“Didn’t you hear all I told you, Sunny? They’ll kill me if I go back. They may even come here looking for me! I can’t…”
“Have faith,” Sunny said. “Have faith.”
She gave him a gentle hug and then helped him quietly leave the house. She watched him slowly climb into his orange Jeep.
“Keep your phone close,” she said. “Rest, eat, and… Chukwu, it’s going to be okay.”
He paused, looking into her eyes. “What makes you so sure?”
“Just trust me.”
He smiled for the first time since he saw her. “Sunny, what’s happened to you?”
She only smiled back.
“Whatever it is, it’s good. It’s good.” He started the car.
“Keep your phone close,” she repeated. Then she quickly added, “I’ll call you in a day or so.”
He nodded. “Not a word to Mummy, Daddy, or Ugonna.”
She nodded.
Then he was gone. She went back inside and slept for three solid hours. She needed her rest. She had much more than school to handle come morning.
11
WAYS
As soon as Orlu climbed on the okada to go see his crazy auntie Uju, Sunny took off towards home. She leaped over the open gutter, leaving school grounds, and quickly jogged along the dirt path beside the road. She ran around students on their way home and avoided okada who drove dangerously close to the path as they sped and wove between cars and trucks.
She passed the usual shops and then the half-finished house that had been in construction for over five years. The run-down office building beside it looked even worse now that the house was almost complete. When she reached her neighbourhood, she absentmindedly ran a hand over the smooth trunk of the palm tree growing on the corner of the street. She slowed down now, bringing out a handkerchief and dabbing her brow. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. Getting through the school day had been hard. Not telling Orlu had been even harder. Sunny knew he’d disagree with what she planned to do. He’d push her to tell her parents.
Her eyes stung now. Then they grew moist. All day, she’d avoided thinking about her brother’s story and his face, oh, his face, as best she could. But now that she was out of school and away from Orlu, she just wanted to sit in the road and cry her eyes out. She walked faster. Her parents wouldn’t be home yet, but if Ugonna was home and she saw him, she’d break down and tell him everything.
When she arrived at Chichi’s hut and saw her sitting on a chair outside, she knew she’d done the right thing. Her eyes filled with tears as she approached the one person she thought could help her. Chichi was reading a thick book and when she looked up at Sunny, she grinned. “You’ve gotta see this book! It’s a novel set entirely in the wilderness! Of all people, you’ll…” The smile dropped from her face. She closed the book and got to her feet. She placed the book on the chair. “Sunny! What’s wrong?”
Sunny let her backpack drop to the dirt path that ran up to Chichi’s hut, now unable to control her tears. “I… I… I…” she sobbed.
“What happened?” Chichi said, running up and taking both of Sunny’s hands. Chichi was already short and she hadn’t grown any in the last year, whereas Sunny was pushing five foot nine and had gained several pounds of lean muscle. Still, Chichi managed to hold Sunny up and help her into the hut. Sunny sat down hard in one of the cushioned chairs inside the hut, tears still draining from her eyes. Chichi knelt before her and looked into her face.
“Sunny,” she softly said. “Did someone…”
“It’s my brother!” she managed to wail. “He’s in terrible trouble! They’ll kill him!”
Sunny told Chichi everything. Recounting Chukwu’s story between tears, foot stamping, and cursing, something Sunny rarely ever did. Retelling the story to Chichi seemed to bring it alive that much more for Sunny. It was like stepping into Chukwu’s shoes. There were three reasons Sunny went to Chichi. The first was that she knew Chichi had always liked Chukwu. Chichi thought he was pretty and liking him had always been a source of argument between her and Sasha. The second reason she went to Chichi was because Chichi could keep secrets, even from Orlu and Sasha. And the third was that Chichi would be willing to break the rules and risk punishment to help Chukwu because trouble-making and daring were in her blood.
