“So, because I’m a Leopard albino, I can-”
“Yes. Certain attributes tend to yield certain talents. Very, very tall people tend to have the ability to predict the future through the stars. Very, very short people tend to make plants grow. Those with bad skin usually know and understand the weather. Abilities are things people are able to do without the use of a juju knife, powders, or other ingredients like the head of an ebett. They just come naturally.
“That’s enough for now,” Anatov said. “Orlu, Chichi, last lesson I had you go out to the street folk and talk to them. I wanted you to see them, to understand how it is they live. I had you go out with sacks of food. So?”
“We went out and helped,” Orlu said. He looked at Sasha as he said it. “But two men tried to rob us. Chichi blew lockup powder on them. We left them on the side of the street groaning with cramped muscles. We were lucky they only had knives.”
“Knives?” Sunny cried.
“But most of the people we met, they were either homeless or just too sad to go home or were trying to find home. They were happy to see us,” Orlu said. “Well, maybe they were happy to see the food we brought them.”
“They thought we were angels,” Chichi said.
“And did you sit and talk with them?” Anatov asked.
Orlu and Chichi nodded.
“What did you learn?”
“That all those people… they have stories and lives and dreams,” Orlu said.
“And that sometimes right is wrong and wrong is right,” Chichi added.
Anatov nodded, looking pleased. “Sasha, from what I understand, the scholar you worked with in the United States, José Santos, sent you and his other students backpacking from San Francisco to some small town deep into Mexico?”
Sasha nodded. “For two months. I perfected my Spanish. We were robbed three times at gunpoint…” He laughed. “It was great.”
“I met José once, years ago. I admire him,” Anatov said. “Now, you two-you four-are my students. My job is to guide you.” He looked mainly at Sunny as he said this. “You will learn about yourselves from me, you’ll learn new and old juju, and I will help you, if I can, to pass your levels. And I’ll send you out there into the world to catch your lessons. Fear? Get used to it. There will be danger; some of you may not live to complete your lessons. It’s a risk you take. This world is bigger than you and it will go on, regardless.”
What kind of thing is that to tell your students? Sunny wondered.
“Today’s lesson is camaraderie,” Anatov continued. “I want you to go and greet a friend of mine. Orlu, Chichi, you know of Kehinde.”
“What?” Sasha exclaimed. “I even know of him and I just got here. He’s one of the most brilliant juju workers in the world. Isn’t he practically a recluse?”
“Kehinde’s a close friend of mine,” Anatov said. “He’s a recluse to folks he doesn’t think are important. I was discussing you four with him yesterday. He wants to meet you.”
“Why?” Sasha asked. “Why us?”
Orlu looked aghast. “And we don’t even… we can’t go-”
“Kehinde wants to see you,” Anatov repeated. “Figure out how to get to him. That’s today’s lesson, too. Oh, and beware of some of Kehinde’s… friends. They’re a bit possessive. Give him my regards. Peace out.”
419 Scams and Leopard People
The 419 scam is an illegal practice that Nigeria has become known for all over the world because of a small group of Internet-savvy criminals. It is a pox on this great nation’s reputation; a symptom of its marrowdeep disease of corruption. If you use e-mail, you have to have seen the ones offering to pay you insane amounts of money if you help Chief or Prince So-and-So get his money out of the bank. That is an example of the billions of 419 scam e-mails sent out daily. In Nigeria, Leopard 419 scammers use a blend of Internet technology and juju to make the target individual’s electronic funds disappear and reappear elsewhere. Thankfully, even these people cannot tamper with whatever provides us with chittim. Still, Leopard 419 scammers can get up to some darker business in the Lamb world. It is believed that as we speak, some are using the Net to design a network of virus-driven juju-powered supercomputers so infectious that they could bring down the Lamb world’s biggest economies with a few pecks of the keyboard. We will speak no more of this here. If you are approached by one of these criminals, decline involvement.
from Fast Facts for Free Agents
7
Again, they were hurried out of Anatov’s hut. A little way down the path back toward Leopard Knocks, they stopped. Orlu, Sasha, and Chichi just stood there.
“What’s the problem now?” Sunny asked. “Who’s Kehinde?”
“Sunny, weren’t you listening?” Chichi asked.
“Just tell me again. Unlike you, I don’t have a photographic memory.”
Chichi chuckled. “Okay. There are eight living people in Nigeria who have passed the last level, right? Four of them are Anatov, Sugar Cream, and the twins named Taiwo and the one we’re supposed to go see, Kehinde. They are the scholars of Leopard Knocks; they’re kind of like elders, but not all of them are super old-only Sugar Cream, really. The problem with seeing Kehinde is he lives in Night Runner Forest.”
“Is that far away or something?” Sunny asked. She didn’t want to take another funky train.
“Humph,” Orlu said. “Now I know why he chose tonight instead of Saturday afternoon for this. You can only enter Night Runner Forest at night.”
Chichi cursed. “And it disappears in”-she looked at her watch-“four hours.”
Sunny looked at her watch. It was one A.M. Chichi was referring to sunrise. “We’ll be back by then, right?” she asked.
“Let’s go,” Sasha said. “We use a vévé to get there, right?”
“Yeah,” Chichi said, looking intense. “If we work together.”
Sasha knelt down and took a small bag out of his pocket. He drew on the ground by making a fist and letting the powder sift out. “This,” he said to Sunny, “is a vévé, a magical drawing. The faster you draw it the better. But you can’t make a mistake.”
“You memorize them?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“Is it hard?”
The drawing looked like a tree with a circle around it and four Xs around the circle:
“Not for me,” he said.
“What will it-”
“Just watch.” He brought a dagger from his pocket and stabbed into the center of the vévé. “One of you has to say it,” Sasha said. “I don’t speak Igbo.”
“Let Sunny,” Chichi said.
Sunny shook her head, stepping back. “Let me just watch this first time.”
“You learn faster by doing,” Chichi said, pushing her toward the vévé. “Take a deep breath and loudly say, ‘Night Runner Forest come,’ in Igbo.”
Sunny started sweating. Who knew what would happen if she messed up?
“Go on,” Orlu said softly.
She spoke the words in Igbo, making sure they were loud and clear. Instantly, the vévé started to rotate in the dirt. It sounded almost solid as it pushed aside pebbles and scraped over the dirt. This magic was happening because of her own words! When it stopped, the top of the tree Sasha had drawn pointed off the path and into the forest, toward a new but darker path that hadn’t been there before. Occasionally, a firefly flashed its tiny light.
“Orlu,” Sasha said, “you first. You have the best defense.”
Orlu stepped in front. “Okay,” he said, looking around. “Let’s move.” He brought out his juju knife, held it up, and moved it vertically before him. “Bring light,” he said in Igbo. A firefly rushed to him and hovered before his face, flickering orange light every few seconds. “Tomorrow is a better day to find a mate,” Orlu told it. “Tonight, please bring light for my friends and me.”