Sunny frowned at this. “So most likely, she knows we’re coming.”
Chichi nodded.
“I don’t like that,” Sunny said.
“Doesn’t matter what you like. It is what it is. So this guy’s nerve in trying to find Udide annoyed the hell out of Udide. Udide has always made it known that she has to allow people to find her. You cannot just decide to find her and find her.”
“So we have to ask her?” Sunny interrupted. “Do we make some offering or . . .”
“Just listen,” Chichi snapped. “Because of the guy’s arrogance, Udide decided to give him what he wanted. She showed him the way in a dream. Of course, him being an arrogant mumu, he thought the dream was all him. He immediately jumped out of bed and ran to his little brother’s room. He needed three blue marbles, and his little brother just happened to have plenty. Imagine that. He did as the dream instructed and sure enough, he found Udide in a cave beneath Lagos. But when he found her, the sheer sight of her . . .”
“He turned to stone?” Sunny screeched. “Oh my God, is she like Medusa in Greek mythology?! We’re doomed! How are we going . . . we need a mirror then. Or . . .”
“Sunny, shut UP!!” Chichi shouted. “Geez, did you drink coffee this morning, sha? Or some of your dad’s ogogoro?”
“My dad doesn’t drink that. He drinks Guinness.”
“Just listen! When he saw her, she was such a horrifying sight to him that part of his hair turned white. Remember he was only about sixteen. So he looked very strange. He ran off and never looked for Udide again. She ended this story with this line, ‘Without knowing a way through at daytime, never attempt to pass through at night.’ Udide has a dark sense of humor.”
“I guess,” Sunny said. “But if she does, well, is it smart to use this same way to find her? And what if it’s just a story?”
Chichi shook her head. “Udide’s stories are never just stories. And I think it was more about the intent that got that guy messed up. We are looking for her for a good reason, Sunny. These dreams you’re having about Osisi are serious. Something bad is going to happen, Ekwensu is on the loose and you are involved. There is something you need in Osisi and the only way to get there is by something only she can create. We’re not seeking her out to prove how powerful we are.”
Sunny hoped Chichi was right. Her hair was already yellow. She didn’t need white streaks from terror to make it even lighter.
The five of them stood in front of the Jeep as Sunny smoothed out the map on the car. Chukwu put his finger on the city of Aba. “Okay, so we’re near here. We should take the Port Harcourt–Aba Expressway to . . .”
“I know the way,” Chichi said. “I studied a local map I bought at the market.” She tapped her forehead. “Got it all up here.”
“Me too,” Sasha said. “Plus, I checked out Google Earth and Mapquest. Nothing much there, unless you’re looking at Lagos itself. But this map is more accurate than a GPS or anything online. Anyway, it’s not the way that’ll be difficult. It’s not getting robbed or driving the car down a pothole that’ll be the real test. I ain’t from here, but I been here a minute now.”
“We can stop in Benin City and stay with my uncle,” Chichi added.
“Oh no, hon,” Chukwu said with a chuckle. “If we leave soon, we’ll get there by sundown, trust me. We’ll be at my friend’s aunt and uncle’s house in no time.”
Chichi paused. Then she smiled sweetly and said, “Okay, o.”
Orlu laughed to himself.
Within fifteen minutes, they were all piled into the Jeep. Chukwu grasped the wheel, trying not to look at Sasha. Sasha plugged his phone into the Jeep’s stereo system and was looking for just the right music so that he wouldn’t have to talk to Chukwu. Chichi was behind Sasha, a Banga cigarette in hand that she planned to light as soon as they were past the sight of Sunny’s parents. Orlu was behind Chukwu looking worried. And Sunny was in the middle waving at Ugonna.
“Call in a few hours,” their father told Chukwu.
“And don’t drive too fast,” their mother said.
Sasha clicked PLAY and as soon as the song he’d chosen started, Chukwu’s eyes lit up and he grinned. “Nas!”
Sasha looked surprised and then nodded appreciatively. And together they said, “Illmatic.”
They hit the road, the Jeep bouncing on a cloud of hip-hop beats.
