War Brothers

The boat drifts downstream with the current for a few hours, passing crocodiles and hippopotamuses. Eventually, they come to rest at a dock. Jacob expects to see soldiers and trucks, but instead, they encounter a large gorilla, chewing on leaves and watching them.

In the boat, they discuss what to do, until Hannah scrambles out of the boat and approaches the gorilla, trying to demonstrate it won’t attack them. They sneak by the gorilla and come across the road to Sambiya Lodge, which Paul is familiar with. The former captives discard their weapons, as they do not want to be attacked on sight by the government soldiers.

Norman decides to walk first, as he is the smallest boy, making it less likely that the government soldiers will shoot at them. As they walk down the road, guns appear from the bush and a voice commands them to stop.

Rather than treating the children with kindness, the government soldiers throw them to the ground and demand to know where the Lord’s Resistance Army is. The soldiers march them down the road toward the lodge, treating them with anger and suspicion.

Eventually, a truck comes down the road, and the children are forced inside. They ride for three hours before the truck pulls into a large compound. Jacob and the others get out, and then Jacob’s father exits his car, runs over, and pulls Jacob into a hug. His father cries from the emotion of the moment. Two nuns dressed in blue habits run over to Hannah, taking her off the compound to Jacob’s distress.

Jacob stays in a rehabilitation center for the next week, where he’s interrogated by the police. The police tell the boys that they have to forgive themselves, but Jacob wonders what they need to forgive themselves for. Tony stays silent the entire time. When Jacob confronts him, Tony tells him that his mother has brought a packet of cream from a medicine man to “cleanse him of his sins” (241). Additionally, Tony’s little brother is afraid of him and his mother is being mocked by the neighbors. Jacob returns to bed, thinking that returning wasn’t what he expected it to be.

Father Ricardo from the George Jones Seminary for Boys speaks to Norman, Paul, Jacob, and Tony in the courtyard of the compound. He tells Tony that God must have wanted him to experience the Lord’s Resistance Army for a reason. The boys find this to be an extremely disappointing conversation, as what they truly desire is for the priest to tell them why any of this happened. However, the priest is unable to do so.

After the priest leaves, the headmaster comes to speak to them as well, telling the boys that they are all free to rejoin the George Jones Seminary for Boys if they so desire. Norman’s father visits him, but Norman feels depressed as he can tell that his father is now afraid of him. He is not the only one; even strangers react negatively to them, as if they are to blame for their kidnappings. The boys wonder if they will always be seen as killers by the people who know their history as child soldiers.

Musa Henry Torac visits the boys and asks Jacob to come with him for a walk. Musa Henry Torac tells Jacob that he’s loved by both him and Jacob’s father, and neither man will judge Jacob for what he was forced to do as a child soldier. Jacob tells Musa Henry Torac that his grandson was killed, but doesn’t reveal that Lizard had become cruel and capricious. Instead, he tells Musa Henry Torac that his grandson was killed “because he was a good boy” (249). In the morning, the boys awake to find that Oteka has fled in the night.

Paul waves a letter around, showing Tony and Norman that they’ve been invited to a school in Kampala where no one will know them and they can start fresh. The boys pack up their things, while Jacob heads to his father’s car. Norman stops him, having figured out that Paul made up stories about America to amuse them. Jacob tells Norman that he’d like to visit America one day, and Norman kisses him on the forehead, calling him “brother.”

Jacob decides to walk home rather than ride in the car. When he reaches his church, he enters and finds Oteka waiting there for him. Oteka assures Jacob that they are not beasts, and can choose their futures. Oteka tells Jacob that he’s going to join the government soldiers to track the rebels. Jacob offers to go with him, but Oteka says no, since Jacob is in a position to spread their story.

The road out of town passes Jacob’s house, so the two boys walk together toward home. Oteka and Jacob call each other brothers, and then Jacob goes inside to discover that Hannah is with Ethel. Hannah tells him that she now wants to be a teacher, not a nun. Jacob brings Hannah to meet his father, telling her that they are her family now.