Lucky Girl : A Novel

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Epigraph Part One Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Part Two Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Part Three Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Part Four Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Epilogue Dedication Acknowledgments About the Author Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Contents Start Copyright Print Page List iii iv vii 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 v 323 324 325 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lucky Girl is a work of fiction. Apart from the well-known actual people, events, and locales that figure in the narrative, all names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to current events or locales, or to living persons, is entirely coincidental.
 Copyright © 2023 by Irene M. Ndiritu
 All rights reserved.
 Published in the United States by The Dial Press, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
 The Dial Press is a registered trademark and the colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Muchemi-Ndiritu, Irene, author.
 Title: Lucky girl : a novel / Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu.
 Description: New York: The Dial Press, [2023]
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022022123 (print) | LCCN 2022022124 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593133903 (trade paperback; acid-free paper) | ISBN 9780593133927 (ebook)
 Subjects: LCGFT: Bildungsromans. | Novels.
 Classification: LCC PR9381.9.M733 L83 2023 (print) | LCC PR9381.9.M733 (ebook) | DDC 823/.92--dc23/eng/20220725
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022022123
 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022022124
 Ebook ISBN 9780593133927
 randomhousebooks.com
 Book design by Diane Hobbing, adapted for ebook
 Cover design and illustration: Vi-An Nguyen
 ep_prh_6.1_143319816_c0_r0
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Epigraph
 
 
 Part One
 
 Chapter One
 
 
 Chapter Two
 
 
 Chapter Three
 
 
 
 Part Two
 
 Chapter Four
 
 
 Chapter Five
 
 
 Chapter Six
 
 
 Chapter Seven
 
 
 Chapter Eight
 
 
 Chapter Nine
 
 
 Chapter Ten
 
 
 
 Part Three
 
 Chapter Eleven
 
 
 Chapter Twelve
 
 
 Chapter Thirteen
 
 
 Chapter Fourteen
 
 
 Chapter Fifteen
 
 
 Chapter Sixteen
 
 
 
 Part Four
 
 Chapter Seventeen
 
 
 Chapter Eighteen
 
 
 Chapter Nineteen
 
 
 
 Epilogue
 
 
 Dedication
 Acknowledgments
 About the Author
 
 
 _143319816_
 
 
 
 
 Kupenda sio kitu, Kupendwa ni kitu. Lakini kupenda na kupendwa ni kila kitu.
 To love is nothing, to be loved is quite something. But to love and be loved is everything.
 —Swahili proverb
 
 
 
 
 
 Part One
 
 
 
 Chapter One
 Every morning throughout my childhood, at five forty-five a.m., Mother knocked on my bedroom door. I climbed off my bed, knelt, and kissed the floor. “Serviam. I will serve.”
 Still kneeling, I made the sign of the cross—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—then started on the rosary, repeating the sequence of the Apostles’ Creed: one Our Father, ten Hail Marys, one Glory Be—altogether five times.
 I kept my morning showers short. Mother said many other Kenyans had no water to drink and most bathed with ice-cold water. While I scrubbed my feet with the pumice, I prayed for the Holy Father’s monthly intentions—one month for the church’s deacons to be good servants, another month for the refugees, the next month for world peace, for the sick and suffering—all year round.
 Mother wanted me to do those things.
 Everyone in our neighborhood knew Mother for her devotion to the Catholic faith. But she was not one of those Catholics who only had doings with other Catholics; Mother was like the old-day missionaries. She visited people in need, like the Abdullahs, the Somali family with seven children who rented a cottage at the back of a wealthy family’s mansion down the street. Mother brought them baskets of hot buns covered with a white napkin.
 “Those poor children are always so hungry; no sooner am I at their front door than all the bread is flying