Within a half hour, Sunny had a raging headache. Chukwu was speeding down a good stretch on the freeway. Sasha had the stereo bumping nearly as loud as it would go. At some point, Chukwu had installed a new, more powerful sound system, and this one was like the ones Sunny remembered from the streets of New York. She even suspected that Chukwu’s system could do that thing where it set off car alarms if it was turned up to the highest volume.
As they sped, they bumped Nas’s Illmatic so loudly that Sunny felt as if her head would explode. She could feel the bass vibrate through her entire body. The only time she’d ever felt anything remotely similar was when Ekwensu’s drums were booming when she’d tried to break into the physical world last year. But this time, with each body-shaking beat, Sunny laughed and Sasha and Chukwu rapped “It Ain’t Hard to Tell” along with Nas.
Sunny looked at Chichi; she looked annoyed. Sunny giggled. She couldn’t have expected the two to bond over Nas. Orlu had fallen asleep, his head resting against the window. When he’d arrived, Sunny had noticed he looked tired.
“I’ll be fine,” he said when she asked him if he’d slept that night. “Stayed up late beading protective spells onto Chukwu’s Jeep.”
“Shit,” Chukwu suddenly hissed. He slammed on the brakes.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Sasha said.
Sunny, the only one who insisted on wearing a seat belt, was thrown against it, her glasses flying off. Sasha held on to his seat. Orlu quickly woke and threw a hand forward just in time to keep himself from mashing his head into the front seat. Chukwu managed to slow down and swerve, narrowly avoiding an enormous pothole.
“Didn’t you see that coming?!” Orlu said.
“No!” Sasha said, shaking his head. He turned around. “Everyone okay?”
“Barely,” Chichi said, picking up her book, which she’d dropped on the floor.
“Two words,” Sunny said, putting her glasses on. “Seat belt.”
Chukwu sucked his teeth and waved a dismissive hand at her.
“Weak American,” Sasha said, grinning. “Don’t you know we in Nigeria?”
Sunny shook her head, disgusted. Sasha had bragged from the moment he’d come to Nigeria about his hatred of “confining” seat belts and how he never wore them even when in the States and neither had his dad.
“The roads are going to get bad,” Orlu said. “We should slow down from here on.”
“I know how to drive,” Chukwu snapped.
“And that’s why we all just nearly died?” Orlu asked. “I’m not saying you’re a bad driver, though. I’m just giving you sound advice.”
Sunny smiled. Orlu was four years younger than Chukwu and far less beefy, but he’d always had a way of talking to Chukwu that Chukwu couldn’t dominate. Even now Chukwu only looked at Orlu in the rearview mirror and said nothing. He slowed down, too.
Orlu glanced at Sunny and slipped an arm around her waist. Sunny felt tingles from her shoulders to her cheeks. For a moment, she even managed to pry her mind from Lagos and what they had to do there. She did not call Orlu her boyfriend and he didn’t call her his girlfriend. The only kisses they’d exchanged were the one he’d given her on the cheek last year and the one she’d planted on his ear when he’d nearly killed himself bringing the two toddlers back from wherever Black Hat’s cruel juju had taken them. Nevertheless, Chichi liked to joke that she and Orlu were “betrothed,” and Sasha was always telling them to stop “beating around the bush.” Chichi and Sasha were always so sure of and f
orward with everything. What Sunny knew was that she liked being near Orlu and they held hands often. Also, once in a while, he put his arm around her. He was her friend who was always on her mind.
Chukwu slowed the car down to nearly a full stop as they came upon a crater swallowing more than half the road. The sunken crust of asphalt quickly gave way to thick red dirt. There was a car stuck in the crater. Two young men stood on the raised asphalt staring at their car. They had their hands in their pockets and looked hopeless. An SUV crept around the stranded car by driving mostly in the dirt and plants on the roadside. When it was Chukwu’s turn, he slowly drove past the car. Sasha opened the window.
“Do you . . . need help?” He added an Igbo accent to his speech to mask his Americanness. It was flawless. He switched to Pidgin English. “Wetin na want maka do fo’ na? Na need any help?”
One of the men looked annoyed. “Anytin’ wa u fit do to help, sha. Come lift am with bare hand.” He sucked his teeth irritably and looked away and muttered, “Nonsense.”
