Akata Warrior

by Nnedi Okorafor

  As they drove, Sunny looked into the air. Just as she did, she saw Grashcoatah do it again. Just for a split second, he showed himself. A man on an okada must have looked up in time to see him. So had a driver driving a loaded truck full of oranges. It all happened in slow motion, every moment drawn out.

  “Oh no!” Sunny said, turning to Orlu. “He did it a—”

  The truck full of oranges was in front of them, and it swerved across the dirt median of the road into oncoming traffic. Two cars and an SUV dodged the truck as the truck’s driver panicked and tried to dodge the two cars and SUV and, in doing so, lost control. Tires burning rubber, it whipped sideways and capsized, spilling oranges all over the road.

  As soon as the truck lost control, the kabu kabu driver took them right off the road and screeched to a stop. It was in this way that they also witnessed the okada and its driver fly into the ditch on their side of the road and tumble into the tall grass. He jumped up and looked at the sky with his mouth agape. Then he looked at them.

  “Did you . . . I saw . . .” He looked toward the chaos in the street and forgot the rest of his words.

  Sunny was sure she heard the grasscutter’s sneaky laughter from nearby. She even thought she saw some of the spilled oranges disappear. “That is so wrong,” she muttered.

  “At least no one is dead,” Chichi said.

  They all got back into the kabu kabu and were quiet for the rest of the ten-minute drive, and as soon as they got out of the car, the driver sped off without even demanding his pay.

  27

  QUICK CHOICES

  Sunny breathed a great sigh of relief. For one thing, no council car appeared. This meant that Grashcoatah’s indiscretions hadn’t been severe enough to warrant punishment. Secondly, Adebayo’s car wasn’t there. Her brother and Adebayo were out. They hadn’t seen Chukwu and Adebayo since the two had left to party on New Year’s Eve. But what of the house help? What day was it? The stress settled on her shoulders again. What would happen if Lambs saw the grasscutter? Really saw him? For more than a millisecond? Once inside Adebayo’s compound they stood there. Waiting. Then the dust in the large parking lot puffed up as Grashcoatah softly landed.

  “What’d you have to go and do all that for?” Sasha shouted at him. “People could have died!”

  More grasscutter laughter.

  “Please,” Orlu softly said, stepping in front of Sunny. “Have some rest, Grashcoatah. You’ve just come into being. I know you’re tired.”

  Sunny heard the grasscutter grunt.

  “Take a nap,” Orlu said. “No one will harm you here. You are safe and it’s nice.”

  A soft wind picked up and the dust wafted up on the side of the compound close to the house. Grashcoatah purred softly. Sunny could see the weeds growing there flatten as the grasscutter settled down. When he made no more sound, the four of them congregated quietly in the doorway.

  “Grasscutters turn invisible when they sleep,” Orlu said. “It’s a protective mechanism. They sleep for about five, six hours after birth, so at least we’ll have until nightfall. I think we should get out of here by then. Otherwise someone’s going to see him. He can’t resist the temptation to scare humans. He’s smart enough to keep it short. But sooner or later he’ll slip and we’ll all end up in the Obi Library basement and he’ll be plant food.”

  Sunny knocked on the door. If days had passed, the house girl who lived in the servant house might be inside cleaning the house or cooking a meal. When no one answered, they all sat on the staircase in front of the house. Sunny brought out her phone. Without bothering to read all the messages, she called Chukwu. It rang once before he answered.

  “Chukwu,” Sunny said. “Hi! I . . .”

  “Sunny? SUNNY?!”

  She held the phone away from her ear, his shout was so loud. “Yes, it’s me.”

  “WHERE ARE YOU? Are you all right? Where have you been?”

  “I . . .”

  “Are you all right?!”

  “I’m fine,” she said. “We are at the house.”

  “Oh, thank God! Thank God, o!! I thought ritual killers had taken you! I thought you were dead! I thought . . .”

  “I told you, we have nothing to do with any of that.”

  “What the hell are you are involved in, then?” he snapped. “You disappeared for two days! Is this even you?”

  “Yes!” Sunny shouted.

  “I don’t believe you, o,” he said. But he sounded calmer. “Why should I?”