“Did you know that these damn societies were originally formed to make sure there was always academic freedom and to cure society’s problems?” Chichi shouted as she paced the floor. “People like Professor Wole Soyinka and Aig-Imokhuede started them!” She was as angry as Sunny. “Now these young people who know nothing are crippling the highest place of Lamb education?! The university is all the Lambs have! Without the university, they’d be intolerable. They have no other urge to learn. I didn’t know it was full of… of social disease.”
“It is,” Sunny said. “You can’t really be a top student there without having to join or at least deal with them.”
They were quiet now. Chichi stood in the middle of the hut frowning. Sunny sat in the chair looking at her sandalled feet. There was no breeze outside and it was easily close to ninety degrees, yet inside the hut it was cool as a clam. The floor of the hut was dirt, the bed Chichi and her mother shared to the right and many stacks of books to the left. They had so little, yet Chichi and her mother combined were a force powerful enough to be of great importance to the Leopard Knocks elders.
“So what do you want to do?” Chichi quietly asked.
Sunny didn’t look up. There was a storm rolling in her mind. She couldn’t get the image of her brother’s battered face out of her head. This was his life at stake and his future. “What happens if juju is performed against a Lamb?”
“You already know that,” she said. “Remember what happened when you showed Jibaku your spirit face? You only got off easy because you were a new free agent.”
“No, I don’t mean minor stuff. Serious juju.”
Chichi looked closely at Sunny, and Sunny didn’t look away. “I don’t know,” Chichi said. She cocked her head. “Why?”
“I want to make them suffer,” Sunny said, clenching her fists. It felt good to speak her thoughts to Chichi. “Not just his so-called friend Adebayo, or their Capo leader. I want to make all of them suffer.”
They were quiet, staring into each other’s eyes. Chichi looked away first.
“Even if you will suffer for making them suffer?” Chichi asked, looking at her feet.
“Yes,” Sunny firmly said. “It will be worth the sacrifice. My brother will at least be able to go back to school. Just help me with what I have to do and then step back. I don’t want you to…”
“Oh, I’m not going to let you take the fall alone,” Chichi said, looking up.
“No… no, Chichi, if it’s just me, maybe…”
“You came to me for a reason, right?” Chichi said. Now she was smiling that smile she only flashed when she was up to something. “You know I know… ways.”
Sunny said nothing. She had never been a good liar.
“You waited until Orlu had to go see his auntie. You knew Sasha would be with Kehinde today. You wanted to speak to me alone,” she said. “You’re smart, Sunny. And when you need to use them, you have claws. Listen, I may know a way around the rules. We will get caught but not for the worst of it, if we do this right.”
“Do what?”
“Well, they think his sister is a witch, right?”
“Yeah, but not a Leopard Person, just one of those child witches,” Sunny said.
“Well, be what they say you are, then,” she said. “The Red Sharks always meet at night. So, let’s meet them in the night.”
Sunny reported back to her mother to tell her where she was and that she’d be home in a half hour while Chichi made some tea. As soon as Sunny got off the phone, Chichi said, “Come sit down.”
She set up two mismatched and chipped porcelain cups and filled them with tea, making Sunny’s just as she liked it, Lipton with a hint of sugar.
“Let’s relax for a second before we do this,” Chichi said, pulling up a stool and picking up a cup.
The tea was nice and Sunny allowed herself to settle down for the first time since seeing her brother. Her tea was bitter and hot. It warmed her throat. She took a deep breath and slumped back into her seat, pushing away all the questions that tried to crowd her mind. All the while, Chichi leaned forwards and watched her intensely as she, too, sipped her tea.
“You feel better now?” Chichi asked.
“Actually, yes, I do.”
“Okay, let’s call him,” Chichi said.
“What? Now?”
“Yes, now. If we don’t act soon, those crazies are going to show up at your house. We need to get fast and clear information.”
“About what?”
“The Red Sharks,” she said. “The members. Especially this Capo guy and Chukwu’s friend Adebayo.”
“Why? Why them?”
“You want to make them leave your brother alone, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then we need information.”
Sunny frowned, squeezing her cup. She brought out her cell phone and brought up Chukwu’s number and gave it to Chichi.