Sasha looked back at Orlu. Sunny looked from Orlu to Sasha and back. Orlu looked at Chichi. Chichi was looking at Chukwu and then Sasha. Chukwu was looking at Orlu, Sunny, and Chichi in his rearview mirror and ignoring Sasha beside him.
“Chukwu,” Sasha said. “Wait.”
When Chukwu slowed down, Sasha got out. Chichi opened her door, too. “No, Chichi,” Sasha firmly said. “Just Orlu.” He paused. “We don’t know these guys, sha.” He was still speaking in his accent.
Sunny wanted to ask what was going on, but Chukwu was there. So she said nothing. Orlu got out on the other side of the Jeep and stepped into the tall grass. He walked up to Chukwu’s window. “Drive all the way up,” he said. “We’ll meet you there.”
“No,” Chukwu said, putting the Jeep in park. “I’ll help. I’m stronger than you both. And you don’t know who these guys are, either. They won’t mess with me.”
“It’ll be fine,” Orlu said. “You need to stay in the car with Sunny and Chichi.” He paused. “Don’t worry.”
Chukwu started to open the door. “Let me just . . .”
“No, none of us can drive,” Orlu insisted. “What if another car comes and wants to get by?” He pushed Chukwu’s door shut. “We’ll be back in a second.”
Sunny turned to look back as Chukwu reluctantly drove the Jeep a bit down the road. She could see Sasha talking to the guys, but Orlu was still watching them go.
“Keep going,” Chichi said when Chukwu slowed to a stop about an eighth of a mile away. They rolled along a few more yards to where the road curved and they could no longer see Sasha, Orlu, and the guys.
“Okay,” Chichi said. “That’s good.”
Chukwu frowned deeply as he put the Jeep in park. He didn’t turn it off. “What are they doing?”
“Helping them, I guess,” Chichi said vaguely.
“How the hell can they help those guys? That car needed a tow truck to pull it out. A powerful one.”
Chichi shrugged.
“I should go and help,” he said, turning the Jeep off and making to get out. “You two stay here.”
“No!” both Chichi and Sunny said.
“Why? I’m the strongest and oldest. This makes no sense!”
Chichi quickly got out of the car and got into the passenger seat.
“They’ll be back,” she said. “No shaking.” She smirked coyly and leaned closer to him. Chukwu’s frown immediately began to melt.
Chichi was wearing one of her long, old-looking skirts and a T-shirt. She’d taken off her sandals and left them on the floor in the back. She was so small that she could easily and cutely curl herself into the passenger seat, pulling her long skirt demurely over her short legs.
“So how are you doing?” she asked, batting her eyes at Chukwu.
“Oh my God,” Sunny muttered, looking at the trees outside the window.
Ten minutes later, Sunny heard a car zooming up the road. Chichi was sitting on Chukwu’s lap telling him for the millionth time how amazing his muscles were and Sunny was outside the Jeep, leaning against her door. It was the car that had been stuck in the ditch, all right. But Sunny only recognized it from its color and shape. It zoomed past them at probably over ninety miles per hour. She barely caught a glimpse of the guys in the car, but she saw them, especially the driver. He looked terrified.
When she looked up the road she saw Orlu and Sasha coming, keeping to the side. She ran to them. A few cars passed, but otherwise the road was quiet. She was sweating by the time she met them. The day was growing humid.
“What’d you do?” she asked as they walked to the Jeep.
“A little bit of this and a little bit of that,” Sasha said.
“Hardest part was getting them to turn away,” Orlu said. “They started thinking we were armed robbers. But if we didn’t get them to turn around and they saw what we were doing, we’d be in a Library Council car on our way to the Obi Library’s basement like you.”
“We had to use Ujo on them,” Orlu muttered. “So they were too scared to look at what we were doing.”
Sunny’s eyebrows went up. That was the juju that Anatov had taught them that caused Lambs to feel a deep irrational crippling fear. So that was why they went speeding away.
Sasha suddenly picked up his pace, leaving Sunny and Orlu to walk together. “So you won’t be taken to the council? I know you used juju on that car.”
