by Kwame Mbalia
“It’s Big Big!” the man shouted. He jumped and tried to swat her out of the air, but Gum Baby swerved aside and laughed.
“Too slow, Bugaboo. What’s the matter?”
Big Big growled something I can’t repeat and swiped at her again. He tried to run after her, but Gum Baby stayed just out of reach, sitting down on the raft and dangling her legs off the edge. She kicked them back and forth, looking like she didn’t have a care in the world. She lazily tossed sap balls at her pursuer like she was skipping stones on a warm summer day, all the while keeping up a steady stream of insults:
“Sap attack! Wow, it’s like your big ole head just leaped in the way.”
“Are you trying to show your friends how not to act?”
“Sap attack. Two sap attacks. Gum Baby can do this forever, you know. Let Gum Baby know if you need to take a break for a snack. You want a sappy cup, Boom Boom?”
Beside me, Lady Night started to go through the door, but I raised a hand to stop her. “Wait…I think I know what she’s doing. And, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s actually working.”
“What, making him mad?” Lady Night asked.
“Actually…yes. Trust me, she’s reeeally good at that.”
As if she’d heard me, Gum Baby tossed one more sap ball before collapsing dramatically to the floor of the raft, her hands behind her head. “Gum Baby is booored. Thought there would be more action than this. Gum Baby should’ve brought her knitting along. At least that way she could’ve made a little blanket for Bobo.”
Big Big’s face was turning an odd shade of purple and his mouth was wrinkling into a twisted frown. I knew that expression—I made the same one every second I spent around the little loudmouth. I pulled the door open a little bit wider and whispered, “Get ready. When the time comes, grab your skin.”
“The time?” Lady Night asked in alarm. “What time? What are you about to do?”
Ayanna sat down on the floor and motioned for Junior to do the same. “Might as well take a seat and watch. He’s gonna go be a hero. He acts like he hates her, but Tristan and Gum Baby make a really good team.”
I made a horrified expression. “Us? A team? Please don’t speak that into existence.”
Just then, Big Big let out a violent scream and leaped into the air, grabbing the raft with both hands. “MY. NAME. IS. BIG BIG!!!” The raft actually dragged him forward a few paces before he dug in his heels and slowly pulled the magical vessel down to the floor. Gum Baby had jumped to the other end and was flinging sap ball after sap ball at the giant’s bald head—so much that it looked like he was growing a sticky afro.
“Be ready,” I whispered urgently to Lady Night, then yanked the door open and dashed out.
No one was paying me any attention. They were too focused on the battle between the pint-size pirate and the troll. So when I scampered up onto the stage, got a running head start, and sprang through the air onto Big Big’s back, everybody was surprised. I mean, I was surprised. I recovered quickly, though, and patted the man’s new sticky hair.
“Nice look on you, Butt Butt,” I said, before yanking the boo hag’s skin off his hand and flinging it into the crowd. “Lady Night—now!”
Big Big’s eyes grew wide and he let go of the raft so fast it shot forward. Gum Baby yelped as she skidded across the dance floor and into the back room I’d just left. Big Big turned, grasping for his neck, but the skin was gone. “No!” he shouted. “Nooo!” His hands found my arm and he yanked me over his shoulder and then threw me down on the dance floor.
“Oomph.” The air left my lungs again for the second time that night, and before I could recover, Big Big’s massive hands dragged me upright to face him. A look of unbridled fury turned his features into those of a jungle cat.
“You!” he snarled. “I should’ve disposed of you when I first saw you. The Shamble Man ain’t gonna get a chance to bury you, because I’m gonna dig a hole for you so deep no one will ever find your bones. You hear me? I—”
“Clifford!” a sharp voice called out from across the room.
Big Big flinched. He turned, still gripping me by the collar, and my eyes grew wide.
Lady Night stood alone on the stage, still cloaked, her skin in her hands.
No. On her hands. The glimmering garment seemed to pour itself like honey, slowly slipping up her arms and into her cloak. Her stance grew straighter, and she gripped the edges of her hood and pulled it back.
