more than she makes in a week at her job. They have Liv try on dresses, then take photos. They turn on a wind machine and give her champagne, then Clinton asks her to do something more “art-house” and take off her dress. While they shoot her nude, she assures herself that “this is what models do” (104).

When Liv gets back to her apartment, her phone is ringing. Clinton threatens to release her nude photos if she does not pay £3,000, an amount they doubled due to her wealthy family. He gives her a week. Distraught, Liv rushes back to the studio. She finds that the sign on the door is already gone.

Liv spends the rest of the day in bed, convinced that she can’t ask her mother for help. She tries asking her friend Caroline, but Caroline tells her that she won’t help and that she wants Liv to move out. Liv then remembers Kate will be getting grant money and goes back to The Ring to ask her for help.

At The Ring, Kate begins to see the impact of Grandpa’s death. Grandma spends much of her time in her room, while Margot regularly talks about her inheritance. Kate overhears Margot and Dominic discussing The Ring and is nervous that they will sell it and make Grandma move.

Liv shows up in the afternoon and goes to Kate’s room. She tells Kate about Clinton, then begs her to lend her the money from her grant. Kate insists that she needs the money to live at school. She assures Liv that they can tell Margot and that she will help, but Liv angrily leaves the room.

Later that day, Kate hears Margot yelling about her missing pearl necklace. As they search for it, Kate checks her belongings and confirms that her mother’s necklace is still there, something she has kept hidden her entire time in London.

When the lawyers arrive to read the will, Jojo and Kate ignore them and go swimming. When they come back inside, Margot is shouting in the study. Domenic tells them that Grandpa “fucked [them] over” (116)—leaving everything to Grandma instead of Margot. Kate is glad, relieved that Grandma can stay in her home.

Jojo and Kate go back out to the pool. They discuss school, with Kate telling him how excited she is. Jojo leans in and kisses her, then tells her that he is in love with her. Kate pulls away, as the kiss feels “disgusting” and “wrong” (116), then swims several laps in the pool before coming back to him. She confesses to him that she does not love him in that way. He assures her that it’s okay and that he will get over it before they go to university.



That evening, Kate runs to greet Liv when she gets home. She starts to tell her about the will and Jojo, but Liv angrily interrupts her, telling her that she can’t be bothered with anyone else’s problems.

Kate sits in her room alone, looking through her things. She lines up the birthday cards that Liv has given her over the years—each one with a picture on it that Liv drew. Tomorrow is her 18th birthday. She puts on her mother’s pearl necklace and, looking at herself in the mirror, assures herself that things will be better when she goes to university.

After selling her mother’s pearl necklace, Liv met Mary at a pub and paid her ransom, spending the rest of the money on clothes. Now, she lies in bed, thinking how “stupid and ashamed” (121) she is for having thought that she could ever be a model. She also realizes that it’s Kate’s 18th birthday but can’t bear to hear Kate talk about her exciting future or to admit defeat to her.

Liv looks at the card she did for Kate, with a painting modeled after one from Dulwich, and slides it between the pages of her sketch pad. Instead, she gets a generic card from Grandma and gives it to Kate. Kate is excited, thanking Liv and telling her how much the drawings mean, but Liv tells her that she didn’t have time to draw anything this year. Kate assures her it’s okay, then suggests they go for a swim or eat breakfast. Liv dismisses her, going to her room instead for the rest of the day.

That night, Liv and Kate get ready to go to a ball. Liv finds Kate dressed and wearing a pearl necklace. She is ecstatic—believing that Kate went and bought back her mother’s necklace. However, Kate insists that it belonged to her mother. Liv admits what she did, telling Kate that she pawned Margot’s necklace. She begs Kate to take her own necklace off, insisting that Margot will be irate if she sees it.

Kate hides the pearl necklace in her handbag, just as Dominic comes out onto the porch. On the drive to the ball, she thinks of how ignorant she has been not to see that Liv is just as “entitled” as Dominic.

