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The hyena boys came to Bonaventure, which was serendipitous, because he was used to avoiding the world before the world spurned him. For one, his white albino skin flecked with dark spots made him a regular target of mockery. When Bonaventure was younger and his father was around and could barely afford to send him to school, his peers often taunted him to come outside in the midday heat. They dared him to come to the playground without squinting, one palm raised to block stray sunlight. They likened him to a pillar of butter melting in the sun. They asked if he was a vampire banished to the shadows.

Moments before the hyena boys arrived, he sat under the shade of his father’s bacha home, getting ready to set out for the day. He took off his singlet and filled a bowl with water from a jerry can. After washing his hair, he wiped his mossy armpits and took a chewing stick from his pocket. He poured more water into the bowl and soaked his shirt.…