Summary

In Ben Okri’s short story “A Wrinkle in the Realm”, the unnamed main character is confused as to why a woman crosses the street when she sees him or why, while riding the subway, another woman moves her handbag away from him. 

When the man looks at himself in the mirror, he realizes there is something wrong with his appearance but is not sure what. This makes him anxious and unable to sleep. He wishes to find out what makes people want to avoid him.

At first, the man thinks that is it not his face but his shape that makes people avoid him, so he changes the way he walks, but this has the opposite effect. People start to avoid him even more than before.

One day, he sees a woman walk past a man and notices she does not seem frightened at all. This is differen...