Chapter Nineteen: Why didn’t Beah date girls very long once he moved in with his uncle, aunt, and cousins?

Beah never dated one girl for any length of time because they asked too many questions, questions Beah wasn't ready to answer.

I dated her for three weeks, but then she began to ask too many questions. Where was I from? What was it like growing up upline? Upline is a Krio word mostly used in Freetown to refer to the backwardness of the inner country, its inhabitants, and their mannerisms. I was unwilling to tell her anything, so she broke it off. That was the story of my relationship with girls in Freetown. They wanted to know about me, and I wasn’t ready to tell them. It was okay. I liked being alone.