Folarin’s haste in taking his sons suggests trouble. During the bus ride, the brothers glimpse headlines in passengers’ newspapers: the election has been held, but the results haven’t been announced; there have been reports of a massacre at a military base. Their father, a supporter of the opposition candidate, M. K. O. Abiola, gets into a dispute with a passenger who supports the military regime. (In the 1993 election, Abiola was widely believed to have won, but the race wasn’t called, and for nearly two weeks the whole country waited anxiously for the results.) From the children’s fragmentary observations, it seems that their father may be an opposition activist and that his trip has an unspoken political purpose.journey-inline-newsletterinline-newsletter