A beautiful woman with skin dark like twilight and eyes glittering like diamonds stood in front of us. Her hair was twisted into a curly faux-hawk that sat atop her head like a crown, and the cloak fell away to reveal a long dress that shimmered like moonlight on ink, and silver heels that threatened to pull you inside if you stared at them for too long.
Lady Night’s gaze swept around the room before her eyes returned to pin Big Big in place. She stepped deliberately, emphatically, to the edge of the stage, and a few people in the crowd rushed to offer their hand to help her down. She accepted one regally, and then walked across the floor to where Big Big and I stood. Movement rippled in the corner of my eye and I craned my neck to see Gum Baby trotting across the floor. To my surprise, she climbed up to Lady Night’s shoulder and sat there as if she were the queen’s right hand. Lady Night spared her a warm smile before turning back to Big Big.
“Clifford, let him go.” Her tone was low but intimidating. Big Big gulped, then lowered me to the floor, unclenching his sausage-like fingers from my collar and patting my shoulders gently.
“There, I didn’t mean no harm, right, kid? Just foolin’ with you.”
I glared at him and shook my head. “Clifford?”
He flinched. “S’why I go by Big Big.”
“You think that’s better? Honestly, I’m disappointed in you.”
“Yes,” Lady Night said, though her words held more of an implied threat. “We all are.”
Big Big—I mean Clifford—swallowed nervously and took a couple steps back. Two giant steps back. Honestly, seeing the expression on Lady Night’s face, I was tempted to step back, too, but I didn’t want to call attention to myself.
But of course Gum Baby was nodding her head and cosigning everything. “Nah, don’t back up now, Bing Bong, you done messed up. You know you done messed up, right? Yeah, you do.”
Big Big raised both hands in a pleading gesture, his rumbling voice suddenly very nervous. “Look, ma’am, I wasn’t gonna keep your skin forever. I was gonna give it back, honest. I was just tired of you bossing me around.”
“I gave you a job!” Lady Night’s voice cracked like a whip. “When your home burned on MidPass, I took you in and sheltered you. Fed you. And you didn’t like taking orders from me, so as soon as that masked Shamble Man dangled his offer, you betrayed me?”
“I was only—”
“Enough!” Lady Night looked at me, then back at Big Big. “Give them back what you stole.”
He hesitated, then when her eyes narrowed, slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the adinkra bracelet. Reluctantly, he tossed it to me. Ayanna and Junior came out of the back to reclaim the staff and satchel of stones. I slipped on the bracelet and briefly contemplated using the akofena charm to go upside his head. I didn’t, though. One, my right wrist still throbbed, and two, Lady Night had everything well in hand.
“Now, then,” she said. “What is an appropriate punishment for a thief and a bully?” She tapped a long, manicured nail with black fingernail polish against her chin. “How should I teach you a lesson?”
Gum Baby, juggling sap balls now, chimed in. “Maybe take his skin?”
“I don’t think it works like that,” I said with a grimace.
“Who asked you, Bumbletongue?”
Lady Night let a ghost of a smile cross her lips. “I cannot take his skin, little one, but I can make him uncomfortable in his own.” She flicked her fingers down toward the floor and her cloak zipped into her hands. She held it to her face and whispered i
nto it, letting her words fill the garment with power.
I couldn’t resist—I had to see the magic. I grasped Nyame’s charm and closed my eyes. When I opened them, I inhaled sharply. Fragments of a fable swirled around the cloak, stretching it sideways and elongating the hood. Lady Night tossed it into the air, and like a magnet it flew straight to Big Big, swallowing him whole. His muffled shouts filled the air, but the enchanted cloth swaddled him like an infant, entangling his arms and legs and sending him crashing to the floor. He wriggled and writhed for a few more seconds, then grew still.
I blinked, letting the magic fade from my eyes. “Is he…?” I couldn’t finish.
“No,” Lady Night said with a chuckle. “Just…wearing a more appropriate skin, since he wanted one that wasn’t his own.”
Gum Baby dropped to the floor and kicked the cloak aside, revealing a large wrinkly-skinned weasel. She squealed in delight and hopped on top of it, then pointed toward the door. “Giddyup, Bam Bam, awaaaaaay!”