“What do I do?” she asked, looking at the screen.
“Just touch your finger to his picture,” Sunny said.
“Right on it?”
“Yes.”
Chichi fiddled with it and frowned. “Now there’s a picture of some guy with dada hair kicking a football. What’s Arsenal FC?”
“What’d you do? That’s my background picture,” Sunny said, taking the phone from her. She brought up her brother’s number again. Not only did Chichi not have a cell phone, but she didn’t even know how to use them. Sunny touched Chukwu’s photo in her favourites list and handed it back to Chichi. “Just talk when he… Wait, give it to me.”
Chichi gave it back, and Sunny listened to it ring. He picked up on the second ring. “Sunny?”
“Hello? Chukwu, how are you?”
“I’m… fine.”
“You’re at your friend’s?”
“Yes. I’m at Ejike’s apartment.”
“Okay… um, hang on, Chichi wants to talk to you,” she quickly said.
“What?” he said. “Didn’t I…”
She quickly handed the phone to Chichi.
“Chuks,” Chichi said. “How you body dey?”
Sunny got up and started pacing the room, bracing herself to hear Chichi say “Hello? Hello??” repeatedly because her brother had hung up the phone. But instead Chichi started laughing. Then she said, “Relax, sha. She didn’t tell anyone else. But I know everything, yes.” She paused. “About you and your cultist wahala. Look, we want to help you, but we need some information.” She motioned to Sunny to relax as she slowly ambled out of the hut. “Names, descriptions, where they live, stuff like that…”
Sunny sat back and sipped her tea. But she couldn’t relax.
When Chichi came back, she was smiling, the phone pressed to her ear. “I don’t have a cell phone, but you can always come to where I live and pick me up. Don’t take me to any restaurant. I like roadside food only.” She listened and then laughed hard. “That works. But give us three days. You will see. Nothing is more powerful than Mami Wata. Okay, o. Here is your sister.” She handed the phone to Sunny. “We’ve got what we need.”
“Hello?” Sunny said.
“What are you two going to do?” he asked.
“I don’t really know yet. But… don’t worry.”
“Sunny,” he said. “Can I ask you a question and will you answer it?”
“If I can.” She glanced at Chichi, who was busy scribbling things down in a notebook.
“So you’ve joined Owumiri?”
“Huh?”
“Those Mami Wata women,” he said. “Don’t lie. Chichi told me so. I’ve heard a lot about them, and now I know why you’ve been sneaking around and acting funny.”
Sunny frowned, utterly thrown off. She knew of Owumiri, too. They gathered at the river and the seaside and sang and danced and scared men. “I…”
“Look, I get it, Sunny,” he said. “You need protection because of your albino-ness.”
“What?!” Sunny screeched.
“I understand,” he said, ignoring her. “I haven’t been the best brother. Should have protected you more from all the crap.”
“Chukwu… it’s not…”
“Listen, Sunny, okay? Don’t get close to these Red Shark guys. Work whatever it is you want to work from far away. The Red Sharks will kill you. They’ve killed before. You saw what they did to me, and that was just to become part of them! And don’t expect me to go back to see if whatever you’ve done worked. Put it behind you.”
“Just… sit tight,” Sunny said.
“I plan to. And why’d you have to tell Chichi?! You want her to think I’m some sort of weakling? Look, call me in a few days, all right? By then I’ll know more about my plans.”
When he hung up, Sunny looked for Chichi and realised she was no longer in the hut. She went out the back door and found Chichi sitting on a mat reading outside. “I think I know what we should do.” She laughed. “If we do it right, the worst punishment we’ll get is a warning.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“We’ll set Murks on them,” Chichi said. “Sasha and I have had to read up on these as second levellers. Anatov didn’t spend much time on them, but it doesn’t take much for Sasha and me.” She grinned. Chichi’s and Sasha’s photographic memories were exactly what got them into so much trouble.
“What are Murks? Are they dangerous?”
