The River Between

On Sundays, Joshua preaches at his church in Makuyu, aided by Kabonyi. One Sunday, after a particularly long service, Nyambura returns home and realizes that Muthoni is absent. By evening she still has not returned, and Nyambura fears that Muthoni is carrying out her plan. Joshua goes to bed early, but Miriamu, still awake, wonders where Muthoni is. Miriamu obeys Christianity’s tenets out of her fear of Joshua, though she loves him in her own way. Nevertheless, “the true Gikuyu woman” lays dormant inside her. Joshua suddenly rises and realizes that Muthoni is missing so late at night. He becomes furious at Miriamu and demands that she find her daughter.

As Joshua rages at Miriamu, who cannot find Muthoni, Nyambura finally admits that Muthoni has gone to their aunt in Kameno to be circumcised. Joshua seizes Nyambura, enraged, and she is terrified of her father. Eventually he lets her go, looking like a defeated predator. He tells Nyambura to go to Kameno, find Muthoni, and tell her that she must return at once or else Joshua will disown her. Nyambura leaves and returns the following day to tell Joshua that Muthoni refuses to come back. Joshua promptly disowns Muthoni and considers her a disgrace to their Christian family. He decides that even if his daughter should “go back to Egypt,” he will press on to “the new Jerusalem.”