Just three days earlier, i had seen my father walking slowly from work. his hard hat was under his arm and his long face was sweating from the hot afternoon sun. i was sitting on the verandah. i had not seen him for a while, as another stepmother had destroyed our relationship again. but that morning my father smiled at me as he came up the steps. he examined my face, and his lips were about to utter something, when my stepmother came out. he looked away, then at my stepmother, who pretended not to see me. they quietly went into the parlor. i held back my tears and left the verandah to meet with junior at the junction where we waited for the lorry. we were on our way to see our mother in the next town about three miles away. when our father had paid for our school, we had seen her on weekends over the holidays when we were back home. now that he refused to pay, we visited her every two or three days. that afternoon we met mother at the market and walked with her as she purchased ingredients to cook for us. her face was dull at first, but as soon as she hugged us, she brightened up. she told us that our little brother, ibrahim, was at school and that we would go get him on our way from the market. she held our hands as we walked, and every so often she would turn around as if to see whether we were still with her. how does the setting in the excerpt support beah’s characterization?