“Of course they are. What do you think we need for these guys? Fluffy pink talking bunnies? Murks look like tiny bats and dwell in pools of darkness—under a fallen tree in a lake, beneath houses, under beds, whatever. They are physical world–dwelling spirits so they can’t be crushed and suffocated. Normally if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone, but what makes Leopard People interested in Murks is that they can be weaponised.”
“What, you pack them in a gun or something?”
Chichi giggled. “No, no. You get them in the right mood, and they will do whatever mischief you ask them to do, especially when it comes to harming others. Murks have ‘murky souls’, that’s how they got their name. Give me a day or so to read up a bit more on them. Just follow my lead. I know exactly what to do.”
12
MURKED
Sunny and Chichi lay on their bellies peeking through a bush beside a palm tree. They wore black pants and black sweatshirts with hoods they’d bought from Leopard Knocks.
It had taken one day to find them. Chichi had merely used Adebayo’s full name in a dowsing charm she’d read about in a German book of juju. It took fifteen minutes for the funky train to get them to campus one night later, when the Red Sharks were set to meet and discuss what to do about Chukwu. Then Sunny and Chichi simply followed them into the bush. Once in, it had been easy enough to creep up on them, for they were singing and clapping. Sunny couldn’t understand the words to the song, but Chichi could.
“What the hell?” Chichi whispered, looking disgusted.
“What?”
“They’re calling to the devil in Yoruba,” Chichi said.
Sunny shivered.
Two of the guys started building a fire, another two set down a cooler and one other set down a chair. A light-brown-skinned guy with keloids on his chin sat in the chair. This had to be Capo, the leader. The one who after having her brother beaten by ten guys had pulled out Chukwu’s tooth, cut him with a shark tooth, enjoyed all of it, and then left him to live or die. In the firelight, Sunny memorised his silhouette. Looking straight at the firelight made it hard for Sunny to see his face. She wasn’t wearing her glasses and, in the night, they would not have helped anyway. But she could make him out well enough. Sunny felt her own fire, which had been burning in her chest since seeing her brother’s battered face.
After a few minutes, they stopped singing and all the members sat on the ground before Capo. One big beefy guy, whose muscles looked ready to burst out of his red shirt, stood behind Capo with his meaty arms across his chest. Then Capo was speaking, but he spoke in a low tone, and neither Sunny nor Chichi could hear. Sunny and Chichi weren’t concerned about what was being said; they were just waiting for the right time. It came about a half hour later, when it must have been well past 3am. They’d opened the cooler and had been drinking and drinking. Then Capo grabbed a bottle of Guinness beer, drank it all at once, and started singing the devil song. Soon everyone joined him. As the minutes passed, their singing grew more drunken and frenzied.
“Okay,” Chichi said. “I didn’t plan for this, but it’s perfect. We call the Murks on them, and they’ll think it’s the devil attacking them, not two Leopard girls hiding in the bushes. No council people can arrest us for that because we won’t have broken the rules of exposure. I don’t even think they’ll have reason to give us a warning!”
Sunny grinned. “That’s brilliant!” Her smile decreased a bit. “But what will the Murks do? Will it be enough? If we don’t show ourselves, how will they know to leave us alone?”
“Just watch,” Chichi said, bringing out her juju knife and a sack. “There’s juju powder in here. Do not sneeze, no matter what.”
The guys were singing crazily now. Sunny didn’t think they’d notice if she sneezed her brains out.
“Bring your cell phone,” Chichi whispered. “Remember, don’t turn it on. The screen has to be dark.”
Sunny brought it out and handed it to her. “I turned the contrast and brightness all the way down.”
“Okay. And you set the timer, right?”
“Yes,” she said. “It’s ticking down now. Should have about thirty minutes before it stops.”
“It won’t ring or vibrate?”
“Right. It’ll just stop timing.”
“Okay. Here, touch the surface,” Chichi said. “Run your fingertips over it.”
Sunny and the Mysteries of Osisi Page 9