He shook his head. “Remember, part of being a good Leopard Person is doing your duty for your fellow human beings. When we saw those guys, if we could help, we would help.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Sasha shouted. He was standing at the passenger window staring into the Jeep. “Oh, so this is how it is? This is what you are?”
“Oh no,” Orlu said. They both ran to the Jeep.
Chichi climbed out from the driver’s side. Then Chukwu came out, also from the driver’s side.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Sasha shouted at Chichi.
“Lower your voice,” Chukwu said, his voice booming.
“You don’t speak to me,” Sasha said, pointing a finger at Chukwu.
Chukwu laughed hard. “Or you’ll what?”
Sasha’s eyes grew very big, and he looked as if he was going to say something. Then he glanced at Sunny and seemed to change his mind. “I don’t give a shit how big you are,” Sasha said. He moved toward Chukwu.
“Come on, then,” Chukwu growled.
“Okay,” Orlu said, immediately putting himself between Sasha and Chukwu. “Okay, o. Okay, o.”
“Keep your hands off her,” Sasha said, pointing at Chukwu over Orlu’s shoulder.
“Sure, but I can’t help it if she can’t keep her hands off me,” Chukwu said, laughing.
Sasha turned to the side and spat. “We will see.”
Sunny went and stood beside Chichi. “What were you thinking?” Sunny snapped.
“I wasn’t exactly thinking,” Chichi whispered, but Sunny caught the hint of the smile on her lips.
“Let’s all just get back in the Jeep,” Orlu said. “We have a long way ahead of us.”
Sasha was looking at Chichi, who was looking right back at Sasha. Chukwu angrily got in the driver’s seat, slamming his door. Sunny and Orlu got in. Then Chichi. Sasha was the last to get into the passenger seat. He glared at Chukwu, but Chukwu just started the Jeep, ignoring Sasha. Minutes later, Sasha put Nas back on, moving on to the next album, It Was Written. But the vibration of the beats wasn’t nearly as delicious as before.
22
FRESH, FRESH, FINE EWUJU!
It was as if the roads were trying to kill them.
There were potholes and craters everywhere. In one place the road seemed to have sloughed off completely, and they’d had to bumble their way across the jagged remains. Somehow the tires did not flatte
n, but the poor roads made the going slow and dangerous. A few times they passed parts of the road that were so uneven from erosion that they nearly tipped over. Thankfully it was dry season; otherwise the roads would have been muddy impassable gullies.
Then there were the go-slows, traffic that robbed their trip of precious time. Two hours after suffering the pothole- and crater-riddled road, they’d sat on the expressway for a whole hour and a half without moving. On the sides of the road were occasional shanties and stretches of trees, and from both of these came an assortment of beggars and hawkers. One of the beggars was a young man in scruffy clothes with knotted hair and a mad look in his eyes. He reminded Sunny of the man they’d seen in Bola’s waiting room. He leaned against Chichi’s window staring at her. No matter how many times Sasha told him to go away, he wouldn’t budge until Sasha had actually gotten out of the car and chased the man off.
The hawkers sold all sorts of things, from raw corn, pure water, and bread to skewers of beef suya, plantain chips, and roasted bush meat. One man had even held up a whole bush rat to Orlu’s window. “Fresh, fresh, fine ewuju!” he proclaimed. He’d asked for six hundred naira and even offered to skin it while they waited. The bush rat looked as if it had been killed minutes ago, still dripping blood.
Orlu had simply waved him off.
When the go-slow finally let up, they began encountering the checkpoints where Chukwu was forced to “do Christmas” for the police in order to get by without being delayed. The blatant demand for bribes especially irritated Sasha, who held a particular hatred for police officers. Chichi had to grab his hand as Chukwu dealt with the road police so that Sasha would keep his mouth shut. When they were stopped by a third police checkpoint within two hours, Sasha was ready to jump from his seat and “slap the man across the face.” This was when Orlu said they should stop and find a hotel.
They were in Benin City, only halfway there, and already the sun was going down. Thankfully, Chichi had planned ahead. “Chukwu, pull over. Sunny, give me your phone, let me call my uncle.”
Akata Warrior Page 20