  Sunny’s eyebrows went up. Two days. That was bad but not too bad. She slapped her forehead. Why hadn’t she thought to check her cell phone’s date?! Days of being so close to Chichi, Orlu, and Sasha were rubbing off on her. She was losing her reliance on technology by the second. “Did you call Mom and Dad?”

  He paused for several moments. “No,” he finally said.

  Sunny’s legs wobbled with relief as she leaned against the door. “Thank goodness,” she whispered.

  “I wasn’t sure,” her brother said. “I should have but . . .”

  “I’m glad you didn’t! I’m fine. We . . . we did what we needed to do but, Chukwu, there’s more. We have to stay here longer.”

  “What? How long? School starts in a few days. I have to go.”

  “Then . . . then go. I can . . .”

  “No. I go home when you do. Where have you been?”

  “I can’t say.”

  “Then where are you going?”

  “I can’t say that, either.”

  There was a long pause.

  “I’ll be there in five minutes. I’m with Adebayo. Since you all disappeared, we’ve been searching for you all over.” He was silent again for a moment. He was not telling her something. She didn’t ask.

  “Okay,” she said. “See you soon.” She clicked END and turned to the others. “He’s on his way.”

  “As long as they don’t try to park the car on that side of the compound,” Orlu said, pointing to where Grashcoatah was sleeping, “we should be fine.”

  Adebayo wouldn’t stop giving Sunny strange looks. Sunny’s brother had hugged her tightly, and she even thought she saw tears in his eyes. “I’m okay,” she told him. “Really.”

  Chukwu only grumbled something and pushed past her to scoop Chichi into his arms. Chichi giggled as he hugged her, and Sasha looked ready to burst.

  “I gave the house girls a few more days off,” Adebayo said, unlocking the door. “Your brother . . . he owes me. We’ve been eating trash for two days.”

  After taking long showers, Chichi and Sunny cooked up a meal of edikaikong soup and fried plantain. They all ate and then watched a Nollywood movie on the wide-screen TV. Then the sun was going down. Adebayo was engulfed in video games on the huge TV, and he’d put on bulky headphones to experience maximum sound. Chichi and Chukwu sat on the couch too close to each other, chatting quietly. At some point, Sasha had left the room. Orlu took Sunny aside.

  “We need to leave tonight,” he said.

  Sunny rubbed her forehead and sighed. “This is all moving too fast; I can barely catch my breath.”

  Orlu nodded, patting her on the shoulder.

  “Maybe we can convince the grasscutter to take us when it’s dark,” Sunny said.

  Orlu nodded. “But what if he refuses?”

  “And what if he makes too much noise? What if my brother comes out to see what is going on? What if . . . Orlu, I can’t go in that basement again,” she said. She shivered, suddenly feeling tears come to her eyes. She hardened herself, thinking of the damage that had happened there. “I won’t.”

  “Don’t worry,” he said, taking her hand.

  While Chichi kept Chukwu preoccupied with her batting eyes and idle conversation and Adebayo played his game, Sunny and Orlu went to the kitchen and packed some of the food into their backpacks. They fille
d plastic containers with frozen jollof rice and goat meat they found in the front of the fridge, and Sunny fried more plantain. They also found packets of biscuits and bottles of water in the cabinet. Her brother and Adebayo had cleared out most every other cooked item in the fridge.

  “That should be enough for a day or two,” Sunny said. “Hopefully, it won’t take longer than that. Sugar Cream says time is different in Osisi. You know how days passed when we were in Udide’s cave for an hour? It’s the opposite in Osisi. If we can get there quickly, we won’t have to worry about it so much. When the timeless wilderness mixes with our world, time dilutes, I guess.”

  “Can you hold that?” he asked as she tested out her full backpack on her back.

  “It’s heavy but . . .” She hoisted it up higher. “I think I’ll be okay.”

  “Remember, if this goes right, you’ll be hanging on to fur, hundreds of feet in the air, and holding that backpack.”

  “I can do it,” Sunny insisted.

  Orlu laughed and shrugged. “Okay.”