At the ball, Kate and Liv both make snarky comments to each other about the way they’re dressed. Kate feels guilty, but ignores it, pushing into the crowd of intoxicated people. A woman immediately spills her drink on Kate, and she is hit on by a drunk man. She goes to the bar where she finds Ishir—a student from school—and the two dance together. They talk throughout the night but are interrupted by an intoxicated Liv. Ishir gives Kate her number, then Kate takes Liv outside.

Kate finds Dominic and tells him they have to go. Even though he is drunk, he insists that he can drive. They load Liv into the backseat, then Kate gets in the front. She realizes that she, too, doesn’t feel good, even though she has not been drinking. As Dominic drives, she has flashbacks of her wreck with her mother and puts her head between her knees, feeling dizzy. When Dominic tries to open the window, he crashes into a tree. Kate hits her head, then wakes up to Dominic screaming for her to get out.

Kate checks on Liv, who is bleeding from her head and has a broken leg. Dominic yells at her, demanding that she tell the police that she was driving since she is sober. Desperate, Kate agrees, as it’s the only way to get Dominic to call an ambulance for Liv.

After Liv leaves in an ambulance, the police talk to Kate at the scene. She tells them that she only had “Coke,” which they interpret as cocaine. They put her in a cell for hours, then ask her questions about two pills they found in her purse. A nurse draws blood and tells the officers that she is likely on MDMA. Kate is violently sick, convinced that she has food poisoning and not understanding that someone drugged her. Kate tries to explain that she was not driving, Dominic was, but they don’t believe her.

After Kate spends the night in a jail cell, an officer tells her that they are going to let her off with a warning as a “favor” to Margot and to keep the incident out of the news. Margot picks her up and refuses to answer Kate’s questions about Liv. The officer brings her belongings—her shoes, purse, and her pearl necklace. When Margot sees the necklace, she angrily calls Kate a “thief,” then pulls the police chief aside while sending Kate to the car.

Half an hour later, Margot comes to the car and yells at Kate about the necklace. Kate tries to explain herself, but Margot tells her that her “mother ruined [Margot’s] life and now [Kate] want[s] to do the same,” but she’s not going to “let history repeat itself” (135). She silently drives Kate home, leaves her there, and returns to the hospital.

Over the next few days, no one speaks to Kate. She calls the hospital daily to get updates on Liv, who makes it out of her operation and is healing well. The police chief shows up at The Ring and talks with Kate. He explains that she drove without a license, had drugs in her system, and stole Margot’s pearls. However, if she returns to Nigeria, the charges will be dropped. Kate tries to explain, but he keeps insisting that Margot is being generous—she even bought Kate’s plane ticket home. He tells her that her flight leaves the next day. Kate is distraught as her world “crumbles” around her.

In Nigeria, Kate’s father meets her at the airport. He looks nothing like she remembers, as he’s gained weight, shaved his afro, and gotten rid of his “flamboyant” clothes and car. He greets her happily, but she is too angry and shocked to respond.

When they get to her father’s house, they are greeted by a young boy, and her father calls him “Femi.” She learns that her father has remarried and has two other children—Femi and Funmi. Kate is shocked by how different her father’s new home is. It is cluttered with stuff, she sees cockroaches run across the floor, and his new wife, Bisi, is much younger and does all the cooking and cleaning. That night, Kate lies in bed and cries, trying to convince herself that Liv will fix things when she tells the truth.

Over the next week, Kate avoids everyone and refuses to speak. She spends much of the time in her room or roaming around the compound in the dark. Her dad tries to fix things with her, offering to cook or take her to the university, but she is still bitter towards him.

Finally, after seven days, she gives in to her father. She decides that he had just been “finding a way to survive” (144)—as she did in London. She agrees to go to the university with him. Once there, he tries to convince her to study medicine. She tells herself that she doesn’t belong there and will find a way to go to Bristol, but her father grows angry and tells her to stop thinking she is better than him. She takes the university information and reads it on the lawn while sobbing.