Akata Witch (30 page)

Ekwensu howled and began to spin again, faster than before. Sunny knew she had only one word to speak. She spoke it in a language she didn’t even know existed.

“Return,” she said.

Ekwensu shrieked and lashed out several fronds and smacked her to the side. She flew back, hitting a tree. Ekwensu whirled faster. But no matter how fast Ekwensu spun, she was sinking. Sunny struggled to her feet. As she watched Ekwensu sink, she was reminded of the Wicked Witch of the West’s death in
The Wizard of Oz
. Ekwensu wasn’t melting, but she looked like she was, as she sank into the wet, red mud.

Gone.

“Good,” Sunny whispered.

20

I See You

Everything settled. Mud and plants and small trees dropped from the sky. The noise stopped—except for the
chittim
falling at her feet. The heavy pressure of fear lifted. In its place came a pain in her lower back and a general ache all over her body.

“Chichi!”

“In here,” Chichi called.

Sunny slipped and fell in the mud twice before she got to the
obi
.

“I think he’s waking up,” Chichi said. “Go find Orlu!”

Sunny stumbled out the back of the
obi
. Orlu was still there with the two children, but everything had changed.

They were alive.

They looked at her with terrified suspicion as they clutched Orlu’s chest and leg.

“Orlu!”
His dark brown skin was covered with mud, his body was so still.

“Don’t hurt him!” one of the toddlers screeched, clinging more tightly to Orlu as Sunny approached. The child kissed him on the cheek, muddying her lips, and looked fearfully at Sunny. “Don’t hurt our angel. Please!”

“I won’t,” she softly said. “He’s my friend. His name is Orlu.”

“Oh-loo,” the other child said, also kissing Orlu. He spit the mud from his lips, wiped Orlu’s face, and kissed him again.

Slowly, Sunny knelt beside the children and felt Orlu’s face. It was still warm. She touched his chest and felt a strong heartbeat. “Thank God, thank God,” she sobbed. She whispered his name into his ear and softly shook him. When nothing happened, she kissed his ear and whispered his name again and again. When he still didn’t respond, she shook him hard, starting to panic.

“What?” he finally said. His eyes opened and he looked at her. He turned to the toddlers. “What happ—it worked?”

Sunny nodded, tears in her eyes.

He raised his hand and wiped some of the mud from her cheek. She leaned forward and hugged him for a very long time.

“Can you stand up?” she finally asked.

“Yeah,” he said. She nearly had to drag him to his feet. “They were dead,” he said, as he straightened up. “I reversed . . . Now they live.” He laughed and pointed to a huge pile of
chittim
. “I passed out as it was falling,” he said.

They walked to the
obi
, the toddlers following close behind.

“Black Hat brought Ekwensu through,” Sunny said. “He took his own life to do it.” She felt a little sick. “I . . . something happened where I . . . I don’t know, but I sent her back.”

Orlu stared at her for a moment. “The old ones sent us for a reason.”

Sasha was sitting up and rubbing his chest when they entered. Next to him was a pool of vomit. When he and Chichi saw Orlu and the toddlers, they smiled.

“Sasha, you okay?” Sunny asked.

He nodded, looked at his vomit, and shrugged. “She used Healing Hands powder on my
head
. I guess she finally learned how to make it work . . . too well.”

Chichi laughed. “Well, at least you’re alive.”

“Let’s gather our
chittim
. A council vehicle will probably be here soon,” Orlu said.

“How are we going to carry all of that?” Sunny asked, noticing another pile on the wide path to the gas station, earned by Chichi and Sasha, and another in the
obi
, earned by Chichi when she used whatever juju she’d used on Black Hat.

The library council van arrived a half hour later. Sunny laughed. She’d expected at least ten council cars to come running, carrying all the scholars in West Africa. Silly her.

“Sorry we’re so muddy,” Orlu said apologetically to the driver. The toddlers clung to his legs.

“No problem,” the man said. “Been rainin’.” From his accent, Sunny could tell the man was from the Caribbean. “Get in,” the driver said. “No worries, Star. Mud ain’t paint, ya know.”

In the van, the toddlers refused to leave Orlu. They snuggled against him in the backseat and were soon fast asleep.