Big Big the weasel took a step, then paused before taking another. He inched forward like that, slowly and cautiously. Gum Baby kept her hand raised. Another step. A frown crossed her face. “Is this the fastest you can go? Gum Baby has seen hair grow faster than this. Gum Baby wants a refund.”
The people and animals in the juke joint cheered and crowded around Lady Night. She acknowledged them all, expert hostess that she was. Everyone got a smile, and she knew everyone’s name. The band hopped back onstage and the boar (“Benny the Boar,” he said by way of introduction) led them in a snappy little melody with a drum pattern that had my head nodding. Someone passed around cups of chilled mint tea, and in the back, cooking pots started bubbling.
“Where did all this come from?” I said in amazement.
Lady Night laughed and linked my arm with hers. “I’m a witch, remember? Now come, let’s see if we can find a pot of rice for your phone.”
ENCHANTED DRUMS BEAT A SLOW RHYTHM AS WE MOVED TO THE back of the juke joint.
There was a booth in the corner, a C-shaped seat curved around a heavily stained and scratched table. In the middle of the surface was a large black cook pot resting on top of three silver stones the size of grapefruits. I stared at the pot suspiciously. It looked mighty close to something I’d call a cauldron.
Lady Night slid into the booth with a sigh and motioned for us to join her. Ayanna, Junior, and I squeezed into the other side, the three of us nervously huddled together.
The older woman chuckled softly. “Relax, children. Be like your friend. She seems at ease.” She pointed to the middle of the club, where Gum Baby had stayed with the crowd, shouting and dancing and leaving sticky little footprints all over the floor.
“So,” Lady Night said, turning to me, “I believe I promised to fix your magical phone.”
I pulled out the SBP and, glancing around to make sure no one else was watching, slid it over to her.
Ayanna shook her head sadly.
Junior leaned forward. “It can be fixed, right?”
I rolled my eyes. “C’mon, man, give it a rest.”
“I’m just making sure. Some of us actually care about the things we’re put in charge of.”
“Listen,” I said, turning to him, “you’ve got one more time to—”
“Children!” Ayanna said loudly. She looked at Lady Night and made a face. “Excuse them. Please continue.”
The woman eyed the three of us, picked up the SBP, and sighed. “Such a little thing. And yet…the power it holds. If I fix this, young man, you have to promise to be more careful with it.”
My face grew red at her stern tone, and I tried to ignore Junior’s smug look. “I will,” I mumbled.
“Good. Because if this fell into the wrong hands, we’d all be in mortal trouble. You know that, right? With this, someone could do inconceivable damage and hurt a lot of people.”
“Someone. You mean the Shamble Man?”
“I don’t know what his ultimate goal is, but theoretically, yes.”
I fiddled with my thumbs as I thought about that, and the question I wanted to ask next. At last I took a deep breath and blurted it out. “The same person—well, bunny—who told me to come find you also suspects the Shamble Man is from MidPass. A god. Is that true? That can’t be true, right?”
Lady Night didn’t answer. She drummed her fingers on the tabletop and surveyed the crowd. Gum Baby had clambered onto the stage and was now banging on a pair of drums, and surprisingly, not doing too bad a job. The crowd loved her, but I wasn’t sure how the enchanted sticks felt about getting all gummed up.
“I think,” Lady Night began, “that I don’t want to jump to any conclusions. We all saw what happened with Anansi and Brer Rabbit.”
I nodded. The division between MidPass and the rest of Alke had been so distracting that the trickster god was able to impersonate Brer Rabbit without anyone noticing until it was almost too late.
And yet, I saw a fleeting expression on her face. That little hesitation adults have when they don’t want to lie. She hadn’t answered the question because she wasn’t sure, either.
And that scared me.
“Speaking of Anansi…” She picked up the phone and tossed it into the pot.
We all gawked at her.
“What are you—?” I began.
“Hey!” Junior said, partially standing.
“Relax,” Lady Night said. “I’m just putting it in rice.”
