‘Returning to the X’

In the minutes, and then hours, after the accident, the villagers streamed to their town’s gathering point: the road.

They wore every color under the sun, many of them hand-me-downs with logos of American and European sports teams. There was a boy in a red Chicago Bulls T-shirt, near a young man in a yellow soccer jersey with Samsung across the front, denoting Chelsea Football Club.

Among them was Aboubakar Oumarou. For reasons Abou never understood, Toussaint had attached himself to him. Abou came to view himself as a big brother to the boy, who was often underfoot begging for piggyback rides to the market.

That morning, Abou had been in math class when the accident happened. With the other students, he ran out to the road. And there he stayed, walking back and forth, anger mounting. He could see the spot, marked with blood, where his little friend had died.

Toussaint was different from most of the children who played along the road in Mokong. His father, Emmanuel Dague, later described him as “exceptional,” saying that his son was thoughtful and avoided trouble.

He spent hours hunting for insects and small rodents, sticking them with pins, saying that they were sick and that he was making them better. Toussaint (so named because he was born to his Catholic family on All Saints’ Day) had recently told his father that he wanted to be a veterinarian. He explained that he had to dissect the creatures to learn what was inside them. After Mr. Dague objected, Toussaint often hid behind his grandmother’s house to work on his captives.

He had four siblings — two brothers and two sisters, ranging in age from 11 to not yet 1 — and when he wasn’t administering his veterinary services, Toussaint was playing with his 9-year-old brother, Aristede.