“So your mother told you that charm?” Sunny asked Chichi.

“My mother knew your grandmother,” Chichi said. “But not very well. Your grandmother visited my mother last night in a vision and gave her the juju that she gave me. My mother called it a ‘bring back.’ Only powerful scholars can make one. After they die, they bring it back to someone living and whoever the juju is worked on will have his worst sins brought back to him, if it is the will of the Earth.”

“Classic,” Sasha said. “Black Hat’s sins really did catch up with him.”

“I wonder how the other
Oha
covens got those few children out,” Chichi said.

“Black Hat probably killed those coven members instead, using their lives to further open the way. But their lives probably weren’t as effective as the children’s.”

“He may have forced them to ingest ten times as much calabash chalk before he killed them,” Orlu said.

The driver stopped at the Aba police station and got out.

“You,” the driver said to Orlu. “Help me bring ’em in. Let me do de talkin’.”

Orlu nodded, as the driver carefully took the boy. Orlu carried the girl. They were in the station for a half hour.

“We were questioned, some,” Orlu said, as they drove away. “We just told them we found the children wandering near the gas station. I didn’t bother trying to explain about being all muddy. Driver, they’ll be okay, right?”

“Right as the right kinda rain,” the driver said. “Pickney dem resilient likle tings.”

Orlu had developed an attachment to the children, as they had to him. It made sense; he had returned their lives. Sunny patted him on the shoulder. “It was for the best. They have to go home to their families.”

“Hope they don’t blab about what they saw,” Sasha said.

“Even if they wanted to, they don’t have the words to describe it all, really,” Chichi said. “And who’s going to believe what a small child says?”

“Hey, is this going to take us to Leopard Knocks?” Sunny asked. They’d turned onto a narrow bumpy road, flanked by forest on both sides. She could have sworn she saw a blue monkey swing by on a branch.

“’Tis,” the driver said blandly. “Only official dem can enter this way.”

She watched attentively out the window. Minutes later, they approached a wide concrete bridge that ran over the river. Everyone closed their eyes, the driver included. He even let go of the wheel. Sunny kept her eyes open. She considered asking what was going on.
Nah, let me just watch
, she thought. The moment the car moved onto the bridge, she felt her spirit face pushed forward. It was involuntary. She looked around. Everyone else had changed, too!

Orlu’s face was square and bright green. It was decorated with thousands of wiggling Nsibidi symbols too small for her to read. Sasha had the wooden head of a fierce-looking parrot, his thick beak a bright yellow and the rest of his head a bright red. She’d already seen Chichi’s long, marble-like spirit face. She couldn’t see the driver’s because he was in front. Then they were over the bridge. She quickly shut her eyes and pretended to open them with everyone else. She looked out of the window, embarrassed and a little guilty. What she’d viewed was very, very private. But she was glad she’d looked.

When they reached the Obi Library, the sun was just coming out.

“Your
chittim
be taken to your homes,” the driver said flatly.

“What about mine?” Sunny said. “My family won’t know what it is.”

“It’s taken care of,” he said. He drove off without saying good-bye. None of them really cared. When they stepped into the library this time, the change was obvious. Though several buckets still collected drops of water, people were walking about quickly and talking excitedly, some looked agitated and some happy. News traveled fast.

Samya jumped up from behind the WETIN desk when she saw them. “You’re here!” she shouted. People stared. Samya ran over to them. “Come!”

Again they were led to the third floor, not the fourth. To Sugar Cream’s office. Sugar Cream stood up and hurried over.

“Samya,” she said, “get them fresh clothes.”

“Yes,
Oga,
” she said, leaving.

“What happened?” Sugar Cream said. “Tell it all to me.”

It took them a half hour. Samya came with a stack of clothes, setting them on the floor next to Sugar Cream’s chair.

“You four did an
excellent
job,” Sugar Cream said when they finished. “And you, Sunny, put the deepest fear into Ekwensu. But because of what Black Hat has done, it will be easier for her to return now, and she’ll start gathering in the spirit world. So we here in the physical world must also prepare. I’ve known this time would come.” She paused. “I will tell your teacher and your mentors about all you did.” She stood up and hugged each of them and took Sunny aside.