My jaw dropped to the tabletop, and then I stood and peeked into the pot. Sure enough, the SBP rested on top of a pile of rice. But it wasn’t the white rice I’d expected. It was slightly orange in color, with peas and chopped up carrots mixed in. Bits of red pepper had been shaken on top, and the dish smelled spicy.
“What sort of rice is this?” I asked, worried about it doing even more damage. When they said Put your phone in rice, this wasn’t what I’d had in mind.
Lady Night frowned. “Jollof rice, of course. Jollof fixes everything.”
“Of course,” I mumbled, slightly—no, incredibly flabbergasted. I watched as she touched all three of the heating stones, whispering under her breath as she’d done earlier with her cloak. The stones started to glow, and wisps of steam curled out of the pot. The aroma that began to fill the air made my mouth water and my heart swell. It smelled like…well, it smelled like comfort. Like Sunday dinner, or a new book, or fresh rain on a spring morning. It was hard to explain, and yet when I looked around the table, Ayanna and Junior looked just as surprised.
“What do you smell?” I asked them.
Ayanna smiled dreamily. “A fresh crisp breeze as I’m soaring through the air.”
Junior kept his eyes glued on the phone and didn’t answer right away. Finally, he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Plantains,” he said softly. “Fried to a slight crisp and cooling on the windowsill.”
After a second, I spoke up. “A new book, when you first open it and the pages are stiff.”
Lady Night nodded. “It is the smell of the stories that call to you, and the times in which you heard them. But it appears I will need your help, young Anansesem. This…Story Box is active, but just barely, and it isn’t responding to me fully. There is a trace of power rippling through it, but it will not return to form without you, for some reason.”
When I looked away from her and into the pot, the crack across the screen had disappeared. The power was still off, however, and I bit my lip, worry gathering in my stomach. How was I supposed to help? Fingerprint unlocking? Eye scan? A secret password? Oh man, I hoped it wasn’t a password. I only had one that I used for everything (I know, I know, but it’s a good one, trust me) and there was no way I was saying that out loud. Nuh-uh. Not happening.
Gum Baby had finally finished her drum solo and skipped over to our booth. Just in time to hear Lady Night lean over and say, “You’re an Anansesem. So…”
“So it needs a story,” I finished. I looked around the room, unsure. It made sense. I’d been neglecti
ng the Story Box, what with everything that had been going on. I hadn’t been collecting stories like I was supposed to. I had to face it—I was a failure as an Anansesem.
Lady Night nodded. “It will need a lot of stories, powerful ones. But there is a risk to this. He who has your grandmother wears armor made out of iron monsters. The same creatures who were—”
“Attracted to stories,” I finished grimly. Great. I needed Anansi and the SBP to find Nana, but fixing it might draw the attention of the Shamble Man. Of course there was the chance he might bring Nana with him, but I couldn’t count on that. What if I couldn’t think of a powerful story to tell? And if I tried and failed yet again, what would everybody say? They might not think I was even worthy of carrying the title of Anansesem and wielding the SBP…. Maybe Junior was right.
Lady Night saw the look of despair on my face, but before she could say anything, Gum Baby hopped onto the table and took a whiff of the pot’s contents. “Hoo-whee!” she said. “Whatever is cooking in there, Gum Baby wants a plate. Smells like it’ll clear the Simon Says.”
“The what?” Lady Night asked with a frown.
“The Simon Says.”
Ayanna cleared her throat. “Sinuses, Gum Baby. It’ll clear your sinuses.”
“If you even have any,” I added.
Gum Baby shot me an evil look as she snuck her hand into the pot, only to pause, then peer closer inside. “Ew, Bumbletongue, is this your phone? You put your phone in the food? That’s just…Is Gum Baby the only one around here with any home training?” She stomped across the table to stand in front of me, one hand on her hip and the other pointing at the pot. “Gum Baby tries and tries to teach you some manners, and they just go in one ear and out the other. Gum Baby’s gonna talk to your grandmother when we find her. What would your nana say?”
I rolled my eyes, then froze.
Nana.
“That’s it,” I whispered. “What would Nana say?”
“What? Speak up, boy.”
“Gum Baby, you’re a genius.”
The little loudmouth sniffed. “About time you recognized.”