  They both looked at the window. It was dark outside. Time to go. In the living room, Sunny saw Sasha walk past Chichi and Chukwu on the couch. He gave them a dirty look and came straight to the kitchen. Chichi turned to watch him pass. The ends of Sasha’s cornrowed braids were undone, his shirt was rumpled, and he weaved slightly as he walked. And the grin on his face was enormous and almost scary. He was carrying his MP3 player and ear buds in his shaking hands.

  “Go outside!” Sasha mouthed to Sunny and Orlu. He didn’t want Chukwu to hear. Sunny nodded and Orlu pretended to look somewhere else.

  “There isn’t much to eat,” Orlu said, his voice, too loud.

  “Just need a drink,” Sasha said, grabbing one of the smaller bottles of water. He took a big gulp as Sunny and Orlu watched him.

  “Are you okay?” Sunny quietly asked.

  “Come with me outside,” Sasha said in a low voice.

  Grashcoatah was outside. What had he done? She hadn’t heard any crashes or crunches. Had he eaten the trees? Was he visible? When Sasha left the kitchen, they both quickly followed.

  “We’ll be right back,” Sunny said to Chichi, looking her full in the eye.

  “Okay,” she said, returning Sunny’s look.

  “Everything okay?” Chukwu asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Sunny said over her shoulder.

  Adebayo cursed loudly, and they all jumped and looked at him. But Adebayo didn’t notice. He couldn’t even hear them with his headphones. His eyes were locked on the military game he was playing with several people online. The guy was in another world. Sunny rolled her eyes and followed Sasha to the front door.

  Outside, Grashcoatah stood in the spot where he’d slept. In full view. His head peeked over the concrete wall that surrounded the compound. His haunches were tense, his lovely eyes were wide, his strange brown-white fur was puffed up, and his nostrils were flared. If a giant rodent could smile, this one was smiling. Sasha walked right up to the grasscutter and put a hand on his fur. The grasscutter nudged him with his head and Sasha laughed.

  “He just flew me high over Lagos!” Sasha said. “He . . .” Then he again laughed. “He and I have something very important in common.” He fiddled with his MP3 player, and it began to play Nas’s album Hip Hop Is Dead out loud. The grasscutter’s eyes grew wider and his fur tensed, and then he started doing something that caused both Sunny’s and Orlu’s mouths to fall open. Grashcoatah was dancing, swaying side to side, rippling his fur and undulating his body in a sort of wavelike motion. All to the beat of the music.

  “He’s a hip-hop head!” Sasha proclaimed. “I came out here and put in my ear buds and was listening to my music and next thing you know, he’s breathing over my shoulder. I put the ear buds to his ear, and he just came alive!” Sasha laughed again. “You should have seen it. It was like seeing a baby hearing music for the first time. I played jazz, blues, some metal, country; he liked them all but nothing got him moving like hip-hop.”

  Grashcoatah did a slow turn as he made his fur ripple like tiny waves on water. It was almost hypnotic.

  “So I figured, he was digging my music and in a good mood and all, so I asked him what we needed to ask him.”

  Sunny held her breath.

  “You . . . you asked if . . .”

  “Yeah, I told him we needed to not only get there, but we needed a dang ride. He’s cool with it. He took me up to show me how it would be. Better than any roller coaster! Whoo!! Was awesome.”

  Sunny needed to sit down, and she sat right there on the ground. Grashcoatah bobbed his head to the beat, resembling anyone enjoying the beats of Nas. “What am I seeing?” Sunny whispered. “This is . . . this is so weird.”

  “Eeeeeeeeeee!” The girlish-sounding screech came from the doorway right behind her.

  “Don’t!” she heard Chichi shout. “Just listen to me!”

  When Sunny turned around she saw her brother’s bulky form walking toward the open doorway, dragging Chichi along as she tried to pull him back inside.

  “He wouldn’t listen!” she shouted. “He wanted to see and he wouldn’t listen!”

  “What the hell is that?!” Chukwu screeched. “What is THAT?!”

  The grasscutter roared with shock and disappeared. But Chukwu had gotten a nice five-second view of him.

  “What was that?!” Chukwu screamed again. His eyes were red and wide, sweat beading on his face. “It’s still here! I can smell it! It smells like incense! WHAT WAS THAT?!”

  They all stood there in silence. Then Sasha said, “We have to leave!”

