Beka's story is introduced with conversations about Beka's school award that "befor' time" Beka, a Creole, could not have even qualified for and surely could not have won. Beka had earlier been cautioned by all those whom she knew that awards go to "bakras, panias, or expatriates." But things are changing in Belize "fi sure," as Gran says, and "long befor' time," Beka "wouldn't be at no convent school."
Gran and Miss Eila and Beka (Gran is "Miss Ivy" to Miss Eila) do work, sit, and talk in the evening cool. Gran very early in its history became a member of the People's Independence Party, when it was first forming, and feels personal responsibility for the improvements in Beka's life that allow her to be "a person with 'high mind'" and allow her escape from the "washing bowls underneath the house bottom." Beka sits, instead, in a "classroom overlooking the Caribbean." Supporting the theme of social contrasts resulting from changes in their culture, Gran always tries to answer Beka's questions about what her life would have been "befor' time" with stories from the past. Beka's mother protests this practice and demands Gran stop, fearing that the "befor' time" stories will weaken Beka's resolve to try.
The tragedy of Toycie is introduced during Beka's conversations and reminiscences. We find out that Toycie, Beka's best friend and schoolmate, has been dead for four months and that Miss Eila is her aunt, not her mother, for her mother "lent" Toycie to Eila and left. Beka thinks about having a private wake for Toycie "in the privacy of [her] own heart" because Eila couldn't afford to give a proper nine day wake--or even a one day wake. But this moment, after receiving her award, is not the right time, and she promises, "I'll keep a wake for you when I wake, I swear by jumby's block." Beka's dream and her later conversation with her father further develop the picture of society in Belize and introduce how her father makes a living at Blanco's Import Commission Agency.
A continuing theme is that Beka's education, if she can manage to pass each term, will allow her "to reach a clearing" where there are "more opportunities nowadays." A contrast between the "miraculous order" in the part of town by the sea, where the girls take their Sunday evening walks, and "the core of the town," where things "always seemed staler, dirtier, noisier and altogether less pleasant," develops a theme about how society divides and constrains the racial groups. Toycie was Beka's companion on these walks, which introduces the story of what happened to Toycie, who had been warned by the Sisters at St. Cecilia’s convent school not to go off with the boys, for she would become pregnant. Revealing more about society, Beka and Gran continue talking about the contrasts between the present time in Belize and the "befor' time" that Gran says "died":
Beka's Granny Ivy was crying. Her apron tail over her face, and she said again and again,
"It died, Beka, it died."
The story turns as Beka decides, following her nap that afternoon, to keep her private wake for Toycie by recalling every detail of her own life from the previous April, "when she had failed first form, until today." That earlier April had introduced a big change in her life when "she decided to stop lying."
One change in Beka's life is that she confesses she has failed school, but her parents give her one more chance, which is metaphoric of the chance that Gran and others in the People's Independence Party hope to give to Belize, since the story of Belize is woven in with the story of Beka: Gran's "befor' time" stories and Beka's reminiscences make Belize the fabric of everything happening to Beka and her best friend, Toycie.
Beka returns to school. But Toycie refuses to listen to the sisters' warnings and persists in sneaking off with the pania boy (Spanish and South American Indian) Emilio (Milio). She believes his promise that he will marry her, especially if she gets pregnant. Toycie does become pregnant, but Emilio abandons her, just as her own mother and father had earlier abandoned her and just as the school will now abandon her. Beka's father, acting on Toycie's behalf, tries to convince the Sisters of Charity at the convent school to exhibit charity and take Toycie back as a student. They continue to refuse even though to do so, with Toycie unwed, means that Toycie will be relegated to the lowest castes and end up as a washer-woman, raising her baby in poverty, or as a prostitute.
Toycie's pregnancy is revealed at school because she throws up in the chapel. Toycie can't stand the thought of her life and attempts to drown herself. Although she is saved, regaining her mental stability is futile. She goes out wandering in a hurricane and is struck in the head by a tree uprooted in the storm. Although attempts are made to save her again, she dies. Miss Eila, reduced to near-poverty herself because of the "devaluation" of Belize currency, has Toycie buried without a wake. This is why Beka feels such a strong need to hold a wake in her heart for Toycie: Toycie was not remembered in death and not bidden farewell to, and Beka must do it, even if only privately.
Beka's reminiscences of from "April past" up "until today," which include Toycie's story, end where Beka's story begins, with the award she has won for passing first term. Beka, Gran, Toycie and Belize weave a story about a time when things "change, fi sure," a time that overcomes their lives and culture--even while it gives new opportunities--during the battle against colonial rule and for the freedom of independence.
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