They started first with breathing, for part of gliding between the wilderness and the physical world was understanding that you typically had to stop breathing to do it for any extended period of time. “You can glide across the bridge or through a keyhole. That is easy,” Sugar Cream said. “But can you glide from here to your house?”
Gliding between the wilderness and the physical world was one thing, but Sunny knew what Sugar Cream was slowly working her towards. Dropping completely into the wilderness. To do so meant she’d have to die, really truly die. But she was born with this ability, so she would be able to always come back… if she did it correctly. She wasn’t in any hurry to try, and Sugar Cream wasn’t in a rush to have her try, either. “Not this year,” Sugar Cream said. “But maybe next year or the year after that.”
Sugar Cream worked her hard. After the gliding exercises, they worked on Night Frames, various states of being that you achieved only during the night. Night Frames required a combination of juju knife flourishes, humming deep in the throat, and a blue juju powder that left her skin oily. Night Frames were primary phases of slipping wholly into the wilderness.
“You don’t want to enter the wilderness and not be able to come out,” Sugar Cream firmly said. “That is death, of course. So you practice slipping in and then out, bit by bit. The night is when the barrier between the physical and spirit worlds is thinnest.”
One had to die in order to go into the wilderness, so one had to birth her- or himself back. And one had to be strong to give birth. Though Sunny was born with the natural ability to do both, even she knew that talent and ability was best honed. Sunny had solemnly nodded and then the work began. They practiced two frames, which Sunny achieved easily enough but found she had to work to hold. Over and over, the humming, the blowing of the powder, the sneezing, then the colours that began to bleed into everything. By the time Sugar Cream sent her home, she felt as if her world was vibrating.
Sugar Cream’s lessons; Anatov’s teachings; Lamb school; hanging out with Chichi, Orlu, and Sasha; her strangely changing body—Sunny was overwhelmed, yet learning and absorbing so much. As she sat in her seat on the near-empty funky train home, she’d curled her body towards the window and shut her eyes. She took a deep breath, truly relaxing for the first time in hours, and this was when she felt that sensation of being pulled into two. Her eyes shot open and as she stared out the window, she began to quietly weep.
“Anyanwu?” she whispered. And then she heard herself respond in a deep voice, “Sleep, Sunny, I am here.”
9
HOW FAR?
Sunny groaned as she opened the gate. The night sky hadn’t begun to warm yet, but soon it would and the morning birds were already singing.
She’d slept the entire ride back on the funky train. Thankfully, the driver, a tall old woman named Magnificent, who saw her often at this late hour, knew Sunny’s stop. Magnificent shouted, “Sunny! You’re home! Go and sleep!” Sunny jumped to her feet and dragged herself from the juju-powered vehicle before she knew what was happening. The funky train silently glided off, leaving only a puff of rose-scented air and Sunny in the dark standing before the gate to her house.
Her chin to her chest, she quietly unlocked and pushed the gate open just enough to slip through. She trudged towards the front door. The house alarm wouldn’t be on, nor would her father or mother be waiting up for her, though she suspected they were anxiously listening for her return. They didn’t ask questions anymore. Good. That was one stress gone. Her skin still felt oily from the enhancement powder, and her sensitive nose was stuffed with snot. She’d need a good shower before going to bed and that would rob her of fifteen minutes out of the four hours of sleep she could snatch before she had to leave for school.
She stuck her key into the hole. She could pass through the keyhole, but there was always the chance that her brother or parents would be right there. Then she’d find herself sentenced to a caning by the Library Council for exposing the Leopard People’s ways. Would they wipe or alter the memories of her family? Who knew what they did. Now that she didn’t have to sneak around, it definitely wasn’t worth the risk.
Creak!
She froze. Someone was opening the gate behind her. It was several yards away; she could throw the door open and lock it behind her. Or she could just risk it and pass through the keyhole. Ekwensu, she thought. What if it’s Ekwensu? But why would the physical world’s greatest adversary have to push open a gate? Armed robbers, then? But the gate was locked. Did they have a key? Was juju used to get in? Was the lock picked?
She whirled around, dropping her backpack and bringing out her juju knife. What am I doing? she thought, horrified.
The gate opened. Adrenaline flooded her system, causing a ringing in her ears and cold sweat to break from her skin. She crept closer. A shadow peeked around the gate. He looked right at her.
“Sunny?” he gasped.
“Chukwu?” She quickly put her knife into her pocket.
“What are you doing here?”
“Why aren’t you at school?” Sunny blurted.
They stared at each other. Her brother was dark-skinned and standing in the shadows, so she couldn’t quite see the expression on his face.
“I… I just got home,” she said, stepping closer.
“From wherever it is you go?” he asked. He moved away from her, holding on to the gate.
“Where’s your Jeep?” she asked.
“Parked it on the street,” he said. “Don’t…” He stepped away from her some more and, in doing so, moved into the dim moonlight.
Sunny clapped her hands over her mouth and gasped. “What happened?!”
