“So, what does that have to do with us?” she asked. “What bad thing are we-”
Suddenly, they all looked above her head. Sasha cursed loudly. Sunny looked up just as whatever it was exploded. Warm, wet air that smelled like rotten meat enveloped her. She threw her arms over her head and ducked to the side, falling off her chair. Things hit her head and arms and dropped on the table. She heard Sasha spit several more curses as white chips rained down, clicking and clacking. Something black fell lightly onto the table as well.
Sunny quickly got up and looked. “What is-is that hair?”
There were tufts of it all over the table. It looked like the floor of a barber shop. “And-and what the hell is that!” She pointed to red chunks of raw meat among the hair tufts. She felt her gorge rise.
“Relax,” Chichi said.
“Ugh, in a restaurant?” Orlu said. “Filthy!”
“Come on, the place is open,” Sasha said. “It’s not like we’re indoors.”
Sunny looked at the table a little more closely and screeched. The white chips were teeth!
Mama Put came bustling from behind her counter, all apologies. She shouted orders at one of her employees to clean up the mess immediately.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Chichi told the woman.
“It’s the goddamn tungwa’s fault,” Sasha said, brushing a tuft of hair off his shoulder. “Damn it. Anatov told me about these. Disgusting!” Sunny wanted to burst out laughing at the nastiness and absurdity of it all and at their nonchalance. Every time she thought she had reached the threshold of weirdness…
“Tungwas are just things that dwell at Leopard Knocks,” Orlu explained. “Floating bags of teeth, bone, meat, and hair. They explode when they’re ready.” He shrugged. “Don’t know what they are. Might be creatures that just don’t develop right. We deal with them like we deal with mosquitoes, flies, and cockroaches.”
Sunny shuddered. Mama Put gave them each a free bag of chin chin. Sunny gave hers to Sasha. As they walked back, she looked at the time on her cell phone and gasped. “It’s three thirty! I’m going to be late!”
She speed-dialed her home number and held the phone to her ear, her heart pounding. It was best to warn her mother. That way things wouldn’t be as bad when she got home. The call wouldn’t go through. She redialed. Again, it didn’t go through. There was no signal.
“Don’t cell phones work here?” she asked Chichi.
“I dunno. I don’t have a cell phone.”
“My mother’s going to kill me,” she said, putting the phone back into her purse. It clinked against all the chittim.
Crossing the bridge was much easier the second time, once Sunny managed to call up her spirit face. It took ten minutes, and Chichi had to conjure up classical music three times before Sunny felt her body go languid and her face tighten. Apparently, it was harder to bring forth one’s spirit face when one was tired.
But once she changed, she found she didn’t need the music at all. And when she looked down at the roiling creature below, she laughed loudly and blew it a kiss. Not far behind, she heard Chichi laugh. “Move faster!” she shouted through the mist.
Sunny didn’t want to zip about like Chichi; she wanted to dawdle and dance. Nevertheless, she moved along, thoughts of her mother’s angry face enough to keep her focused, even with her spirit face on.
“You won’t sleep well tonight,” Chichi said. They stood outside Sunny’s house. Sasha and Orlu had already said good-bye. They had to go straight to Orlu’s so that Sasha could officially greet Mr. and Mrs. Ezulike.
“Why?”
“You’ve been initiated today. You’re more awake than you’ve ever been.”
“Is it going to be-”
“It’s different for everyone. I just wanted to warn you.”
As Sunny walked home, she remembered that they were to meet with Anatov in four nights. At midnight. How was she going to pull that off?
She unlocked the door.
“Sunny, is that you?” her mother shouted from the kitchen.
“Yes, Mama,” she said. “Sorry I’m late.”
She glanced at her watch. It was six o’clock. She was two hours late. As she walked in, she remembered the raffia dress she wore. Before she could think of a possible excuse, her mother came hurrying from the kitchen, her father behind her.
“Mama, I-”
Slap!
“Why didn’t you call!?” her mother yelled. She had tears in her eyes.
“I-I tried!” Sunny stammered. “The phone wouldn’t work! I tried, I swear!”
“Where were you?” her father demanded.
“With Orlu, Chichi, and Sasha-he’s Orlu’s family friend who just came from America,” she said quickly. She flinched as her father moved toward her. His hand was always heavier than her mother’s and far less predictable.
“Your mother’s been worried sick,” he bellowed. “She was sure you’d been taken by that Black Hat criminal! How dare you cause her that kind of stress, stupid girl. If you ever, ever return home late again, she won’t be able to hold me back, o! I will flog you tirelessly!”
“I’m sorry,” Sunny said quietly, her head down. She knew she wasn’t out of danger yet. “It just got late and…” She rubbed her stinging cheek.
Her mother sniffled and wiped her face. She glanced at Sunny’s raffia dress, but said nothing. She pulled Sunny into a hug. Only then did Sunny know that she was safe. In that moment Sunny hated her father more than she’d ever hated him before. As if he really cares about me, she thought. “Your mother’s been worried sick,” he’d said. Obviously, he wasn’t. As far as he’s concerned, Black Hat can have me.
Her brothers had never been slapped for coming home late. They didn’t even have a curfew, not even when they were her age. It was only her mother who yelled and scolded them. Her father would only laugh and say that “boys should be boys.” Sunny didn’t ever want to be a boy-but she didn’t want a father who hated her, either.
Her mother let go of her and pushed her toward her room.
“Go wash up,” she said in a low voice. “And change your clothes.”
What Is It?
THAT CLEAR GREEN SUBSTANCE
One of the most perplexing materials you can (but probably will never) encounter as a Leopard Person is a rare substance that is more “unbreakable” than diamond. When it is found, it is most often embedded in ceremonial rings. However, once in a while, this material is found as the blade of a juju knife. Whoever is chosen by such a knife raises the question of “What have you done in your past life to require such durability?” This hard, clear, green substance is so rare that it has no name and no one knows its origins. Some speculate that it was brought from a mysterious forest only accessed in the middle of the Sahara desert and that it comes from the molted eye cuticle of a car-sized beetle that lives in this forest.
from Fast Facts for Free Agents
5
In the shower, every drop of water that touched her skin tickled. And not in a playful way. Sunny’s body felt alert, like she was full of excitable bees.
When she returned to her room, the front page of the newspaper was on her bed. The headline was circled: BLACK HAT OTOKOTO KILLS AGAIN. She locked her door and sat on her bed to read it. A five-year-old child had been found dead in the bush yesterday with no eyes or nose. A black hat had been drawn on his arm in permanent marker. She shivered. No wonder Mama was going crazy, she thought.