  “Right now,” Orlu added.

  “WHAT WAS THAT?” Chukwu shouted again.

  Soon curious neighbors would look out their windows or come out of their doors.

  “Grashcoatah!” Sasha shouted. “Reappear!”

  A few seconds passed and nothing happened. “Please,” Sasha insisted. “He’s seen you. It’s too late. All we can do is go. But we can’t go unless we can see you.”

  More seconds passed and then slowly, gradually, the grasscutter showed itself.

  “Chineke!” Chukwu screamed. He grabbed Sunny and tried to shove her behind him. “WHAT IS THAT?!”

  Sunny fought him, trying to get in front of him, but he was too strong. “It’s not going to hurt you,” she said, trying to move past him. He shoved her back.

  “It’s a monster! It’s a spirit! Mmuo! This is witchcraft!” Spit flew from his mouth as he spoke, and his red eyes were glistening with shock.

  The bottle of water in her backpack and the containers of food sloshed and shifted as she tried to push past him.

  “Get on,” Sasha said. “The council will be here any minute now!”

  He climbed onto the beast’s back. Chichi hesitated for a moment. “Don’t worry,” Sasha said. “His fur is really, really strong. I don’t even think it’s completely fur. You can yank it and he doesn’t feel it. Come on!”

  Chichi grabbed the grasscutter’s fur and climbed up. Orlu looked at Chukwu. “We . . . I’ll keep her safe. We have to go or worse things will happen, trust me. You’ve seen what you shouldn’t and we’ll suffer the consequences. Not you.”

  “I’m not letting my little sister on that thing! Where are you even going?! WHAT IS THAT THING?!”

  “It’s a . . . grasscutter,” Orlu said. He looked as if he were trying to say more but could not.

  “Grasscutters are the size of cats! That’s HUGE!” His eyes bulged and twitched as he held on to Sunny.

  “I know,” Orlu said.

  “Shit!” Chukwu screeched. “Look at the head!! Kai!”

  “Please, we have to go.”

  “I’m not . . . I’m coming with,” he said, still grasping Sunny’s arm and walking toward the grasscutter.

  Orlu stepped in front of him. “You
can’t! You don’t understand where we are going. I . . . I don’t know if you’ll survive.”

  “I’m not letting my sister go somewhere like that without me!”

  “Of all people,” Orlu said, “she will be fine.”

  Chukwu looked at Sunny, sweat pouring down his face. She pleaded to him with her eyes. He turned back to Orlu. “If . . . if you can tell me where you are going, then I will stay.”

  When Orlu could not, Chukwu let go of Sunny and pushed forward, about to grasp Grashcoatah’s fur. Lightning fast, Sunny made a decision and she felt Anyanwu come, settling just below her flesh. Sunny felt strong and aligned. She grabbed her juju knife and worked as fast as she could. She caught the juju bag in her shaking hand. She could hear a vehicle pull up to the compound gate outside. The council had arrived. She threw the Ujo at Chukwu. She hated to do it, but it was better than seeing him harmed. A Lamb would surely go mad or die in Osisi . . . or worse.

  The terror that bloomed on her brother’s face made her want to weep. Hadn’t he been through enough in the last few weeks? His wounds from his beating weren’t even fully healed. The patch of healing skin from where they’d cut his face twitched as he backed away from Sunny.

  “I’ll be fine,” she said, tears falling from her eyes. “Remember that. Tell Mom and Dad that I’m fine! And I’ll be back.”

  But her brother wasn’t seeing her. She didn’t know what he was seeing. But whatever it was must have been horrifying for he opened his mouth and hollered loudly, turned, and ran wildly into the house. She just stood there. Then she felt someone grab the collar of her shirt. “Sunny, get on!” Chichi said, leaning almost upside down to grab Sunny.

  But Sunny couldn’t get her feet to move. All she could see was her brother’s face. How it had broken into terror and how he’d run off like a madman. Had her Ujo been too strong? Had she just driven her own brother insane? Suddenly, her vision blossomed and she felt herself pulled physically backward. Then it was like she was a passenger in her own body watching herself climb onto Grashcoatah. As soon as she was on, Anyanwu mentally shoved her forward and Sunny gasped, looking wildly around.