Her brother had gotten quite muscular in the last year. He’d not only discovered weight-lifting, he’d discovered that he really, truly, madly loved it. Sunny knew that aside from kicking a soccer ball around, there was nothing he loved more than to be in the gym lifting until his muscles vibrated. Now Sunny could see that he’d gotten even bigger since leaving for school weeks ago. Still, at this moment, he looked like a pummelled, scared teenager. His left eye was swollen shut, and his mouth looked like it carried two golf balls. He held on to the gate with a big hand.
Sunny stepped up to him and touched his face. He looked away. “Chukwu, what…”
“Mummy and Daddy can’t know that I’m here,” he said.
“Why?”
“I need to get the money I have in my room. Then I’ll leave.” He looked into her eyes. “I don’t want to put anyone here in danger.” His face twitched and he frowned, one tear falling down his cheek.
Sunny felt her eyes sting, too. This was her brother Chukwu, whose name meant “Supreme Being,” because he was “God’s gift to women,” or so he liked to brag. This was her oldest brother, who had tormented her since she was a baby, and protected her, too, in his own rough way.
“C-Come on,” she said, her voice shaking. She wrapped her arm around his. “Lean on me. I’ll get you inside.”
They moved fast, heading straight to Sunny’s room. Sunny banked on the fact that her parents would assume it was just her entering the house and not their oldest son who’d run away from the university they were paying so much for him to attend. She locked the door as he sat on her bed. In the light, she saw that he looked far worse than she’d thought. She took a deep breath and steadied herself; this was not a time to cry.
“Where is the money?” she asked. “I’ll get it for you.”
He frowned. “What? No, no, it’s in a secret spot. It’ll be…”
“In your room?”
“Yes,” he said.
“What if Ugonna sees you?”
“He’ll be sleeping.”
“Not if you wake him up. And what if Mum or Dad comes out of their room? I know they heard us come in. Sometimes Mum checks on me. She’ll come and listen at the door. She doesn’t think I know, but I do.”
“Damn,” he hissed. “Well, what do you want me to do? I need that money.”
“I’ll get it.”
He considered it for a moment. “What will you say if Ugonna wakes?”
“He won’t. You know I’m better at sneaking than you ever will be.”
Chukwu nodded. “True. Okay… There’s a loose floorboard near the window. The front right leg of my bed is on top of it. The money is inside.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll be right back.” She paused. “Shut your eyes and close your ears.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
He frowned at her, but then did as she said. She ran to the door, made sure it was locked, glanced back quickly, and then passed through the keyhole before he opened his eyes and asked her why she was asking him to do something so weird. The feeling was one of compression and coolness. It wasn’t the same as when she’d done it that first time, back when she thought she was working the first juju of her life but was really using her natural talent. Since then she’d done this many times and it was easier and easier. However, the feeling was sharper, too. More deliberate.
She came out on the other side of the door and then ran towards the room Chukwu and Ugonna used to share that was now just Ugonna’s. She checked to make sure the door was locked. It was. She passed through the keyhole. Ugonna was sprawled out on his bed, sleeping noisily. He preferred to study on the floor, so this was where his schoolbooks and sheets of paper were scattered. His large-screen TV’s screen saver flashed images of shiny sports cars into the darkness of his room. Good, she thought. She could see. Soft jazz music played. Even better, background noise, though she shouldn’t need it. She ran to Chukwu’s bed and waited.
She was still insubstantial, gravity affecting her but not as much as it would if she were all there. If Ugonna awoke and looked right at her, he’d see nothing, but he might sense her presence, even if he was a Lamb. Especially knowing how attuned he’d been lately. All the more reason to move faster.
She felt herself warm up and the smell of Ugonna’s room slam into her. Sweat, cologne, and there might have been an orange rotting behind something somewhere in the room. She looked at Ugonna as he shifted positions. He was sensitive, all right. He was asleep but he knew she was there, that’s how Anatov described this kind of thing. She didn’t have much time.
Gently but firmly, she pushed the bed and touched the exposed floorboard. She felt around the edges and located the notch and lifted it up. There was the money. Rolls and rolls of American dollar bills and naira, held together tightly with elastic bands. She grabbed them and quickly began rubbing them on her arm. She rubbed and rubbed, watching her brother. He shifted in his bed again but then came to rest and didn’t move.
She breathed on the wads of cash and then got up. He was now tossing and turning, trying to thrash himself awake. Unsure of what to do, she took the chance. If she failed and he saw her, she’d certainly be caned this time. Having Sugar Cream as a mentor, the very person who would decide on punishment, wouldn’t ensure her of any sympathy. As a matter of fact, it would probably get her the harshest punishment. Sugar Cream was the best teacher she could have hoped for and one of Sunny’s favourite people, but she was also a hard, hard woman. There was a reason she was the Head Librarian.
Sunny ran towards the door, bringing forth her spirit face. She leaped over Ugonna’s piles of books. Then she dived through the keyhole just as her brother sat up. Once on the other side, she ran off. She had seconds where she would not be heard. When she made it to her room, she waited quietly until she became substantial. Then she quickly grabbed the Mami Wata comb in her hair and used one of the teeth to pick the lock. She opened the door and went in.