For several moments, Sunny and Sugar Cream looked into each other’s eyes. Sunny held her breath but didn’t look away. Then Sugar Cream pursed her lips and said, “You’ve proven yourself today in more ways than one,” she said. She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded. “Okay.”

Sunny grinned. She finally had a mentor.

21

Timing

By the time Sunny got home, the sun was setting again.

She’d been gone for over twenty-four hours. The air was heavy with mist as the rainwater evaporated in the heat. Her brothers were outside, kicking a soccer ball around. She wore a clean green
rapa
and white T-shirt. Her sandals, the ones she’d left home in, were encrusted with mud, as was her hair. She ran over and stole the soccer ball from her brothers with her feet. Even in her
rapa
, she was quicker than them.

“Where have you been?” Chukwu asked. He looked angry. “You look terrible.” She kicked the ball to Ugonna.

“Trying to save the world,” she said.

Ugonna kicked the ball to Chukwu, who kicked it to her.

“Daddy is going to flog the hell out of you,” Chukwu said, looking her up and down. “Mama defended you and said she’d given you permission to go, but Daddy . . .” He looked at his watch. “You better get ready for it.”

She brought her foot back and sent the ball flying across the street into the neighbors’ concrete fence. Chukwu cursed at her as he ran after it. Ugonna punched her in the shoulder as he followed Chukwu. She went inside.

The smell of pepper soup filled her nostrils as soon as she opened the door. Highlife music came from her parents’ room. It was half past six. She didn’t care
what
time it was. She had reason to be late. And her father’s issues weren’t hers. She went to the kitchen, where her mother stood bent over a huge pot of pepper soup.

“Hi, Mama,” she said.

Her mother whirled around, her eyes inspecting every part of Sunny for injury. She grinned and tears came to her eyes. Then the grin fell from her face. Sunny turned around to face her father.

Neither of her parents had been to work in a day and a half because of the rain. It was rare for them to enjoy free time. Her father wore his favorite home outfit, a yellow and blue wrapper and a T-shirt. But there was not a trace of relaxation on his face.

“Where in hell have you been all day?”

“Dad,” she said. Her voice shook. “I was up to nothing unholy or shameful or dirty. I was with my friends and—” She skipped back as her father’s hand flew at her face. He missed. She held up a shaky hand. “No more, Dad!” He came at her again and again. She dodged him each time. He pushed aside the dinner table.

“Emeka!” her mother yelled at him. “
Ah, ah
, stop it now,
biko,
please!” She pulled Sunny behind her.

“
This
is why she runs wild,” her father bellowed, breathing heavily, more irrational. Sunny’s anger at him flared as he kept shouting, “It’s all you! You protect her and she thinks she can do whatever she wants. She’s got
your
genes, your damn mother’s genes! She’ll come to no good like your mother!
Aren’t you concerned about that? Eh?
”

Her mother was quiet.

“You don’t speak because you know I’m right, my wife,” he said. “Your mother started disappearing at night around this age, no? Didn’t you tell me that? Then one day she came home carrying
you
in her belly! She’s lucky the guy married her.” He turned back to Sunny, disgusted. “A beating won’t save you. Look at you, you’re lost. I can’t stand it!” He turned and stormed out of the kitchen.

Sunny sat down at the table and just stared off into space, tears running down her face. It was sad, so sad. She put her head on the table. Through all her thoughts of Ekwensu, her friends, her parents, the fights in school, her grandmother, one question burned bright and hot: “Who am I, Mama?”

Sunny didn’t see what her mother was doing because she had her head on the table. Her mother must have stood by the stove looking at her as she stirred the pepper soup because minutes later, she set a bowl of it in front of Sunny. She could feel the heat from the bowl against her arm. She could smell the pepper.

Her mother pulled up a chair and sat down with another bowl. Sunny could hear the click of the spoon as her mother ate. Slowly, she sat up. Her mother handed her several tissues and watched her wipe her red eyes and blow her nose. Then Sunny picked up her spoon and began to eat. The soup was hot and there were large chunks of chicken and tripe in it. It was good.