“Did you get it?” Chukwu asked.
She looked down at her hands. Along with her comb, she was carrying the wads of cash. It had worked. She smiled, hearing a chink outside her door as a chittim fell in the hallway. She’d never carried anything with her before when she glided between the wilderness and the physical world like this. She threw the money on Chukwu’s lap. He grinned. “Thank you!”
She sat beside him on her bed. “You’re not leaving until you tell me everything.”
“No.”
“Why?”
He looked at Sunny with eyes so ablaze that she nearly jumped off the bed and ran out of the room. “Why?” she asked again, grasping the rim of the bed to keep her steady. “What happened? Armed robbers? What–”
“Sunny… if I tell you, I’m putting you in danger. Even seeing me here tonight isn’t good,” he said, looking away. “The less you know, the better it will be if they come looking for me here.”
She touched his hard muscular shoulder and he winced. “Don’t,” he whispered.
“Is anything broken?” she quietly asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe one or two of my ribs.”
“Will you see a doctor?”
“Yes. When I can. I promise.”
“Please, Chukwu, what happened?”
The pained look crossed his face again. And he thought for a long time. He glanced at the door. And then he started talking. And the very thing that Sunny suspected and had feared from the moment he left for school turned out to have happened.
10
BROTHERLY LOVE
Okay, Sunny. I’ll tell you… but only you. You… you have a lot of secrets, but you know how to keep them, too.
I understand why Daddy wanted me to live in the government hostel, instead of the privately owned one. I’m not a fool. If you don’t live life, you will be nothing. And to live life, you have to live with people. Real people. Yeah, I wanted to live with the high and mighty, the wealthy, the comfortable. Who wouldn’t? Have you seen the satellite hostels, Sunny? They’re self-contained. They’ve got laundry, a restaurant where they will make whatever you ask for, new furniture, you get your own room… or something like that. Of course, I wanted to live there. But it’s expensive. It’s a waste of money.
When Daddy said I had to live in the government hostel, I said fine. Whatever. It’s all good. I knew he was trying to teach me a lesson. He thought I was soft after all those early years in America. I was just happy to get the hell out of the house and be on my own. My hostel room’s hot and ugly. The beds are hard. You share the room with five guys, some are second and third year. They’ll bring girls in there at night. I’m not even going to give you the details of that. You’re too young.
Anyway, you know how I like to work out. There was a place in the basement of one of the off-campus hostels. They’ve got all sorts of free weights in there and a lot of the heavier weights where they’d use cement blocks and sand bags. Really serious stuff.
Adebayo and I started going there in the evenings after class, maybe three or four times a week. We both liked to pull heavyweight, so we had the same routine.
He and I, whenever there were parties we’d be the man show, you know, bodyguards, because we are so big and people are so afraid of us. We thrived in that gym, like weeds. It was so hot in there, even though it was underground. It was just a bunch of guys, pulling weight like gorillas. Raw power. There were no women, so sometimes we’d be pulling in our underpants while these big fans would be blowing on us. It stank of sweat and the walls were real grimy. Sunny, you’d hate that place. But I loved it. My classes were tough; I’d go there to relax my head. Life was good… at first.
It all changed last week. Adebayo and I went there that early evening. It was Friday, so I was in a good mood. Later, we were going to meet up with some ladies; there was a party, too. We were working out. Pulling 10/10. I remember, we were on our fifth round when Adebayo excused himself. He said he had to go to the bathroom. I just kept working out.
Not only had Adebayo left, but now I saw two guys come in. Not as swollen as me, but they were big enough and obviously a bit older. Taller. They started applauding me. I kept pushing up on the bar, putting on a show. I was the only one in the gym, but it was just two guys, Sunny. You don’t know me; I can defend myself really good. I know
boxing as well as I play soccer. You and Ugonna never knew about the places where the matches took place, but I used to win lots of money boxing. How do you think I got that money I put in the floor? You all just thought my bruises were from soccer. Who no know, no go know, right? So I wasn’t afraid. But then another two guys came in. One of them was Adebayo, and he seemed to know the other three guys.
They all approached me. The three strangers were dressed for the street, so they must have come from outside. They were smiling and seemed nice enough.
“Well done,” Adebayo said. But he didn’t tell me the names of these guys.
“You are a strong man,” the tallest one said, looking down at me as I struggled to put the bar and weights back on the bar rest. They didn’t help me. “We are proud of you.”
I smiled and sat up. “Thank you,” I said.
“We have something to tell you and it’s very important.” The other ones just stood behind him. “You need to know the rules and regulations of campus.”
I immediately relaxed. This was all it was about, campus stuff. And I wanted to do well in school. These guys were here to help me. Great. Good. Since I’d gotten there, I hadn’t had a mentor or any older student offer to show me how things were done and what was best. So this was a relief.
Right after that, we all went to a local cafeteria that we called the Cholera Joint. It was just down the road. The place is nothing special. They serve things like rice, beans, bread, and eba. Good, cheap food. It’s mainly for us local students, but you get kabu kabu and okada drivers who come there often, too.
Sunny and the Mysteries of Osisi Page 7
